Jewish genealogy. I knew it would be a tough assignment. Tough for the records search of it and tough for the emotional aspects of it but this is the story of many European Jews and what their descendants may find.
The assignment was to get back to Poland/Galicia on her father’s father’s side of the family. There were some notes by mom and an aunt but nothing really more. In the notes was the name of a town where the family was told they came from but it didn’t exist. It was phonetically spelled and not accurate. But this was far ahead of the game where I needed to start but I held on to this for future generations.
Collaborations can be imperative
The records started easy enough starting in California and then on to New York. The family did well with a son who became an attorney, a son who fought and came back from WWII, a daughter who was a teacher and all of whom went on to have children and grandchildren. This generation was born in the United States and records, newspaper articles, buildings where they lived or worked in NYC were quite readily available. Most were buried in the same Jewish cemetery in New York as well. The next generation of her great grandparents is where the collaboration became crucial. This is where the records and ancestors stopped.
Jewish custom includes adding the father to a headstone which wonderfully gets you back one generation further and this is exactly what happened. Jewish genealogy research is made far better for this custom! His name didn’t exist in records or any of the papers I had. This photograph was provided by seeking assistance in obtaining the photograph from a Jewish group. The client and I celebrated seeing it and the win of one more generation. Someone had provided the image and another person provided the translation. This is also where I peered through the letters and notes in further detail to see what I could piece together to pursue going further AND back to the said Poland/Galicia.
One random records provides the home town.
Now was the time for that city name that was phonetically spelled. I had an idea on it while trying random spellings but I couldn’t swear this right. It was in an area where Galicia became Poland though. I still had some records to find on his children and here is where another “wow” moment happened. His son had listed his hometown on a record and it was the exact town I had thought it may be, Tarnobrezg. He was the ONLY one of their children born there before they came to the United States. Finally, some confirmation of the home town AND one more generation back to it! I celebrated this win because it didn’t come easy nor did it happen immediately. It took time.
Tarnobrezg
A beautiful city in Eastern Europe that suffered greatly with changes of Emperors and the take over of the Nazis. I actually started with Wikipedia to learn the basics of the town. Even this page provided some color and history to the lives of Jews living there in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It provided enough information to understand how difficult the times were for Jews just before Morris left for the United States. Morris-Moshe had left just in time to avoid both World Wars.
Morris’ father, Chaim Josef, died in 1918 just before the town became a Republic and pursued communistic ideals. I was never able to find WHY Morris had left but in finding the history of his home town it became easy to imagine why they chose to left. This is where the color of an ancestor comes to life. This too is where we learned that not all the family survived. You have to then explain the emotional side of Jewish genealogy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and how things took a major turn for many.
The records, the names and portraits led to the tracking back in time of a town that may or may not have left a good impression in Morris. We can never know that on a personal level. But, we can know that many in his family didn’t have a happy ending there during the turmoil of dynasty changes, World Wars and the Shoah.
