Getting to Gittle: Some of the Rest of the Story

When we last met (here) I was celebrating the discovery of Gittle Ett Rothleder's long-sought last name. I was able to link her to Gertrude Rothleder identified in the 1950 census living with her brother Dave Ett and his family. I found that she'd passed away in 1952 and located her grave in Mount Hebron Cemetery. But genealogy leaves no time for dilly-dallying. There certainly are more questions about Gittle.

More of the Story 

Family members who remembered her told me that Gittle lived in Argentina and immigrated to the United States sometime in the 1940s after her daughter died. 

My research found that Gittle lived for almost 20 years in Argentina.

Indexed arrival manifests on CEMLA.com (Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinamericanos) showed that Gittle arrived in Buenos Aires aboard the S.S. Arlanza as Guitla Rothleder on 22 September 1926. She was identified as a widow, born in Zaleszczyki, of Polish nationality, and 50 years old (born about 1875 - consistent with most of the other records we have for her thus far). She had embarked on her voyage from Cherbourg, France.[1]

Why did she go to Argentina when most of her siblings were in New York? By that time the United States had implemented restrictions on those who were allowed to immigrate. But, her decision, likely after her husband died in the Zaleszczyki area, was probably more personal: her daughter, Perla, and Perla's family were already in Argentina.

There was no indexed arrival manifest for Perla on the CEMLA.com website. This is, apparently, not unusual: the records are not complete.

Lucky for our research, the surname Rothleder is uncommon. Alexander Beider's seminal work on Jewish surnames in Galicia indicates the name is from the Zaleszczyki area and several of the adjacent towns and districts in what had been eastern Galicia: Lwow, Stanislawow, Horodenka, Czortkow, Husiatyn, and Tarnopol. He also noted that it means red leather.[2]

JewishGen.org has indexed gravestone records from Cemeterio Comunitario de Tablada (Tablada Cemetery) in Buenos Aires - one of the cemeteries used by Askenazi Jews in Argentina. The index included a young woman named Perla Rotleder Feingold (mis-indexed as Fenigold). Perla died on 2 July 1941. AMIA (Asociacion Mutual Israelit Argentina), which administers the cemetery, provided photos of the gravestone.[3] Unfortunately, the inscription is worn and not all of it is readable. There is, however, a wonderful photo of Perla on the stone.

[Hebrew:] Perel [remainder of name not readable]

[Hebrew date not clear. It might be 7 Tamuz 5701]

[Spanish:] PERLA R. de FEINGOLD

2 - 7 [July] - 1941

39 YEARS

Her husband, children,

grandchildren

While Perla's maiden name is represented by only an R on the stone, clearly, at some point the cemetery had a record that Perla's maiden name was Rot[h]leder. 

AMIA has a difficult history. In July 1994, anti-Semitic terrorists bombed and destroyed the AMIA building, killing 85 people and injuring 300. The bombing also destroyed most of AMIA's 150,000 registrations. The organization could not provide me any clarifying information about the grave.

I was also hoping to learn Perla's father's name. But that area of the inscription is worn beyond readability.

But from this stone we can see that Perla was 39 years old at death - born about 1901 or 1902. She was married to someone named Feingold and had children and grandchildren.

The name Perla makes perfect sense for Gittle's child. Gittle's mother Perl died in 1895. Of course Gittle would name her child after her recently deceased mother (several of the Ett siblings named girls in honor of their mother). We can pursue the surname Feingold with the hope we can confirm that we have, indeed, located Gittle's daughter.

An Argentinian genealogist was kind enough to contact the Buenos Aires Archive to help locate Perla's death certificate. The archive did not find one among their collections. Either someone lost the record or Perla did not die in Buenos Aires. 

What I have learned about Argentinian genealogy research is that record search is not usually very easy. Records for Buenos Aires may be centralized, but areas outside the province are not. I found that to place an order for a vital record from the archive in Buenos Aires either one has to be from Argentina (and provide an Argentinian ID number) or one must visit the archive in person. If the Feingold family did not live in Buenos Aires I would need to figure out where they may have been when Perla died.

