Swapping Surname Confusion - The Impact of Religious (But No Civil) Marriage

In many parts of Austria-Hungary (including Galicia, Maramaros, Bereg, and many more megye), Jews would often have religious marriages but wouldn't register their marriages civilly.  This meant that while the community considered the couple fully married, the government considered their children illegitimate, and those children would generally have to use their mother's surname.  Sometimes people would marry civilly many years after their religious marriage because it was needed for some purpose, and this would retroactively legitimize their children.  (I saw this in my own family, when my great-great grandparents had a civil marriage after they were already grandparents.)

There are many implications for this in genealogy.  It means that yDNA, which generally follows the surname line, does not do so in these cases.  Sometimes, children of such a marriage would vacillate between using their father's surname and their mother's surname.  Sometimes an individual who used his or her mother's surname in Europe would immigrate to America and begin using his or her father's name.  An example of a confusion I've seen in my own family was with my great grandmother's first cousin Roza.  Her surname use teaches an important lesson for making sure that you don't overlook records for an individual from this part of the world.

Marriage of Roza Fuksz to Jakob Steinmetz, Maramaros-Sziget, Hungary (now Sighetu Marmației, Romania), 1914

JewishGen's JGFF / A Family Story Matching Documentation & Cousin Connection

Fuchs is one of those frustrating surnames when doing genealogical research; it's extremely common across Central and Eastern Europe, with most Fuchs families not related to one another.  My Fuchs family lived in what is now Novoselytysa, Zakarpattya Oblast, Ukraine, just across the border with Romania; it was formerly Taracujfalu and Felso-Neresznicze, Hungary and Novoselice, Czechoslovakia as well.  I have all of the Jewish and civil records of the town, and I have been able to connect all of the Fuchs individuals from that town to my 4th great grandparents, Gershon & Toba-Rivka.  (I've also indexed them, and they're searchable on Jewishgen.)  I was pretty sure that implied that Gershon was the first Fuchs in the town (or at least the only brother who had children in the town), but I had no concrete documentation one way or the other.  But now I may have a hint of what happened, thanks to JewishGen's awesome Jewish Genealogy Family Finder (JGFF).

My Entry in JGFF

Hers Fuchs. And His Brother Hers Fuchs. Huh?

My great-great grandmother had a brother named Eizik Leib Fuchs.  Eizik Leib married Gittel Buchbinder, and they had a bunch of kids.  Two of those kids were named Hers (pronounced Hersh) Fuchs, so I recorded the older Hers' death as "before 1887," as that was when Hers #2 was born.  So far no mystery, right?

Birth of Hers Fuchs #1; Felso Neresnicze, Hungary (now Novoslytsya, Ukraine); December 25, 1878

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

How Quickly the Holocaust Happened

My mother's parents were born in America, so I didn't hear about the Holocaust like I did from my father's parents, who both had survived the war in Poland (now Ukraine).  But my mother's parents had many relatives who had remained in Europe and who were Jews swept into World War II.  Until the war happened, they were living their everyday lives.  But this is a story of how quickly their lives changed--and ended.

From the Pesti Hírlap, February 1, 1944

My Great-Great Uncle's Marriage

My great grandmother had a brother named Mendel Fuchs.  Until I got civil vital records from his hometown of Dulovo (then Dulfalva), I didn't even know he existed.  Since that time, I discovered that he was born in 1900 and that he was murdered in Dachau in November 1944--and was even issued a death certificate.

But I didn't know what happened in between, although I did know from Dachau records that he'd been deported from Khust.  However, since many Jews were taken from their villages to Khust before final deportation, I wasn't sure where he lived as an adult.  But now I have some records from Khust, and guess who I found!

Mendel Fuchs Marriage, 1934

mtDNA Success!!

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down the direct maternal line.  mtDNA mutates very infrequently, so people (especially people from closed communities like Ashkenazim) tend to have dozens--or hundreds--of exact mtDNA matches, and those matches may be from common ancestors hundreds or more years back.  Some people dismiss mtDNA as being of much genealogical use.  But sometimes it can help you find another branch of your family, and it's just done that for me.  (And as I was in the middle of writing this, Roberta Estes posted about her own recent mtDNA success.)

