The Season of Giving: Cairo Genizah, Dachau Survivors, Polish Films, and More

I've come across several more genealogically oriented projects that are looking for assistance.  While you consider which seasonal toy drive you might want to contribute to, also think about how you can help with your time, knowledge, or family items.

Scribes of the Cairo Geniza is a project to sort, transcribe, and translate the fragments of documents discovered in the Cairo Genizah.  During phase I of the project, volunteers will sort fragments into different categories based on their script types, which offers clues to the type of text a fragment contains.  Having this information for the entire collection will allow the fragments to be sorted into workflows for transcription in phase II (launching in Spring 2018).

The results from Scribes of the Cairo Geniza have the potential to rewrite the history of the premodern Middle East, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade, and the Jewish diaspora.  Until now, most of the information has remained locked away in undeciphered manuscript fragments; less than one third of the 350,000 items have been catalogued in the years that the cache has been known to exist.  Virtually all scholars who have studied these texts have come away with a transformed sense of the history of the region and the long ties of intimacy among its people.  Students and the general public will have the opportunity to benefit from encountering these fragments online and from learning how to sort and eventually transcribe them as members of a citizen scientist community.  This project is a way for people with shared interests and different skill levels from around the world to meet in a common endeavor and unlock this storage chamber of ancient fragments.

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If you or a relative spent any time in Kitchener Camp, a Jewish refugee camp in Sandwich, Kent, United Kingdom, immediately before or during World War II, the organizers of a site are seeking photos, memories, etc.  The intention is to establish the site and then find an institution to maintain it as a memorial.  More information can be found on the Web site, http://www.kitchenercamp.co.uk/.

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Marching Soldiers, 1916

The Port Hope Archives ((Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada) is asking for help in identifying soldiers and civilians iin its collection of photographs relating to World War I and World War II.  The primary focus was in connction with this year's Remembrance Day (Veterans Day here in the United States), but the archives continues to receive photos and welcomes any efforts to name the people in them.

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Judith Ellen Elam is in charge of bringing an exhibit titled "The German Roots of Zionism" to Maui, Hawaii.  It will be on display for three months at the local Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, probably starting in August 2018.  Her group is trying to tie the exhibit in with a Hawaiian-Japanese theme as well.  The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was activated February 1, 1943 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi as part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.  The unit was composed of both mainland and Hawaiian Japanese-Americans.  It is best known for liberating some of the Dachau subcamps.

Judith would like to make contact with anyone who has personal information (documents, photos, testimonials, etc.) about Jews liberated from Dachau subcamps by the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion.  The group would like to showcase the personal items in a display for the duration of the exhibit.  Please contact Judith at elamj@hawaii.rr.com if you can assist her.

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The Columbus (Ohio) Jewish Historical Society is collecting the names of Jewish central Ohio World War I veterans who served in the United States armed forces, as well as those who served in other countries but had a link to central Ohio.  If your family had Jewish WWI veterans with a link to central Ohio, please contact Toby Brief at tbrief@hotmail.com or history@tcjf.org.  The society has collected more than 230 names so far and knows that there are more to be added.

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Australian soldiers in France, 1917

In another focused memorial effort relating to World War I, Flinders University in South Australia is seeking contributions toward a public event planned for February 23 and 24, 2018 in Adelaide.  "South Australians in France" will bring together people with heirlooms and specialists of various types to discuss the stories behind those objects.  The project has a Facebook page where photos can be posted leading up to next year's event.

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Arizona State University has received a grant that will permit it to hold workshops over the next three years to teach state residents how to care for their fragile family heirlooms and artifacts.  People will be able to digitize documents and will help build the state's community archive in the process.  A specific effort is being made to reach out to the Latino, Asian, black, and LGBTQ communities to make sure their stories are saved.

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The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews in Istanbul is planning an exhibition on Jewish life in Trakya/Thrace.  It will attempt to include all the localities, from Edirne to Gelibolu, including Tekirdag, Tchorlu, Silivri, Kirklareli (Kirk Kilise), Canakkale, Luleburgaz, etc.  It will range from ancient days to the present time.  The museum is asking for digital photos of people and artifacts, and stories for the exhibition.  If you have something that might be of interest, contact Metin Delevi at metindelevi@gmail.com.

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David Sandler is working on a book about South African landsmanschaftn (sick and benefit societies) which will incorporate all brochures and booklets of societies he can obtain.  So far he has booklets from Keidan, Krakenowo, Ponevez and Malat and Districts.  Many associations were active in South Africa over the years, including ones related to Anykster, Birzer, Dwinsk, Keidan, Kelmer, Kovno, Krakinover, Kroze, Kupisker, Kurland and Riga, Lutzin, Minsk, Ponevez, Poswohl, Plungian, Rakishok, Schavlaner, Schawler, Shater, Tels, Utianer, Wilner, and Zagare.  The SAJBD archives at Beyachad are assisting David, but he is appealing to everyone for any publications from any of these South African societies.  You can contact him at sedsand@iinet.net.au.  Approximately 95% of the proceeds from David's books go to Arcadia (the JHB Chevra Kadisha) and the balance to Oranjia (CT) and the JDC.

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Agata Zalewska is the Film Collection Manager for Filmoteka Narodowa, the Polish National Film Archives in Warsaw.  As a state cultural institution, Filmoteka Narodowa is charged with protecting national cultural heritage in cinematography and dissemination of film culture.  Since its inception in 1955, the archives has been collecting and restoring films made in Poland, with the hope of finding copies of all films.  It has an almost complete collection of films made from 1946 onward.  Of course, more early silent films are missing than later films.

Filmoteka Narodowa has restored 75% of Polish feature films made between 1930 and 1939.  Besides films, it has extensive collections of promotional materials, books, posters, stills, and other materials related to films.  It makes its items available in its library; though movie showings, festivals, and lending; and though the production of print and digital media.  For example, it has published a DVD containing six restored shorts and an introduction about the early days of World War II for Poland, especially Warsaw; the DVD includes an English version with subtitles.

