Tracking Mira's Children: Chava/Eva

This is the fifth in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.  You can see everything in this series to this point here.

Chava Marienhoff (and her twin Yaakov) were born on July 1, 1887 in what is now Nezhin, Ukraine, to Mira and Yitzchok Marienhoff.

Birth Record for Chava & Yaakov Marienhoff; Nezhin, Ukraine; 1887

By the time the Russian Empire's 1888 Poll Tax Census was taken in 1888, Yaakov had died, but Chava is there as a one-year old living with her parents and some of her older siblings and half siblings.

Russian Empire 1888 Poll Tax Census; Chava Marienhoff is the 1-year-old

Ancestor Deep Dive: Avrohom Beitch

My great grandfather was Avraham Beitch (also spelled Bajcz in Polish).  He was born around 1885 in the small village of Huben, near what is how Horochiv, Volhynia, Ukraine (then Horochow, Poland) to Tzvi Hirsch and Ronia (nee Lazovnik) Beitch but grew up in Horochow (when it was the Russian Empire).  He had one sister Etia, who died of typhus during the First World War.

Avraham Beitch, About 1932

He married Batsheva Fine in September 1918 in Lutsk, Volhynia, Ukraine (then Luck, Poland).  By 1922 they were living in Horochow, where my grandmother Sonia/Sara was born.  She was followed by Malia (accent on the first syllable) and Hershel, who lived for only one year.

How Genealogy Saved (or Significantly Changed) My Life

I've been quiet on my blog recently.  I've been a bit preoccupied with some other things that I'll explain below--all of which started with my genealogy addiction.

I wrote earlier how I found another whole branch of my family via DNA testing.  This was so exciting that I decided to test with the other large companies in case other lost cousins had tested with those.  One of those companies, 23AndMe, offered health information in addition to identifying potential cousins.  I viewed the health benefits as a side feature, but I checked my account daily to see if my results were back and if there would be more clues to help with my genealogy search.

And then the results came.  And my life changed forever.

Ancestor Deep Dive: Shmuel Moshe Rutner

(NOTE:  This post has been updated with much new information.  Read the updated version here.)

Shmuel Moshe Rutner was my great-great grandfather.  He was born in 1855 in the town of Kolodne (also called Darva) which was then in the Austria-Hungarian Empire and is now in Subcarpathian Ukraine.

Extract from Shmuel Moshe "Mosko" Rutner's birth Record--Extract from 1922, Birth in 1855

Shmuel Moshe (legal name Mosko) Rutner (also Ruttner)'s parents were Mendel and Yita (nee Farkas) Rutner.  So far as I know, he lived in Kolodne his entire life.

Tracking Mira's Children: Liba/Elizabeth

This is the fourth in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.You can see everything in this series to this point here.

Liba Marienhoff was born around 1890 or 1892 in Nezhin, Ukraine.  Her birth was not recorded in the Jewish metrical records--which seemed to be not unusual for girls, as there were almost double the number of boys as girls recorded in the town's birth records of the 1890s.

The first mention of her is when she came to America with her mother, sister, brother and half-nephew in 1906:

Liba Marienhoff Ship Manifest, 1906 (line 3)

The British Intrigue Continues

I wrote earlier about how I found a potential British connection for my family and how I got a copy of my grandmother's probable great uncle's marriage license in England.  Thanks to the advice of JGSGB, I contacted the Office of the Chief Rabbi in London to request of copy of Meyer and Rachel Fine's marriage authorisation.

Meyer and Rachel Fine Marriage Authorisation, Manchester, 1896

The Supkoff--um, Zubkis--Family

My great-great grandparents were Yeshaya and Zlata Tzipra (nee Sanshuck) Supkoff.  I've blogged earlier about how the Supkoffs were from the town of Shpikov, but I hadn't been able to find them in the metrical records that our Shpikov group obtained.  I knew that Yeshaya had at least one brother Yossel and three sisters who never left Europe and whose names were unknown, and that his father was Shaul Ber.

Recently, we got another batch of records, the largest part of which is a revision list from around 1895--basically a census of the Jewish residents of Shpikov.  They're being transcribed by volunteers, and that process is still ongoing.  However, the first pages of the records are an index to the heads of each family in the overall records.  I asked the volunteer transcribing the records if he was Supkoff or Zypkoff in the index--but he didn't.  Oh well.

But then Alexander sent the first half of the transcription of the index--and a quick glance through the names made me do a double-take--"Shoel-Ber Zubkis" was listed as a head of family.  The Zubkis name was familiar to me.

Elke & Malke Zupkin Boat Record, 1906