Originally from S.Africa, now living in Perth, Australia, Eli is arriving in Israel directly from his third roots trip to Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He will describe his travels through digital storytelling, giving us [...]]]> On Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 7:30 pm there will be a lecture by Eli Rabinowitz at Beit Fisher in Ra’anana (5 Klausner St.).

Originally from S.Africa, now living in Perth, Australia, Eli is arriving in Israel directly from his third roots trip to Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He will describe his travels through digital storytelling, giving us tips on research and methodology, using all the latest technology including social media – and also – away from the computer….. ‘actually walking the streets of our ancestors.’

We look forward to seeing many of you and to welcoming Eli to Ra’anana.

Admission is free for IGRA members and 20 NIS for non-members.

Tante Fanni was my [...]]]> No matter how experienced we are as genealogists, we probably all have brick walls in our personal genealogical research.  Here is a short article about one of my genealogy brick walls.  So far I have not managed to make any significant progress with this area of my personal family history research.

Tante Fanni was my paternal Grandfather’s sister, my Great Aunt.  She lived in Israel, and when I was a young girl I can remember my parents receiving blue airmail letters from her on crinkled and very fragile see-through paper.  The letters were all handwritten, on both sides of the page and in very spidery looped writing, in German.  To be honest, I never really paid too much attention to the letters which arrived seemingly fairly regularly, at least as far as I recall, because I was unable to read them, let alone to understand what they said.

Once when I asked my parents about Tante Fanni, I was told that even though I did not remember her personally, I had met her when I was almost 3 years old, when I visited Israel in 1967 with my parents and maternal KRACKO grandparents.  My Dad told me that we had been in Israel visiting his paternal cousins just at the start of the Six Day War.

At some time (before I became interested in genealogy), Tante Fanni died.  This would have been sometime after the mid-1960s since I can remember her letters arriving, but before 1994, when I first started getting interested in my family history.  My task now is to find out what I can about her accurately identify her, and then to put her story into my family tree.

What do I know?

Since Tante Fanni was my paternal grandfather’s sister and I know that he was born in Czernowitz, Rumania, now Chernivitsi, Ukraine, it is likely that was as well.  However I don’t know exactly when she was born.  According to Uncle Joe, my Dad’s older brother who was born in 1922, who is 10 years older than Dad, and who can usually be relied upon for all the important facts about the family, my grandfather, Opa Markus was born on 16 August 1883. He was the son of Jona Mechel MERFELD and Jette or Jutte ROSENBERG.  Unfortunately, even Uncle Joe couldn’t help me with detailed information about Tante Fanni.

The MERFELD or MEERFELD or MEHRFELD and ROSENBERG and TRESSER families lived in Czernowitz and, according to the family, there are multiple connections among the 3 families. For example, cousin Aharon TRESSER in Israel is a cousin twice over, and cousin Fifi SEGALL born in Israel as Sofia ROSENBERG, is her own cousin twice, because her parents were first cousins on both sides of their family.

Also, our family name should be MERFELD (or MEERFELD or MEHRFELD) and not ROSENBERG. Opa Markus’s parents had only a Jewish marriage which required their offspring to bear their mother’s surname rather than that of their father.  I am told that having only a religious marriage and not a civil one, is called a “Stille Chuppah”.

When Tante Fanni died, she was known to the family as Fanni LANDESMANN , who lived in Benei Brak with or near her late second husband Anschel LANDESMANN’s grown up married daughter from his first marriage.

Asking other older members of the family for more information didn’t help much.  Nobody had any information; nobody knew the name of Tante Fanni’s step-daughter; nobody remembered the address where she had lived nor exactly where she was buried.  Looking for Fanni LANDESMANN, who had lived in Bnei Brak and was buried somewhere in Israel, was becoming impossible.  However, I know she existed, I have her photo: 

This version of her photo is scanned and much enlarged from a larger photo of her standing with her brothers.

What else could I find out?

Uncle Joe gave me some old documents, including information about Opa Markus’s family that he had written down many years ago.

The document, which is quite hard to read, but not as hard as I remember Tante Fanni’s letters to have been, contains a list of Opa Markus’s siblings, including Tante Fanni.

The key part of the document is this:

Roughly translated it says:

My parents had 7 children, 4 are living and 3 are dead.  The 3 girls who died in Czernowitz were Gusta, Rosel and Cilli, and the living children were Markus, Maier Abram, Moses, and Fanni.