Agata’s primary interest at Filmoteka Narodowa is in finding missing Polish films.  Although it has become harder and harder to find films, and in many ways it is a race against time, Filmoteka Narodowa keeps turning up a gem here and there.  There is no telling where a film — full-length, documentary, or short — may be found.  For instance, in the late 1990's, a 1929 film was found in the Royal Archives in Brussels, and in 2003 a 1914 film was purchased from Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.  Others have been found in private collections stored away in attics and forgotten.

If you have any materials that would be of interest to Filmoteka Narodowa or know where any are or might be, please contact Abbey H. Brewer or Agata Zalewska.

Abbey H. Brewer
1422 E. Brooklake Drive
Houston, Texas 77077
USA
ahbrew1422@yahoo.com
(713) 882-7229

Agata Zalewska
Filmoteka Narodowa
ul. Puławska 61
00-975 Warszawa
POLAND
azalewska@fn.org.pl

(This information appeared in Gen Dobry! Volume XVIII, Number 5, May 2017.)

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A Jewish Reform synagogue in London is looking for help in deciphering an amulet in its possession.  The amulet was "dumped anonymously in the shul."  While most of the Hebrew has been translated, the central letters are still a mystery.  Anyone who has an idea as to the meaning is invited to contact the synagogue.

A Declaration of Intention — from Cuba

I have written before about the research I am doing on my Cuban cousins, the branch of my family that immigrated to Cuba from Eastern Europe before coming to the United States.  My presentation at the recent IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy was about my research.

Besides learning more about my cousins and adding to that part of my family tree, one of the goals I had set for myself was to obtain actual documents from Cuba about my relatives.  That turned out to be a much more difficult process than I had imagined, but so far I have two birth certificates, one marriage certificate, and something that seems to be the equivalent of a U.S. Declaration of Intention, the first step to naturalization.  This gave me some wonderful information about Max's life.

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REPUBLIC OF CUBA

CIVIL REGISTRATION

SAN MIGUEL DEL PADRÓN

SWORN LETTER OF INTENTION OF CITIZENSHIP

Arianne Martinez Remedios, Registrar, State of San Miguel del Padrón.

I certify that I saw Book 12, Page 75[?], of the Citizenship Section of Civil Registration; the record appears which is copied verbatim here and which states:

MORDUCHE SZOHERMAN

In San Miguel del Padrón, Havana province, at 3:00 p.m., on September 10, 1937, before His Honor Luis de la Paz Cervera, Municipal Judge, Head of Civil Registration, and Manuel de Lazaro Sixto, Secretary, appeares Morduche Szocherman, native of Polesie, Poland, 25 years old, single, businessman and resident of this neighborhood, First and Gabriel, Rosalia Division.  Verified his appearance asking to register in the Civil Registration his reununciation of Polish nationality and sworn intention of becoming a Cuban citizen, as described in the sixth article, fifth subsection, second heading of the Constitutional Law of this Republic, and under oath declares that he was born in Polesie, Poland on January 6, 1912, being legally recorded at that time as the legitimate son of Chaniania and Reyzel, of the same nationality and residents of Poland.  That he is single and has no children.  That he does not provide a birth certificate because he does not currently have it, but in accord with Presidential Directive 1859 of the year 1908 has written to the archive where it is located with the approximate dates.  That he arrived in Cuba on the steamship Orbita on December 24, 1932 and since that date has resided in the Republic with no interruption.  That he formally renounces his Polish citizenship and swears to his intention of becoming a Cuban citizen, to observe and comply with the Constitutional Law of this Republic, the laws that govern and governed the same.  Witnessing this information and this act are Marcos Torriente Torriente, native of Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas, married, and Ismael Hernández Torriente, native of Matanzas, single, both of legal age, employed and residents of 11 Rastro, Havana, which they swear to under oath and being warned of the penalties with which the Law punishes the crimes of perjury, swear it is correct.  His Honor the Judge, by merit of the oath and the information received from the witnesses, has accepted the renunciation of Polish citizenship and sworn intention to become a Cuban citizen from Morduche Szocherman.  Read and found to conform to the present act, sealed and signed by the petitioner and the witnesses after His Honor the Judge, who certifies.

Appears the legible signature of His Honor the Judge, the petitioner and witnesses, and stamp.

At the request of the interested party, this is issued on April 12, 2016.

Arianne Martinez Remedios
Civil Registrar

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This has given me a lot of material to work with.  I knew Max's parents' names already, but I now have a birth date (which I may never be able to verify), his date of arrival in Cuba, the ship he traveled on, even which Havana neighborhood he was living in.  He must have known the witnesses; maybe they worked with or for him.  Plenty of new leads to follow!

I am disappointed, of course, that this is a typed transcription of the original and not a copy, but that's the way they do business in Cuba.  I'm still not sure whether they even have photocopiers there.

The "Good Maharajah" Is Honored Again

A few years ago I wrote about Prince Jam Sri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, called the Good Maharajah, who generously offered to host Polish children, many of them orphans, who were suffering due to changing national alliances during World War II.  He brought the children to his summer palace, and they stayed there through the end of the war.  A school was even set up for them by delegates from the Polish government-in-exile.

In 2012, the Warsaw (Poland) City Council passed a resolution to name a city square after the Good Maharajah.  The square was dedicated in 2013.

An Indian journalist wrote about the Maharajah and the children, first in a Ph.D. dissertation in 2006, and then in a book published in 2013.

Now a new exhibition at the United Nations is honoring this man.  The exhibition, which began on April 22, was created by Robert Kostro, Polish historian and director of the Museum of Polish History, for India's Mission in New York.

Mayday! Mayday! These Projects Need Your Help!

The Moravian Archives, which is affiliated with the Moravian Historical Society, has launched a transcription project through the use of Juxta Editions, a professional editing suite for the creation of digital scholarly editions.  Digital images of original manuscripts from the archives' collections have been uploaded, on a platform which allows individuals worldwide to transcribe, edit, and annotate each manuscript.  Those interested in helping with the project may contact the assistant archivist at tom@moravianchurcharchives.org.  For more information visit the transcription project site.

