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The Kol Spring 2011

Spring 2011 Vol. 20 No. 2

Researching Genealogical Resources in Israel from Your Couch

Daniel Horowitz was born and raised in Ca-racas, Venezuela, and has a B.S. in com-puter engineering. He was a founding mem-ber of the Jewish Ge-nealogy Society of Venezuela. In 2005 when he made Aliyah, he joined the Israel Genealogical Society (IGS). He is the web-master for IGS and the Horowitz Families Association. Daniel serves as member of the board of the Inter-national Association of Jewish Genealogi-cal Societies (IAJGS) and has lectured at IAJGS conferences and at local geneal-ogy groups. Since 2006, he has worked at MyHeritage, where he is Chief Genealo-gist and Translation Manager. He has been traveling around the U.S. giving pres-entations.

Daniel presented websites for searching for people in Israel and ex-plained how to use them, even if one is not able to read Hebrew. He sent the handout of his presentation to Presi-dent Ken Bravo , who distributed it to our members. Here we will recap some of the websites and tell what Daniel told us to do to access them. Www.isragen.org.il is the website of the Israel Genealogical Society. Click on the English button and then the EIRI button to see the available databases, some of which pre-date the founding of the state of Israel. There also is a database of name changes for 1949 to 1979 which might be very helpful in searching for people. A few of the databases are for IGS members only. If you click on “Research and Tools”, you will get a list of archives, museums and libraries in Israel, and some research aids. Daniel said that many of them do not have websites, but that they will respond to mail requests. We think of Yad Vashem www.yadvashem.org to search for the names of victims, but Daniel said to use it also for its online photos and library catalog. He also suggested that we can search for the names of submitters of Pages of Testimony, who might still be alive, or have descendants who we can find. Daniel gave a good suggestion about seeking information from the International Tracing Service - ITS - Bad Arolsen www.its-arolsen.org , repository of so much Holocaust informa-tion, whose holdings will likely never be online. Daniel said that if you want to request

Horowitz cont’d. p. 30

Table of Contents p. 12

The Kol 2 Spring 2011

Well the calendar says that Spring has arrived, but as I write this message, I’m still waiting for the temperature to catch up. Hopefully, by the time you read this message, warmer temperatures will have arrived. This has been a very exciting week. Two nights ago, Cynthia Spikell and I taught a Beginners’ Course. We had 25 attendees, half of whom were new mem-bers. Ancestry.com provided us the ability to log on 20 computers and, in the second hour, our students were able to get online and do their own searches. It’s difficult to explain in words the sense of excitement that filled the room as they each found some record(s) of their families. Ancestry also donated a three- month subscription which we used as a door prize. Marilyn Bilsky , one of our new members, was the lucky winner. We will now be looking at ways to build upon this success and will be looking for future programs aimed at assisting our members. When I last wrote this column, I re-ported that our library would be moving to Fairmount Temple. I am now pleased to be able to report that the move has taken place and our books are now in their own section in the temple’s library. Our volun-teers have spent many hours unpacking the boxes, arranging the books and put-ting labels in each of the books so as to

identify them as ours. Julie Moss , the librarian at Fairmount, is now in the process of cataloging the books and putting them into the library’s online catalog. We are also planning to have a joint program with Fairmount Temple, probably in December, to cele-brate our move, the 25th anniversary of the addition to Fairmount Temple that houses the library and Jewish Book Month. Stay tuned for details. Our regular monthly programs (under the wonderful leadership of Becky Werman ) are going strong and we have had, and will continue to have, a selection of very interesting programs. Please check our web site (http://clevelandjgs.org/) regularly for the latest information and please try to attend as many of our meetings as you can. I strongly believe that you will find it worth-while. And speaking of our web site, I’m still looking for suggestions of ways to im-prove it. Please let me hear from you. You can email me at Presi-

From President Kenneth Bravo

Oct 29 to Nov 26 2011 is the

Hebrew month of Cheshvan, and

also International Jewish

Genealogy Month

2012 OGS in Cleveland, at the Inter-Continental Hotel on Carnegie Ave.

See pp. 9 - 10 for photos of the Beginners’ Course.


Upcoming JGS of Cleveland meetings

from our website www.clevelandjgs.org

Do you like to plan ahead? IAJGS conferences will be held ~July 15 -18, 2012, in Paris, France ~ August 4-9, 2013, the 33rd IAJGS conference will be held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, co-hosted by the IAJGS and the JGS of Greater Bos-

Wednesday May 4, 2011 “Secrets That Photos Reveal” will be presented by L ois Wheeler, a member of The Lakewood Photographic Society, The Ohio Genealo gical Society, the Ash-land County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Societ y, and the East Cuyahoga Genealogical Society. Wednesday June 1, 2011 “The Jewish Connection: Jews and Crime in Twentieth Century Cleveland” pre-sented by Dr. Sean Martin, the Associate Curator fo r Jewish History at the West-ern Reserve Historical Society. Wednesday, October 5, 2011

We have resumed our Spring/Summer meeting schedule of the first Wednesday evening of the month at 7:30 p.m. in the Miller Board Room, Menorah Park, 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood Ohi o 44122.

“Lost: Tracing Unknown Family History From a Single Clue” Steve Luxenberg will reveal some of the specific tech-niques, using original documents, he used to unearth his own family secret and offer practical suggestions for ob-taining hard-to-get records for genealo-gists of all levels. He Steve is a Wash-ington Post associate editor and award-winning author who has worked for more than 30 years as a newspaper editor and reporter. His award-winning nonfiction book,

Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Fam-ily Secret , has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and in Parade Magazine . It was named to The Wash-ington Post ’s Best Books of 2009 list, and chosen as a Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. The former president of the National Genea-logical Society, Jan Alpert, called An-nie’s Ghosts a “great non-fiction read for genealogists.” Signed copies of his book will be available for purchase at the meeting.


When Ken began his talk, he quoted Mark Twain, who said, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,” and added, “…or newsprint by the truckload.” Ken has had some dif-ficulty getting The New York Times to acknowledge that it has misreported the origin of some family names. Greg Brock, Senior Editor of Standards at The NYT e-mailed Ken that they have to be “200 per cent certain” that something is a fact to issue a correction. Ken said that the problem begins with the situation that death notices are advertisements and that the family can write whatever they want. Obituaries are both news and advertising, be-cause the family has to supply some of the infor-mation. There is the hard-to-change mistaken idea that names were changed upon immigration. Think of the scene in “The Godfather” when the young boy, Vito Andolini from Corleone, is re-named “Vito Corleone” by the immigration offi-cial. This has been accepted by many people as the true way that families acquired their “American” names. The NYT has printed family stories that follow that impression. Some of the cases that Ken has been able to disprove are the 2010 obituary of Sol PRICE, founder of The Price Club. The sources that Ken used were the 1920 and 1930 U. S. Census, the W. W. I Draft Registration form for Sol’s father, and a Washington Post obituary written by Peter Eisner, a former WP editor who is writing a book about Sol Price. Ken spoke to Eisner and found out where to find the father’s naturalization records. After obtaining the natu-ralization records, Ken saw that the father arrived in 1905 at Ellis Island as “Susche PRUSS”.

From our website: Ken Bravo has been researching his family since the mid-1970’s. More re-cently, he has added the families of his children’s spouses, meaning he has now researched thousands of people and their families. He has also been a frequent speaker on a number of Jewish genealogy subjects. In Ken’s opinion, the greatest Bubbemeises of Jewish geneal-ogy (or any ethnic genealogy for that matter), is some variation of the theme “Our family’s name was changed at Ellis Island.” In late 2009, Ken saw an obituary in The New York Times which lamented that the de-ceased’s family name had been lost to time and had been changed at Ellis Island. This led to an ex-change of emails with the Times during which Ken sent them natu-ralization records, a ship manifest, census and other records, all proving that the family name was neither lost nor changed at Ellis Island. The correspondence ended when the Times finally e-mailed “I am not prepared to try to set decades of history straight by running a correction on one spe-cific family name, regardless of the records.” This led Ken to search for other Times obituaries with similar claims on name changes at Ellis Island. While not an exhaustive search, Ken came up with four additional obituaries plus one let-ter to the editor with the name change claim.

