In the prior blog Holding Conflicting Thoughts, we last left off awaiting records from the US Holocaust Museum. Of those that I received, Chaia's death record presented the most new information. One side was in German, the other in Polish. This repetition was useful, deciphering handwriting often is easier when we get two shots at it in two different languages. Two witnesses were listed with ages and addresses. Chaia's date of birth and death were listed as well as her parents Szlama and Szajna and here her maiden name looked like Wilowski although the Holocaust Museum had transcribed it as Witowski. I was able to decipher individual words using Google Translate, but the handwritten text was often difficult to read.
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As I contemplate the challenges of deciphering handwritten letters, I go back to study the document and note that the same W in Narewka is read as an N in Wilenski. Still a bit skeptical as to whether the W is an N, I do a search for the names Wilowski and Wilenski. As far as common names, Wilenski wins by a landslide. I am leaning towards this interpretation when I discover a listing on JRI-Poland of names from the Bialystok region and there is Wilanski as well as a Galunski. I confirm that Cyrulnik is on the list while I'm at it.
When a "ski" is at the end it was originally formed from a patronymic, the father's name and an ending that means "son of". Families used patronymics before last names were required and while some may have turned the patronymic into their permanent name, it is possible that they took another name. Perhaps that also contributes to our multiplicity of maiden names.
Look at the Witnesses
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Choosing Your Search Engine
Now I had three surnames to search, Lape, Gliksztajn and Kaminska. At this juncture I turned to the Lodz Ghetto Database which lists those who were trapped in the ghetto during the war. There are a few doorways to it. It comes up on searches in the Survivors and Victims Database at the Holocaust Museum and their search engine allows you to search on multiple variables which pull up a variety of records from many sources. Sometimes I like to pull up a broad universe of only one source and go through each record. For that I preferred the Jewishgen gateway to the Lodz Ghetto Database. It returns results solely from that database instead of mingled with other sources, but allows a search on only one variable at a time. With more results on a page, you can easily use the find command to do a secondary search for additional family members by address. You will find the search field at the very bottom of the page in the link above.
I began by searching for Szajna Ruchla Kaminska (i). The female form has an "a" at the end, but the male form has an "i". I used the find command to search each page for any names that were close and then verified the year of birth. Once I felt certain that I had found the correct record, I shifted to searching for the addresses among that surname in order to find all family members. It is a laborious process, but one with satisfying results. By the time I concluded this effort I had found Szajna Ruchla's husband and two children. I had also found Sara's husband and her younger two children who both carried the name Gliksztajn. In addition I found the child of Sara's husband from his first marriage together with his wife and child. Chaja Lape was listed with the maiden name of Cyralnik. Remember she had the maiden name of Soralnik in the 1916-21 registration cards. A name that survived decades is one to which I pay attention.
Now I began to drill down another level. The records all indicated a year of birth, a name and an address. Could that information verify anything about relationships? I soon discovered that both of Szajndla Ruchla's siblings were listed at two addresses. I imagined that they may have moved when their mother Sara died. Their second address was Baluter Ring 6 Flat 3. Szajndla Ruchla's address at the time of her grandmother's death was Baluter Ring 6 Flat 2. This is where remembering the human dimension is valuable. What do people do in times of loss? They reach out to be near family.
New Sources Emerge
As I was proceeding down this road a new source emerged. Remember those Lodz registration records from 1916-1921? An email came out on the JRI-Poland email list indicating that all of the records were now posted. Previously I was only able to find the records for the Lapes. Now I returned to search for Gliksztajn and Kaminska. I was a bit doubtful of finding anything because Sara and Kalman didn't marry until 1924 and Szajndla was born around 1914 so was still a long way from marrying and acquiring her married name. Nonetheless a good genealogist leaves no stone unturned.
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As I continued to search I found an additional listing for Sara Gliksztajn with the maiden name Lape, born in 1893. There were two addresses listed, one which corresponded to that of Chaia and Moszek Lappe and the second which corresponded to that of Chaim Gliksztajn.
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We've made a lot of progress, but uncovered some mysteries as well. In my next post, we'll take stock of where we stand. See Taking Stock for our conclusion.
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