Back in the summer of 2016, I wrote about how my mother had only one exact mitochondrial match, a man named Michael.  At the time, I noticed that while Michael was an exact match, they both had over 200 matches with one mutation's difference from both of them.  (Two-and-a-half years later, Michael is still my mother's only exact match, and they have over 380 matches with one mutation.)  In 2016, I recognized the name of one of those 200 distance-one matches and asked her how many exact matches she had.  It turned out that every one of those distance-one matches was an exact match to her mtDNA.  So I hypothesized that Michael and my mother were descended from one woman who relatively recently had a mutation that differentiated her mtDNA from the mtDNA shared by those 200+ people

My mother's mtDNA matches in 2016

Thanks, JewishGen: My Great-Great Grandmother's Surprise Burial Location

My great-great grandmother was Rochel Fuchs Rutner.  Although she never lived outside of what's now Subcarpathian Ukraine (although it was Hungary when she was born and Czechoslovakia when she died), I actually have gathered quite a bit of documentation about her life.

But I never knew exactly when she died.  I have the death records from Kolodne and Dulovo, where she lived from the time she married, and her death was not recorded.  I did have a window of when she would have died; she was alive in 1920 when my grandmother's older brother came to America, and she had a granddaughter named for her in 1927.  In addition, when her husband died in 1928, he was listed as a widower.

I had been in Kolodne back in 2016, and I photographed what is left of the Jewish cemetery.  When I got home, I transcribed all of the tombstones, and sent the transcriptions and associated photos to JewishGen's JOWBR.  The other night I wanted to check on a particular tombstone to see if it correlated with a lead I was following (more to come on that lead in a future post), and I was being lazy, so instead of searching through my computer, I just searched for Kolodne graves on JOWBR.

And this is why being lazy can pay off!

Partial JOWBR Listing for Kolodne

DNA & Naming Patterns Find Another Fuchs Branch (I Think)

Back in November 2016, a new match popped up on FamilyTreeDNA.  This person, IK, shared some very large segments with several of my family members.  Despite the fact that everyone involved here is 100% Ashkenazic Jewish (so endogamy abounds), these large segments imply that there is an actual close relationship.

DNA IK shares with some of my family members (showing matching segments of 10cM and higher)

My Great-Great Uncle's Death Certificate--From Dachau

At the end of 2016, I discovered the fate of my great grandmother's brother, Mendel Fuchs; you can read the little I know of his life here.

A few weeks ago, I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington.  The museum has access to an International Tracing Service (ITS) terminal, and I asked the wonderful person working there to look for records of several relatives.  And he found a record for Mendel.

Mendel Fuchs Death Record

Malka Vizel Fuchs Berkovics, Midwife

There's often little insight into the lives of our female ancestors.  If they even list a profession, it is usually "housewife" or "at home."

But I now know the profession of my 3rd great grandmother, Malka Vizel/Wizel Fuchs/Fux Berkovics.

Birth of Hers Fux, January 24, 1887

My Twice-Married Great-Great Grandparents

I've written before about how in Austria-Hungary, many couples had a religious wedding and were considered fully married by their communities; however, they never civilly registered their marriage, so their children were considered illegitimate.  In fact, I believed my great-great grandparents (Shmuel Moshe Rutner and Rochel Fuchs) were in this situation, as their children whose births were registered in civil records only listed a mother.

Birth of Mendel Fuchs (Rutner), 1900

My 4th Great Grandmother's Maiden Name (aka I'm My Own Grandpa)

My great-great-great-great grandparents were Gershon and Tobe-Rifka Fuchs.  Tobe-Rifka died at some point between 1850 and 1869, and I've not found her death record; records relating to her use both the names Toba-Rifka as well as just Rifka.  I had records relating to several of her children, but none included her maiden name.

1919 Death Record of David Fuchs--mother is simply "Toba Rifka"

What happened to Mendel Fuchs?

My great grandmother Esther Rutner Joshowitz had a brother Mendel.  I have his birth record--and then I had nothing else.  I didn't know if he died young (but I had no death record) or moved elsewhere.  I also didn't know what surname he used.