January meeting

“Why The New York Times is Wrong – Using Basic Genealogy Tools

and Methods to Show That Your Family Name Was Not Changed

at Ellis Island”

Bravo cont’d. p. 5


Bravo cont’d. from p. 4

Ken compared the death notice of Sol Price’s brother in San Diego, California, to make sure that he had the right family. Even when Ken sent proof to The NYT, the paper would not run a correction. Another case was the photogra-pher Arthur ZINN, who died in 2003. The name the family used on the cen-sus was ZINNBERG. There was a thought that Arthur was born Abrasha CHOODISMAN, but when Ken used the Steve Morse One-Step site, he could not find CHOODIS-MAN. He was able to use Morse’s Ellis Island Gold Form with phonetic match-ing and eventually found them on the Ellis Island passenger arrival list where Ken found that they entered as CHU-SIDMAN. Ken used Footnote.com to find the naturalization record from Brooklyn, New York, in 1927, to confirm the name change. Ken used BERK* (asterisk) for a wildcard search of census records to show that Irving BERK’s name had not been changed from BERKOVIC upon arrival, contrary to a 2006 report in The NYT. In one of those name changes that makes it so hard to trace family, Ken proved that an official did not change Sascha UBSUSHONE’s name to his mother’s maiden name, causing him to become Charles ZIMMERMAN. Ken found Sascha Ubsushone coming alone through Ellis Island, and he was still using Ubushone when his mother and brother entered the U. S. He did find that when Sasha/Charles re-entered the U. S. later, he had changed his name to ZIMMERMAN. When he re-entered he had to declare when he was

naturalized, so Ken could check that file to see what name he was naturalized under. (Ed. note - Charles had become a labor leader in the garment industry and merited quite an obituary in The NYT on June 5, 1983, p. 32. To show how these things perpetuate them-selves, Wikipedia picked up the story and put it online, “Sasha emigrated to the United States in 1913 at the age of 16... Sasha had his name changed to Charles Sasha Zimmerman by an offi-cial at Ellis Island upon arrival and he was thereafter known by this new moni-ker.”) A letter to The NYT from Naomi KARP questioned what name to put on the Ellis Island plaque that she was or-dering for her grandfather. Ken used the Stephen Morse site, www.intelius.com, America’s Obituaries and Death Notices website (see below), Biography and Ge-nealogy Master Index, Marquis’ Who’s Who online, The Historical New York Times 1851- 1980 and the 1900 and 1930 U. S. Censuses to track Naomi’s grandfather, Jacob FRIEDMAN back to 1900. He found a possible arrival date of 1891 for a FREIDMAN who he thinks matches Jacob. Ken has proven that it is possible to find the truth about name changes, if

one is willing to do some research.

See p. 8 for a list of the

resources that Ken has

used to disprove The NYT obituaries.


John discussed the new features available on Family Tree Maker 2011 and gave handouts with more detailed information on each feature listed below. • Smart Stories -- a narrative tool that helps write family stories. The Smart Stories are then completely editable. • Charts – Fan (five different shapes); Bow Tie showing both maternal and pa-ternal ancestors of one person in one chart; Last Generation Shown Vertically; Pedigree; Photos and Embellishments and Fonts • Reports – Time Line where you can edit, delete or add your own historical events; Surname; New Descendant forms with choice of four descendant re-port numbering systems; Custom has user-selected primary and secondary sorts; Kinship can now sort by degree of relationship (e.g., first cousins together); Save Report Settings to make your own preferred settings; Bibliography; Report Headers and Footers; Photo Albums and Calendar • Ancestry Integration -- Expanded Web Dashboard; Enhanced Performance and Internet Speed. All this means is the ability to connect to Ancestry.com to share information or search for informa-tion. • Media Management -- Locate Missing Files -- John said to be very handy after moving data to a new computer; Catego-ries and Media Metadata Stored in Fam-ily Tree Maker, to make handling such files easier. • Data Entry -- Automatic Reference Numbers; Enhanced Foreign Characters

Usage; Duplicate Person Alert tells you if it believes you may already have the in-dividual in your tree; Description Fast-fields • In General Remarks some of the features that John wrote about were: Updated Inter-face - This is the first thing you will notice when you open FTM 2011. There is a new Enhanced Index of Indi-viduals that will now sort people based on name and then birth date. Historical Time-lines Family Tree Maker is a set of default historical events that are used in timelines. Now you can edit, de-lete, and add to these historical events. First-Time User Assistance -- The first time you open Family Tree Maker, it will automati-cally search for Family Tree Maker (.ftw) files on your computer (Version 16 and earlier).

February meeting

John Stoika is a Past President of the Cuyahoga Val-ley Genealogical Society (CVGS), a Member of the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group (CAGG), and a Member of the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS). He gave a presenta-tion on the Family Tree Maker com-puter database program, and how it, and similar com-mercially available programs, can as-sist genealogists in their record keep-ing.

Family Tree Maker - What It Can Do and

What It Can't Do for You

John said there is a Microsoft patch to load the 32-bit FTM 16 into the Win-dows 7 operating system.


March meeting

Using Family Finder DNA Analysis to

Unravel an Intricate Problem

Richard Spector ’s father died when Richard was only eight years old and Richard got interested in genealogy to learn more about his father. After doing research, Richard was able to write a 10,000 word biography about him.

However, there was a brick wall that Richard could not get around. Finally, in 2010 new developments in DNA helped Richard find an answer to an unsolved question.

Information that Richard already had found included:

The November 1, 1907, Ellis Island arrival of Joss and Ester BASSOVSKY who sailed from Libau, Russia (now Liepaja, Latvia), on the Saratov of the Russian Volunteer Fleet. Traveling with them was Richard’s father, Chaim SPECTOR, an orphan, who came from Pavoloch, in the area of Kiev, Russia. Chaim was going to Chicago.

Richard wondered why the Bassovskys would bring Chaim with them. Their closest friend/relative listed on the passenger manifest was Kisil SPECTOR which suggested that one of the couple was related to Chaim. Jennie Bassovsky, their older child who had come alone to Chicago, had listed Kiva Spector, a relative of Chaim's, as her cousin in Chicago; another suggestion of a relationship.

The standard DNA testing that had been available would not answer how the families of BASSOVSKY and SPECTOR were related.

Richard showed graphics of the

descendants of the Bassovskys – Isador, their son, grandson William BASS, and William’s daughter, Sherry BASS. The Bassovskys who had lived in Pavloch had a descendant, Robert SMITH, who was descended through a female of the Bassovsky family.

With the previous DNA testing, the relationship could not be shown, as there was not a direct male-to-male descendancy, except for Richard and his father. The new “Family Finder Test” from Family Tree DNA www.tinyurl.com/ 2weopdk could test both male and female DNA for relationships.

Richard got both Sherry Bass and Robert Smith to take the test. The different results that were possible were:

1. No DNA relationship among those tested

2. DNA shows all are related 3. Richard could be related to one of

the Bassovsky descendants, but Sherry Bass and Robert Smith are not related, and, most importantly,

4. Richard could be related to Sherry Bass but not to Robert Smith. This is what the results showed. The results also proved that Sherry Bass and Robert Smith are related.

The test did answer the question that Richard had as to why the Bassovskys, Sherry Bass’s greatgrandparents, brought his father to the U. Spector cont’d p. 8


greatgrandparents, brought his father to the U. S. One of them was definitely related to his father.

Richard surmises that the actual fam-ily relationship of his father is to the mother of Joss Bassovsky, Shendel ORENSTEIN, or to Esther Bassovsky, (Sherry Bass’s greatgrandmother), daughter of Marie WEISS and Velvul MALE. He thinks that the most likely sce-nario is that Richard’s father’s paternal grandmother was a sibling of Velvul Male.

Richard has relatives he is trying to get to take the DNA tests to prove their relationship to him. He says if you have not had a DNA test, then the Family

Finder test is the one to take. Richard’s article “Using Family Finder DNA Analysis to Unravel an Intricate Problem” was pub-lished in the Summer 2010 issue of Avo-taynu.

The latest news from Richard is, “By

the way, I have just in the two weeks met with a descendant of Velvul Male in New York and been in contact with a woman in New Mexico who is descended from an-other branch of the Velvul Male family. I hope that I can get her at some point to do the DNA test. I keep on plugging away at this and maybe, one day, I can give a sequel to my talk.”

Spector cont’d from p. 7

Marian Smith (Citizenship and Immigration Service maven) articles: www.iabsi.com/gen/public/imm_names.htm or http://tinyurl.com/3d2k9w3 Google: www.google.com/ Ancestry: www.ancestrv.com/ Stephen P. Morse One-Step website: www.stevemorse.org/ Cuyahoga County Public Library: www.cuyahogalibrary.org/ for access to

America's Obituaries and Death Notices (The library cancelled its subscription Dec. 31, 2010)

www.footnote.com/ Historic New York Times (also at http://tinyurl.com/db6wg -- not through

the library) Ellis Island: www.ellisisland.org/ Anywho (to look up telephone numbers): www.anywho.com/ Cleveland Public Library: www.cpl.org

Marquis Who's Who on the Web Historic New York Times

Castle Garden: www.castlegarden.org/ (predated Ellis Island)

Bravo cont’d from p. 5

Ken Bravo’s list of resources to disprove the

“Ellis Island name change”


Beginners’ Course attendees found lots of new information

Marilyn Bilsky was the winner of the three- month subscription to Ancestry.com, pre-sented by Ken Bravo.