Someone, most likely Uncle Joe, told me that Tante Fanni was married and had been sent with her family during the war to Transnistria, and that her first husband and children died there. My next task was to find out if there were Pages of Testimony [PoT] for her dead family.  I searched repeatedly for PoTs submitted by Fanni LANDESMANN, but found nothing.  Then I found PoTs for members of the MERFELD, TRESSER and ROSENBERG families submitted in Hebrew by Sidonie or Sidonia LANDESMAN.  By using the advanced search facility, I discovered that the same submitter had submitted no less than 47 names on Pages of Testimony.  The last names on all the PoTs are as follows:

Through various PoTs, I have worked out that Fanni and Sidonie or Sidonia are the same person.  When I asked others in the family about this, they have consistently denied ever knowing about it before I told them!

When I got as far as the MERFELD PoTs, I found one submitted by her for Tzvi MERFELD who was born in Cernauti, Romania in 1898 to Arie and Etel.  He was a wood merchant and married.  Prior to WWII he lived in Cernauti, Romania.  During the war he was in Cernauti, Romania.  Tzvi was murdered in 1943 in Transnistria, Ukraine (USSR).  This information is based on a Page of Testimony (displayed) submitted by his wife.  Here was proof of what previously I had been told about Tante Fanni’s family.

The wife’s name on the POT was shown as Sidonia LANDESMAN.  The same POT gives details of the couple’s 4 children, who had all died in Transnistria in 1943.  This was Tante Fanni’s family who had died in the Holocaust.  She had lost her husband and all 4 of her children:

Michael Yona, aged 16

Rivke aged 12

Lea aged 7

Etel aged 2

This saddened me terribly, but I was also pleased that the entire family was recorded at Yad Vashem, so that they will always be remembered.  Finding the PoT that she submitted made me even more determined to find out about Tante Fanni.

For a long time that was all that I could find, but during mid-2012, some of the Czernowitz birth record indices went online. [see: Czernowitz BMD Index Database http://czernowitz.ehpes.com/ then choose databases.]

I found my grandfather Marcus’s birth record, and those of all his siblings, including those who had died.  Here is the reference for my Grandfather’s birth record:  Czernowitz Birth Record for 1883 Marcus MEERFELD son of Jona Mechel 1883 Page 258 Entry No 381.  For Tante Fanni, the record index read: Czernowitz Birth Record for Sidonie MEHRFELD, daughter of Ioine Mechel, Volume XIV, 1899, Page 292, Entry No 124.  As I write this, I await my copies of the 8 children’s birth records, ordered through a professional genealogist who will copy them for me from microfilms in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  I will then know Tante Fanni’s exact date of birth.  Perhaps after that I might locate something more about her.

Where else have I looked?

I have researched in quite a number of different places to find out more about Tante Fanni.  When the Israeli cemeteries went online, I tried to see what I could find.  I found nothing.  I even had some help from a native Israeli professional genealogist who looked on the cemeteries websites in Hebrew for me, and she found nothing either.  Since I am sure that Tante Fanni is buried somewhere in Israel, I have to assume that maybe she is buried in one of the cemeteries where the records are not yet online.  I also attended a webinar about how to use the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) online databases in Hebrew and in English [see http://genealogy.org.il/] but again, I found nothing, neither about Tante Fanni nor about her second husband, Anschel LANDESMANN.

What other information exists about Tante Fanni?

Cousin Avital SAMOCHA has put the following on her family tree at MyHeritage,  http://www.myheritage.com.

My (very basic) Hebrew tells me this photo is of Anshel LANDESMANN, who was Tante Fanni’s second husband.  But, I don’t know if I can rely on this because she also labeled him Herman LANDESMANN in another photo.

Cousin Avital does, however, have a copy of the same photo of Tante Fanni as I do. I can’t help wondering if perhaps it was I who sent it to her in the first place, since I am now sole custodian for all of our family’s old photos, as far as I am aware.  I know that much of Avital’s original data and quite a few of the photos she has on the website were taken from information I sent her.

Postscript

Since I began writing about Tante Fanni, the Czernowitz Birth records I had ordered have arrived.  The records were clearly written by someone who never contemplated having anyone read them afterwards.  They are a yet another example of totally illegible handwriting.

The index had already told me that Tante Fanni was the youngest of the 8 children born to her parents.  Her birth record, above, notes the following, as far as I can tell:

Birth Record for Sidonie MEHRFELD, daughter of Ioine Mechel, Volume XIV, 1899, Page 292, Entry No 124.  LDS Film Reference: 2395738-1897-66-Mehrfeld.  Born 5 August 1899, registered 10 August 1899.  Address Kalizanka 297, Czernowitz.  Daughter of Jütte, daughter of the late Mordche ROSENBERG and Rifke.  Ioine Mechel MEHRFELD attested that he was the father of the child.

My work in reassessing all my papers and looking again for information about Tante Fanni suggests that one of my cousins in Israel believes that she died in 1968, which is much earlier than I would have thought, and that she is, according to one of her other nieces in Israel, most likely to have been buried in Zichron Meir Cemetery at Bnei Brak.  The same cousin suggests that Tante Fanni had 5 or 6 children, rather than the 4 listed on the PoT she wrote for her family.  This may well be true, given the high mortality rates of that time in Czernowitz.  If that is the case, then at least 2 would have died as infants, since they were not named on the PoT.  The search goes on.

