Subject: Genealogy #59 Reply-to: IsraelP@pikholz.org Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:21:20 +0200 Dear Pikholz Cousins, I have renewed contact with a brother and sister in the Weiss branch of the IF2 family and as a result have been able to add an eighth generation to that family. In fact, I think there are several members of that generation, but my contacts are kind of tentative for now. The truth is that although they are US-born, both live here in Israel - one less than half an hour from me - so if I would just get my act together and visit them, it would probably go faster. There are some members of the IF1 family who consider this Weiss family to be close relatives, which is another reason to believe that the tops of the IF1 and IF2 families are siblings. The whole problematic structure of the IF1-4 families is discussed at http://www.pikholz.org/Volunteer/Puzzles/IzakFeige.html and is one of the examples in my lecture "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - What You Know vs What You Can Prove" which was planned for the Salt Lake City Conference in July. To my dismay, this lecture proposal was not accepted by the Program Committee, so my only lecture will be on another subject - for which I have only the barest notion of what I want to say. As it looks now, my trip this summer will include little else than Salt Lake City itself, though the genealogy resources available there are unmatched and I hope to find the time and patience to utilize them. In an earlier summary I mentioned my correspondence with the Israeli Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding their refusal to grant access to death certificates. I had an article on the subject in the last issue of Sharsheret Hadorot (the Israel Genealogical Society's quarterly) which you can read at http://www.isragen.org.il/NROS/BIB/SHD/Pickholtz/pik- e.pdf . Two other articles have been accepted for publication - one in Sharsheret and one in The Galizianer. The first relates to our success in getting a settlement of over ten thousand dollars for a ninety-five year old Pikholz widow, from her brother-in-law's insurance policy, which was issued before the Holocaust. The other relates my unexpected discovery last summer of the Brummer graves at Beth David Cemetery in NY. I'll make both of those available to you after publication. Last fall, ancestry.com had a promotion which allowed access to more United States passenger manifests, beyond the usual 1892-1924 Ellis Island entries. That gave us eight additions to the Pikholz Pioneers page at http://www.pikholz.org/Pioneers/Pioneers.html . A new set of New York City marriages has been indexed and placed on line and Steve found three of ours there. Two - from 1895 - are for Rebecca/Beatrice Pikholz and Max Rosenbaum, of the DORA family - a couple we know. The third is the 1894 marriage of Rachel Pickholz to Solomon Brandt. Our only previous reference to this Rachel is in the Hamburg passenger list, showing her sailing to the US in 1890, and we have no idea what happened in her life after her marriage to Solomon Brandt. The Hamburg list says she is from "Radsimil Russia" which may be a town a bit north of Brody, but we have no other Pikholz references up there. I don't suppose any of you recognize this Brandt couple or their descendants. We now have a copy of the entire birth register for 1829-1868 in Rozdol. Jacob Laor had acquired most of the Pikholz records from there shortly before he and I met, but we did find the 1864 birth record for Samuel ben Hersch-Leib (IF1 family) in this new set, as well as birth records for several Pikholz spouses. This Samuel is the father of the family that ended up in South Africa and some of those who went to Argentina. Samuel's wife is buried in Buenos Aires, but we don't know about Samuel himself. The same Rozdol researcher who acquired those records from Lwow has also acquired the 1850 Rozdol census, which I hope to have a look at soon. I am not sure what information is included in that census. Generally non- Russian European census records from the 1800s only name the head of household and are more concerned with taxing his possessions than in enumerating his family members.. The Mormons have recently completed filming a large number of Lwow records and once we get a better handle of what they have, we will be able to see what they have on "our towns" and how best to get access to them. There is a list available, but I haven't had the patience to review it yet. The last batch of records we acquired from Poland included a 1903 Skalat birth record for one Getzel Streicher, whose mother was Etel Pikholz of the LAOR family. I found two sets of Pages of Testimony at Yad Vashem showing that this Getzel Streicher was killed along with his wife Chaye Moster and three children. Those Pages were submitted by members of the Moster family. However the original Skalat memorial book has a gruesome passage which mentions the deaths of Getzel Streicher and his wife Nechama Hecht. It is possible of course that there were two men with this name in Skalat, but when I checked with my favorite Skalat expert - whose memory is still sharp in his eighty-ninth year - I was told that there was just one Getzel Streicher and his wife was Nechama Hecht. I do not know if we will be able to resolve this apparent contradiction. Another new Page of Testimony (from 1955) refers to Yetta Lewinter of Podhajce, the daughter of Shimshon Lewinter of Skalat and his wife Cyla Pikholz. The Page was submitted by Yetta's husband, Aharon (Schechter) Michel. I have no idea who this Cyla was, though it is fairly clear that she was from Skalat. An odd aspect of this is that Lewinter is not a Skalat name, but is common in Zalosce (where my own grandfather was born) and in neighboring Zbarazh. We have another Skalat Pikholz family in Podhajce and the mother of that man is a Lewitter (as in Levite), very similar to Lewinter, but not the same at all. The problematic circular proof regarding Chaim-Yaakov (ben Mordecai?) of Buczacz, which I mentioned recently, is no closer to resolution. None of the six Pikholz Buczacz descendants has been able to shed any light one way or the other, so we cannot yet define the BUCZACZ family as a branch of the ELIEZER family, even though I am quite sure it is. And speaking of circular logic, I am writing this now as we approach the Passover holiday and for that reason, but will nonetheless use the silly expression "let me take this opportunity" and wish all of you and your families a happy, kosher and meaningful Passover. As Nisan has been the month of our past redemption, may it soon be the month of our ultimate redemption. Israel P. -- End --