Sylvia Abrams and Karen Newborn (not shown) coordinated the registra-tion and smooth operation of the event. Ken Bravo got the venue, the Ancestry.com hookup for the eve-ning, and the Ancestry subscription door prize, besides teaching, too.

Cynthia Spikell covered pedigree charts and using marriage license applications to trace greatgrandpar-ents’ names.

Almost every attendee brought a laptop to go online to research.


Mitchell Fields seemed pleasantly surprised to find information online.

Becky Werman brought her daughter, Wendy .

Some of the attendees had never used online resources or Ances-try.com before.

More attendees collaborating ...

Collaborating in using the online database...

Beginners’ Course


New website: A “Google” for genealogy

Mocavo.com went online in March

This new website searches many websites, but only those that have a ge-nealogical purpose. Dick Eastman , who publishes a daily e-newsletter about all things genealogical, tested the site before it went public, and he wrote on March 15, 2011, “Web sites searched include thousands of genealogy message boards, society web pages, ge-nealogy pages uploaded by individuals, state historical societies, family societies, Find-A-Grave, the Internet Archive (mostly scanned genealogy books from the Allen County Public Library), the Library of Con-gress, several sites containing scanned images of old photographs, and tens of thousands of distinct sites sites that con-tain various transcribed records of genea-logical interest. “Of course, searches on Mocavo.com are not limited to names. As with any other search engine, you can search for towns, states, occupations, relatives, or any other text information you think might be included with an ancestor's name. Whatever you specify, the search will be limited to pages on genealogy web sites.” Cliff Shaw is the originator of Mo-cavo.com. On March 16, 2011, cnbc.com posted this about him: “Mr. Shaw is well known in the industry, having created four successful companies and many innova-tive technologies, including Smart Match-ing™ the most successful ancestor-matching algorithm. He created GenFo-rum 14 years ago and it quickly grew to become the number one community for genealogists (now owned by Ances-try.com® ). In the early 2000's, Mr. Shaw launched GenCircles and Family Tree Legends, becoming the number two family tree publishing site and number two family

tree software package respectively (both are now owned by MyHeritage.com). More recently, Mr. Shaw launched the well-received BackupMyTree.com, the indus-try's only automatic tree backup solution.” Cliff was kind enough to take time to give us an interview by e-mail shortly after the site went live. Kol: Which came first, your interest in computers, or your interest in geneal-ogy? Cliff Shaw: I got interested in gene-alogy in college after some interesting family documents were shown to me by my grandmother. In a very short time, I was frustrated by the existing tools and set out to build new things to help myself and others. K: What is the origin of the name “Mocavo”? C. S.: The name doesn't have an origin other than being quick to type and catchy. K.: What does your website logo symbolize? C. S.: It doesn't hold a lot of sym-bolism. Just the creative work of a great designer. Some people think it looks like a finger clicking a button - others think it's a cactus. I tend to think it's just creative. K: What did you want to accom-plish with Mocavo? C. S.: I want Mocavo to be the big-gest and best collection of free genealogy resources. There is almost limitless amount of family history content on the Web with no great way to search it. We want to change this. K: How long did it take to develop from when you first got the idea? C. S.: I've been working on it for over a year and a half. However, I've been thinking about build-

Mocavo cont’d p. 12


K: Is there anything about Mocavo that lends itself to use to search Jewish genealogy? C. S.: We have a number of great Jew-ish resources in the search engine. Jewish-Gen is an amazing site with more than a quar-ter million pages in it. Mocavo can search every single page on JewishGen where Google only covers about 35,000 pages. K: Is there any Soundex or Daitch-Mokotoff soundex capability with Mo-cavo.com? C. S.: It's in the works. K: A concern about using Mocavo: When I searched for “Eleanor PERRY” or “Eleanor PERRY” + ROSENFELD, I got no good hits. When I searched for “Leo BAYER”, I did get his death notice, but also a lot of BAYERs who were not Leo. I got pages that had both Eleanor and ROSENFELD, but not together, as a name. C. S.: As long as you use quotes, the names will be together somewhere on the page. I can't speak to those specific results but know that the index is growing quickly so those searches will improve over time.

Please point me to where you see this. The system always honors quotes so those words must've appeared near each other (unless it's a bug, which I can investigate with more details). Google will return higher result counts because they include a lot of non-genealogical data in their index. K: Will you be giving presentations at any genealogy conferences? C. S.: At some point as the company grows, we'll participate in the conferences since I'm almost always there and very much enjoy them. K: What is your long-term vision of the future of computers and the internet for doing genealogical research? C. S.: The future holds amazing things and we're going to hopefully contribute to that future in a strong way. I'm excited by what the industry has done so far but we have so far to go. It's an incredible time to be a genealogist and it's only going to get better. K: Amen, Cliff, and thanks for the interview.

Mocavo cont’d from p. 11

From Pres. Kenneth Bravo 2 2011 Beginners’ Course 9 – 10 Calendar 2 - 3 Cleveland research Harvard Cemetery burials 16 - 7 Queries 18 - 19 Cuyahoga County and Ohio marriage licenses 20 Cuyahoga County Probate Files, 1813-1900 21 Paul Newman signature 13 News from our library 15 Cleveland and Ohio research Cincinnati and Hamilton County 13 Ohio’s Jewish newspapers 14 U. S. research January -- “Why The New York

Times is Wrong …Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island” - Ken Bravo 4 – 5, 8 National Union Catalog of Manu script Collections (NUCMC) 19 Naturalization Record holdings by state 21 “Florida's Ohio Obituary Angels” 22 Travel woes for immigrants in 1923 23 - 4 1940 Census release date set 25- 6 Tombstones as climate indicators 26 Name changes in New York 26 U. S. servicemen’s records 28 Google for Genealogists

28 Philadelphia port of entry 29 U.S. citizenship denied 32 “Certificate of Arrival” 32 Scenes from the past 32 Techniques / tools February -- Family Tree Maker - John Stoika 6 March -- Using Family Finder DNA Analysis - Richard Spector 7 – 8 Interview with creator of Mocavo.com 11 - 12 A genealogist as a honey bee? 22 U.S. / international research FamilySearch.org newly posted databases 27

Table of Contents


Sent by Ken Bravo: You never know what you will find

on a death certificate...

Cleveland and Ohio research

Ohio research

Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio

In the 2010 Spring issue of The Kol we reported that Hamilton County Probate Court records were online at www.probatect.org . Here are the types of records available: Marriage records, 1808-1931 Marriage index, 1817-1983 Marriage banns, 1883-1949 Birth records, 1863-1908 Birth registration and correction dockets, 1941-1994 Death records, 1881-1908 Wills, 1791-1973 Estates, trusts and guardianships dockets, 1791-1984 Probate Court journal entries, 1791-1837 Naturalization indexes, 1856-1906 Physician certificates, 1919-1934, 1973-1987 Minister's licenses index, 1963-1976


Western Reserve Historical Society Library, Cleveland. www.wrhs.org/index.php/library 216- 721-5722 Cleveland: Jewish Review and Observer, 1889-1964, also called Hebrew Observer Cleveland: Jewish Independent between 1889 – 1954 The American Jewish Periodical Center at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. http://huc.edu/ libraries/collections/ajpc 513-487-3274 Cincinnati: American Israelite, 1854- Cincinnati: Die Deborah, 1855-1902, German Ohio Historical Society Library, Columbus. www.ohiohistory.org/portallarchiveslibrary-p.html 614-297-2510 Cincinnati: American Israelite, 1854- Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. www.cincinnatilibrary.org 513-369-6905 Cincinnati: American Israelite, 1854- Cincinnati: Die Deborah, 1855-1902, German

Sometimes others interested in Jew-ish genealogy ask me why I bother to be-long to the Ohio Genealogical Society, be-cause they ask what it has that I could use. Here is one example of a useful arti-cle, from the OGS Ohio Genealogy News, Winter 2010. In Deb Cyprych ’s article “Ohioans in Religious Newspapers” on p. 8, she wrote that in 1880 Ohio ranked third in the publi-

cation of religious newspapers. At that time there were three Jewish newspapers in Cincinnati. Because family news was sometimes printed in other cities where family members lived, it might help to check Jewish newspapers in those cities. Cyprych listed Jewish newspapers in Ohio and where to access them. ~~ Cynthia Spikell

Cleveland and Ohio research

Ohio’s Jewish newspapers

When we read the above article, it occurred to us that we did not know where to find The Forward (not an Ohio newspaper), so we e-mailed Hebrew Union College’s library. See the reply below:

3 Jan 2011 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] We have The Forward on microfilm. It is available to borrow through interlibrary loan. The holdings are incomplete but cover 1897 (v.1) to the present. If you need more information, please let me know. Sincerely, Noni Rudavsky Public Services Librarian


News from our library

From this-- stacks of boxes of our books right after arriving at Fairmount Temple Library...