Next Steps

I still don’t know when Tante Fanni died nor exactly where she was buried, and I would still like to contact her step daughter’s family, if only I knew her name.  Can you help?  If you can help me to find out more about Tante Fanni, I would love to hear from you.

Jeanette Rosenberg

London UK

mailto:Jeanette.R.Rosenberg@googlemail.com

Jeanette.R.Rosenberg@googlemail.com

Phone: +44 208 958 5249

Skype: Jeanette.R.Rosenberg

Jeanette Rosenberg is a professional genealogist & member of AGRA,(Association of Genealogists & Researchers in Archives) and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies from Strathclyde University.  She’s a frequent researcher at archives in Germany, where
she’s participated in local history seminars.  Jeanette is also a popular Jewish genealogy speaker around the UK.  She was appointed a GerSig Director in 2009 & leads for JGS Great Britain on Education & Mentoring, managing exhibitions, & is chair of the German SIG. Jeanette is a member of the Society of Genealogists, Anglo-German Family History Society & Guild of One Name Studies.

We are sure you will agree that we have posted some wonderfully informative and helpful Jerusalem databases on our [...]]]> Yom Yerushalayim falls on the 8th of May this year, and we at the Israel Genealogy Research Association [IGRA] have just the thing to help you celebrate Jerusalem Day with us, your cousins here in Israel!

We are sure you will agree that we have posted some wonderfully informative and helpful Jerusalem databases on our website. Our thanks go out to our devoted and hardworking volunteers!

Just look:

Voter List For Second Assembly of Representatives of The Jews of Eretz Israel – Jerusalem 1924

General List of Adult Jews In Jerusalem 1928

Rehavia Address Book June 1937

Rehavia Address Book June 1935

These are only the databases dealing uniquely with people in Jerusalem, but you will  find that people from Jerusalem are mentioned throughout other databases as well.

So come and celebrate Yom Yerushalayim with us and expand your family knowledge at the same time!  Make sure you register on our website [for free] in order to view the databases.

In collecting information from the various archives we search for appropriate material for our databases.  We look for data that will reflect on [...]]]> “International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labour movement. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and celebrated unofficially in many other countries.” (Wikipedia)

In collecting information from the various archives we search for appropriate material for our databases.  We look for data that will reflect on life in this corner of the world.  We hope that by highlighting various professions and those active in the Histadrut many will learn (or verify) something about their relatives and add to your family narrative.

Maybe your relatives were candidates in the Histradrut elections in 1959. In 1959 there were four elections for the Histadrut:  Hahistadrut Haklalit (General Council Elections), Va’adat Hapoalot (Women’s Workers’ Council), Histadrut HaHaklaim (Farmers’ Council), Histadrut HaPekidim (Clerks’ Council).

Here are the professions we’ve prepared so far:  Registered Doctors 1948-57, Licensed Tour Guides 1969 , Teachers of The Department of Education of Havaad HaLeumi, Nurse Certification in Mandate Period, List of Dentists Licensed To Practice in 1958,  List of Licensed Pharmacists To Engage In Their Profession In 1958, Histadrut Teachers Center Eretz Israel 1930-31, Registered Nurses, People Authorized to Act As Notaries in 1959-60, Notaries in 1955-56, Practical Nurses 1951-52, Histadrut Teachers Who Died 1949-1951, Guards in Petah Tikva.

Check out these and our other databases,  they are part of the IGRA collection! http://genealogy.org.il/AID/index.php

A special thank you to all of our many volunteers!!

January 14, 2013

I recently began working on a project to organize 50 years research files for a Jewish genealogist, Jon Stedman. The papers were fascinating. In addition to his family story, they documented how Jewish genealogy research has changed in the last half century.

When [...]]]> From a lecture to the Colorado Jewish Genealogy Society

January 14, 2013

I recently began working on a project to organize 50 years research files for a Jewish genealogist, Jon Stedman. The papers were fascinating. In addition to his family story, they documented how Jewish genealogy research has changed in the last half century.

When Jon first sent for vital records in the 1960s, the cost was $1.00 each. Researchers charged him $2.50 or $3.00 per hour for their services.  Jon inhabited libraries and copied microfilms of newspaper articles; some he simply transcribed (pencil and paper).  He corresponded with mayors and archivists in Germany, and labored with scholars (including Cecil Roth) to extract the fine nuances of translations.   His trees were published in Malcolm Stern’s First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies.