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World War I centennial commemorations continue to be organized.  The Polish Museum of America (PMA) plans to host an exhibition in 2017–2018 honoring the Polonian recruits of the Polish Army in France, often referred to as Haller's Army.  PMA collections include the recruitment papers of more than 30,000 enlistees.  The museum's goal is to put a face to each of those names.  An appeal is being sent to Polish-American genealogists, media organizations, fraternal societies, veteran associations, and family researchers.

If you have researched a relative in the PMA Haller's Army document collection, or if you have a relative who was a member of the Polish Army in France and have a photographic image of the recruit, please send a message to Info@PolishMuseumOfAmerica.org with the subject line "WWI recruit - <surname>."  While donations of original photographs are particularly welcome, reproductions or scanned images will also be gratefully accepted. Your participation in the project will aid in a meaningful remembrance of those who were willing to sacrifice the most for an independent Poland.

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New Zealand also has a World War I project.  Researchers at the University of Waikato are asking for help from the public in transcribing key pieces of information from 100-year-old handwritten military records — about 140,000 personnel files.  The primary aim of the "Measuring the Anzacs" project is to analyze New Zealanders' health via data such as height and weight.  This project will also be helpful to genealogists, however, and will gather military data on the soldiers, including injuries, decorations, and prisoners of war.  As New Zealand's early 20th-century census records were usually destroyed, the project will be collecting information that might not be available otherwise.

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Donna Swarthout is working on a book of stories about people who have reclaimed German citizenship under Article 116 of Germany's Basic Law.  Her blog post of January 14, 2016 describes the book project in more detail.

Donna's family was from Altwiedermus - Gemeinde Ronneburg (Hessen) and Hamburg.  She had her German citizenship restored in 2012.

If you have reclaimed your German citizenship or are in the process of doing so and are interested in contributing your story to the book, please contact Donna by e-mail.

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During World War II, U.S. airmen who were based at RAF (Royal Air Force) Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England sponsored meals and education (and informally "adopted") seven war orphans.  Photographs and documents relating to the children were discovered during work on the Imperial War Museums' Web-based project on the U.S. armed services' presence in Britain.  The children — Brian, Donald, Jeanette, June Rose, and three siblings, Margaret, Ann, and John — were identified by first name only, and the museum is now seeking more information about them.  The BBC has a story about the search.  The American units mentioned in the story are HQ Detachment, 78th Fighter Group; HQ and HQ Squadron 79th [Fighter] Group; 83rd Fighter Squadron; and 84th Fighter Squadron.  Esther Blaine, Public Relations Manager at the museum, is asking people who know about the children to post information on the Web site.  The museum is also asking for contributions of photographs and stories of the U.S. service members who served in Britain during World War II, and of the British people whom they befriended.

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Little is known about the persecution of the Jews of Hof during the Nazi regime in World War II.  The "Jewish Citizens of Hof on Saale (Bavaria) 1933 to 1945" project seeks to produce a publication, lectures, a public memorial plaque, and possibly also an exhibit.  The publication is planned for 2017 and will be designed for use in history and civics classes in schools and adult-education classes.  The project organizers hope to teach young people in particular about democratic ideas in order to prevent future marginalization of minorities.

If you are a descendant of Jews from Hof, Bavaria, if you know any, or if you have information about them, please share what you can.  The project is looking for any kind of information about persecution in Hof:  memories, documents, photos of people and buildings.  It will gladly accommodate requests for anonymity, etc. and will do interviews by telephone or other means.

The project is sponsored by the Hermann und Bertl Müller-Stiftung (Hermann and Bertl Müller Foundation) in Hof and is supported by the Nordoberfränkische Verein für Natur-, Geschichts- und Landeskunde e.V. (North Upper Franconian Association for Nature, History, and Regional Studies), locally known as "The Long-name Association."  The project executive director is Ekkehard Hübschmann, Ph.D.  Please contact info@agfjg.de if you can help.

Hof is variously known as Hof/Saale, Hof a.d. Saale, Hof/Bayern, Hof (Saale), and Hof an der Saale.

Wordless Wednesday

Newspapers, Newspapers, Newspapers . . . .

It's time for another round-up of the latest additions to the Wikipedia online newspaper archive page!  Advantage Preservation has been on a binge of digitization lately, so more newspapers seem to be coming online every day, which is great for us researchers.  And almost all the new links are free, which is even better.

Belgium:  The Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique (Royal Library of Belgium) has uploaded free digital images of newspapers dating from 1831–1918.  The site is in French, Dutch, and English, and some of the newspapers are in German.  Newspapers from 1919–1950 are indexed and appear in search results, but due to copyright issues, those images are not free.

Canada:  I found a trove of Mennonite links.  There are links to indices for death notices and obituaries in five Mennonite newspapers, and an author/subject index for one of the newspapers (which was published in in the United States for a time and so also shows up in the Multistate list).

China:  The Shanghai Echo, a periodical for Jewish refugees who had fled Europe, is online for 1946 to 1948.

England:  The Foxearth and District Local History Society has posted transcribed selections from newspapers in the East Anglia area.

England:  Spare Rib, a feminist publication, has been digitized and uploaded in its entirety.

England:  A book was published with a detailed index of The (London) Times of 1863, and that book is available online as a downloadable PDF.

Ireland:  Ancestry.com has created a new newspaper site, IrishNewspapers.com.  I wonder if this means it's trying to go back to the pricing model it used to have, where you could pay for different databases separately.

Poland:  There is an index to death notices published in Nasz Przegląd ("Our Review"), a Polish-language Zionist newspaper that was published daily in Warszawa from March 1923 until August 1939.

Russia:  This is another Mennonite resource.  Someone created an index of Mennonite-relevant stories in the German-language Odessaer Zeitung ("Odessa Newspaper").

California:  The Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County has an index to early local newspapers, available as PDF files.  I don't see that the index tells you which paper an entry is from, but maybe I'm just overlooking it.