...to this -- books identified as be-longing to our library and ar-ranged on the library shelves. Photo taken by Richard Spector .

JGS stickers identify our books.

Seven members worked on putting JGS stickers on the spines and bookplates into the books. In this photo taken by Sylvia Abrams at a work session are (front) Phyllis Wachs and Adelle Gloger , (back) Peter Fredrix and Richard Spector . Not shown, Judy Rocker and Cynthia Spikell .

The books still need to be classified and entered into the Fairmount Temple Library catalog before being used.


Cleveland research — Harvard Cemetery

ABRAHAMS ABRAMS ADELSON ADLER ALBERT ANTMAN ARIAN ARNOLD ARONOWITZ ARSHANSKY AXELROD BARTNOFSKY BASSICHIS BECKER BERGER BERKOWITZ BERMAN BERNSTEIN BERZACK BERZAK BEYER BLATT BLIEDEN BLOOM BLUM BOHN BONCHICK BONE BOX BRASTOFF BREGMAN BRENNER BRIEN BRISKER BRIZMAN BROWER BROZINSKY BRUDNO BUDIN

BUNOWITZ BURSTEIN BUTNICK CANTOR CHAMETZKY CHEPENIK CHERNIKOFF CHERNS COHEN COHN COPLAND CORT COWAN CURTIS. DAVIDSON DAVIS DIAMOND DOLINSKY DUBINSKY DWORKIN EISENBERG ELLERIN ELLIS EMERMAN EMMERMAN EVENCHICK FELDMAN FIENSTEIN FISHER FIXER FLECK FRANK FREIDA FREIDBERG FRIEDBERG FRIEDLINGER FRIEDMAN FROMSON FRONSTEIN

GABOWITZ, GALIN GALVIN GARAN GARBER GARDNER KAUFMAN GARFINKEL GARSON GELFAND GERDY GIMP GINSBERG GINSBURG GLICK GLICKMAN GOLD GOLDBERG GOLDFARB GOLDMAN GOLDSMITH GOLDSTEIN GOODMAN GOSS GOTTLIEB GRADIS GREENBERG. GRIAFSKY GROD GROSSMAN GRUCHENSKY GRUNMAN GRUSHINSKY GUREN HALPER HALPERIN HALPERT HAMMER HARRISON

HERMAN HERSHENHAUS HERZENSTEIN . HIMMELSTEIN HIRSH HORVITZ HORWITZ HUTNER HYMAN JACOBS JAKOFSKY JEFKIN JOSELOVITZ JOSEPH JUNTOFF KABAT KAHN KALOVSKY KAMENETSKY KAPLAN KAPLANSKY KARBELNICK KASOFSKY KATZ KAUFMAN KEBRIK KENDIS KITMAN KLINE KOCHMAN KOSHINSKY KOSSOFF KOVELMAN KRAMEN KRAMER KRASLAVSKY KRAUSE KREINBERG

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland has asked us to say that they are looking for the descendants of people buried at Harvard Cemetery. The cemetery is in need of some attention, and perhaps the descendants will be interested. Some of the names are for single burials, and some are for as many as a dozen graves. The Federation has the exact burial locations of these graves, but we did not have room to print them.

Harvard cont’d p. 17

Note: Someone with the alias “TJ” has photographed hundreds of tomb-stones at Harvard Cemetery and posted them online at www.findagrave.com. Some of the images are not clear, but if you see a family name below, you could check the site to see if you can find the person.


KROHN KUNDES KUPERSMITH KURANSKY LAMDEN LANDESMAN LANGRAF LASALLE LAST LAWRENCE LAZAROWITZ LEBOVITZ LEBOWITZ LEFKOWITZ LEFTON LEIBOWITZ LEINER LEINMAN LESSEM LESSER LETTOFSKY LEVENSON LEVIN LEVINE LEVITT LEVY LEWIN LEWIS LIFSHITZ LINDER LINDI LINSKY LIPKOWITZ LONDON LURIA MACHLACH

MADOW MOSKOWITZ MALBIN MARVIN MASH MAYERS MEDAL MELZER MENDELSON MEYER MICHELSON MICHINOFF MILCOFF MILLER MILNER MINTZ MONTAGUE MORRIS MOSBERG MYER NAMEN NUSBAUM ORKIN OSCAR OSHER OSTER PACK PALAY PALEVSKY PALEY PAPERT PAPURT PASSIN PENN PERLIN PERSKY

PESKIN PHILIPS PICKUS PLATT POLSTER PRICE RABINOVITZ RABINOWITZ RAFFEL RAPPORT RATCHKOFSKY RATSKOWSKY RAVITZ REICHECK REICHES REICHICK REIN REISENBERG REITER ROBINOWITZ ROBINSON ROGINSKY ROLNICK ROODMAN ROSEN ROSENBERG ROSENBLUM ROSENKOWITZ ROSENSTEIN ROTH RUBENSTEIN RUBIN RUBINSON RUBINSTEIN RUDOLPH SAKS

SALTZMAN SANDMAN SARANSKY SCHAW SCHECHTER SCHEINGOLD SCHLOSSBERG SCHNAPPER SCHOEN SCHOICHET SCHOOLER SCHREIBMAN SCHWARTZ SEIGAL SENOR SHAEVITZ SHAPIRO SHAROFSKY SHAW SHEFTAL SHEWINSKY SHINERKIN SHLOM SHUR SHURE SHURITZ SHUSHANSKY SILBERBERG SILBERMAN SILVERSTEIN SIMBERG SIMON SINDEL SISKIN SMITH SOLOMON

SOSKIN STARK STATER STEIN SUGARMAN SWIRSKY TARTAR TAUBMAN TOPLER TRONSTEIN VICKSTEIN VINOKUR WAKEMAN WEIL WEINGARTEN WEINTRAUB WEISBERG WEISS WEISSBERG WEITZMAN WELK WOHLSKY WOLF WOLINSKY WOLPAW YELSKY YOSELEVITZ YOSHINSKY YUDITZKY ZABELL ZABLOTSKY ZALZNECK ZEMAN ZINGMOND

Harvard cont’d from p. 16

From our website -- Harvard Cemetery -- 5903 Harvard Avenue at East 62nd Street -- Heights Jewish Center 216 371-2244. No office. Also known as the "Old Russian Cemetery" or Ohavu Amunah Cemetery, the cemetery was established around 1891. This cemetery backs up to Lansing Cemetery. (Not to be confused with city-owned Harvard Grove Cemetery on Lansing Ave, about a quarter mile away.) With over 800 burials, the cemetery has been vandalized more than once recently. Heights Jewish Center Synagogue (216-382-1958) has a card file of burials. Some stones are illegible.


We never know who will send a query, or from where. Here is one we received: From: AllenAmet <[email protected]> Dec 30, 2010 ... I'm in far-off Brooklyn, but have been working on some Cleveland history, not necessarily Jewish some times... I came across an 1866 marriage in Cleveland,

and wondered how I might verify the name of the Bride. … Allen Koenigsberg (Brooklyn College) Adelle Gloger helped him. It turned out that he was researching a non-Jewish balloonist from Cleveland.

Lightning Quick

Response

In our mailbox

You can’t win ‘em all… Our skilled researchers did not find siblings

In January 2011 we received this: I am researching Samuel SWARTZ to settle the estate of his son. Both sons of Mr. Swartz died without issue. Samuel Swartz's parents were Samuel/Hyman SCHWARTZ and Esther GOLDBERG. He and his wife Celia GOTTLOEB were mar-ried by Rabbi Margolies in Cleveland on 3 January 1915. I am trying to determine if Mr. Swartz has any siblings who might have issue that should be included in this estate.

Samuel Swartz [aka Schwartz] died 23 December 1928 in Ashland, OH. His obituary indicates that he was buried at "Jewish Center Cemetery at Cleveland". The Cleveland Necrology Index has a cemetery entry for Samuel Swartz for 1928. Thank you for your assistance. Charliece Hillery American Research Bureau 877-628-7315

From Harriett Allen in re her query about the Jacob ABRAMOWITZ grave at Lans-ing Cemetery that ran in our Autumn 2010 edition: This is wonderful information. I appre-ciate it so much as this seems to be the right relative. Our father, Paul ALLEN (ABRAMOVITZ) was two years old (1902) when the family came from Russia, but Harry COHEN wasn't the birth father but the second husband. Anyway, thanks again. [email protected]

Cynthia Spikell [email protected] had sent her information from Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 Jakie COHEN Birth: 20 Mar 1902 — Russia Death: 27 Mar 1917 — Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio Parents: Harry COHEN, Mammie ABREHAMOVITZ Birth Date: 20 Mar 1902 Birthplace: Russia Burial Date: 28 Mar 1917 Cemetery Name: Lansing Cemetery

Cleveland research


If you watched an epi-sode of “Who Do You

Think You Are?’ featuring Tim McGraw, you might have wondered how the show’s researchers could have discovered Tim's connection to George Washington. We sur-mise it could have been by using the Na-tional Union Catalog of Manuscript Collec-

tions (NUCMC) www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/about.html From the website, “This mis-sion (to provide access) is realized by NUCMC production of cataloging describ-ing archival and manuscript collections held by eligible repositories located throughout the United States and its territo-ries.”

