Subject: Genealogy #64 Reply-to: IsraelP@pikholz.org Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:37:16 +0200 Dear Pikholz Cousins, Fact is, I was planning to write this summary today anyway, but now I can wish mazal tov to Merav and Aharon-Zvi Brand on the birth of a son this morning. You may congratulate the grandfather by pushing the "reply" button. We also have two marriages to report, both in the IF2 family and both here in Israel. Efrat Hakak was married to Zeev Gorodeski on 6 November and Nechemia Weiss married Meital Agiv last Wednesday. I was priveliged to attend the first, but missed the second due to the snow that closed the roads near us. Mazal tov to both couples and their families. We also lost one of our members, Esther Pickholz, widow of Rabbi Morris Pickholz (IF1 and IF4 families). That was on 22 December / 13 Teveth and we extend the group's condolences to her two daughters and her son, all of whom receive these summaries. Our major Pikholz development of the past months, is regarding the BUCZACZ family. I wrote at length about this family in Gen #57 - http://www.pikholz.org/Mailings/Letter59.txt - and the problem there is demonstrating that the father of the Buczacz branch - Chaim Yaakov Pikholz - is in fact a son of Mordecai Pickholz of Skalat (ELIEZER branch). A couple of months ago, I received a note from a Hassidic genealogy researcher, with whom I have some overlapping interests and who, for a living, translates and edits documents and manuscripts. This man is working on the memoirs of a rabbi about my grandfather's age who lived in Pittsburgh and whom I met a few times as a teenager. This rabbi knew our family from Zalosce (where my gf was born) because his father had been the rabbi of Zalosce before WWI. It turns out that the memoirs mentions a connection between the rabbi's family and the family of Chaim Yaakov Pickholz of Buczacz and he describes Chaim Yaakov in a way that is strikingly similar to the wording on the "Chaim Yaakov ben Mordecai" tombstone in Buczacz. (See that stone at http://www.pikholz.org/Cemetery/ChYaakov_Buczacz.html ) It is my policy that when I "know" something but cannot quite prove it, I wait to find one more piece of supporting evidence before recording it as fact. These memoirs were the "one more piece" that I needed in order to merge the Buczacz family into the Eliezer family. The Gesher Galicia research group has a new DNA project which might interest some of you, including a discounted rate for DNA gen testing. I think you don't have to be a member of gesher galicia in order to participate at the discount rate. You can see the project at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/GesherGalicia/ and the testing site is http://www.familytreedna.com/jg.asp?group=Gesher_Galicia . (I am a board member of Gesher Galicia but am not involved in the DNA project.) Registration is open for the Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which will be held in Chicago, 17-22 August. Details at http://www.chicago2008.org/ There is a nice Galician program planned for Monday. I have submitted proposals for two presentations, both on methodology, with examples from the Pikholz Project. Finally, last week I accepted an early retirement offer and I hope that I shall be able to spend more time on genealogy - both my own family projects and as a source of income. I am also spending a lot of time these last three months as the (volunteer) editor of the Israel Genealogical Society quarterly journal, Sharsheret Hadorot. See more on that at http://www.isragen.org.il/NROS/BIB/SHD/shdMain.html More as it happens. Israel P.