Georgia:  The Uncle Remus Regional Library System, which covers six counties (but not the ones I'm researching, of course), has several newspapers available online, courtesy of Advantage Preservation.

Indiana:  The New Albany–Floyd County Public Library has an index to local newspapers for 1847 to the present.

Indiana:  The obituary index for the Plymouth Pilot Daily is downloadable as several PDF files.

Iowa:  Ten newspapers from Dickinson County have been digitized by Advantage Preservation.

Massachusetts:  The first 30 years of the Boston Jewish Times are available courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society.

Michigan:  More than one million subject index cards from the Detroit News are available on the Seeking Michigan site.

Michigan:  The Milford Public Library not only hosts an obituary index for the Milford Times for 1929–1949, but they will provide you a free copy of the obituary when you find one you want.

Michigan:  This one's a little unusual.  A cemetery has the local newspaper, the Petoskey News Review for 1874–2001, on its site.

Montana:  The student newspaper for Bozeman High School for 1939–2015 is available online, courtesy of Advantage Preservation.

Montana:  Montana State University is in the process of placing digital copies of its student newspaper, the Exponent, online.  Not everything is there yet.

Nebraska:  Advantage Preservation worked with the North Bend Public Library to digitize three local newspapers there.

New Jersey:  Ten early Plainfield newspapers running from 1837–1918 are on the Plainfield Library's Web site.

New Jersey:  The Rockaway Township Free Public Library has the Iron Era and Rockaway Record available online.

New York:  Allegany Public Library and Advantage Preservation teamed up to put four Allegany newspapers online.

New York:  The Troy Irish Genealogy Society has added a marriage notices index to complement its Lansingburgh newspapers death notices index.

North Carolina:  The Duke Chronicle, the student newspaper for Duke University, is online but only for the 1960's and 1980's.

Ohio:  A collection of newspapers printed by the Wright Brothers has been digitized and is available on two sites, Dayton Metro Library and Wright State University.

Tennessee:  An obituary index for the Nashville Tennessean for 1964 to the present is on the Nashville Public Library's site.

Multistate:  The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia hosts an index for about 200,000 obituaries.  There is no indication on the site what years this covers.

Multistate:  MennObits has transcribed obituaries from Mennonite newspapers from 1864 to the present.

I hope you find some great information in at least one of these newspapers!

Help Celebrate National Volunteer Week!

It's National Volunteer Week, so it seemed like a perfect time to post another collection of research and volunteer projects looking for help.  This time most are looking for assistance in identification or finding relatives.

A woman who was imprisoned in the Gabersdorf labor camp in Czechoslovakia during World War II kept a diary, in which she wrote not only an alternative Passover haggadah but also a list of other women who were at Gabersdorf.  Yad Vashem, the center for documentation, research, education, and commemoration of the Holocaust, is seeking information about the women on the list and about Gabersdorf in general.  A recent article lists all of the women's names and includes contact information if you can assist with Yad Vashem's research.

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The UK's Commonwealth War Graves Commission, begun after World War I, cares for cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations in 154 countries, to ensure that 1.7 million people who died in the two World Wars are not forgotten.  The Commission is trying to make contact with relatives of around 70 soldiers, sailors, and airmen who are buried at cemeteries in the United Kingdom.  A list of the servicemen can be found here.

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The Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933–1945 exists to coordinate the return of property stolen during World War II to rightful owners or their descendants.  The lists of owners of identified property have been recently updated.  Looted property consists of art, books, and more.

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Ernst Bienenfeld resident certificate

Loyola Marymount University in California has digitized a photographic collection of Shanghai from 1937–1947 that includes photos of Jewish refugees, Chinese citizens, and others.  They are trying to crowdsource information about the people in the photos, and translations of the German and Chinese documents.  The digitized images have been posted to Flickr.  The information page about the collection includes a link to the Flickr pages.  Take a look if you had family in Shanghai during that time or if you can assist with translations.

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Lisa Taylor, writing for the Library of Congress "Folklife Today" blog, is asking people to pledge to interview at least one veteran during National Volunteer Month, the extension of National Volunteer Week to the entire month of April. Visit her blog post and make your commitment in the comments section.  Then go to the Veterans History Project site to find out how to make it happen.  Return to the site the week before Memorial Day to see a new “Experiencing War” feature dedicated to more Veterans History Project volunteers, with links to some of their interviews.

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The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) tries to protect and commemorate surviving monuments of Jewish cultural heritage in Poland.  It is active in areas away from major cities and covers nearly two thirds of Poland.

FODŻ is looking for volunteers to adopt Jewish cemeteries in Poland.  A current town list of Jewish cemetery projects that are already "adopted" and "seeded" is available on the Web site.  Each entry has a descendant, survivor, family historian, or organization that is concerned and has contacted FODŻ.  Projects range from clean-up and maintenance work to hopes of erecting a memorial to commemorate a specific family or a whole community lost in the Holocaust.  The size, scope, and concept are for the volunteers to decide and to finance, either alone or with partners.  FODŻ can help with the necessary permits, advice on material and labor, and arranging installation and final dedication events.

Jewish cemeteries, especially those that have no headstones, are vulnerable to being forgotten.  Please contact FODŻ if you are ready to start a new project that can make a difference in preserving these precious relics.

Extend a Helping (Genealogical) Hand: Flemish Scots, the Apollo Theater, Buffalo Soldiers, Transcription, and More

1869 National Colored Convention
Washington, D.C.

"Colored Conventions" took place before and after the Civil War, with free and fugitive blacks gathering to discuss and create strategies for legal, labor, healthcare, and educational justice and other problems and challenges.  Minutes were taken at these conventions, but the ones that have survived are in rare, out-of-print books.  A new project is crowdsourcing transcription of the minutes so that they can be digitized and made available to researchers of all ages.  Transcribers correct machine-generated OCR text from scanned images, which is easier than typing it all in.  (This would make a great project for a society to work on together.)