Hello researcher (and I am cc-ing this to Sylvia Abrams , who knows me), My brother, Mike Klein, and I are do-ing research on my grandfather. He worked undercover for the police and the FBI and sent scores of criminals to prison. We spent a morning at the Western Reserve Historical Society and found newspaper articles about him but when I called the number I received for the care-taker of the cemetery in which he is listed as being buried (Ridge Rd. #2) the care-taker said his name was not listed as be-ing buried there. His name was Leo KLEIN or Leonard KLEIN or Leonard M.

KLEIN or Leo M. KLEIN. He was killed on August 1, 1929. I was here on a visit from Israel and am returning home this Tuesday (tomorrow). But my brother lives here and we have oth-ers who can also visit his grave; we are particularly interested in knowing what his Hebrew/Jewish name was, as there are two ver-sions -- Lazar and Leibel. Can you help us? Thank you, Toby

Cleveland research

As we said, we never know what will be in the mailbox...

From: Toby Klein Greenwald [email protected] To: [email protected] April 4, 2011 Subject: My grandfather's grave

Reply to Toby from: Ken Bravo April 4, 2011

It sounds like a fascinating story. According to Leo Klein's death certificate (copy attached), he's buried at "Ridge Road" with no further description. There are two cemeteries on Ridge Road, Ridge Road #1 (also known as Chesed Shel Emith) and Ridge Road #2. The Jewish Federation of Cleveland has a cemetery database. I suggest that

you contact Susan Hyman ((216) 593-2825) or [email protected]. She should be able to give you more precise information. Good luck. Kenneth A. Bravo President JGS of Cleveland

U. S. research


Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958 on www.FamilySearch.org may include the parents and birthplace of the bride or groom, and the exact date of marriage. The image of the marriage license is not available online in this database (see above). What you can see online is Groom's Name; Groom's Birth Date; Groom's Birth-place; Groom's Age; Bride's Name; Bride's Birth Date; Bride's Birthplace; Bride's Age; Marriage Date; Marriage Place; Groom's Father's Name; Groom's Mother's Name (including maiden name); Bride's Father's Name; Bride's Mother's Name (including maiden name); Groom's Race; Groom's Marital Status; Groom's Previous Wife's

Name; Bride's Race; Bride's Marital Status; Bride's Previous Husband's Name; and the LDS Source Microfilm Number. (So if the county is not Cuyahoga, you can rent the microfilm at the nearest Family History Center,) One warning – there might be a mis-take in reading the handwriting on the ap-plication and name or place of birth shown online might be incorrect. If there is any doubt, check the microfilm copy yourself. If it is for a Cuyahoga County mar-riage license application, microfilms are available at the main Cleveland Public Li-brary, the Cuyahoga County Archives, or the Western Reserve Historical Society Library.

Ohio marriages 1800—1958 online

Cuyahoga County and Ohio Research NEWS FLASH !

Ohio county marriage license 1790 – 1950 images

recently went online

Click on Ohio, County Marriages, 1790-1950 to see the images. Unfortunately only about 70 per cent of the marriage licenses to 1950 have been digitized, but the index is so finely-tuned that a name will be listed no matter where it occurs in the document. For instance,

a search on a name not only brought up the marriage license application sought, but also the marriage license for the subsequent remarriage of the bride. If you cannot find the license you want, try the database below to find an abstract of the license.

Leo Baeck Institute

For the three FamilySearch databases following -- To use the FamilySearch.org website, scroll down and click on “USA, Canada, and Mexico” and a list of databases alphabetized by state will come up on the right. Click on the database you want.


Cuyahoga Probate from FamilySearch website includes: 1) Probate case files (these are the majority of the records) with • Name of the testator or deceased • Names of heirs, such as spouse, children, other relatives, or friends • Name of the executor, administrator, or guardian • Names of witnesses • Dates the documents were written and recorded (used to approximate event

dates since a will was usually written near the time of death) • Description and value of personal property or land owned by the deceased 2) Delayed birth registration, corrections, and affidavits The biographical information found in the delayed birth records: 3) Voter registrations — The biographical information found in the voter registrations is:

U.S., Ohio, Cuyahoga County Probate Files, 1813-1900

also at www.FamilySearch.org

• Child’s name • Birth date

• Birth place • Child’s gender

• Parents’ names • Parents’ residence

Ohio Research

There is no index to the images. However, you can go to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohcdrt/ for the Cleveland District Roundtable site and find the index Cuyahoga Wills & Es-tates Index, Dockets Pre-A-70 (1826-1904), before visiting the FamilySearch.org database of Cuyahoga Probate Files. Gary Silverstein , who told us of the

index, says that the index actually covers past 1904, though we did not find any cases post-1904. He suggests that when you bring up the index, that you copy the page of instructions of how to use it to use when searching. Just be p-a-t-i-e-n-t when using the index, as even with a fast con-nection it takes a while to load.

• Name of voter • Address

U. S. research Philip Trauring has posted at www.bloodandfrogs.com/p/naturalization.html a listing of National Archives Naturaliza-tion Record Holdings by state. For Ohio he lists Cincinnati 1859-1963; Cleveland 1855-1967; Columbus 1917-1947; and Dayton 1916-1951 This means you can obtain the naturalization records for those cities and time peri-ods from NARA.


“Talmudist, Kabbalist, magician, gene-alogist and author” Arthur Kurzweil pre-sented "Jewish Genealogy and The Case of the Honey Bee" at a meet-ing of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. The meeting announce-ment read, “Genealogy is not just names and dates on a family tree. The pursuit of one's Jewish roots can be a profound experience for the family historian. Some of us are just getting started, other have been toiling at it for years. What have we learned and where are we going?

“Just as the honey bee arises each morning and thinks it is busy collecting nectar to produce honey, the bee's more

important mission might just be that it is -- in the process -- cross pollinat-ing the plants in the gar-den. Arthur Kurzweil, au-thor of From Generation to Generation, and known to many as America's foremost expert in Jewish family history research, will share his observa-tions on the trails we’ve

blazed and what the future holds for Jew-ish genealogists.”

Did you ever think of yourself as a honey bee?

Arthur Kurzweil presents a new way to look at genealogists

U. S. Research

Ohio Genealogical Society — “Florida's Ohio Obituary Angels” by

Kay Ballantyne Hudson, Thomas Stephen Neel and Nanci Trippitt

“For many years members of the Flor-ida Chapter OGS have helped Ohio re-searchers by clipping Ohio-connected obituaries from local newspapers and sending them to the OGS Library. These clippings are filed in the Library for all to use and provide a unique collection of ge-nealogical information.” Thomas Stephen Neel , the OGS Li-brarian, assured us in an e-mail that there are Jewish death notices included. Included are Miami Herald obituaries, Gainesville, and “from the following news-papers prior to 2009 but ... not many from

these in the past year: Bradenton Herald, Charlotte Sun Herald, Sebring News-Sun, Port Charlotte Herald Tribune, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Stu-art News and Jack-sonville Times-Union. ...received since 2009: Alachua County Today, Florida To-day, Lakeland Ledger , Punta Gorda Sun Herald , The Gainesville Sun, Tampa Trib-une, and Fort Myers News Press.”


