Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Did You Have Fun This Past Week?

Yay!  Randy Seaver gave me the perfect opening to talk about my great genealogy discoveries for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music), is:

1.  Did you have good genealogy fun this past week?  Did you add to your family tree?  Did you make a great discovery?  Did you try something new?  Did you make family history?

2.  Share your genealogy fun in this past week on your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, or BlueSky post.  Leave a link on this blog post to  help us find your post.

I was hoping that whatever topic Randy chose for tonight would be something I could work to my advantage, and it is!  Because I definitely had genealogy fun this past week.

Several months ago (August, in fact), Lara Diamond wrote on her Lara's Jewnealogy blog about Alien Registration forms (AR-2's) from 1940 having been transferred from USCIS to the National Archives.  These were forms that people who had not become citizens — whether they had filed only first papers or had filed no papers at all toward citizenship — had to fill out at the beginning of World War II.

The form asked for all names an alien had used, including maiden names, so you can find a still-unknown maiden name if a woman registered.  If you haven't found someone on a passenger list, that was information the person had to include.  If an individual had filed first papers but not followed through with the petition to finish the naturalization process, that was also requested on the form.

So I've known about these forms since August.  There's a great search form on the NARA site you can use to look for all those relatives of yours who might be in there.  I found my great-great-grandfather Gershon Novitsky (originally Nowicki), his niece (my first cousin 3x removed) Ethel Novitsky (also originally Nowicki, but immigrated under her married name of Perlmutter), my great-grandmother's baby brother Benjamin Brainin, and a cousin named Molly Nowick (originally, you guessed it, Nowicki).

This is the same search form I used when I looked for my sister's significant other's grandfather (boy, is that convoluted), which I wrote about in January.  Gary ordered his grandfather's AR-2, and it arrived only a day or two later, just as Lara described in her blog.  Hooray for NARA!

Well, I finally was able to send in my first AR-2 order.  I requested those for Gershon Novitsky and Ethel Novitsky.

NARA didn't fail me.  The next business day after I had sent my request, I had a response telling me how much it would cost and what to do.  I followed through, and the day after that I had my PDF's, sent electronically.  Hooray for NARA again!

I knew a lot of the information on Gershon's form, but two pieces of data confirmed stories that had not yet been documented.  One was something cousins had told me:  Yes, Gershon had originally immigrated to the United States in 1922, but a few years later he took a trip back to Europe and then returned.  And right there on his AR-2, he said that he had last come to this country in 1926 and provided a different ship name than the one on which he had arrived in 1922.  (I'm still looking for that second passenger list.  I'm wondering if my great-great-grandmother traveled with him and which relative they listed in Europe.)

The second item was something I noticed when I found Gershon in the 1930 census:  He had apparently filed his "first papers", or his Declaration of Intention.  After finding this, I had searched in the immigration database on Ancestry, but I had not found him.  But on the AR-2, he provided a spelling for his name I had not seen previously:  Gershen Navitzky.  And when I searched for that exact spelling, I found his Declaration, which he filed at the age of 72!

Other tidbits from the form were a complete birth date (which I am not taking as gospel, but it's the first time I have seen one for him), his birthplace of Porozowo (which I had hypothesized), and the fact that he signed in Hebrew but apparently could not sign in English.  He also stated that he had four children living in the United States, and I believe I have them all accounted for.

The second AR-2 I received was that for Gershon's niece, Ethel Novitsky.  I have avidly researched Ethel and her family, because there are multiple connections with my branch of the family, but I had never found her on a passenger list.  I had narrowed down the arrival to around 1921 and had determined three of her children whom I thought had traveled with her, but I just could not find them.

Guess what?  Ethel provided the ship name, date of arrival, and port — which was not New York!  Nope, she came into Boston.

Okay, jump onto the computer and start searching.  And yes, I found her this time, and the three children I had surmised should be with her.  She had the correct port and ship name and was only a couple of weeks off on the arrival date.  And now I have the Jewish names for all four of them.  Okay, most of them were easy guesses:  Etta for Ethel, Chane for Anna, and Feiga for Fannie.  But I never could have come up with Kadusz for Karl.  I also learned the name of Ethel's brother, about whom I had never heard even a whisper.  He was her nearest relative back in Europe.  I also know it's the right family because they were going to Ethel's son Louis, whom I have researched a lot.

Other helpful items from Ethel's form are a complete birth date, which I am again not taking as gospel, and her birthplace of Shereshevo, which I had correctly hypothesized.  She said she had six children living in the United States, all of whom I have found.  Ethel, unlike Gershon, was able to sign her name in English.

Comparing Gershon's form to Ethel's, I also kind of confirmed one more family story.  I was told many years ago that there was an old Jewish custom, when an older man was widowed, he would often "marry" his niece, who would become kind of his caretaker.  I was told that was the case with Gershon and Ethel.  (I don't know if it really is an old Jewish custom, but I have a second instance of this in my family.)  On their forms, they both said they were widowed, but when I looked at their addresses, they were both living at 1413 44th Street in Brooklyn.  But from what I've heard about Gershon, who was supposedly an energetic old man up until his death at the age of 92, I somehow don't think he actually needed a caretaker.

And I just ordered my next two AR-2's!  I can hardly wait to see what I learn about Benny and Molly.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Share a Recent Genealogy Find about an Ancestor or Family

I have found several cool things recently, but one in particular stands out, and that's what I'll write about for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Share a recent genealogy find about an ancestor or family, such as a new name, document, or even a clue toward cracking a brick wall.

2.  Tell us about your recent genealogy find in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status  post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

[Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic — I will probably use it again!]

This is another time when the coolest discovery I made recently wasn't for my own family.

My sister and her significant other were in Greece last year.  I did not know this until then, but his grandfather immigrated to the United States from Greece.  My sister told me there has always been a big mystery about what his name was originally and where he was born, partly because he told different stories at different times to different people.  Could I find anything?

Well, I didn't find anything at the time, but I continued to look.  And a new resource that I learned about provided a huge clue.

Lara Diamond, who has a blog called Lara's Jewnealogy, wrote not too long ago about a new index on the National Archives site.  It's an index to Alien Registration forms (AR-2's) from World War II.

Nonnaturalized aliens in the United States were required to fill out AR-2's under the Alien Registration Act of 1940.  Information requested included facts such as where the person was born, mother's name including maiden name, and all names the alien had used.  A brilliant feature of the index is that once you find someone under one name and have an A number, you can then search for that number and find how many names are listed for it, which can help you verify whether it's for the person you want.

So I searched for James Thomas in Ohio (because he lived in Cincinnati) with his rough year of birth and had one relevant result.  When I searched for that person's A number in a subsequent search, I had two results:  James Thomas and Dems Tomas.  (I'm pretty sure Dems will turn out to be Demetrios.)  There's no real doubt this is the person I was looking for.  And I was able to deliver the news on the significant other's birthday, no less!  How is that for a great birthday present?

I actually did find some cool things in the index for my own family.  My great-great-grandfather, whom I knew had never naturalized, is in there, as is his cousin.  For both of them I have their father's names and their mother's given names but no maiden names.  So now I'm saving my money to order the two forms ($17 each, which is almost a steal considering the great information).

Oh!  And I just thought of someone else I need to look up!