While I did not find a passenger arrival manifest in the CEMLA index for Perla Rot[h]leder Feingold, I believe I may have found her husband's. Izaak Feingold was a married 25-year-old when he arrived in Buenos Aires on the S.S. Francesca from Trieste on 4 July 1924. He was from the same community as the Gittle's family: Torskie (or Torske).

There are no birth or marriage records in Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and Gesher Galicia databases for Izaak and Perla (nor for Gittle Ett and Mr. Rothleder). However, owing to record loss in the Zaleszczyki district (of which Torskie was a part), I did not expect to find anything.[4]

Torskie (I visited in 2013), however, was a very small community with only a few Jewish families. In fact there was neither a synagogue nor a Jewish cemetery. My cousin Sally Barath Eisner told me that in the 1920s and 1930s she, her brother Abe, and her parents would walk three miles to the closest synagogue, which was in Uścieczko, for Shabbat and holiday services.

So, the fact that this Isaak Feingold had the same surname as on Perla Rothleder Feingold's gravestone, was close in age to Perla, was from the same community in the old country, and arrived in Argentina two years before Gittle is compelling. Not enough, but interesting.

Gittle's Voyage to the United States

Ancestry.com provided several versions of Gittle's U.S. arrival manifest in 1946. She arrived in Miami from Buenos Aires on 10 June 1946 via Pan American World Airways flight 33612 from Buenos Aires. She was 69 years old, of Polish nationality, and admitted to the United States based upon a affidavit.[5]

She, apparently, did not have a passport. That may indicate that she never naturalized in Argentina. I will check with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to see what they may have on Gittle in their immigration files. She may not have naturalized in the USA, but she would have had to register as an alien.

We do not know how she traveled from Miami to New York to stay with her brother, Dave Ett and his family in Belle Harbor, Queens. 

Online Trees?

Both MyHeritage.com and Geni.com have online trees for a Rothleder-Feingold family in Argentina. Based on these it appears that Isaak and Perla Rothleder Feingold had three children (all now passed away). Using some clues from these trees I located a grave for Enrique (Tzvi) Feingold in Ashkelon Cemetery in Israel on Billion Graves.

Tzvi Feingold, son of Perla and Yitzkhak, of memory, was born in 1931 and died on 5 Cheshvan 5770 (22 or 23 October 2009).

Yitzkhak is the Hebrew version of Isaac.

In my previous post about Gittle, I noted that one of her father's Yiddish names was Hersch and that the Hebrew equivalent of Hersch is Tzvi. Enrique is the Spanish equivalent of the English name Henry. Enrique/Henry, whose Hebrew name was Tzvi was probably named for his grandfather whose had the Hebrew name Tzvi. 

At least one of the online trees suggested that the two oldest of the Feingold children were born in Galicia, but that Enrique, the youngest was born in La Pampa, Argentina - a province about 850 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires.

I have to consider that perhaps the family lived in one of the Baron Hirsch/Jewish Colonization Association agricultural colonies outside of Buenos Aires. There were several in the La Pampa area. The small amount of reading I have done indicates that Jews from Galicia did participate in Argentinian colonies, especially in the 1920s. So far I have not located evidence of the family tied to a JCA project. I will keep looking.

 

Family Contacts

I think this Feingold family is likely related to Gittle. I have sent messages through MyHeritage's mail system to three of the tree owners. I hope at least one will respond and help answer a few of my questions.

Notes:

1. "Arrival Records," index, CEMLA.com (Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinamericanos), entry for Guitla Rothleder, age 50, S.S. Arlanza, from Cherbourg to Buenos Aires, arrived 22 September 1926. Unfortunately, Argentinian passenger arrival manifests are hit or miss. Many passenger manifests have been lost. CEMLA only has indices. Originals should be at the Argentina National Archives, but, they are in the process of moving to a new building and are not currently fulfilling record requests. FamilySearch has some digitized Argentinian passenger records (arrival and departure - as far as I can tell). But browsing through all the images on digital film 103972426 ("Lista de pasajeros, AR-AGN-DAI-DNM-LPM-S-0448-edi (Puertos de Ultramar), 1926 Sep" did not locate relevant records.

2. Alexander Beider, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia (Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu, 2004), p 456. 

