Have you ever volunteered to help transcribe/index records? While most of the records you transcribe will be useful to others, sometimes you will be surprised to find your own relatives.
While going through newly-acquired JewishGen Subcarpathian SIG records, I didn't expect to see any Rutners. The books were coming in from a town where I had no known connection (today's Nyzhnya Apsha, Ukraine; formerly Alsoapsa, Hungary), but I paged through some and indexed others.
There was a woman named Brana Mendelovics who gave birth to at least 7 children between 1907 and 1923. She wasn't (legally) married, but the father who claimed all 7 children as his own was of interest.
Brana's oldest was Mozes, born in 1907. His father was listed as Fisel Rutner, son of Sulom, born around 1885.
Fischel/Fisel/Fiszel Rutner (his name was spelled with all of those variations) was a son of Shalom/Salamon and Ruchlya/Roza Rutner, and he claimed paternity to all of Brana's children. Shalom's parents were Mendel and Itta Rutner, my great-great-great grandparents. Fischel was a first cousin to my great grandmother Esther Rutner Joshowitz--and without volunteering to get and transcribe these records, I never would have known he (and his family) existed.
Not only did Fischel exist, but at least one of his sons (Mozes) emigrated to America. And in the 1940 census, he had two children--who I've tracked down and sent letters.
Every time you search a database, all of the results are coming because someone helped to index records. Why not do some transcription yourself--you can help others and potentially even your own research! It doesn't matter if you only read English--take a look at these records, and you can see that you can read the names easily, even though the records are in Hungarian. And if you read another language (Russian? Hebrew?), there are transcription opportunities as well.
If you want to try transcribing some Hungarian &/or Czech records, consider this a shameless plus for JewishGen's Subcarpathian SIG; I have lots of records like these that need indexers. I'll send you a template and instructions, and it's pretty straightforward. If you read another language and want to transcribe from that language, let me know, and I'll link you up with people leading other projects. Either way, email me at larasfamily AT gmail DOT com or leave me your email in the comments.
Note: I'm on Twitter. Follow me (@larasgenealogy).
While going through newly-acquired JewishGen Subcarpathian SIG records, I didn't expect to see any Rutners. The books were coming in from a town where I had no known connection (today's Nyzhnya Apsha, Ukraine; formerly Alsoapsa, Hungary), but I paged through some and indexed others.
There was a woman named Brana Mendelovics who gave birth to at least 7 children between 1907 and 1923. She wasn't (legally) married, but the father who claimed all 7 children as his own was of interest.
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| Birth Record of Mozes Rutner |
Brana's oldest was Mozes, born in 1907. His father was listed as Fisel Rutner, son of Sulom, born around 1885.
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| Comment on Birth Record for Mozes Rutner |
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| Birth of Ita Ruttner, 1919 |
Not only did Fischel exist, but at least one of his sons (Mozes) emigrated to America. And in the 1940 census, he had two children--who I've tracked down and sent letters.
Every time you search a database, all of the results are coming because someone helped to index records. Why not do some transcription yourself--you can help others and potentially even your own research! It doesn't matter if you only read English--take a look at these records, and you can see that you can read the names easily, even though the records are in Hungarian. And if you read another language (Russian? Hebrew?), there are transcription opportunities as well.
If you want to try transcribing some Hungarian &/or Czech records, consider this a shameless plus for JewishGen's Subcarpathian SIG; I have lots of records like these that need indexers. I'll send you a template and instructions, and it's pretty straightforward. If you read another language and want to transcribe from that language, let me know, and I'll link you up with people leading other projects. Either way, email me at larasfamily AT gmail DOT com or leave me your email in the comments.
Note: I'm on Twitter. Follow me (@larasgenealogy).
Hear hear!!
ReplyDeletelike!
ReplyDeleteI also transcribe Russian records for Lublin-area shtetls right now.