Birth record for Mendel Fuchs/Rutner

How to Vet Your In-Laws -- And the Power of Genealogical Collaboration

(I'm giving two talks next Sunday at the Ontario Genealogical Society's conference--hope to see some of you there!)

Most of my posts lay out facts that I'm confident about given my research.  This one will be more of an "I think" kind of post, rather than "I know."  And if anyone has any ideas to be able to get this to the "I know" level, please comment on this post!

I've already discussed my great-great-great grandparents, Baruch Tzvi/Hirsch and Malka (nee Vizel) Fuchs of Felso-Neresnicze (today's Novoselytsya).  Malka's parents were Eizik-Yehudah and Eidel Fuchs of Kryva (then Nagy-Kirva); Baruch Tzvi's were Gershon and Toba-Rivka Fuchs of Novoselytsya (then Felso-Neresniczse).

There was another Vizel/Fuchs couple in Novoselytsya as well.

Birth Record for David Fux's 1849 Birth--Registered in 1909

Who's Your Daddy (and Mommy), Mendel Fuchs?

Mendel Fuchs was born about 1823.  He may have been born in what's now Novoselytysa, Ukraine; at any rate, he was living there by the time he had children.  As this is the same place that my Fuchs family came from, I wanted to know if there was a connection.  By putting together the documentation I have on him--on documents relating to his children--as well as using naming patterns, I think I've figured out the connection.

Mendel had at least three sons with his wife Etya: David, Chaim and Hers.  Their birth records give some information about their parents.

Chaim Fux Birth; 1853

Award for Greatest Distance and Time-Lapse for a Birth Registration

And the award for going through the most difficulty to get a birth registered goes to....Eizik Fuchs, the brother of my great-great grandmother Rochel Fuchs Rutner!  Eizik's journey to get his birth registered spanned an ocean and more than seven decades.  When I started writing this post, I wasn't sure why he would have done such a thing, but in the course of writing this post, I figured it out!

From Josef Joshowitz's Ship Manifest; 1913

In 1913, Josef Joshowitz (my great grandfather) came to America, and he said he was joining his cousin "Eizig Fuchs" in New York.  I knew of my family's Fuchs connection but was never sure how Eizig was related.

Isaak Fux; Petition for Naturalization; 1909

Double Cousins, Double the Fun?

There was a cousin named Efrayim Fuchs, who lived in Bnei Brak, Israel, with whom my great uncle Izzy kept in touch.  I'd spoken to Mr. Fuchs about the family in the 1990s, and he told me that his father's name was Baruch Hirsch Rutner and his mother was Kreindel Fuchs--but since his parents weren't legally married (as was common in the area), he went by his mother's maiden name.  I have both Rutners and Fuchses in my family.  So how was Efrayim Fuchs related to me?  I have a new batch of vital records that have helped me to figure it out.

There was a family in the records that looked very similar to the siblings that Efrayim had described--but with a different surname for the mother.

Efrayim Fuchs/Rutner/Steinmecz Birth Record, 1913; page 1

Shmuel Moshe Rutner's Death

My great-great grandparents were Shmuel Moshe and Rochel (nee Fuchs) Rutner.  I didn't know when he died; when my grandmother Minnie's older brother (my Uncle Izzy) came to America in 1920, both Shmuel Moshe and Rochel were still alive.  Izzy's and Minnie's younger sister Ruth's Hebrew name was Rochel; Ruth was born in 1927, so Rochel likely died between 1920 and 1927.  But no one in my part of the family was named for Shmuel Moshe until the 1960s, by which time he would have been well over 100 years old.

But now I know when he died:

Mosko Ruttner Death Record, 1928

Malka Vizel Fuchs's Parents--Compiling the Clues to Find my 4th Great Grandparents.

Last week, I wrote about how I found a death record for a woman who may have been my great-great-great grandmother, but I wasn't sure it was her.  I was pretty sure I was out of data to prove or disprove that fact, and I was asking for guidance.

Well, turns out I found the data--some of which I already had and some of which I just discovered.

Malka Vizel's Death Record; 1896