Subject: Assaulting the Skalat archives Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 19:45:41 +0200 As the next major step in our project to identify and connect all the Pikholz families, we have decided that it is time for an assault on the archives for Skalat. I am directing this letter to all the Pikholz descendants, not just the Skalaters, because it appears to us that since the Skalat records we have so far predate the Rozdol and Stryj records, there is a very good chance that the "root" records for all of us are in fact in pre-1850 Skalat. The archives in Warsaw has thirty books of Skalat vital records. Their charge to search those will be thirty dollars (US) per book - or a total of $900. For that, we will learn what they have (such as birth of Moshe Pikholz 1846). There will be another $10 charge for each record itself. We have also asked non-Pikholz Skalat researchers to add names of their own to this search and to participate in the funding. And of course any of you with other Skalat names are welcome to add them to the search. We are fortunate that Jacob Laor - a Pikholz descendant living here in Israel - is willing to coordinate this project. Jacob reads and writes Polish and has experience dealing with the archives. Since I will be offline for most of this week, I suggest that you contact him if you have any questions. Jacob can be found at Checks should be made out to "Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwow Panstwowych" and sent to Jacob Laor, 11 Arazim Street, Kefar Sava 44456, ISRAEL. (It would be good if you sent an email message to both of us telling us that something is on the way.) We are not setting a deadline on this, but I hope that in maybe three weeks we will send off our first batch of requests and any names that come in later will miss part of the time period being researched. Israel P. -- End --