Preschool Pal Leads to Genealogical Find

Did you ever think that a preschool classmate's blog post would give you information about your own family?  Well, it's happened to me.

Elli Fischer writes on HaMapah, which "aims to bring modern tools of quantitative and geographic analysis to Rabbinic literature."  It's definitely worth checking out.  His latest post in particular caught my eye because it involved Felsö Neresznicze, Hungary (now Novoselytsya, Ukraine), the town where my Fuchs family lived for generations and discussed the story behind the publication of a book coordinated by someone from that town.  Elli writes about the prenumeraten in this book, subscriptions that people paid for to help fund the book's publication.  And since the coordinator lived in Novoselytysa, it's clear that some people from that town would have subscribed.

Subscribers from Novoselytsya

Some Fine DNA

Back in 2013, I wrote about a potential new branch of the Fine family.  My grandmother had told me how her uncle Mordechai had come to America but had been sent back to Russia, where he was drafted into the Russian Army and killed in WWI.  On his ship manifest, he said he was going to an uncle, "Meyer Fein," in Toledo, Ohio, a totally new name to me (although I did know of Toledo Fine cousins).  I traced this Meyer back to England, where he'd lived and married after emigrating from Russia.  And his father lived with him--could this be my great-great-great grandfather?

As background, I wrote up tracking down this Fein/Fine family in a series of posts:

• A Fine British(?) Connection
• The British Connection, Part 2
• The British Intrigue Continues

I found out a lot about this family, including via an 1891 British census, where Meyer (there Myer Fein) is enumerated along with his father.  Hmmmm.....

1901 England Census, Hebel and Myer Fein, London

But I recently got in touch with someone who I thought could help answer that question.

Getting a GRIP on Jewish Genealogy - From Home!

This summer, I'm co-teaching a week-long intensive course on Jewish Genealogy, along with Emily Garber, Janette Silverman, and Marian Smith at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh.  And now GRIP will be going virtual, so you don't need to travel to Pittsburgh, and you can have an intense genealogical learning experience from your own home.  There are only a few seats left in our Jewish Genealogy class, but in addition to our class, there are lots of other great offerings.

So what would you learn in this course?

David Ruttner in the (1857) News!

As more and more foreign newspapers come online, I've been pleasantly surprised to find my ancestors mentioned.  Earlier, I wrote about how my 4th great grandfather's land was listed as about to be taken by eminent domain.  And a new article came online on Arcanum Digitheca giving a bit more information about what he could have done from there to try to keep his land.

Pest Napló, January 1857, Page 94