To: @PIKHOLZ.PML Subject: Genealogy #18 Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 11:48:08 +0300 Now that I have more or less debriefed myself from Galicia, it is back to routine. But there is quite a bit going on. The trip report is now more or less complete and can be seen on the website. I still want to put up translations of tombstones, especially the ones from Rozdol. There are nearly fifty Rozdol photos, mostly broken stones which are partially legible, however they don't have last names and I could not identify any as being specifically "ours." We received the seventeen Rozdol 1869-80 birth records from Warsaw. For a change there were answers than questions. The person who put up the $170 for them thought he would be getting his mother's birth record. He got that and what appears to be two of her brothers, two of her sisters and a brother of his father. You never can tell what will show up in these records. We also found births for three daughters of Hersch Leib, to go with the five sons we already knew. And one of the nine siblings of Abraham and Dov Berisch, who died in childhood. The significance of that one was that the record gave the mother's maiden name, birthplace and parents' names. There were others who were part of families we have, without knowing how they connect, but only two records of the seventeen were completely new family units. The new mothers' information (which appears only from 1877) gives us the names Izak and Feige as the mother of Sara Rivka (SR/Nachman family), which is what we suspected. We still have what appear to be two couples by that name, but at least we are working it out. We can also now confirm that Sara Rivka's husband was Salomon (Zalman) Lerner, which is also what we thought. The first birth records (thirty-two, including two that were on pages with others, that Warsaw didn't notice! Most of these new records are people we didn't know from families we do know. There are four or five where we know the people themselves - Nachman/Nathan ben Getzel and Peretz/Barney ben Yaakov, for instance, both of whom are buried in NY. In those cases, the records have them several years younger than their gravestones testify. we also have five siblings of Max and Dora (the DORA family), and one may be Max himself. Also three from the TONKA family, probably five from the ROSA family, probably two from ORENSTEIN, probably three from GRIMAYLOW, one from ELIEZER and one new one from the Denver branch of the PITTSBURGH family. And some of theose who are not connected to known families are connected to one another and to other individuals we have from before. The Skalat records have also turned up the name Moshe Hersch several times. That name is at the top of the STEVE family and I expect that they are all connected. I have opened a new department on the website for summaries of the European archives and thusfar have entered these two new batches of records. As usual, thanks to Jacob Laor who handles the correspondence with Warsaw, the money and the translations as needed. I am planning a section of the web site with genealogy quotes from Rav Juda Gershon's books. (I told you about the new edition last time, right?) Israel Pickholz of Petah Tiqva has given us more of his father's family, including cousins of his father whom we knew previously only from Yad VaShem. His great-grandmother Feige was probably a daughter of Sara Rivka (the SR/Nachman family). (Another branch of SR/Nachman is the Weiss family in NY, but I have not succeeded in making contact with them. My letters have gone unanswered. The one son here knows nothing.) There are now vital statistics online for California and Texas. A preliminary look at California deaths show four. One was the wife of Samuel Pickholtz from Erie Pa. Another was David Holtz, so we now have a specific date for him. The other two were quite off the wall. Isadore Kaplan, born in Nebraska in 1893, died in San Francisco in 1953. His mother was a Pickholz. Henrietta Rochester Evans, born in Missouri (1911) and died in LA (1985) She was also the daughter of a Pickholz. The Social Security applications for these two are already on order, which should give us some more information. Steve in has discovered immigration records which are probably his great-grandfather and three daughters. The first names and the date are all right, but the last name is listed as BUCHHOLZ. We'll see what specifics the papers turn up. We are aware that Buchholz and Pikholz can be interchanged and have had records saying "Bikholz" which are certainly "ours," but this is the first Buchholz which looks like ours. (Most are easily eliminated, as they are from Germany rather than Galicia. I have not found any Galician Buchholz in either JewishGen or Yad VaShem.) Way to go, Steve! We have merged the family called Baruch into RavJG. Baruch's father was definitely Rav Juda Gerson's nephew. That family now has over 450 descendants - not counting the Roth family, who belong there, but we don't know exactly where. There is a database online for Manhattan naturalizations for 1915- 1924 that is free of charge until next Sunday. We have found one Pickholtz there so far and he is someone we'd like to find a birthplace for. The online information includes date of naturalization and file number, which makes ordering the papers easy. Sheli received an email Lotto promotion claiming that someone names Catherine Pickholz of Omak Washington won money. (Amazing how these new names turn up!) Anyone who can help locate and identify, your help will be appreciated. The problem of identifying Leo Pickholz is getting to me. All we know about him is from the Social Security index and we have his SS-5 form giving his parents' names. No birth place. He was born in 1894 and died January 1971. New York City has no death record and no NY-area cemetery seems to have him. SocSec doesn't list his last residence. Probably he lived elsewhere, tho he was a New Yorker when he joined SocSec. Maybe one of you Floridians would like to phone or write some of the local cemeteries? Finally, I have been delinquent in updating the pages of the web site which list Holocaust victims among Pikholz descendants. When I last did so, there were 255 names. There are quite a few more that I have not yet recorded. For those of us whose families have been in the US for a hundred years or more, the Holocaust was a distant tragedy that did not touch us personally. Please take a minute and look at this page on the web site: http://www.geocities.com/pikholz/Families/Dina.htm Don't just count the second and third generations. But look at generations 4 and 5 and think about what they should have been. Then take it personally. More as it happens. Wishing you all a happy holiday this weekend. Israel P. -- End --