Isidore Silber

I just pulled out the death certificate for Isidore Silver that I have (mentioned in today’s other posting) because I hadn’t packed it with my stuff to take to Poughkeepsie (glad I decided to blog before leaving), and found another piece of evidence that makes me REALLY believe that this is the same Isidore Silber that I’m looking for. There are actually three reasons I think that this is the right person, despite the huge discrepancy in the parents’ names.

1. Isidore and Sarah Schwartz Silber were living in New York City at the time, which is where this Isidore Silver died. I have census records that confirm this. All census records have their last name spelled as “Silver” which is understandable. Their children match my mother’s recollection of her aunt’s and uncle’s names, so I’m confident that the census records are a match.
2. This Isidore died during the right time period, and a search of the New York City Death Index doesn’t give any other possibilities.
3. Despite dying in New York City, the death certificate says that Isidore Silver was buried in Poughkeepsie. Most of the Silbers and Schwartzes (from my family anyway) lived in Poughkeepsie at the time.
4. The most compelling piece of evidence, though, is something I discovered only yesterday. Isidore Silver was living at 342 East 80th Street at the time of his death, according the the death certificate. His wife’s older brother, William Schwartz, lived at 341 East 80th Street, for more than 20 years–just across the street!! (I found William in the census yesterday after going through some old letters in preparation for today’s trip, and finding a letter that said that “Uncle Willie” had a barbershop on East 79th Street and a son named Mac [who turns out to be Max in the census]).

I was looking forward to this weekend’s trip to Poughkeepsie, but I’m really excited now! I feel like there will be some big finds, and everything is falling into place right now!

On the road to Poughkeepsie

I’m off to Poughkeepsie this morning for my first New York genealogical expedition. For the past year, I have done a LOT of genealogical research, but it has all been online in my apartment. I went to the New York Public Library once in the first few weeks after arriving in New York City, but was quickly intimidated. I’m very familiar with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, but this was all new, and I was still a bit intimidated by New York City in general. I spent a few minutes aimlessly wandering and looking, then left. (I actually just happened to run across the library on a walk around midtown, so I went in. I didn’t have any notes or my computer with me, so I wouldn’t have been able to do much anyway. However, I haven’t been back yet.)

So, anyway….I digress.

I’m jumping on Metro-North this morning to go to Poughkeepsie this weekend to find family graves. I know the cemetery where my great-grandparents, Josef and Jolan (Julia) Schwartz Silber, are buried, and I know that my great-great-grandfather, Ignatz Schwartz, is also buried there. Last September I emailed the genealogist at Congregation Schomre Israel in Poughkeepsie, Sam Wexel, and gave him some basic information. He emailed back two weeks later with obituaries and grave locations, and even pictures of the grave markers. So, finally I’m going up to see them for myself.

My hope for this trip is to find other family members, and answer a few questions. The number one question at the moment involves my great-grandmother’s sister, Sali (aka Zoli, aka Sarah) Schwartz, and her first husband, Izrael (aka Isidore) Silber. Isidore died sometime between 1910 and 1920, and I have a possible death certificate for him. However, as the story goes, Isidore was my great-grandfather’s (Josef Silber’s) brother. I have, however, marriage registrations from Hungary for both Josef and Jolan, and Izrael and Sali. The parents listed on Josef’s and Izrael’s registrations are different.

I have two documents for each “brother” with their parents names. I have a marriage registration and social security application for Josef that both say his parents were Samuel Silber and Cziczilia (aka Tilly) Kupferstein (Cooperstein). I have a marriage registration and birth registration for Izrael that say that his parents were Saji Silber and Terez (aka Teri) Kupferstein. The New York City death certificate that I have says that Isidore Silver says that his parents were Joseph Silber and Gertie Schwartz–way off!

So, I’m hoping that Poughkeepsie will provide some answers for me, or at least open up some new paths for exploration.

