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What families are you researching? From which towns/countries?

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Permalink Reply by Debby Mil on April 28, 2010 at 6:21am

Hi Everyone,

I am researching my Jewish ancestors who came from Mogilev in Belarus to Manchester England in 1825. There were two brothers called Phineas and Peter Henry who were silk merchants and Phineas' young son Henry. These names are obviously anglicised and I have not yet been able to find their Jewish / Russian names.

Phineas Henry had a seat at the Halliwell St synagogue from 1825-1827. On the 1851 census his birth location is listed as Ploskoe Mogilev but I am not sure if the census taker has spelt it correctly. I did find a place in Belarus called Ploskoye it is north of the town of Mogilev on the road between Orska and Barysau.
I have written to the Jewish Museum in Manchester who apparently hold the Halliwell St records but have not heard anything yet.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I might find out more about my family I would love to hear from you.

Thanks

Debby

Permalink Reply by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on April 28, 2010 at 7:56am

Hi, Debby

Phineas might be the Yiddish Feivus and in our family Peter was Pesach. Ploskoe Mogilev sounds like a good rendition for the town of Poloskoye north of Mogilev between Orsha (there was way back when a big train station there to go to Moscow.

Henry as a surname could have been anything originally and it was likely that he was trying to find something very Anglicized and perhaps less immediately recognizable as Jewish. Good luck. Do let us know when you hear from the Manchester Jewish Museum.

Phineas' son was Henry, and he was named Henry Henry?????

There is a list of baby boys born in Mogilev at the Belarus SIG at JewishGen. This index was on one of the seven rolls of the Mogilev Crown Rabbinate records, a goldmine for all Mogilev and area researchers. You might want to check for anything looking like Henry. Perhaps a Hirsch?

Schelly

Permalink Reply by Debby Mil on May 5, 2010 at 6:39am

Hi Schelly,

Thanks for the info and suggestions. Yes Henry Henry does seem a rather mean thing to do to a child doesn't it ;-) I'll go check JewishGen again, I had looked on there a while back but not recently. Apparently the Manchester Jewish Museum is currently undergoing a renovation so not sure how long it will take them to get back to me. I think you are right about the Anglicization of the name, particularly given that Henry Henry ended up marrying an English girl in an Anglican church although it appears Phineas remained with the Jewish relgion.

One day I will crack this nut!!

Debby

Permalink Reply by arnold shirek chamove on July 18, 2010 at 7:30pm

My direct line families are
CHAIMOVICH (DNA haplogroup T) Хаймович, ADLER Адлер, LEVY Леви (Balta, Odessa, Nykolaev, Raygorod); SCHEREK (J1e), GOLDSTEIN, ASHER (J2a4h1a), FRIEDENTHAL (J1e), KOTTWITZ (E1b1b1A3), ELIAS (U7), NATHAN, LICHTENSTEIN, KATZ, SCHMUL, JAKIER, PRASZKER, BIER (Kempen/Kępno, Posen/Poznan;
Also I do look-ups for Naturalized Jews of the Grand Duchy of Posen in 1834-5, E.D.Luft .

Permalink Reply by pauline anne hazell on August 24, 2011 at 10:38am

rickett epathite that is my great grand mother name we thought she was german jew but not french jew pauline hazell

Permalink Reply by CORALLY FEBUS on April 10, 2012 at 1:07pm

Researching My last name Febo/Febus listed in many sephardic name lists.My grandfather from fathers side is originally from Puerto Rico.I have a strong affection for the nation of Israel.I had an autosomal test done and shows middle eastern origins from one parent.My last name is also carried by Non-Jewish Italians.I am up inthe air on wether I have Jewish ancestry or Italian.

Permalink Reply by Kenneth R Marks on May 3, 2012 at 2:56pm

Started my search about 10 years ago. Searching for Jewish ancestors in Posen, Schubin (now Szubin), Gostyn, and Chodziesen (was Kolmar).

Family names are Braunhart, Zadek, Bernstein, Marks, Heyman, Beerman, Fried, Broch.

Still have relatives in Berlin, all descending from one of the grandchildren of one of the family patriarchs - Lewin Jacob Braunhart, who was the headmaster at the Jewish school in Schubin for 50 years. Lewin and his wife Minnie Zadek, had 17 grandchildren who lived to adulthood - 11 immigrated to America, 5 stated in Germany, and one was born in California.

Have 3 websites - www.marksology.com which documents photos, artifacts, and stories about my ancestors, and www.g4beginners.blogspot.com, which highlights tips and information for newbies, using information and techniques that I have learned over the years.

I also started a ning network, which is a private social media oriented site for my family, where I have uploaded all photos and artifacts for the Braunhart family. It is not available to the public. I would encourage others to check out ning for creating a site for relatives to partake in the riches of information that you have gathered for your family. It can be set up as private so it is not searched by Google and other search engines and is not available to all.

Would be glad to hear from others and share as well - Kenneth R. Marks

Permalink Reply by Scott P. Dann on June 21, 2012 at 11:07am

I am trying to research the following names and places:

Lewensohn and Dann (not sure what Dann was called there) from Kuldiga, Latvia

Oxman, Hollander, Kassler, and Kesselman from Nikolayev, Ukraine

Poczciwy from Radziejow, Poland

Stern from TiszaSalamon, Hungary (Now Solomonova, Ukraine)

I am comfortable with most of what happened once the families reached America, save for a couple of death dates I haven't been able to track down. Other than the Polish ancestors, I know little about the families from Eastern Europe.