U. S. research

Nathan Leshner of the Leshner Paper Stock Co., Inc. has received the following letter concerning the progress of his mother on her trip from Russia to America: Berlin, Germany, Sept. 21, 1923 Mr. Nathan Leshner Care The L.P.S. Co. Lockland, Ohio Dear Mr. Leshner – There has happened quite a lot of things since I have written you on August 17th and I wish now to inform you of all particulars. On September 4th I informed you by cable that Mrs. Leshner arrived at Riga and will sail within a fortnight via Hamburg accompanied by Miss Kritshevskaja to America. Towards the end of last week we received here a telegram from Riga that Mrs. Leshner and Miss Kritshevskaja are leaving Riga, without a hint whereto they are going. Mr. Kaiser applied to a friend at Hamburg with the request to find out whether Mrs. Leshner has arrived at Hamburg and whether she is staying in the emigrant halls. By return of mail we received the information that Mrs. Leshner is there and probably will sail on Septem-ber 21st. From Riga I had a letter from Miss Krit-shevskaja that they will be able to sail to America in November, because everything is going by turns. We could not understand what was meant by it and Mr. Kaiser telegraphed in the Hamburg-American Line in Riga requesting these people to see to it that Mrs. Leshner may be forwarded in the second class. Not receiving any reply to this tele-gram, we have been informed in the meantime of the arrival of Mrs. Leshner at Hamburg. In order to give me opportunity to see Mrs. Leshner and to arrange for some more comfort during the journey to America as well as to buy the necessary clothes, Mrs. Leshner was in want for – Mr. Kaiser allowed me to go to Hamburg. [Illegible] quite a lot of time until I succeeded

to find Mrs. Leshner in the so-called Pavilion where she was staying. It was just the day of departure of the emigrants leaving on October 21st; Mrs. Leshner did not belong to them, and she told me, that in all probability she must stay in Hamburg until October 20th. I therefore went to the office and requested the gentleman to assist me in forwarding Mrs. Leshner earlier and if possible, still with the steamer “Mount Clay” leaving on September 21st. He was very kind young gentleman and full of sym-pathy and pitiful with regard to the sorrow of the emigrants. He told me that he however, as well as everybody else here in Germany, has not the slightest possibility to alter even a point on an “i” in the legal rules, fixed by the American authorities, which have to be fulfilled automatically. He showed me a card from Europe, which was divided into the European states, each state bearing a number. This number determined the number of emigrants allowed from the respective state to leave for America. Russia showed the number 21,613. If it now happens that one person more is coming from Russia to Germany, this person can-not be forwarded to America in this year, but must stay until the New Year. Emigrants from each state have their own time of arrival in America, viz: the Russian emi-grants are allowed only to arrive in the beginning of a month in America, therefore they have to leave

Ken Bravo sent us this article. When you are looking at passenger lists, you might think of the difficulty endured by the passengers due to the rules explained below.

Travel woes for immigrants in 1923

“Mrs. Leshner Due to Sail For America Some Time in November” from the Hamilton (Ohio) Evening Journal 12 Oct 1923

Travel woes cont’d p. 24

Mount Clay 1921-1934. Note the two masts.


from here towards the end of the foregoing month. Steamers for emigrants are foreseen from July until end of October – therefore, if persons are left back in October, they have to remain until July of the next year. You can imagine how the last information excited me and how urgently I requested them to allow Mrs. Leshner to leave Germany as a free passenger, and not as an emigrant. “No” said the gentleman is question, “You would lose not only this money, but you would have still to pay a penalty, which under circum-stances can amount to $1,000 and more, and after all, the lady would not be allowed to land in America, and would be sent back. It hap-pened that children have been torn from their parents – in this regard the American determi-nations are strict.” I saw that there was nothing to be done, and asked, therefore, for the address of the main office and the name of an authoritative gentleman to whom I would apply in this mat-ter. Furnished with this address I went to the friend of Mr. Kaiser (a well known exporter at Hamburg and very well acquainted with the Hamburg-American line at this port) and he was kind enough to go with me to the main office of the H.A.L. We have been in four de-partments and have spoken with four of the most authoritative gentlemen but in vain – they could only explain what I have explained already above. Then I remembered that the gentleman in the Emigrant Halls spoke something of a cer-tain “Woltera” line through which Mrs. Leshner would probably be forwarded. We went there, but the result was the same; he could do noth-ing because he had to wait for the determina-tion from Moscow-Riga-Berlin. I asked him whether I could do nothing in Berlin, but he replied it would be of no use, because it does not depend on them, and they had to await directions from Moscow and Riga. I explained to you all the above in detail, that you, Mr. Leshner, may understand that it would be of no use to expend any further money for this matter. It would not be of use and could bring only grief for you and Mrs. Leshner.

If you will allow me to give you my advice, I would say it is the best Mrs. Leshner remain with Mrs. Kr. at Hamburg in the Emigrant Halls until it is her turn to leave for America. I hope sincerely, it will be on October 21st because they all promised me to do what they would have the possibility to do. Should however, Mrs. Leshner be com-pelled to remain until next year, it would be best you could come over here for some time to give her some consolation in seeing you. We have no possibility to take Mrs. Lesh-ner from the Emigrant Halls, because she is not allowed to stay in Germany any longer than three weeks. After this time it is a great question, whether she will get a permission to stay any longer and then it is too late to return to the Emigrant Halls, but she would be com-pelled to return to Russia. Today Mr. Kaiser is in Hamburg, and we will try also to do something for Mrs. Leshner. In a few days we shall get the reply from the Hamburg-American line and Wolters whether Mrs. Leshner can leave Hamburg on October 21st. As soon as I know something definite I shall cable you again. In agreement with Mr. Kaiser we have arranged for a more comfortable stay while at Hamburg for Mrs. Leshner and Miss Krit-shevskaja, in the Emigrant Halls. Now I request you, Mr. Leshner kindly write to Mrs. Leshner soonest possible mo-ment; it is a long time ago, that the old lady received your last letter and she is praying for some line. Should you therefore not receive cable from here advising you that Mrs. Lesh-ner is leaving Hamburg on October 21st please write without delay to her, Care Emigraten-Hallen, Hamburg, [illegible] I hope sincerely you will receive the ad-vice of the sailing of Mrs. Leshner within short and remain with the best regards from your mother and Miss Kritshevskaja. Sincerely yours, M. SCHROEDER.

A Google search of “Hamburg-American Line” + “Emigrant Halls” led us to World History: Global and Local Interactions by Patrick Manning (Editor), where there was a mention of a “Jewish dining hall”, but we did not pursue the search further.

Travel woes cont’d from p. 23


U. S. Research

1940 Census digital version release date set — April 2, 2012

Jan Meisels Allen, IAJGS Director-at-Large and Chairperson, IAJGS Public Re-cords Access Monitoring Committee [email protected] alerted us to the U. S. National Archives’ blog, NARAtions at http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/ . Jan wrote, “Monthly Constance Potter, Archivist of Archives - Research Support Branch is writing on how to pre-pare for the release of the 1940 US cen-sus…” Scroll down to “Family Tree Friday: The 1940 Census -- Today’s Family Tree Friday is brought to you by Constance Potter, Archvist in the Archives - Research Support Branch.” On the right side of the page is a slot to enter your e-mail address if you would like to subscribe (free) to the blog. Jan also wrote, “Additional information on the 1940 US census is available at: http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/index.html .” There it says, “Here is a checklist of things you can do to start your 1940 cen-sus research: “1. Make a list of all the people you want to look for in the 1940 census. Think broadly--ancestors, their siblings, cousins, etc.--anybody to whom you are related. “2. Collect addresses for these people from city directories if they lived in a city. NARA has original Circa 1940 City Direc-tories for Washington, DC. The Library of Congress holds a large nationwide collec-tion of city directories and many libraries hold local directories. “3. Identify the enumeration district (ED) in which each address was located. There are currently several ways to do this: “Use NARA microfilm publication T1224, Descriptions of Census Enumera-

tion Districts, 1830-1950 (155 rolls), which contains text descriptions of the enumera-tion districts used by the Bureau of the Census in 1940. “Use NARA microfilm publication A3378, Enumeration District (ED) Maps for the Twelfth through Sixteenth Cen-suses of the United States, 1900-1940 (73 rolls), which show the boundaries for each of the enumeration districts. “Use the 1930/1940 ED Converter util-ity found on www.stevemorse.org. This can be useful if you found your ancestors in the 1930 census and believe they were living in the same location for the 1940 census. We do not know yet if Ances-try.com or another website will have the 1940 Census immediately available.” Then we consulted Joel Weintraub , an expert on the U. S. Census. In The Kol, Autumn 2007 pp.15 -7 we wrote about Joel’s presentation on the 1940 Census at the IAJGS conference; p.16 has an image of the 1940 census form. He replied, “The National Archives is digitizing the 1940 census, and that will be available online at their website, and for free, on April 2nd, 2012. What will be online are the population schedule im-ages, not a name index. The Archives, probably this summer, will put online scans of ED maps of counties and cities, and also scans of the ED definition films for 1940.” “At this time, I think the probability of having a name index on opening day is close to zero. Locational means for finding people are going to have to be used on opening day, until a name index is pro-duced either by a commercial company or the Family Search library volunteers. That means one will need the E.D. number of the residence of the target person.

