Nizhyn & Kozelets 1836 Metrical Records

I've written about my family who lived in and around Nizhyn, Ukraine (then Nezhin, Russian Empire), which has been in the news lately in a not-good way.  Right before the Russian invasion, I was working with the Chernihiv archives (another town unfortunately in the news) to get digitized versions of the few years of metrical (vital) records for the Nizhyn Jewish community that hadn't yet been digitized by FamilySearch.  (If you want to look at the incredible set of already-digitized records, check out my quick guide here.)  About a week before the Russian's invasion, I received Nizhyn's 1836 birth records as well as all 1836 metrical records for Kozelets.  I was working on getting 1841's, but those will have to wait until the Russians are beaten and things settle down for the people working in the archive.

A sample page of Nizhyn metrical records

One-Day Workshop to Benefit Ukrainians/Jewish Roots in Ukraine: Context and Connection

I'm thrilled to partner with Tammy Hepps, Brooke Schreier Ganz and Jennifer Mendelsohn to offer a workshop on Jewish roots in Ukraine, with all proceeds going to Razom for Ukraine and the American Joint Distribution Committee, who are assisting Ukrainian refugees.

Jewish Eviction from Towns within the Russian Empire

My second cousin four times removed was Feiga Lefand, who lived in Drozdovka, near Nezhin in Chernigov Guberniya, Russian Empire (currently Drozdivka, Ukraine).  My 5th great grandparents (and Feiga's great grandparents) had received permission to move there based on an 1853 request (which led to the authorities trying to draft Lefand kids and multiple years of petitions that I've written about here).

In 1885, Feiga married Meir Lieberman, and they lived in Drozdovka as well.  In the 1888 census, they had two young children, Simon and Dvora.  But then in 1889, Meir was evicted from Drozdovka because he didn't have permission to be living there.  He appealed his eviction and left us some insight into what Jews needed to deal with when living in the Russian Empire in the 1880s.

Part of the case related to Meir Lieberman's forced eviction from Drozdovka

Using DNA Painter - When You're Jewish

DNA Painter is a very cool tool that allows you to visualize DNA that you inherited from specific ancestors.  But when you're from an endogamous population like I am, there are some potential pitfalls for which you need to account.

DNA I Inherited From Different Ancestors

My Great-Great Grandmother Voted - How I Discovered That and Her Birth Year

My grandmother Sonia was close to her paternal grandmother Ronia.  In fact, when Sonia's parents moved to the village where her maternal grandfather lived, my grandmother and her sister remained in the city of Horochov with Ronia.  Ronia was a city woman who did not want to move to a village, and the girls stayed with her to continue at their school.  (You can read my grandmother's perspective on that time here.)  In any case, I had no documentation of Ronia's life, other than what my grandmother had told me about her.

Recently on JewishGen, there was a post about "Documents from Volyn, Ukraine."  Since my father's parents are both from Volyn (Volhynia), I took a look.  This post mentioned a site (https://en.volynia.com/) with indexes of various documents from this area.  The site lists surnames included in each set of documents and in the list of those registered to vote in Horochov in 1938 there was a Bajcz--my grandmother's maiden name.  I reached out to the site owner and asked if this was Avraham Bajcz, my great grandfather.  He said it wasn't--but it was a woman named Bronia.  Hmmmm.....  Bronia/Ronia were very very similar.  I ordered a copy of that record.

Bronia Bajcz Voter Registration

Jewish Burials in Eastern Europe - Relatives Left Behind?

My immediate ancestors were all in America by 1947--and my mom's ancestors by the early 1920s.  But especially for the branches of my family who came over earlier in the twentieth century, we know that they left relatives behind.  My family, like many others, lost contact with those relatives over the years--and definitely post-Holocaust.  Many of those who stayed behind (and survived the Holocaust) were buried in local Jewish cemeteries.  And finding those burials can potentially point you towards their descendants.

Grave of Leia Zubkov Linetzky, Courtesy mitzvahemet.com

Intensive Course in Galician & Russian Empire Jewish Genealogy

If you're interested in a week-long intensive course in Jewish Genealogy (focusing on Galicia and the Russian Empire), then you'll want to jump on this.  I'm one of the instructors in this course at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), along with Emily Garber (who's doing the hard work of coordinating everything), Janette Silverman and Marian Smith.  This was supposed to be an in-person class in Salt Lake City and we were entirely full, but thanks to Omicron, it's now virtual.  And this opens seats and opportunities for more people to join.