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Another crowdsourced transcription project is one started by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.  The papers of Richard Yates, Sr., an ally of Lincoln and governor of Illinois during the Civil War, have been digitized with money from a grant.  The library has set up a Web site for volunteers to transcribe the pages (currently almost 13,000 pages are available to work on).  The intention is to create a searchable database of the transcribed text.

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Apparently some researchers estimate that up to a third of the current Scottish population may have Flemish ancestry (as in the surname Fleming).  The Flemish immigrants came between the 11th and 17th centuries.  Some Scottish surnames that may have Flemish origins are Armstrong (I have Armstrong ancestors!), Baird, Balliol, Beaton, Brodie, Bruce, Cameron, Campbell, Comyn, Crawford, Douglas, Dowie, Erskine, Graham, Hamilton, Hay, Innes, Lindsay, Murray, Oliphant, Seton, and Sutherland.

Professor Roger Mason, of the Institute of Scottish Historical Research at the University of St. Andrews, is leading the Scotland and the Flemish People project to assess the impact of the Flemish on Scotland.  The project includes a DNA component.  John Irvine (a genealogist and local historian) and Dr. Alex Fleming (a retired economist) of the Abertay Historical Society are part of the project team.  Plans are to have a conference for Easter 2016, and one or possibly more publications.

The project is looking for people to share local historical and genealogical resources with information about Flemish settlements, lives, and work in Scotland.  If you can contribute or are interested in learning more, you can read about the project here and here, or contact members of the project team:  Dr. Alex Fleming, John Irvine, or Prof. Roger Mason.

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Several members of the genealogical community have already been working on the identification of a photograph apparently of ten Buffalo soldiers, but since the mystery has not yet been resolved, I figure more publicity might be a good thing.  The photograph was discovered some 40 years ago, hidden behind an illustration in an inexpensive photograph frame.  The men in the photo were identified by an appraiser in 1994 as being in the U.S. Cavalry, 9th Regiment, Company G.  The owner of the photograph was interviewed recently by a local newspaper, and some input on the photograph is on the Where Honor Is Due blog.

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A post on the Roads to the Great War blog is publicizing a family's search for the location of a World War I portrait.  The portrait of Corporal Jack Marqusee was apparently painted by an "artist of international fame" for the British government.  The family has a photograph of the portrait but is trying to determine the location of the portrait itself.

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The historic Apollo Theater in Harlem has created an archive and is trying to recover documents, memorabilia, and other artifacts that have been lost, discarded, or forgotten over the years.  Some items sought are marketing materials, costumes, band stands, microphones, and original photographs.  Antiques Roadshow featured the Apollo's search on a "Roadshow's Most Wanted" segment.  If your family had any connection to the Apollo, maybe you can help.

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The Jewish community in the town of Dunayevtsy, Ukraine, known by its Jewish residents as Dinovitz, has been allowed to reclaim a building in town that was once known to be a synagogue.  To accomplish this the community needs to provide documentation to the local authorities about the town's former synagogues.  This could be printed materials, photographs, or stories from family members.  Oral and written materials will both be considered.

There is little actual documentation on synagogues in the shtetl.  The community in Dunayevtsy has not been able to find much information in the local Russian archives and libraries.  YIVO has been contacted and also has little information of use.  If you had family that lived in Dinovitz, please look through any papers, photographs, or memorabilia that you may have and send a message to Carol Rombro Rider.

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If you have family from the town of Biecz in Poland and have collected vital records or have testimonies of family members from the 1920's–1930's, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) would like to hear from you in connection with a project involving the Biecz Talmud Torah building, built about 1924.  Please write to Marla Raucher Osborn.

"Finding Your Roots" - Alan Dershowitz, Carole King, and Tony Kushner

I have continued to watch the new season of Finding Your Roots, albeit in "encore performances" (PBS doesn't really have reruns, right?), but I find myself continually underwhelmed, both by the stories and by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., himself.  It isn't that the family stories aren't interesting — if I thought family stories were boring, then becoming a professional genealogist would have been a bad career move — but the method by which Gates presents the information does not lend itself to suspense.  It's hard to get excited when he says, "Please turn the page."  Since he is not actually telling a narrative but merely picking out essentially random facts, the "revelations" often seem to be a connect-the-dots puzzle that has not been completed.

The overall presentation style does not help.  Like an elderly aunt trying to extend her nephew's visit by doling out treats slowly over time, the guest finds himself obligated to stay longer and longer.  This sense of deliberate dragging out is heightened by extensive use of bland B-roll shots as filler.  How many times can we watch Gates walk slowly across a lawn or a room, gazing soulfully up at the sky or into the distance?  Or see yet another nameless researcher in an unidentified repository scroll through yet one more roll of microfilm with no context?

Something I have found extremely annoying is when a celebrity asks Gates, "Where did you find this?"  Most of the time Gates merely dissembles, but he has actually responded, "I can't tell you that!"  Well, why not?  What's the big secret?  This is PBS, and it's supposed to be educational.  Must our education be limited to hearing how great Dr. Gates is, and not how an ordinary person may learn about his own family?  Is access to these documents limited to people with big TV budgets?

And one more pet peeve.  The opening of each episode includes some CG text in the lower left corner of the screen:  "A film by Kunhardt McGree Productions . . . ."  I hate to deflate Dr. Gates, but these are not films; they are television episodes.  Films have plots and narratives, something lacking in Finding Your Roots.

Because there is little of substance to to talk about in the program, I thought I would be able to combine commentary on more than episode in a single blog post.  I surprised myself with what I had to say about only this episode, so I guess I will have a few more posts covering the program.  As several episodes have been aired since my first post, I decided to pick up again with one I watched more recently, coincidentally the one with three Jewish celebrities.

As I've mentioned, we have no continuity to follow in the research process, so it's impossible for me to say anything about that.  Since Gates declines to let his guests or his audience know about the big secret repository where he finds all of his stunning revelatory documents, I obviously can't comment on that either.  Unfortunately, that mostly leaves me with negative observations on some of what Gates says during the program.