1940 Census cont’d p. 26


Google has digitized: “The Supplementary Index to The Session Laws of the State of New York with All Changes and Modifications Noted and Under a Single Alphabet. 1897 to 1901“. You can download the file or go through it online. You can go to "edit" on the upper toolbar of your computer and then "find." You can search on the name which you know and it will re-turn every occurrence of that name in the full document (it will show the first and you will click on "find next") and will highlight the word(s) so that it is easy to see. http://tinyurl.com/65ehtz3 Gayle Sweetwine Saini [email protected] Librarian, JGS of Michigan

“I anticipate that the Archives will put out an index (which I contributed to) to find the smaller urban areas and rural commu-nities on their E.D. definitions easily to get the E.D. number. “The Morse One-Step site has three main utilities to help people find their tar-gets on the 1940 census by location. First, a large city E.D. finder where, from an ad-dress, you can find the 1940 E.D. number. We have up over 450 cities right now and all cities over 25,000 and a number below that mark. “Second, we have E.D. definitions up and searchable for all areas below 50,000 in 1940, and third, we have a utility that will correlate a 1930 E.D. number to a 1940 number. All these utilities are avail-able right now. The large city E.D. finder right now covers 70 per cent of the urban

population, and will probably be the search utility of choice for that group by location on the 1940 census. “I'm always looking for volunteers to help expand the One-Step offerings, and we have a volunteer page at: http://stevemorse.org/census/pickcity.html . “I'm giving two talks on the 1940 cen-sus and our preparations at the IAJGS meeting in DC in August and I would ex-pect some of the National Archives staff will also be talking about the 1940 census then. I'll bring with me original 1940 cen-sus forms as well.” Joel Weintraub Dana Point, CA http://members.cox.net/census1940/

1940 Census cont’d from p. 25

Bill Sones and Rich Sones in The Plain Dealer (16 Sept 2010 p. HA4) said that an arti-cle in Science reported that The Geological Society of America is pressing cemeter-ies into service as global cli-mate monitors, with volunteers doing the measuring, because

white marble gravestones show erosion from acid rain, and scientists can use the dates on the stones to learn a region's climate and pollution history. There is a plan to create a special global map with the findings for climatologists.

Tombstones as climate indicators

Name changes in New York 1897 to 1901


U.S. and some international research

U.S., Illinois 1930 Federal Census California County Marriages, 1850–1952 Connecticut WWII Draft Registration Cards, 1942 District of Columbia Deaths, 1874–1959 District of Columbia County Marriages, 1811–1950 Illinois 1930 Federal Census Illinois County Marriages, 1810–1934 Iowa 1930 Federal Census Maine 1930 Federal Census Minnesota County Marriages, 1860–1949 New Jersey County Marriages, 1682–1956 New Jersey WWII Draft Registration Cards, 1942 New York 1892 State Census New York Marriage Licenses, 1908–1938 New York Marriages, 1908–1935 Ohio Tax Records, Post 1825 Texas Birth Records, 1903-1934 Texas County Marriages, 1837–1977 Wisconsin 1930 Federal Census Canada, Ontario 1861 Census Records Ontario Marriages, 1869–1927 Canada Passenger Lists, 1881–1922 Österreich, Wiener Meldezettel, 1890–1925 (Austria, Vienna Population Cards, 1890–1925)

FamilySearch.org newly posted databases

Recently completed projects that will soon be available to search on FamilySearch.org include records from the Czech Republic, Spain, Nicaragua, and the United States.

Were any of your ancestors a flesher, fish hag, taverner, or (probably not) a sucksmith*? Genealogical Early Occupations (not par-ticularly Jewish occupations) is available at www.familyhistory101.com/encyclopedia/job.html or http://tinyurl.com/4vagzdg * A sucksmith was someone who made

Old occupations


Also from Gary Silverstein -- Lots of good informa-tion at Google for Genealogists © 2011 by Thomas

MacEntee, of High-Definition Genealogy http://hidefgen.com; [email protected] .

Gary Silverstein surfs the web and recommends these databases at Ancestry.com: ► AJHS WWII Jewish Servicemen Cards, 1942-1947

Gathered from Bureau of War Records, Master Index Cards, 1943–1947; National Jewish Welfare Board, Bureau of War Records, 1940–1969; New York: American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History. Ancestry,com posted: “After its efforts on behalf of Jewish soldiers and chaplains in WWI, the National Jewish Welfare Board became the officially recognized civilian social and religious support arm for Jewish personnel in the U.S. armed forces. The Board and other affiliates established the Bureau of War Records (BWR) during WWII to document the role of Jewish-American service personnel during a conflict which saw approximately 550,000 Jews serve. The BWR and its affiliates compiled service files on over 106,000 soldiers that make up part of the Bureau of War Records, 1942–1947, collection, with supporting documentation from War Department records, newspapers, Anti-Defamation League manuscripts, correspondence by BWR volunteers, POW lists, and other sources.” They “ ... typically provide a name, address, next of kin, rank, and source information, as well as indicating whether soldiers received awards, were taken prisoner, or were wounded, missing, or

killed in action. They may also include service number, theatre of action, branch of service, when the soldier’s name appeared on a military Honor Roll, and even whether the subject turned out not to be Jewish. BWR staff created two sets of cards—one alphabetical and the other geographical. Only the alphabetical set is included in this database.” (Ed. Note: The cards were helpful when we wrote the article on the ROSENFELDER brothers last year.) ► AJHS WWI Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921 Original data: Records of the American Jewish Committee — Office of Jewish War Records, American Jewish Historical Society. About this collection Ancestry,com posted: For WWI “...the American Jewish Committee (AJC) sent out 16,000 questionnaires to soldiers they believed to be Jewish. The questionnaires came in 2- and 4-page versions, though both forms asked for the same information. The longer forms were typically sent to officers, casualties, or next of kin.” For those of us who have a longer family history in America -- ►Jews in Colonial America (AJHS Oppenheim Collection), 1650-1850

U. S. Research

U. S. servicemen’s records

Going gaga over Google


Adelle Gloger sent us a source for worldwide cemetery and burial information http://jceaa.org/default.aspx . The website says it is a “non-profit or-ganization established in 2003 in Arling-ton, Virginia. The organization conducts site visits to Jewish cemeteries and burial

grounds. The purpose of these visits is to identify and docu-

ment the location of cemeteries, record site information, and make digital im-ages for the JCEAA archive.” There is a directory of gravestones. Some of the images have been posted on www.Flickr.com. The photos from JCEAA are identified.

Jewish Cemetery Expedition and Archive

U. S. and International research

FamilySearch.org indexing is not perfect

The people at FamilySearch.org have been posting more and more databases online. As we explained previously, two volunteers enter the data. If both enter the same spellings, etc., the record goes online. If there is a discrepancy, a third person checks and decides what to ap-prove. However, a mistake can still be made. I was looking for the death certificate of Sol FRIEDBERG, who I thought died in Cleveland, Ohio. I could not find it on FamilySearch.org. I located the certificate number and date on the Ohio Historical Society’s website. Then I went back to FamilySearch and just searched by the

first name and date and found the image. Why couldn’t I find it the first time? He was listed under FRIEDLEY. When I looked at the handwriting on the certifi-cate, I could see why, although his son’s name below was clearly FRIEDBERG. There is a feedback/question spot on the website. I sent a message about the error, and less than twenty-four hours later, I received a telephone call from “Sister Thompson”. She explained that nothing could be done now, but that their software engineers are working on a way to correct entries in the future. ~~ Cynthia Spikell

If your ancestors came into the U.S. through Philadelphia, there is a chance they came through Antwerp, Belgium. The Antwerp Foreigner Indexes 1840-1930 have foreigners who entered Antwerp, in-cluding both Jewish and Eastern Europe-ans. The files exist for all foreigners even if they only spent a short time in the city. 1. Go to www.FamilySearch.org . 2. Click on Europe. 3. Click on Belgium, Antwerp Police Immigration Index, 1840-1930.

You will find the file with the indexes of names, file numbers, date and place of birth. This was sent by Jackie Schwarz of Antwerp, Belgium.

Did your ancestors came into the U.S. through Philadelphia?

The line carried passengers from Antwerp to Philadelphia.


Horowitz cont’d. from p. 1

information from Bad Arolsen, use the Yad Vashem site so you can tell the research-ers at B. A. where to look. (Remember from a previous article, that the B. A. re-searchers were notorious for looking at only one set of information cards; not look-ing further in the archives; then reporting that no information was to be found.) Using the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum www.ushmm.org to make re-quests would probably work out better for Americans. The USHMM has the only copy in the U. S. of the Bad Arolsen hold-ings. The International Association of Jew-ish Genealogical Societies - IAJGS www.iajgs.org lists all cemeteries in Is-rael. JewishGen www.jewishgen.org lists the Petach Tikva cemetery and several others. Daniel’s website MyHeritage Geneal-ogy Search www.myheritage.com/research allows a search of 1526 data-bases at one time. Some of the websites that Daniel talked about require a search in Hebrew. He told us how to use Google Translate translate.google.com to change names into Hebrew and gave us both a Hebrew alphabet and number chart and a chart of common search words. You can find He-brew alphabets online if you just Google, and his list of search terms follows this ar-ticle. Try Bezeq 144 - Israel phone direc-tory for English: http://english.b144.co.il or Hebrew www.b144.co.il . Since 2005 all Israeli phones have been listed, but there is some problem with accuracy. However, you can search by last name only or by street name. It also gives a map of where the person lives, and even a photograph of the building. When the Hebrew name shows up, you can copy and paste it into other searches.

