From: Israel P To: @PIKHOLZ.PML Subject: genealogy #54 Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:57:41 +0200 Dear Pikholz Cousins, I have quite a few items here on my list, so I will do some now and you can expect another in a week or so. Mazal tov to David and Jennifer Scharf (IRENE family) on the birth of a daughter Jordan Melissa in May. We lost an important team member a few weeks ago - Betty Lee (Buzy) Hahn - at age seventy-four. Buzy was a prominent member of the Jewish community of Denver as well as the general community and editorial obituaries appeared in both the Jewish and general newspapers. Buzy is my third cousin and finding her seven years ago was one of the landmarks of this project for me. Subsequently she visited family members in Pittsburgh and others visited with her and her family in Denver. Her newfound f amily also gave her additional attractions for her frequent trips to Israel. Buzy was also the person who initiated our trip to Galicia six years ago and in fact we actually met for the first time in the Warsaw airport. Condolences to her daughter, son, brothers and their families (who are members of this list) and to her husband Dave. We also note the passing last year of Dina Segal Weinreb (RavJG family) at age eighty. Dina was born in Stryj and after the war lived in New Jersey. I had never actually made contact with her, but am now in touch with her daughter in California, who has joined this list. I gave a gen talk (in English) at the Rehovoth branch of the Jewish Family Research Association in May. Rather than discuss the Pikholz Project as an example of single surname research, as I have done before, I went right to some of our puzzles and used them to discuss how we decide when we actually know enough to "assign" people to particular families. There were twenty people or so and it was well received. Two weeks ago, I sent a message to some of you asking that you look at the wedding photo at http://www.pikholz.org/marriage.html . One of the people in the photo is a Pikholz (I know which but didn't want to bias anyone by telling more) born in the 1890's. The couple had no children and although I have a theory who this person is, I have no proof whatsoever. So I was asking people who I thought were fairly closely related (cousin of grandfather, sibling of father, etc) if they detected a resemblance. No significant responses thusfar, but the ones I think are the closest relatives have not yet replied. Meantime, others are welcome to check out the photo and make comments. I will probably reveal details in my next summary. Six-seven years ago, I made some inquiries of the International Tracing Service (ITS) of the Red Cross in Bad Arolsen Germany, based on their card file at Yad Vashem. A few weeks ago, I (finally!) received a response, but with little new information. You may have read in the papers that there has been an agreement among the eleven governments responsible for the Arolsen files that will make those files available to researchers. It's about time! Until now, they (particularly the Germans) have been hiding behind claims of "privacy for the victims." A gentleman in the United States has advised me that he has acquired copies of all the Rozdol birth records in the Lwow archives (1828-1868) and that after doing data entry will make them available to us. Jacob Laor and the late Ephraim Pickholz had commissioned a search of these records before we got together eight years ago, but I am sure there are other records of interest beyond the forty that they acquired at that time. It has been two years since records were transferred from the Polish government to the AGAD archives and many of us were wondering when more would be made available. Recently, over a hundred books of records representing forty-one towns were sent to AGAD and they will be indexed and made available to us over the next few months. Of particular interest are 565 Skalat birth records (1902-5), 337 Zbarazh birth records (1904-5) and an undetermined number of birth and death records for Skole (1904-5). We have ensured that Skalat and Zbarazh will be among the first to be indexed - perhaps before the end of the summer. The Italian genealogists are continuing their indexing of the New York City marriage records and Steve Morse has set up a search which coordinates the brides and the grooms. (This is more complicated than you might think.) We have found several Pikholz spouses whose names we didn't know - including in one case a first husband of a Pikholz woman, whom no one had ever mentioned to me at all. At the beginning of "Genealogy #52," I mentioned a family from Budanow, who seem to have just one living descendant - and that one we have not been able to find. I had been trying to locate her through some cousins on her mother's side in Seattle, but they had not responded in any meaningful way. Last week, a woman for whom I had taken some grave photographs was visiting an old school friend and saw my letter on the husband's desk. So she pushed them to respond, but unfortunately they are related less closely than I had hoped and could not tell me anything. This may be a lost cause, but the chase has had its interesting moments. In my next summary, I'll tell you about one with a better ending. Plans are moving along for the Conference in New York. I don't know if I will see any of you when I am there and I am leaving that up to any of you who wish to arrange anything. Please note that I am probably changing internet providers soon, so make sure that you use IsraelP@pikholz.org , which will follow me everywhere. More soon. Israel P. -- End --