Subject: Genealogy (#7)
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 

I hope this holiday season is treating all of you well.  We have a 
few more people joining us for this letter and the mailing list is 
now just ahead of Sammy Sosa's homerun pace.

The newly identified branch known as "Brezdowitz" has checked in 
with another generation and will probably grow to include the 
family of Sam & Fannie, who are referred to on the web site as 
"disappeared."

Anna Banner (SSDI section of unconnected people on the 
website) has been identified as the wife of William Pickholz from 
Brooklyn - not the dentist, the other one.  (Should have seen that 
before!)

Judith Pickholz from Belgium (see "unconnected people") seems 
to be the daughter of the Henrik buried in Holon.  Jacob Laor has 
a friend who contacted her by phone and we are now following up. 
 Henrik was one of nine children, so he should connect with 
someone we know.

I have this theory on the identification of the family of Eliezer 
(Pickholz) Haniel (Haniel with a het), the first Pikholz to make 
aliyah.  I believe that his mother Rivka Pikholz was a sister to 
Tema Kiwetz (the daughter of Eliezer Pickholz and his wife Chana-
Chaya) and that Chaim Pickholz from Skalat/Tarnopol was a 
brother as well.  It finally hit me (like a ton of bricks) that when 
Eliezer chose the name Haniel, he may well have been 
commemorating his mothers parents Chana & Eliezer, for Haniel 
seems to be a contraction of their names.  Won't stand up in court, 
but gives us where to look!

On the web site, Jacob has submitted the first ancestral 
biography, his grandfather Nachman.  This should set an example 
for the rest of you and makes interesting reading as well, 
especially for those who think that Jewish life in the fast lane 
began at Ellis Island.  I hope to see more of these in the next 
weeks.

Everyone who responded seems to be in favor of brief 
biographies of living people, so each of you is invited to submit 
what you want describing yourself and your immediate families. 
Please try to keep each submission focused on one person, if 
only to make it easier to index them.  The index page for this 
project is on-line.  I plan to put them up as you submit them, with 
the addition of a small chart showing the ancestors of the person 
described.  Anyone who wants to include spouse and 
descendants as well, please say so on a case-by-case basis.

And that brings us to trees.  It is time to consider putting trees on 
the web site as well, and that can be a real privacy invader.  So I 
will only do those that people want put up.  Here too, Jacob Laor is 
our guinea pig, and his family tree is available in text form via the 
web site.  I may make it into html later.  And anyone who insists on 
leaving out some specific information (a birth date for insistence 
or the name of Ms. Wrong), say so.  I'm willing to omit, but not 
falsify.

With these changes in the web site, I have redesigned the home 
page.  I also put in a short-cut to the "unconnected people"age, so 
that maybe people will take the challenge and get some of them 
identified.

Next week Frances and I are in Haifa, where I hope to combine 
genealogy with vacation.  I plan to catch the cemeteries there and 
meet with some older Pickholz "relatives" as well.  That will have 
me off line from this Friday afternoon until next Thursday evening.
After that I have military reserve duty until 4 November, but should 
be home most evenings.

Speaking of cemetery pictures, if I count correctly, we have ninety-
two graves on line and seven more in scanning etc.  I think I have 
nine more to get in two Haifa cemeteries.

More as it happens.

Israel P.

-- End --