To: @PIKHOLZ.PML Subject: Genealogy #25 Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 20:40:08 +0300 Alot seems to be happening at once. at least my work table looks like alot is happening at once. Much of connected with the various archive efforts. But I'll get to that. The Red Cross Tracing Service in Arolsen Germany reported back on the first group of names we inquired about. There were eight names and the entire report was about two typewritten pages. No copies of documents as I had hoped. In some cases there was some new information. In others there was nothing new. In one case their information conflicted with what they had in their own card file. Those of you who are connected to those inquiries have been notified. I hope to hear on the second group of inquiries before the end of the summer. A year or so ago, I found a Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem for Gustaw (Gedalyahu) Migden of Tarnopol, whose mother was listed as Yaffa Pikholz. The page was submitted by his son Zygmunt who was in Israel at the time (1950's), but whom I could not find a trace of now. It took some effort, but a couple of weeks ago I found his grave - together with his wife, their fourteen year old son and Zygmunt's brother. They are buried in a tiny private cemetery on the edge of an orange grove in Ashkelon. This cemetery doesn't appear in any maps or listings. I won't bother you with the whole story, but I wrote it up for the Israel Genealogy Society journal, including a list of all forty-one graves. The four Migden graves are well tended and apparently have been visited in the last few months. Zygmunt had another son, with whom I'm trying to make contact. I recently visited the national archives in Jerusalem to see what they had on people who applied for citizenship under the British Mandatory Government. There is an index on microfilm and I found twelve Pikholz entries, all of whom are people we know - three of whom are still living. The British left an orderly index, but unfortunately left only about half the files, so without ordering them, we cannot know which files are actually there. The ordering and copying is fairly expensive (about $25 to see the file and about seventy-five cents per page to copy) and the two files I actually saw are more of personal interest than of genealogical interest. So I decided that I'll tell people if I see their close relatives in the index and if they want to pay the cost, I'll do the ordering etc. I did not check other surnames yet, but will get back to them, so if anyone wants me to inquire about someone, let me know. I believe I already mentioned that in addition to the Pikholz searches that Jacob Laor and I are doing for Rozdol, Skalat and Zbarazh files, I have gotten involved in the Jewish Records Indexing (JRI) project to index Galician files in the AGAD archives. Each town has a leader who solicits contributions to do the indexing for that town and that index eventually goes on-line on the JRI site (hosted by JewishGen). Ordering the records themselves is separate. The town leaders and those who make contributions of a certain amount get to see the index on an Excel sheet, which allows a much more thorough search than the online database. (No, I am not asking you for money for this indexing.) The first phase was towns in the Tarnopol area and I am town leader for Skalat, Zbarazh and Zalosce. I have received the Excel sheets for some of Skalat and they are a real treasure. The indexing for Phase One will be done in about a month. For Phase Two I have taken Rozdol, Zurawno and Skole (and also Komarno, which has little Pikholz significance), so I hope that we will make some progress. I have particularly high hopes for Skole, even tho there are not a lot of records from there. The pile on my desk includes several versions of summaries received from AGAD from the Pikholz searches of Zbarazh and several sets of JRI Skalat indecies. Jacob and I are trying to learn all this material, update our various databases and charts, decide what records to actually order etc. I am having trouble just keeping the piles straight. What we have learned from the piles is that the Laor and Getzel families are almost certainly brothers and the Tonka family may be a brother as well. In addition to the fact that Jacob's great-grandfather Josef was apparently Getzel's brother, he married Getzel's daughter after his (Josef's) first wife died and had a whole new set of children that no one seems to know anything about. Another family that is almost certainly part of this complex is the family of Zygmunt Pikholz who served with Gen Anders' Polish exile army and his cousin Irwin who lived in the US. Now I must get back to cleaning the kitchen, so I'll wish you all a happy and kosher Passover. More as it happens. Israel P. -- End --