Genealogy in Romania – It’s Tough but Possible

The following article was reprinted from FamilyTrackers Blog:

Romania is located on a major migration route between Europe, Asia and Africa. This position along with political and other factors has produced a country of unusual diversity. While the majority of its people identify themselves ethnically as Romanian, there are at least 20 other ethnic groups in the country including: Hungarians, Gypsies, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, Serbs, and Croats. Parts of present-day Romania have been included at various times in the USSR, Moldavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Wallachia, and Transylvania. Emigration from Romania has created demand for genealogy research in Romania, particularly from groups located in the United States, Canada, and Germany who are looking for family connections. Demand for information about Jewish people just before, during and after World War II is particularly high.

Genealogy Research Issues: The diversity of ethnicities in Romania is reflected in the public records available for genealogy research. Records are variously stored locally and nationally written in Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, German and other languages depending on the location and time of the events described. Very little of the information is available electronically. Most of the information is not indexed even if you are able to go to the archive in person. In addition, place names are different depending on the time period you are researching and many place names are used for multiple places. For example, Brasov is the name of a county in Romania, a town in the county of Brasov, and a town in the county of Transylvania.

Research Suggestions: How do you break through this multi-dimensional maze of changing borders, politics, and time?
Get the best information possible about your ancestor’s name, location, and time when they were there. Depending on their ethnicity you may be okay searching for the normal alternative spellings of that name. If you don’t know the ethnicity or if you are not sure, you may want to search for spellings in other languages as well. Search the most specific location possible right down to the village level if you know that.
· If you travel to Romania, consider hiring a local to help you with the different languages and locations. Many areas of Romania are distressed economically and people there are willing to provide services at a lower cost than in other European countries. Of course, you should check references and make sure that you can get quality and fairly priced help with your search. If you want to meet relatives while you are there, you should ask your local provider to do some research in advance and help you with introductions when you get there. Major collections of genealogy data are held at various district archives in Romania including . . .

Bucuresti District
State Archives
Arhivelor Statul
Bdul Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej 29
Sector 5 R-70602
Bukarest România

Alba District
Primaria Municipiului Alba Iulia
Plata Iuliu Maniu 1 R-2500
Alba Iulie România
Tel = 058-813 380

Arad District
Primaria Municipiului Arad
Bd. Revolutiei 75 R-2900
Arad România
Tel = 057-219 652
Fax = 057 253 842
Bihor District
Primaria Municipiului Oradea
Plata Victoriei 1 R-3700
Oradea România
Tel = 059-137 000, 130 753
Bistrita-Nasaud District
Primaria Municipiului Bistrita
Piata Petru Rares 1 R-4400
Bistrita România
Tel = 063-223 923, 224 706

Brasov District
Primaria Municipiului Brasov
Bd. Eroilor 8 R-2200
Brasov România
Tel = 068-116 550, 114 369
Fax = 068 152 628

Cluj District
Primaria Municipiului Cluj-Napoca
Bd. Eroilor 2 R-3400
Cluj-Napoca România
Tel = 064-111 743, 112 551

Harghita District
Primaria Municipiului Miercurea-Cluc
Bd. Timisoarei 11 R-4100
Miercurea Ciuc România
Tel = 066-111 819, 111 464

Maramures District
Primaria Municipiului Baia Mare
Str. Gheorghe Sincai 37 R-4800
Baia Mare RomâniaTel = 062-417 034

Mures District
Primaria Municipiului Tg. Mures
Piata Primariei 3 R-4300
Targu-Mures România
Tel = 065-132 463, 133 211

Satu-Mare District
Primaria Municipiului Satu Mare
Str. 1 Decembrie 1918 Nr. 13 R-3900
Satu Mare România
Tel = 061 713 550, 713 551

Sibiu District
Primaria Municipiului Sibiu
Bd. Victoriei 1-3 R-2400
Sibiu România
Tel = 069-210 449, 217 711
Fax = 069 216 033

Timis District
Primaria Municipiului Timisoara
Bd. C-Tin Diaconovici Loga 1-3 R-1900
Timisoara România
Tel = 056-190363, 193623
Fax = 056-190 635

If you are not able to travel to Romania, you may want to hire a professional genealogist to speed up the process. Prices are reasonable compared to other places in the world and well worth the cost. There are some excellent online resources where you can search for professionals who specialize in the type of research that you want. One of the best is the Association of Professional Genealogists that you can search from http://www.apgen.org/directory/index.php .