In "Our People, Our Traditions", Gates presented Books of Life (should I include a trademark designation with that?) to Tony Kushner, Carole King, and Alan Dershowitz.  We watched the standard short background on each guest and the slow, painful parceling out of tidbits of information to each of them.  I will admit, probably the most startling thing I've heard on this show, or almost anywhere else, was Kushner's recollection of the woman in Lake Charles, Louisiaia, who asked him, "Where are the horns?", because she truly believed the old anti-Semitic myth that Jews have vestigial horns on their heads.  Seriously?  In the 20th century?  I hope that woman didn't breed.  I am so thankful I no longer live in the Deep South.

At one point, when talking with King, Gates commented, ". . . like all Jewish Americans have experienced prejudice."  Excuse me, but just where the hell does he get off making a blanket statement like that about several million people and passing it off as fact?  Am I the only one who noticed that remark?  How can he purport to know that every single solitary Jew in America has experienced prejudice?  Did he conduct a survey?  I sure didn't get a copy of it.

When speaking with Kushner about his family's move to Louisiana, Gates discussed the fact that many Jews who moved to the South in the third quarter of the 19th century did so not only for economic opportunity, but specifically because they were willing to do business with recently freed slaves, whereas many of the white residents of the areas would not do so.  I was happy to see this point made.  Even into the 20th century this situation persisted; Kushner's family started its lumber company in Lake Charles in 1927 and thrived in part because they were happy to serve the black community.  (Hey, what do you know!  Not every comment is negative.)

In relation to Dershowitz's ancestors, Gates explained they were from Galicia and said it was "now located in Poland."  That would be a significant surprise to the many people in what was formerly Eastern Galicia, which is solidly part of Ukraine now.

This same segment with Dershowitz included an interesting piece of information I had never heard before.  Dershowitz discussed an old Jewish religious law that did not permit observant Jews to travel on a ship on the Sabbhath, which is consistent with what I understand of similar restrictions, such as not being able to drive or ride in a car on the Sabbath.  He didn't state when this law was modified, but if it had not been, Orthodox Jews such as my own grandfather's parents would not have been able to make the trip to the "Goldene Medina", because the ship passage took more than seven days and therefore necessitated traveling on at least one Sabbath, if not more.

Truly unfortunately, Gates did not quash an old wives' tale regarding immigration when he had the opportunity.  King said she had been told that her family's name was changed at Ellis Island.  This myth persists today even though many credible and knowledgeable sources have explained why it simply could not have happened.  Instead of categorically denying the possibility, though, Gates said merely that it "almost never happened."  Why even leave that door open?  It NEVER happened.

I think Gates and his team may have bitten off a little more than they could chew with this theme.  They were apparently unable to trace any of the celebrities' families back very far.  I think the farthest he got was to a second- or third-great-grandfather for one person.  I noted several instances of missing maiden names on the family tree sketches that were shown.  This affected even relatively recent generations, such as David and Mollie Glajman, King's paternal grandparents.  Very few family photographs were displayed and identified; most of the images appeared to be "generic."  No really big revelations.  And they didn't even talk about the DNA results, apparently because the basic results were very predictable.

And since this episode was about Jewish research, have you ever noticed the underwriters for the series?  Dr. Georgette Bennett, Dr. Leonard Polonsky, Candace King Weir, the Daryl & Steven Roth Foundation — that's a lot of Jewish names, isn't it?

Wordless Wednesday

What? A New Issue of "The Galitzianer" So Soon?

What's this, you say?  Another issue of The Galitzianer has gone to the printer already?  How could that be?  Could it be that Janice is catching up on her schedule again?

Yes!  I'm actually almost caught up!  The June 2014 issue of The G went to the printer last week and will be mailed this week.  That's pretty good when you consider that the March issue went out in June (one of these days I swear I'm going to be healthy again).

So I'm obviously excited that timeliness is re-entering my life.  This issue has some great articles, too.  Tony Kahane discusses upcoming legislation in Poland that will affect access to vital records.  The death record of a man in a specific house starts genealogist Israel Pickholtz on a search for how he might be connected to the family living there.  A woman contacted by a cousin via Facebook ended up taking a trip to Israel to meet cousins from a branch of the family that had been out of contact since World War II.  And we had permission to reprint a story by Robin Meltzer which publicly quashed, at least for a while, the age-old myth about names being changed at Ellis Island, this time in conjunction with the great Sid Caesar (may he rest in peace).

Members of Gesher Galicia receive The Galitzianer as a benefit of membership.  Gesher Galicia is a nonprofit organization focused on researching Jews and Jewish life in the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia.  Information on becoming a member is available here.

Articles for The Galitzianer are accepted from both members and nonmembers, and I love to read them all.  If you submit an article that is published, you will receive a copy of the issue with your article even if you are not a member.  Submissions may be articles and/or graphics, both original and previously published, and must be relevant to Galician Jewish genealogical research:  articles about recent trips to Galicia, reports on your own research, historical and recent pictures, etc.  Electronic submissions are preferred, though not required.  If you wish to submit material for consideration, please contact me at janicemsj@gmail.com.  I accept submissions year-round, but the deadline for the September 2014 issue is August 20.

Central Park, Philadelphia, Stolpersteine, Abandoned Photographs, and More

Seneca Village Map

In an early example of government exercising eminent domain, the 19th-century community of Seneca Village was destroyed and became part of Manhattan's Central Park.  Now, historians and researchers are searching for verifiable descendants of former residents of Seneca Village.  The 1855 New York State census showed 264 people living in the village, most of African descent but also including Irish and Germans.  Is it possible that absolutely no descendants of those 264 people are alive today?  An NPR article has more information about the community and contact information for the researchers who are looking for descendants.

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The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is looking for authors for its next series of articles.  Topics available include key historical events, holiday traditions, civil rights, literary works, and transportation, among others.  The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and northern Delaware.  The Encyclopedia has support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects, as demonstrated by previous publicitions and/or advanced training in historical research.  Authors can choose to volunteer or receive modest stipends.  All submissions will be peer-reviewed.  Deadlines will be set in consultation with authors; it is expected that most will range from the end of the summer to the end of 2014.  To express interest, send an e-mail describing your qualifications and specifying your topics of interest to Charlene Mires, the editor-in-chief; no attachments.  Graduate students should include the name and e-mail address of an academic reference.  The list of available topics is available online, as are writer guidelines.

