An extraordinary find for Jewish records

A memorial register of Jewish burials turned up for auction in Brooklyn

The New York Times this week reported that several rare documents scheduled for auction were withdrawn after being spotted by a genealogy researcher. They included bound burial records for the Romanian towns of Cluj-Napoca and Oradea, whose Jewish residents were nearly all murdered by Nazis during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews perished in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during the Holocaust.

The Cluj-Napoca register, handwritten in Hebrew and Yiddish, was spotted online by a genealogy researcher who alerted Robert Schwartz, president of the Jewish Community of Cluj.

“Usually if a person dies, he is remembered by his community and his family,” University of Cluj professor Zoltan Tibori Szabo told the Times. “But in the case of hundreds of thousands of Jews in Eastern Europe, there was nothing left of them — even their documents were robbed and disappeared. You cannot reconstitute the history of a community without documents. We don’t even have a list of their names.” Thanks to the genealogist who noticed the records for sale in the online auction catalogue, a bit of this history may be reclaimed.

You can read the original New York Times article HERE. 

Copyright © 2021 by California Genealogical Society

New Genealogy Librarian for Sutro Library

by Mattie Taormina

Have you heard? The Sutro Library has a new Genealogy Librarian, Dvorah Lewis! She started work on June 5th and has already had positive feedback from a patron after she handled a complex question regarding Virginia tax lists. 

Her passion for the archives and genealogy began while she completed her Humanities Honors’ thesis, using this project as a way to explore her family history. After researching for two years, she transformed the few sentences she had based on cloudy memories into a novella supported by archival materials. 

An interview with her great Aunt Essie, the eldest member of her family at the time, revealed the heart of the project: a Jewish orphanage where Essie and her siblings grew up in during the 1930s – 1940s. This also happens to be America’s first Jewish orphanage located in Philadelphia. 

Dvorah found many treasures related to her family at the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, located at Temple University, especially the collection of materials related to the orphanage where her Aunt Essie grew up. Dvorah said, “The opportunity to touch, see, and smell these archival materials was an experience like no other!  I know first-hand what it’s like to find these incredible genealogy resources that shed light on your family. I hope to do the same for those researching their genealogy at Sutro Library.” 

She often encourages others to talk with the elder members of their families and research in a local archive—so many treasures are there to be discovered! Dvorah feels that by preserving the past, we can understand the present, and bring positive change to the future. This sentiment follows her in every aspect of her life. 

Go and visit Dvorah Lewis at the Sutro Library, part of the California State Library. It’s located on the fifth and sixth floor of the J. Paul Leonard Library on the campus of San Francisco State University.  

About Dvorah
Originally hailing from Davis, Dvorah went to Southern California to pursue her interest in creative writing. She earned her Bachelor’s in English with a minor in Jewish Studies and an emphasis in Creative Writing at UC Irvine—zot, zot! Dvorah returned to Northern California with her Master’s in Library Science (MLIS) from UCLA. While completing her graduate degree, she worked as a Reference Assistant at the Charles E. Young Research Library. For the past year, she worked as a Project Archivist for two Los Angeles Jewish institutions. 

She comes from a long line of state workers: her dad was a Correctional Officer (recently retired); her brother works for the Department of Finance; and her twin sister works in the Department of Pesticide Regulation. She is especially excited to be closer to her twin sister who is getting married in a few months! In her spare time, she continues to write and recently completed the last installment of her fantasy/sci-fi trilogy. After putting her genealogy journey on hold, she’s ready to delve back in, expand her family tree, and hone in on her genealogy research skills.

Copyright © 2017 by California Genealogical Society

Ready for a Genealogy Party?

by Janice Sellers

Image courtesy of Janice Sellers

Are you familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society?  It's one of the great genealogical societies in the Bay Area.  It has an upcoming indexing project that will help genealogists researching their San Francisco ancestors, and you can be part of it.

San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society

Jewish Records Indexing Party

Sunday, February 19, 2017, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m.

Oakland FamilySearch Library

4766 Lincoln Avenue

Oakland, CA 94602

Pay it forward, fellow genealogists! If you've ever enjoyed finding records easily by using a search form on JewishGen, FamilySearch, Ancestry, or many other genealogy sites, you have been a beneficiary of indexing. Indexing is the result of volunteers reading images of old records and typing the information into a searchable format.  You know how FamilySeach has an annual worldwide indexing event to make a big push on transcribing their online records?  We're doing the same kind of thing, but on a smaller scale.

The San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society has taken on the task of creating an index for the old burial records from San Francisco's Sherith Israel synagogue for the 1850s through 1906. We expect that these records will uncover currently unknown death dates for this period, one that is notoriously difficult to research due to record destruction after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. So we need REAL PEOPLE to read the records and type the information into Excel spreadsheets.

We will provide the snacks, computers, and instruction on this valuable and essential service. The records are handwritten, but we'll help you learn how to read them. If you can't stay for the whole afternoon, we will be happy to have you for as long as you can help. We will be giving out prizes for most records entered, longest time spent working, and a few more categories we have yet to think of. Don't miss this opportunity to make burial records accessible to genealogists around the world! The ancestors you find may be your own!

We would like to have an idea of how many people will be coming (so we can buy the right amount of food!), so please send a message to vicepresident@sfbajgs.org to let us know that you'll be there.

Copyright © 2017 by California Genealogical Society

1 million Angel Island immigrants: what genealogical clues were left behind?

Do you have Japanese, Chinese, Jewish, or South Asian ancestors that came through Angel Island? 

Join member Grant Din and learn about the more than one million people from over eighty different countries who were processed by officials on the island.  You might be familiar with Angel Island’s Chinese poetry-carved walls, but did you know that quite a lot of genealogical resources are now available to researchers?

Angel Island, photo courtesy of Linda Okazaki

Linda Okazaki, our current President says, “Grant is incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Angel Island, as well as the federal records generated when the immigration station operated there from 1910-1940. I've heard Grant speak several times while ‘on’ the island. Now I'm excited to have him present here at the California Genealogical Society’s Library.”

What’s the format?

Learn from case studies of Chinese, Jewish, South Asian and Japanese immigrants.  Find out about the National Archives and other resources that might be available for your own research.

Topics covered

• Gain an understanding of the different groups who passed through Angel Island.
• Resources for Angel Island and West Coast immigrant research that available online and at the National Archives in San Bruno.
• Interpret documents such as ship manifests to find valuable information.
• How to obtain government files such as "A-files" (A for "Alien") via online requests.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Member Grant Din has been working in Bay Area non-profit organizations for more than thirty years and has conducted genealogical research for even longer.

He works as the community relations director at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, where his work includes managing the Immigrant Voices website.  It currently houses 200 stories of Pacific Coast U.S. immigrants from throughout the world, including many who passed through Angel Island.

Grant's interest in genealogy started at a wedding reception in his youth, where a relative showed him to be the 36th generation of the Gong family on a family tree.  Later he learned that he’s a member of the 24th generation of Owyangs on his mother's side.

He recently received a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University and has traveled throughout the U.S. and China for his research.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

Pre-registration is required. Class size is limited so please register early. CGS members enjoy free admission. 

Not a member? Not a problem. 

Non-member admission fee is $30.00 and can be applied towards a new one year CGS membership (starting at $40) the day of the class.

Copyright © 2016 by California Genealogical Society