From: IsraelP Subject: Genealogy #74 Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:06:47 +0300 Dear Cousins, As the Sephardic Rosh Hashanah prayer says, "May this passing year see the end of curses and may this new year see the beginning of blessings." A bit of summary. The IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Washington DC was very nice, particularly the interactions with other genealogists. My own talk - "Beyond A Doubt - What We Know vs What We Can Prove" - was very well received. I also met Skalat Pikholz descendants from two different families, who live in the DC area. The rest of my four weeks in the US included the bar mitzvah of my second grandson and the NY wedding of my second son (who also participated in the Conference). Those occasions and the time in between gave me a chance to meet with actual relatives, newfound relatives, presumed relatives from Skalat families, non-relative Pikholz descendants from Rozdol families, possible DNA relatives and others. Everything was quite successful, except my NY cemetery day which was partially rained out. (I did add a number of Pikholz grave photos from Pittsburgh and Cleveland.) All of this was on the heels of my second daughter's wedding here in Israel a few weeks previous. The day of Eliezer's wedding in NY was also the NY funeral of David Portnoy, husband of Judge Ruth Pickholz (IRENE family). I had met both of them five years ago and extend condolences here to Ruth and her daughter. The last of the immediate family of Leonard Pickford (originally Pickholtz, DORA family) also passed away recently. A few days ago, I had a lengthy phone conversation with the family's caregiver, in Amarillo Texas. After being one of our frustrating brick walls for some years, we have learned quite a bit about the family of Leonard's father Joseph. (I have not yet updated the Pikholz Project website with all these recent deaths, but will do so soon.) One of the people I met at the conference is a Skalat researcher who has begun work on the Kornweitz family. You can see some background on my interest in this family at http://www.pikholz.org/Mailings/Letter40a.txt and perhaps we will be able to move this research ahead. I would have thought that by now most of our new discoveries would answer questions, but sometimes we find new ones. Recently I found thirty-three year old, unmarried Harris Pickholz in the 1910 census and I have no idea who he is. He is one of three boarders with the family of Hirsch Rubin on Attorney Street in Manhattan. All the boarders are "fillers" in a wine store and Rubin is a store owner - maybe that same wine store. Harris Pickholz is Austrian-born as are his parents and he supposedly entered the US in 1910. Another new one is from a Lwow newspaper announcement of the February 1924 engagement of Genia Pickholc and Izrael Grundald. No idea who they are. May this new year 5772 be a time of good health, freedom, security and prosperity and may you and your families be written and sealed in the Book of Life. Israel P.