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Stolpersteine are memorial stones placed for individual victims of the Nazis.  Sixty-five residents of Thomasiusstrasse in Moabit, Berlin, are working together to organize and pay for the cost of Stolpersteine to be laid for 102 identified victims who formerly lived on the street.  Family names from this street are Asch, Badasch, Bader, Bimbaum, Brenner, Caminer, Cohn, Ehrlich, Falkenstein, Giballe, Glass, Goldschmidt, Goldberg, Goldstein, Grunwald, Herrnberg, Herzog, Hirsch, Hoffmann, Holländer, Isaacsohn, Israelski, Jarotschinski, Karger, Kahn, Kaufmann, Klein, Koppel, Kroner, Levy, Leyde, Löw, Manasse, Marcus, Markus, Mendelsohn, Nordon, Neumann, Nussbaum, Rittler, Rosenthal, Rosenwasser, Rothkugel, Schragenheim, Schwabe, Seckelson, Silbermann, Sonnenwirth, Strauss, Voss, Weisstein, Wiener, and Zoegall.

Ceremonies to lay the Stolpersteine will take place on August 8, 2014, in October 2014, and in March 2015.  Judith Elam of Kihei, Hawaii, is working with the Thomasiusstrasse residents to find living relatives of the victims.  Many relatives contacted so far plan to attend the ceremony for the laying of their relative's Stolperstein.  Contact Judith at elamj@hawaii.rr.com if your family name is on the list to learn if your relative lived on the street, or if you know your relative lived on the street and the family name does not appear above.

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The Polish Origins forum has begun a project to create a searchable database of the many names that appear in records that have been translated by the group.  Volunteers are needed to help with transcribing names for the database.  The project also accepts indices of other translated records.  For more information, including how to sign up as a volunteer, visit the forum page about the project.

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David Rafky of Miami, Florida, has found hundreds of family photos recovered from Sidney L. Binder's house after his death.  He believes they may have been taken during Binder's first marriage and knows that Binder had a daughter named Naome.  He is sure Binder's family would want the photos and is looking for contact information.  You can e-mail David at dave15851585@yahoo.com.

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Barry Mill

Historic Barry Mill in Angus, Scotland, is looking for information on a former employee who scrawled his name on a wood beam in the mill.  The note says, “Stewart Kidd left August 1914, returned March 1918.”  And that's pretty much all they know.  The master miller was trying to find information about Mr. Kidd in time for the mill's 200th anniversary celebration, which has already passed, but better late than never!  An article in The Courier has more details and a contact e-mail address if you believe you can help.

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A petition on MoveOn.org requests that the U.S. President enact an Executive Order to allow all adult adoptees access to their original birth records.  I realize this subject can be polarizing, and the mere act of my posting the link suggests which side of the debate I am on.

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Though it isn't directly related to genealogy, I'm helping publicize a good cause.  A new distributed computing project allows you to donate your computer power to help research Alzheimer's.  And Alzheimer's does have a genetic component, after all.

Wordless Wednesday

New Links on the Wikipedia Newspaper Page

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Dr. Henry Snyder, who was the driving force behind the creation of the California Digital Newspaper Collection.  It was fascinating to hear the lengths he went to in collecting old newspaper collections to be digitized.  So I'm dedicating this newspaper update to him.

The latest additions to the Wikipedia page are a wide-ranging lot.  I'm happy to report that all of these new links are free!

• Canada:  The Oxford County (Ontario) Library has birth, marriage, and death indices for three Ingersoll newspapers, ranging from 1854–1970.  One of the newspapers has scanned images; the other two have transcriptions.
• France:  Information Juive (1948–1977) is a Jewish newspaper that has been added to the National Library of Israel site.  It's also listed under Israel.
• Hungary:  Helyi Lapok ("local cards" seems to be the literal translation) has newspapers from Esztergom and Pápai ranging from 1854–2007 (nonconsecutive years).
• Israel:  The Palestine Bulletin (1932–1950) was added to the National Library of Israel online collection of newspapers.  I have also cross-listed newspapers in the collection that were published in other countries under those countries, which created entries for Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco.
• Poland:  Der Moment is a Jewish newspaper that was published in Warsaw from 1910–1924.  It's another new addition from the National Library of Israel and is listed under Israel also.
• Russia:  Ha-'Am (1916–1918), published in Moscow, is also from the National Library of Israel.
• Illinois:  The Chicagoan (1926–1935) was a magazine modeled after the New Yorker.  The online collection is almost complete; if you happen to have one of the missing copies, I'm sure they'd like to hear from you!
• Oregon:  Four newspapers from The Dalles ranging from 1861–1948 have been added to the Historic Oregon Newspapers collection.
• Oregon:  The Northwest Heritage Index at the Wilsonville Public Library lists people and places, mostly from Clackamas County and other Oregon locations, and includes more than 16,000 obituaries from Canby newspapers covering more than 100 years.  The entire database has about 20,000 entries, and plans are to add more material.
• Virginia:  The Prince William County Public Library has digitized several newspapers from 1721–1986 (nonconsecutive years).
• Multistate:  Since Google changed the search interface for its News Archive, the archive hasn't been anywhere near as useful as it used to be, simply because it's harder to find articles.  I've updated the link to one that gives a listing of all the newspapers available through the archive.  The new link also has a basic search capability.

This isn't online, but it's an interesting item.  BBC is planning a drama about a World War I trench newspaper called The Wipers Times.  A British regiment found a printing press and created the newspaper to entertain themselves.  And "Wipers" was the way the British pronounced the Belgian city of Ypres.