3. Perla Feingold, gravestone, 2 July 1941, Cemeterio Comunitario de Tablada (Tablada Cemetery), lot 50, row 419, parcel 25; photo provided to E. Garber by AMIA (https://www.amia.org), 8 July 2022).

4. I did note some Feingolds in Zaleszczyki in the Residence List books from 1941 (in the JRI-Poland database). But until I determine Isaac's parents names (or at least his father's name), it is hard to know if these people might be related.

5. Passenger manifest, Pan American World Airways flight 33612, from Buenos Aires to Miami, 10 June 1946, passenger no. 10, Gitla Rohtleder [sic], age 69; images, Ancestry.com; citing NARA RG 85, roll 73. I will have to see if I can get a copy of that affidavit - likely from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Getting to Gittle

Gittle Ett has been a mystery. Neither of her nieces (Sally or Pearl) recalled her married name. I could not find any Gittle with the maiden surname Ett in Argentina, where she first immigrated, or New York, where she spent her last years.

Finally the 1950 U.S. census provided the critical information and her gravestone inscription clinched it! This has led to a slew of additional records that start to fill in the story. In this post I will go through just a few pieces of evidence and the records in which they appeared. A full discussion of all the proverbial stones that have come loose as a result of this initial research is too much for one blog post. [I promise to get to it soon!]

Gittle was the oldest of Tillie Liebross Wilson's (my grandmother) first cousins from the Ett family. While Gittle's younger brother (Dave) and sisters (Clara, Sarah and Sophie) immigrated to New York (between about 1900 and 1910) and settled in Brooklyn. Gittle and the youngest sibling, Jutte, stayed in the Zaleszczyki, Galicia, area. 

Jutte, born in in Skole in 1894 - 18 months before her mother Perl Wenkert Ett passed away - moved back to Zaleszczyki with her father Hersch Leib Ett. Years later she married Moshe Efraim Barath and had two children. Before the Shoah, Jutte lived with her family in Torskie, a small community within the Zaleszczyki district (and the place where her brother Dave Ett and sister, Sprintze/Sophie, said they was born). While Jutte's and Moshe Efraim's children managed to survive the Nazi invasion and the Shoah (ultimately immigrating to Canada), Jutte and Moshe Efraim did not.

But what happened to Gittle? Family stories indicated that Gittle had, at some point, immigrated to Argentina. Her (unnamed) daughter died there (Gittle's nieces said her daughter died of Sleeping Sickness) and sometime after that, in the 1940s, Gittle moved to New York and lived with her brother Dave Ett's family. She died sometime in the early 1950s.

Unfortunately, Zaleszczyki vital records were lost during World War II and the only records relevant to this time period and available thus far, remnant residence lists from Zaleszczyki, did not include anyone from the Ett family.

At some point I tried the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel research strategy (NOT!): I tried to find anyone named Gittle (or Gertrude, or Gussie) in cemetery plots where her siblings were buried.

• Clara Rappaport in Wellwood Cemetery, West Babylon, NY
  
• Sarah Cohn in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Queens, NY
• Dave Ett in Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, NY 
• Sophie Leiner in Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Queens, NY

Bottom line on that? Too many Gittles/Gertrudes/Gussies and too little known information to allow for identifying the correct one.

For me, Gittle's life remained in darkness. I settled in, hoping that I could find her living with Dave Ett's family in the 1950 census when it became available in April 2022. I have been (s0mewhat) patiently waiting for several years.

The 1950 U.S. census reveal at 12:01 AM on April 1, 2022? Yes! Gertrude Rothleder, a widow, lived with her brother David Ett's family.

Dave and Bessie Ett, as I expected, lived at 278 Beach 138th Street, Queens, NY. They were in 1950 census enumeration district 41-2123.[1]

Since I had heard that Gittle (aka Gertrude) died in the early 1950s, I searched the New York City death indices indexed on Ancestry.com and found a Gittle Rothleder who passed away on 31 January 1952 in Brooklyn.[2] It seemed like a good bet. But, of course, I am still waiting for the New York City Department of Health to approve the application for a copy of her death certificate [kindly submitted by one of Gittle's great nieces (thank you!) because I am Gittle's first cousin twice remove - too distant a relative to be eligible for a 1952 death certificate in NYC].

