One day back in the 1950s, Irving Spierer, the sole Holocaust survivor of his Hungarian family, was walking down a street in Brooklyn, New York, when a complete stranger—let’s call him Saul Rabinowitz (not his real name), another […]
Using Facebook as a Genealogy Tool
Ever since I undertook genealogy research more than a decade ago, I have used the Internet extensively as an enormous repository of sources and resources, an important means of communication, and a major facilitator for connecting with relatives, colleagues, and […]
Genealogy of Yanniote Jews (Jews from Ioannina, Greece)
Ioannina, a small city in northwestern Greece near the Albanian border, was home to Jews for more than 1,300 years from the eighth century until the present.1 Due to its location west of the Pindos Mountain Range, the community was […]
Knowles Collection: Connecting Jewish Families
Genealogists always look for new ways to break through stubborn brick walls. Whether walking through graveyards that have not been maintained, calling everyone with our surname from some obscure directory, or spending nights without sleep when trying to […]
Finding Mrs. Buchholz
I only knew my beloved childhood companion as “Mrs. Buchholz.” Between 1939 and 1942, when I was a small child, she lived with my family as our housekeeper. After she left us, I never saw her again, […]
How I Found Ancestors and Living Relatives After More Than a Century of Separation
Ever since I was a child, I have been interested in my family history and used to update the handwritten family tree that my mother had compiled. Our family’s biggest mystery, a source of my considerable attention and […]
Databases and Free-Text Searches: Some Advantages and Disadvantages
“Life is much richer than the structure of a database,” Jacek Leociak. In my capacity as deputy directory of Yad Vashem’s reference and information service, I observe that many genealogists do not realize that limiting their research to […]
Genealogical Gems in U.S. State Archives and Historical Societies
Each of the 50 United States has a designated archive or a set of archives that serves as repositories for its respective state, county, and city governmental historical records. Sometimes called a state archive or state historical society, these repositories […]
Locating Living Americans: Selected Resources
Family historians often seek descendants of relatives who live in the United States whose exact location is unknown. Frequently, all that is known are surname and approximate age. Such problems may be resolved by using a combination of the resources […]
Little Man in A Big Hurry: The Life of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, Uranium King and Art Collector, by Gene Hirshhorn LePere
Little Man in A Big Hurry: The Life of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, Uranium King and Art Collector, by Gene Hirshhorn LePere. This is the remarkable story of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who donated the largest private art collection ever accumulated to […]
From Popelnya to Pittsburgh: The Deaktor Family
From Popelnya to Pittsburgh: The Deaktor Family, by Susan Glickman Davis and Alan Steinfeld. This book covers the years 1830 to 2009 and traces the history of the Deaktor family from its beginnings in Ukraine and Romania through its emigration […]
An American Experience: Adeline Moses Loeb (1876–1953) and Her Early American Jewish Ancestors.
An American Experience: Adeline Moses Loeb (1876–1953) and Her Early American Jewish Ancestors. Contributors are John L. Loeb, Jr., Kathy L. Plotkin, Margaret Loeb Kempner, and Judith E. Endelman, with an introduction by Eli N. Evans. Hardcover, large format, full […]
WANTED! U.S. Criminal Records Sources & Research Methodology, by Ron Arons
WANTED! U.S. Criminal Records Sources & Research Methodology, by Ron Arons, Criminal Research Press. 385 pp. Softcover. $54.00. Many of us have family members who participated in the dark side of society, but, I suspect, few have thought to find […]
A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil Registration Documents (including Birth, Marriage and Death Records). 3rd Edition, by Judith R. Frazin
A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil Registration Documents (including Birth, Marriage and Death Records). 3rd Edition, by Judith R. Frazin. Published by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois, 2009. Hardcover, coil-bound, 464 pages. $35.00. It has been about 20 […]
Ask the Experts: Winter 2009
by Randy Daitch and Eileen Polakoff My great-grandfather, Meshullem Yankov ben Yitzkok Gottesman, married Rachel Fleischer (b. circa 1860, died 1918 USA), in the town of Sniatyn, Ukraine, and died there circa 1891–1901. He had a sister, Belima, […]
JGS Newsletter Summary: Winter 2009
by Diane Goldman To read an article or news release excerpted in U.S. Update, order the issue of the publication in which it appeared from the appropriate JGS. A list of Jewish Genealogical Societies can be found at <iajgs.org/members/members.html>. A […]
Contributing Editors: Winter 2009
AUSTRALIA (Sharpe) Jewish Genealogy Downunder, quarterly publication of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria), Vol. 11, No 3, October 2009. Bubbles Segall, well known for her work over many years with the South African Special Interest Group (SIG), recently […]
Odessa Dreams
I dream of Odessa, not the modern city, but the way it was just over a century ago, when my mother Florence Granofsky Arkin’s family still lived there. In his novel, The Five, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky poured out his feelings […]
Connecting with California Cousins: The Joke Is on Me
When I asked my Uncle Frank about the places where his parents, my grandparents, had lived before they immigrated to the United States, he responded with a twinkle in his eye, “From Pinsk to Minsk.” When I asked my Uncle […]
A Secret Family History
Four generations, circa 1894. Clockwise from top, author’s grandmother Sylvia Fink (1891–1966); Sylvia’s grandmother, Mathilda Barmon Rosen (1842–1915), her great-grandmother Rebecca Goldman Barmon (1804–1896), and her mother, Yetta Rosen Fink (1867–1928). My father kept a cut-glass bourbon bottle on his […]
Surprising Revelations
I have been interested in genealogy since I was a little boy, when my father would tell stories about the Old Country that he had heard from his father. His family came from the Ukraine, and there were many versions, […]
Sometimes a Simple Letter Can Find a Cousin
Sometimes we find long-lost relatives through essentially simple, but at the same time, roundabout ways. A case in point is my discovery of a third cousin, the great-granddaughter of Henry Heiman. Henry was the brother of my great-grandmother, […]
Proving One’s Judaism Through the Matrilineal Line
When people ask how long I have been interested in genealogy and family history, I answer, “I was born this way.” I cannot remember ever not being interested in my ancestors. When I was in the fourth grade, I wrote […]
Rocking and Rolling in Cleveland
The earliest known record of my Wudl/Woodle family in the United States was of B. Wudel who arrived in New York aboard the Washington on July 30, 1845, accompanied by his wife and one-year-old daughter, L. Wudel. New York city […]
The Six Lives of Gregory Meisler: Jew, Warrior, and Polish Patriot
The deeds of man, when unconfirmed by the voices of the witnesses or written documents, are bound to pass swiftly away and disappear from memory. Prince Boleslaw V the Pious The history of the Holocaust is never ending. Every […]
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