Planned Museum Exhibition on Galician Holocaust Survivors

The Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków is reaching out to Holocaust survivors from towns that were once in Galicia to tell their stories through an exhibition planned for 2014 at the museum.  The new exhibition will focus on people from historic Galicia who survived World War II and the Holocaust.  The exhibition will present the fates of survivors to show similarities and differences in their stories, and, on a symbolic level, show moments where they did or did not receive help.

The goal of this project is to explore survivors' stories and recollections, presenting different paths and means of survival.  The museum wants to make visitors to the exhibition aware of the many elements and the complicated and dangerous situations that made up the experience of survivors during the Holocaust.  The planned exhibition is also a way of honoring those who survived, as well as recognizing those who aided them.

This exhibition will not be possible without the help of the members of the Jewish community, many of whom are either survivors or are in touch with survivors.  The museum needs your (their) memories and recollections and is counting on your willingness to share your stories of those events with the next generation.  Completing this basic survey, which requires only short answers, will help start the project.  Based on this survey, museum staff will contact you with more detailed questions.

As an alternative to completing the survey online, it may be downloaded in Word format from http://www.jgsgb.org.uk/SurveysurvivorsexhibitionfromGaliciaJewishMuseum.doc.  Once completed the survey should be sent to the museum via the addresses at the end of the survey.

Those responding to the survey should be from towns in what was "historic Galicia", today towns in Poland and Ukraine.  Museum staff are also interested in hearing from children of survivors from Galicia who are no longer living.

If you know of living survivors who are not online, or don't own a computer, you can assist them with accessing and filling out the survey, and this mitzvah is greatly encouraged. This also extends to outreach at old-age homes in your community, if you know of survivors from Galicia who are residents there, even if they are not your family.  Share the survey everywhere there is a possibility to contact survivors from Galicia.

If you prefer to find out more about the project before filling out the survey, contact the Galicia Jewish Museum's Education Project by postal mail, e-mail, or telephone:

Galicia Jewish Museum Education Project
Ul. Dajwor 18
31-052 Krakow, Poland

Project Coordinator:  Ms. Malgorzata Fus
E-mail: malgorzata@galiciajewishmuseum.org
Telephone: (0048) 12 421 68 42
Web:  www.galiciajewishmuseum.org

The Galicia Jewish Museum was established in 2004 with the mission to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and celebrate the 800-year history of Jews in Poland.  Its goal is to impart knowledge, but also encourage reflection.  The museum is located in the heart of Kraków's historic Jewish district.

2013 Jewish Music Festival

It seems to be a festive time of year!  The San Francisco Bay area's 28th Jewish Music Festival is on the horizon, from March 2-12, 2013.  Concerts will be in Berkeley and San Francisco and are accessible by BART.  There is a convergence of interest this year with Jewish genealogy because the festival is focusing on Jewish music from Poland, from which most American Jews have ancestors.

The opening night of the festival will be on Saturday, March 2.  The program will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a slide show and talk by Ruth Ellen Gruber, the author of Virtually Jewish:  Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe.  The concert, following at 8:00 p.m., will be from Shofar (Polish-Jewish jazz) and Polesye (joint Polish-Israeli Yiddish CD project).

One of the highlights of this year's festival will be a performance on Thursday, March 7, by Theodore Bikel (known worldwide for portraying Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof) with Yiddish singer Shura Lipovsky and Bosnian accordion player Merima Ključo.  There will also be a world premiere on Saturday, March 9, in commemoration of the 70th anniversarity of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising>.

A brochure about the festival is available online. General and ticket information are at the Jewish Music Festival site.  The festival offers discounts to seniors, students, and groups of ten or more.  For more information about the group discount contact Outreach Coordinator Lauren Weiss at (510) 848-0237 x118.

Two New Time-Life Online Photograph Collections

Children at Ellis Island

Time-Life recently added two photograph collections to its online holdings.  "Gateway to a New World:  Rare Photos from Ellis Island" was posted on the anniversary of the closing of Ellis Island in November 1954.  It consists of 30 photographs by Alfred Eisenstadt, one of Life's best known photographers and an immigrant himself.  Eisenstadt went to Ellis Island in 1950, when American laws had again put heavy restrictions on immigration.  Some of the photos appeared in the November 13, 1950 issue of Life, accompanying a story about the new immigration laws; many have not been published before.

The second collection is "The Brink of Oblivion:  Inside Nazi-occupied Poland, 1939-1940."  These are photos taken by Hugo Jaeger, a German and dedicated Nazi who traveled with and photographed Hitler in the late 1930's and early 1940's.  On the anniversary of the official establishment of the Warsaw ghetto in October 1940, Time-Life posted this collection of 22 of Jaeger's photographs of Warsaw and Kutno (a small town about 75 miles west of Warsaw) from 1939 and 1940.  There is also a link to the story of how Time-Life acquired Jaeger's photo archive.

My thanks to Jan Meisels Allen for sharing information about these photographs.

The Indian Maharajah Who Helped Save Polish Orphans during World War II

the Good Maharajah

Politics makes strange bedfellows, indeed.  Prince Jam Sri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja (no, I have no idea how to pronounce that) was the Maharaja of Nawanagar from 1933 to 1947.  This was when India was still controlled by Great Britain.  After World War II began, the Maharaja became a member of Winston Churchill's Imperial War Cabinet.

When Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Poland in 1939, Stalin had several hundred thousand Poles, including women and children, deported to the inner depths of the Soviet Union.  But when Hitler turned on Stalin, Stalin was forced to ally with Great Britain and the Polish government-in-exile.  Amnesty was declared for Polish prisoners in the Soviet Union.  The Maharaja offered to help Polish children who had been deported to Siberia, Kazakhstan, and other locations.

As many as 500 orphans were brought to the Maharaja's summer palace at Balachadi, on the coast of Nawanagar.  The children remained there throughout the war.  Delegates of the Polish government-in-exile even set up and ran a school.

And now, the Warsaw City Council passed a resolution on Friday, June 1, to name a square in the Ochota district of central Warsaw after the prince.  Apparently I am not the only one who has difficulty pronouncing his name -- the square will be called "the Square of the Good Maharaja."