In the meantime, Find A Grave to the rescue. They included Gittle Rothleder in an index (no photos) in Mt. Hebron Cemetery, Queens, NY.[3] 

Unfortunately, there was another Gertrude Rothleder in New York City and, amazingly, buried in the same cemetery. That one, however, despite the name, could not have been Gittle Ett. A bit of research indicated that Gertrude Rothleder [II] had been born Gussie Horn on 6 February 1901 in New York City to Max Horn and Lena Schwartz and died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 19 March 1990. She married Emanuel Rothleder on 22 May 1922 in Brooklyn, New York.[4] She was a generation too young, not born overseas, and not an Ett sibling.

Mt. Hebron has a nice feature where one may order an inscription photo online. Of course, after I placed my order I found out that Gittle's gravestone was toppled over - no inscription could be photographed. In mid-April I paid to reset the stone and waited.

Yesterday I finally received photos of Gittle's gravestone.[5]

[Hebrew:] Here lies

Mrs. Gittle 

daughter of Tzvi Arye

Died 3 Shevat 5713*

May her soul be bound in the bonds of the living

[English:] OUR BELOVED SISTER

GITEL

ROTHLEDER

JAN 31, 1952

AGE 76 YEARS

IN OUR HEARTS

YOU LIVE FOREVER

[* the Hebrew year is incorrect. It should be 5712.] 

Gittle's age of about 76 would make her just older than her sister Clara (who was born about 1879).

The Ett siblings' father was known to the family as Hersch Leib Ett. Gittle's father is identified on her gravestone as Tzvi Arye. In fact, Hersch Leib and Tzvi Arye are the same names in two different languages (known as calques or loan translations): respectively, Yiddish and Hebrew. Hersch and Tzvi = deer; Leib and Arye = lion). 

But, for further confirmation, I checked other previously located records for renderings of Hersch Leib Ett's first names.

Perl Ett's death certificate in Skole in 1895 identified her surviving husband as Hersch Leib Ett. 

Clara Ett Rappaport's gravestone inscription in Wellwood Cemetery indicated that her father had been Hersch Leib.[6]

 

[Hebrew:] Here lies Khaya daughter of Hersch Leib

[English:] BELOVED MOTHER

AND GRANDMOTHER

CLARA

RAPPAPORT

DIED AUG. 29, 1966

AGE 84 YEARS

GREAT GRANDMOTHER

Sarah Ett Cohn's inscription on her gravestone at Mt. Carmel Cemetery showed her father as Hersch Leib.

Sophie Ett Leiner's father was Hersch Leib on her stone in Mt. Lebanon Cemetery.

Only David Ett's stone in Beth David Cemetery named his father as Tzvi Arye.[7]

 

ETT

Here lies

David son of Tzvi Arye

Died 4 Tevet 5719

DAVID

DIED DEC.15, 1958

AGE 67 YEARS

BELOVED HUSBAND

DEVOTED FATHER

A few thoughts. I will stay with the calque concept: that Tzvi Arye is the Hebrew version of Hersch Leib. 

In the Ett siblings' generation, women were not called to read the Torah in synagogue in conservative or orthodox congregations. David Ett belonged to and was active in Temple Beth-El in Rockaway Park, Queens - a Conservative congregation.[8] So, of the Ett siblings, Dave, the only son, would have been the one for whom his father's Hebrew name was critical to his synagogue participation. A traditional Hebrew name, used in ritual, identifies the person by their [Hebrew name] son of [their father's Hebrew name]. Of course Dave knew that everyone called his father Hersch and/or Leib, but he also knew that his father's ritual Hebrew name was Tzvi Arye.

Since Gittle had been living with her brother, it is probable that Dave and his wife Bessie were the informants for Gittle's death certificate. In the Jewish tradition, gravestones are often ordered months after burial. There is not necessarily any relationship between the informant on a death certificate and the informant for an inscription on the deceased's gravestone. So, when and if we receive Gittle's death certificate from the NYC Department of Health, we still will not know who ordered the stone. I will have to check with the cemetery to see they keep that kind of information.