Stephen Morse’s aid for translating — English Front-End for Bezeq www.stevemorse.org/hebrew/bezeq.html suggests Hebrew spellings of names. Also for translating names is Stephen Morse’s www.stevemorse.org/hebrew/eng2heb.html . For deciphering names www. rtrfoundation.org has Hebrew and Yiddish handwriting samples. Hebrew is at www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/ForeignAlphabets--Hebrew.pdf . Yiddish is at www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/ForeignAlphabets--Yiddish.pdf Izkor - Fallen Soldiers in Service of the IDF www.izkor.gov.il and www.stevemorse.org/hebrew/izkor.html covers soldiers who fell in peacetime, also. Chevra Kadisha - Burial societies, with one per each Israeli city are at www.dat.gov.il/religion/console/mng/kadisha_search.aspx • Civilians www.laad.btl.gov.il • Ashdod www.ashdod-kadisha.co.il • Tel-Aviv/Yafo www.kadisha.biz and English Front-End for Tel Aviv Burial Database www.stevemorse.org/hebrew/kadisha.html . The Tel Aviv chevra kadi-sha is the largest in Israel. When access-ing its website, remember the seven-hour time difference from E.S.T. to Israel time, and figure the time of sundown, as the website operates 24/6, and closes for Shabbat. Daniel said that these burial socie-ties have the name and contact informa-tion of the person who paid for the burial, but that information might be hard to get from the society. He suggested that if you want to go in person to a society, that a man make the visit to avoid any problems with religious eti-

Horowitz cont’d. p. 31


Tirat Carmel www.mdt.org.il Petach Tikva www.sgula.org Jerusalem www.mountofolives.co.il . The cemetery is very old and is huge. Unfortu-nately there are many blank stones. Daniel cautioned that if you are going to visit a cemetery in Israel, to take a ceme-tery map with you, and also to be sure to pho-tograph each gravestone you are interested in. Dinur Center for Research at Hebrew University of Jerusalem www.dinur.org has genealogy at the bottom of the home page. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem www.huji.ac.il will allow you to find people at the university, and possibly their office phone numbers. Central Zionist Archives www.zionistarchives.org.il is not yet indexed,

though they are working on it. They will re-spond to an e-mail. They might have pre-1948 records. Other pre-1948 records (before the creation of Israel) could be in England. Also, the Israel Gen. Society has some pre-1948 censuses on its website (see above). The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People - CAHJP http://sites.huji.ac.il/archives/ Jabotinsky Institute in Israel www.jabotinsky.org Beit Hatfutsot Museum of the Jewish people www.bh.org.il Museum of the Jewish soldier in WW2 www.jwmww2.org is searchable in English, and includes Jewish soldiers from all over the world. You might find detailed information and even a photograph of the soldier. They are adding more names, and you can submit the

Horowitz cont’d. from p. 30

Daniel Horowitz gave us this list of search terms:



Anna Reuter [email protected] posted some reasons. First she cited three reasons previously given by Marion Smith, historian for the USCIS — Lack of residence -- not here the required 5 years Unable to speak English adequately Lack of moral character And added one from her own research for after 1917-1918 — “My uncle was denied citizenship circa 1918-1920..He applied and was granted Citizenship in 1929. His refusal to be drafted was cited in his 1929 Petition.”

U. S. research

Why would receiving U.S. citizenship be denied?

“Certificate of Arrival” a misnomer?

Have you ever seen a Certificate of Arrival? Would you expect to find one for each of your immigrant family members? Phyllis Kramer, V.P., Education, Jewish-Gen, Inc., [email protected], gave a good answer to the question. “The ‘Certificate of Arrival’ is a misno-mer, because this document was not gen-erated at the time of arrival -- it was cre-ated years later by Bureau of Naturaliza-tion as a verification of arrival. C of A has extracted info from the passenger mani-fest: name, date, port, and ship name. “After June 29, 1911, the INS began

to check passenger lists to verify a legal arrival after 1906 (when the INS was formed); the C of A was then attached to the Naturalization Petition. The require-ment was subsequently waived if the alien had entered before 6/21 (sic) and had re-sided in the U.S. continuously. “I've heard stories of immigrants ‘forging’ the arrival date/ship, or even ‘buying’ the name of a date/ship in order to naturalize. One wonders if Mitch's grandfather (from a previous posting) chose 1905 as an entry date because he was aware that it would not be verified.”

WhatWasThere.com uses Google Maps to show photos of places, with a photo version of the building in the past. Unfortunately, they do not have much yet for Cleveland (only 18 for all of Ohio), but there are many images for other cities. New York State has 311 alone.

You might see “Form 505” written in on a passenger manifest. Form 505 referred to the request for a certificate of arrival from the old Immigration and Naturalization Service. The request would be sent to the INS district most likely to have the informa-tion, not necessarily where the person lived or was applying for citizenship.

Scenes from the past


Member News

Welcome back to Lillian Abel.

Amy Wachs Fellner gave presentations on doing research in and about Europe at the 2011 annual conference of the Ohio Genealogical Society in Colum-bus.

Condolences to the Weinberg family on the death

of Dr. Herman’s brother, Aaron, in January, 2011.

to Jim Yasinow on the death of his sister-in-law, Carole Madorsky Spiegel, in April, 2011

Peter Fredrix has retired from the U.S. Dept. of Vet-erans’ Affairs.

In mid-March Fran and Don Golden ’s daughter, in Washington, D.C. was “expecting a baby any minute.” They expected the birth on March 28.

Vicki Blum Vigil has been writing a column “Cemetery Chronicles” for the Ohio Genea-logical Society publi-cation. Thanks to her also, for donating four of the books she au-thored to our library.

Member Marcia Rubin passed away in February 2011.


Dear Tante Jennie, Is it worthwhile for me to try to find my greatgrandfather’s naturalization papers? Would they tell me anything? In a quandary, Fern SprecherFern SprecherFern SprecherFern Sprecher Dear Fern, “Naturalization” meant receiving citi-zenship. The process changed many times and how you go about finding your greatgrandpa’s records depends on the date when he was naturalized. As for what you will find in the records, that varies, too. First the immigrant filed a Declaration of Intention (commonly called "First Pa-pers"). After five years or so, he could file a Petition for Naturalization ("Final Pa-pers") which contain more information that you would be interested in. Notice that Tante Jennie wrote “he”. When she transcribed 960 naturalizations for an online project, there were perhaps five of them for single women naturalized before 1924. Wives and minor children were naturalized with the husband/father. After 1906, the papers are supposed to contain the new citizen's exact town of origin. Other information you might find on the forms are the date, port, and ship of entry and the names of the wife and minor children, with their ages. U.S. naturalization is a topic that Tante Jennie does not have room to ex-plain fully in her little column, unfortu-nately. But believe me, you should find useful information, Fern. Tante Jennie AlgeeTante Jennie AlgeeTante Jennie AlgeeTante Jennie Algee

Dear Tante Jennie, I inherited a very old dresser that belonged to my grandmother. Inside was a hairbrush that I think belonged to my greatgrandmother. There are still some hairs on it. Tante Jennie, can I have the hairs tested to see if the brush belonged to my greatgrandmother? You can call me the “hair heir”, Chris P. BaconChris P. BaconChris P. BaconChris P. Bacon Dear Chris, Tante Jennie hates to admit when she does not know something, but she has to tell you she is no DNA expert. HOWEVER, she knows enough to tell you that what you want to do is not what DNA is all about. You have seen too many crime shows. First, you cannot use hair from a brush. Second, even if you could, you would need some sort of test that was al-ready done to make any connection. The person would have had to have had a DNA test already to match the results. It is not like looking up an address in a criss-cross directory to see the name associ-ated with an address — the information is not out there waiting for you. Using DNA to find family connections in living people is another topic, but hair from a brush still would not work. Sorry, Tante Jennie AlgeeTante Jennie AlgeeTante Jennie AlgeeTante Jennie Algee

Ask Tante Jennie™, the genealogy maven (or at least she thinks so)


2011 officers President -- Kenneth Bravo 1st Vice President – Programming Becky Werman 2nd Vice President – Membership Sylvia Abrams Secretary -- Chuck Lissauer Treasurer -- Judy Rocker Immediate Past-president --

Richard Spector

Board of Trustees Three-year term December, 2011 -- Cynthia Spikell Term ending December, 2012 -- Phyllis Wachs Term ending December, 2013 -- Jerry Kliot

Membership is by calendar year. Annual Single Membership is $25; annual Family Membership is $35. Send 2011 dues check to: JGS of Cleveland c/o Sylvia Abrams 24010 Greenlawn Ave. Beachwood OH 44122 To contact the President or to send a query, e-mail [email protected] or snail mail to Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland c/o Menorah Park 27100 Cedar Road Beachwood OH 44122 The Kol is published at least three times a year and is sent electroni-cally to members. Editor of The Kol Cynthia Spikell [email protected] .

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