Tuesday's Tip ~ Using JewishGen's ViewMate

I recently learned of another great feature at JewishGen, a wonderful online research for Jewish Genealogy. From JewishGen's ViewMate page:

ViewMate allows JewishGen participants to post photographs and documents online, and request help in translating or identifying information.

Here you can submit:

• Photos: for identification of people, clothing, buildings, scenes, objects, artifacts, etc.
• Letters, documents, book pages, maps, etc. for analysis or translation.

This past month, I posted photographs of gravestones with quite a bit of Hebrew on them. I shared these images at JewishGen's ViewMate to see what translations might be provided by volunteers. I thought it might be helpful to share my experience.

Searching for Death Records in Bonyhád Hungary

I have (slowly) been working my way through vital records from Bonyhád, Tolna District, Hungary from the late 1890's into the 1900's at FamilySearch.org. The specific record collection is Hungary, Civil Registration, 1895-1980. It is slowly being indexed, but Bonyhád is not indexed yet, so I have to scroll through the records image by image. And to top it off, the title and date ranges of the record types at the links are mostly incorrect, so I first had to figure out what the links really connected to!

Lena Hollander Handler, 1911

I have written about my husband's grandmother, Lena (Holländer) Handler several times, first finding her passenger record, then, by exploring Bonyhád records on a Family History Library microfilm (Registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths [to 1895]. Text in Hungarian and German) that I borrowed over a year ago, I found and shared her birth record. I also found enough additional records on that microfilm as well as in the online Hungary, Civil Registration, 1895-1980, that I have pieced together several generations of her ancestors.

Her parents were Samuel Holländer and Anna Honenvald. I previously shared Samuel's 1863 birth record and I have been curious to know when he died. I have been looking through these records at FamilySearch.org and found death records for his mother, Babette (or Betti) Kohn Holländer in 1896 and for his father, Leopold (or Lipod) Holländer in 1907. (I have not yet found Samuel Holländer's death record.)

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Handlers in Akron, Ohio

Ahavas Zedek Cemetery in Akron, Ohio, is also known as Hungarian Jewish Cemetery or Sand Hill Cemetery. The following photographs are courtesy of Find A Grave volunteer, Dennis Frisone, who has given me permission to share them here.

My husband's grandfather, Joseph Handler, 1884-1947. Click here to see his Find A Grave Memorial.

My husband's grandmother, Lena (Hollander) Handler, 1890-1983. Click here to see her Find A Grave Memorial.

My husband's uncle Alfred, who died in Biak, New Guinea in the service of our country. Click here to see his Find A Grave Memorial.

My husband's uncle Louis, who died in Normandy, France in the service of our country. Click here to see his Find A Grave Memorial.

Thriller Thursday ~ All The Girls Jumped

My husband's great-grandmother, Golda Segal, immigrated to America in 1891. The family settled in Woodbine, New Jersey, which was originally established as a farming community for Jewish immigrants. But when that was not successful, Woodbine became a manufacturing center with a variety of factories providing jobs for new Americans.

Golda Segal was born sometime about 1869 in Russia. She worked in one of the factories in Woodbine in the 1890's. Golda was my mother-in-law's Bubbie (grandmother), and, as my mother-in-law tells it:

She [Golda] was in a fire and in those days they locked people in the factories so they wouldn't get out. When the fire happened, people told her to jump so she came out of the window to jump. There was a barrel or something on the ground and when Golda jumped, she fell onto this barrel, hit her head, and her eardrum burst. This caused hearing and speech problems for her for the rest of her life.

I have found several newspaper accounts of a factory fire in Woodbine on February 7, 1895, which is likely the one my husband's great grandmother was injured in.

From the Bridgeton (NJ) Evening News, February 8, 1895 from GenealogyBank:

TERRIBLE FIRE AT WOODBINE. Factory Buildings Burned and Many Persons Hurt. A Panic Among Employees - Rosa Litshetz Jumps From a Third Story Window - The Loss May Reach Fifteen Thousand Dollars  There was a big fire, terrible in its results, at the Russian Hebrew colony of Woodbine late yesterday afternoon, but the particulars are meagre and hard to obtain.
  The machine and tool factories were burned to the ground. The first account says that seven persons were badly injured and one woman was nearly burned to death.
  A later report says: One of the main building which were burned was a three story one. Forty five persons were in it. The fire happened late yesterday afternoon. A girl named Rosa Litshetz jumped from a third story window and was seriously injured.
  Several others jumped from windows and were somewhat hurt. Nearly all the employees were injured, either by jumping or fighting the fire.
  The factories have lately started up and the town had taken a sudden boom during the last two weeks.
  Great excitement prevailed during the fire and several persons were frozen by exposure.
  The loss by the burning of the buildings is estimated at between $12,000 and $15,000.
  A physician went to Woodbine from Millville by special car this morning. Several reporters of Philadelphia and New York papers, en route for the place, are on the down train, snow bound at Glassboro.

Sunday's Obituary ~ Uncle Edward Levitt

My mother-in-law's uncle Eddie moved from southern New Jersey to Springfield, Massachusetts, between the births of his two children in 1933 (born in NJ) and 1937 (born in MA). Springfield is where his wife, Adele Reisner, was from. (Adele was the daughter of his older half-sister, Rebecca Levitt.)

GenealogyBank has his obituary in its Recent Obituaries database. This means that I don't have an image of it, but a transcription. The following is from page 24 of the Tuesday, August 23, 1988 issue of the Union-News of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Former store owner Edward Levitt, introduced television to Springfield
Edward Levitt, 80, of 7300 Radice Court [Lauderhill, FL], founder and retired 40-year owner of Levitts TV Center, Springfield, died yesterday in Holy Cross Hospital, Fort Lauderdale.
Born in Woodbine, N.J., he lived in Springfield many years, moving to Florida after his retirement in 1974. He was graduated from the R.C.A. Electronics School of Chicago, and after taking many other TV courses, he introduced television to the Springfield area in 1934.
He was a member of Beth El Temple, the Samuel Sherwood Lodge of Masons, the Scottish Rite Bodies and Melha Shrine Temple and the Maccabean Lodge, Knights of Pythias.
He leaves his wife, the former Adele Reisner; a son, Marvin B. of Longmeadow; a daughter, Saundra E. Solomon of Longmeadow; a sister, Rose Goldstein of Ventnor, N.J., and seven grandchildren.
The funeral will be tomorrow afternoon at the Harold R. Ascher and Son Memorial Chapel with burial in Beth El Cemetery, West Springfield.
Memorial week will be at the home of Marvin Levitt, 54 Glenbrook Lane, Longmeadow, with evening services.

I have shared a photo of an early business of his: Levitt's Electric Service, in 1930's Woodbine, NJ.