There are a few Internet sites that have good information about unraveling the genealogy of Romania including JewishGen.org which has a searchable database of people in Romania and Moldova located at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Romania/. The authors of this article are working on several projects located in Romania including the recently announced publication of records from Jewish cemetery at Oradea, Bihor, Romania. All persons included in the cemetery index are compared to all searches entered into FamilyTrackers.com. There is also a good list of Romanian Web sites located at http://www.genealogylinks.net/europe/romania/.

Gene Hall is a genealogist with almost 30 years of experience and the CEO of FamilyTrackers, Inc., a world-wide genealogy exchange dedicated to serving the needs of genealogists, genealogical societies, professional genealogists, and transcribers all over the world.

Marcel Mindrescu is a professional genealogist located in Romania and has access to all available records in Romania, Hungary, the Ukraine and Moldova. Marcel is a professional genealogist with years of experience researching records in these countries. Lookups and large projects are being published on FamilyTrackers. office@mindrescu.com.

This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it as you like. All that I ask is that you reprint it in its entirety without any changes including this text and the link above.

May is Jewish American Heritage Month

http://www.jewishheritagemonth.gov/

Happy Day in Hungary (well, for me, anyway!)

I had a minor breakthrough these past few days. While continually reviewing the records that I’ve found on my family, trolling for any little clue to run after, I found a birthplace for an indirect ancestor. His name was Izrael Silber, and he was born in Ujfeherto, Hungary, according to a marriage record I found a couple of months ago. First, though, a little background.

The family story goes that brothers Isidore and Simon Silber, from Temesvar, Hungary (now Timisoara, Romania) went north to Fony, Hungary and married sisters Sali and Jolan Schwartz. Simon and Jolan are my great-grandparents.

A couple of months ago I was at the Family History Library here in Salt Lake City, and found the marriage record for Simon and Jolan. This was pretty exciting because we had very little information about his parents, who turned out to be listed as Samuel Silber and Czeczilia Kupferstein. It also verified Simon’s birth date and place of birth (Temesvar), and said that the Silber family lived in Temesvar.

I decided to keep looking through all the marriage records to see if I could find any marriages for Jolan’s brothers and sisters (or anything, for that matter). That’s when I found Sali’s marriage record. However, her husband’s name was Izrael Silber (not Isidore), and his parents were Saji Silber and Terez Kupferstein. These Silber’s also lived in Temesvar, but Izrael was born in Ujfeherto.

Now, I was thinking, based on the family story, that Izrael and Isidore were the same person. It was not uncommon for Hungarian Jews to have a few different names, used at different times. I also figured that Samuel and Saji were the same person, as were Czeczilia and Terez.

Now, back to my story. This weekend I realized that Izrael was born in Ujfeherto, and that might be an avenue to pursue. (I haven’t had any luck looking for records from Temesvar–they pretty much don’t exist, or at least don’t exist in the Family History Library). Just by dumb luck, I decided to google Ujfeherto, and found a godsend! Someone has indexed the Jewish records for Ujfeherto, and I found a few familiar names. Not only did I find Izrael’s birth record, I found a sister of his. I also found a Samuel Silber and Czilli Kupferstein who had a son named Samu (listed Samu v. Moritz–not sure exactly what that means).

(That brings up another old family story–I seem to remember a story that my great-grandfather Simon had a brother who ran away from home in Hungary and was never heard from again. His name was Moritz. Could I have found him?)

So after seeing this (and that the records were on microfilm at the Family History Library), I went to the library yesterday to scroll through the film myself. Given the large number of Kupfersteins in Ujfeherto, I’m pretty much convinced that Czilli and Czeczilia and Terez are not the same person. I’m also guessing that Saji and Samuel are not the same person. However, I do think still, based on the family story, that they are all related. Isidore and Simon are probably cousins, not brothers.

As always, though, finding one bit of information just opens more doors and creates more questions. Now I’m more obsessed that ever!