By the 1990s Jon was following JewishGen “religiously” to tutor himself about new methodologies. He had his DNA tested early on and kept up with every advance and discovery. He began to correspond with dozens of genealogists whose names would be familiar to those who have worked in the field. He cooperated with other genealogists who had already created family trees for large branches of their (mutual) families, lines that he had been unable to trace.

The changes in Jon Stedman’s research strategy are a reflection of the growth and opportunities in our field.  There are now major genealogy sites, Geni, and MyHeritage (the former bought out by the latter) and its rival Ancestry, that include extensive family trees. Complete trees are also available on JewishGen’s Family Tree of the Jewish People, Geneanet, and a several other sites.  As a researcher, I always begin my research on these sites, to see if anyone else has already posted a tree.  And I also Google the family names (with two or three related ones in order to narrow down the options), because there could be personal family sites as well.

Nowhere do these database opportunities affect the way family historians work than for German Jewish genealogists. There have always been a plethora of existing family trees for German Jewish families, and they are prominent among those on the databases mentioned.  As digitized archives collections go online (Leo Baeck Institute www.cjh.org), these trees also become more easily accessible within archival institutions.

Thousands of researchers who have already completed trees have made them available online on their own web pages.  I recently had a breakthrough connecting an ancestor I found mention of only in a death record in NYC and was able to connect to a tree Alex had traced into the 17^th Century.

Digitized collections, general and geographically specific, have made documents so much more accessible. With dozens of sites offering networking (JewishGen) and digitalized or geographically specialized records, individual sites and DNA, new and experienced genealogists are challenged to rethink their strategies.

Data from DNA testing continues to become more specific and as more people are tested, it becomes more valuable.  Not only can one find cousins, but sometimes a more detailed nuance of the relationship. DNA testing offers help for “brick wall” cases, and there are many success stories.

But the most valuable treasure for researchers, one that has transformed opportunities for German Jewish research in the last decade, is the work of hundreds of dedicated historians in German towns who document, collect and make available genealogies and histories from their local area. These records may be available only in the towns or through local historians. These individuals, and now often organizations and museums, are often in contact with former residents and their families, but may not have the resources to locate the descendants of all emigrants who left in the 19^th or early 20^th century.

On a recent trip to Germany, I discovered three towns that had a complete or almost complete genealogical record of all the families who had lived there. None of the documentation was to be found local archives. In the tiny village of Braunsbach, Elisabeth Quirbach and her husband Hans Schultz , founders of the Rabbinats Museum Braunsbach

, have spent a decade documenting the former Jewish residents and their descendants. The same work has been done by the Jewish museum in Veitshochheim for its former Jewish residents. The Dokumentszentrum in Ulm has an extensive database of Jewish citizens of Ulm; the records are constantly updated.

How can one locate these individuals and organizations? I Google the name of the town and “juedische” , which brings up the pages of Alemannia Judaica (http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/), a series of web pages developed for former Jewish communities in Germany. The bibliographies are helpful in identifying local historians.

Colleagues who are listed in the family finder on JewishGen, and those who post on the Gersig discussion groups may suggest names of local experts with whom they have worked.

Over ten years ago, Arthur Obermayer established the Obermayer German Jewish History Award. This honor is given to five individuals each year in Berlin to bring international attention to their activities that “study, interpret and reconstruct information about the Jewish life that flourished in Germany….” Recipients of the award are listed on the web site http://www.obermayer.us/award.  More about the award and the individuals who have been nominated is available online or through Arthur Obermayer’s office, a valuable resource for researchers.

In closing, here is a story by way of illustration: I helped a friend whose grandmother had committed suicide bare two months before my friend was born. The grandmother had emigrated from Germany at the end of the 19^th century and died shortly after the Second World War.  My friend was always puzzled and saddened that her grandmother had timed her death so cruelly.

My friend knew little about her grandmother – not where in Germany she came from, nor anything about the family history. After identifying the grandmother’s hometown, we sought to learn what resources were available and discovered a recently-published, lovingly prepared book by Hanno Mueller, Monica Kingreen and others about Jews from that area. The two-volume set had extensive histories for each family.

It turned out that days before deportations began from the region in 1942, the grandmother’s cousins were found floating in the river and the father, whom the grandmother must have known as a child, was dead from an overdose of pills, surely a fate they found preferable to the camps.  We may never understand the complete story, but knowledge of the situation gave clarity and context to her grandmother’s life and death, and provided solace as well.  Could these stories have been found in some archive? Perhaps, but more likely, perhaps not.

Karen S Franklin, an exhibit researcher for the Museum of Jewish Heritage, is Co-Chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen.  A past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, she is currently a vice-chair of the Memorial Museums committee of ICOM (International Council of Museums). She serves on the Advisory Board of the European Shoah Legacy Institute. Karen was awarded the 2012 ICOM-US Service Citation. The citation is the highest honor of ICOM-US.