Three siblings were still living when Gittle died: Clara, Sarah and Dave. The English inscription on Gittle's stone provided another clue about the family members still alive when Gittle passed. It referred to her as Mrs. Gittle, but only identified her as a sister. The assumption is that those who took responsibility for erecting the stone were siblings, not a spouse, children or grandchildren. She was referred to as Mrs. So, although she was not identified as a wife, she clearly had been married at some point, and her husband was no longer in the picture.

In another post I will provide evidence of the widow Gittle's arrival in the US from Argentina in 1946. I also have evidence that Gittle's daughter died in Argentina in 1941.

One small mystery: I do not know why she is buried in the Kurlander landsmanshaft plot in the cemetery. Kurland, Russia Empire, around the time Gittle was born is in Latvia today. Gittle was born in Galicia, Austrian Empire - today in southern Ukraine.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read more of this story in my next blog post: https://extrayad.blogspot.com/2022/07/getting-to-gittle-some-of-rest-of-story.html

Notes:

1. 1950 U.S. census, Queens Co., NY, population schedule, Queens, e.d. 41-2123, sheet 19, dwelling 161, David and Bessie Ett family; images, NARA (https://1950census.archives.gov : accessed 1 April 2022). 

2. "New York, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1949-1965," index, Ancestry.com, entry for Gittle Rothleder, 31 January 1952, Brooklyn 2120; citing New York City Department of Health. 

3. Gittle Rothleder, grave, 30 January 1952, Mount Hebron Cemetery, Queens, NY; index, FindAGrave.com, memorial no. 78053154. The date of death on this record is likely in error. Acquisition of Gittle's death certificate with the correct date is pending.

4. New York Co., NY, birth certificate no. 8383 (1901), Gussie Horn, 6 February 1901; Municipal Archives, New York City. Kings Co., NY, marriage cert. no. 6241 (1922), Emanuel Rothleder and Gertrude Horn, 27 May 1922; Municipal Archives, NYC. Both documents were accessed via https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/ on 10 July 2022 after locating indexed records via https://www.germangenealogygroup.com/.

5. Gitel Rothleder, grave, 31 January 1952, Kurlander Young Friends Benevolent Association, Block 11, Ref 1, Sec A-C, Line 3, Grave 24, Mount Hebron Cemetery, Queens, NY. 

6. Clara Rappaport, grave, 29 August 1966, Section 1, Block 7, Row H, Grave 2, Wellwood Cemetery, West Babylon, Suffolk Co., NY.

7. David Ett, grave, 15 December 1958, Section D, Block 1, Zion's Bruder Bund Society, Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, Nassau Co., NY.

8. Several newspaper articles indicated that Dave Ett and his family were members of Beth-El's congregation. His obituary stated that, as well. "Dave Ett, 67; Had Been Fur Dealer," Obituary Notices, The Wave (Rockaway Beach, NY), 18 Dec. 1958, p. 6, col. 1; images, Fulton History (https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html : accessed 21 Dec 2013).

Treasure Chest Thursday: Sarah Ett Cohn's Manifest

Sarah Ett Cohn was the second Ett sibling to journey to the United States. Her elder sister Chaitza (anglicized to Clara) arrived sometime before June 1903 when she married Chaim (Adolph) Rappaport. Thus far, I have been unable to locate Chaitza's manifest.  I believe she and her husband likely did not naturalize. So, after Clara and Adolph's marriage certificate, Sarah's manifest is the first indication I have of the Etts in New York City.

"New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 November 2013), manifest, S.S. Brandenburg, Bremen to New York, arriving 26 December 1903, List 10, number 19, Sali Ett; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715, microfilm roll 423.

Sali Ett is listed at number 19 on the page. She arrived on 26 December 1903 on the S.S. Brandenburg, which had sailed from Bremen, Germany on 12 December 1903.

Detail of Sali Ett manifest record (left side)

[Items in red will be discussed further, below.]
 
Name: Sali Ett
Age: 19
Sex: f
Married or Single: s
Calling or Occupation: maid servant
Able to Read: yes
Able to Write: yes
Nationality: Austria
Race or people: Hebrew
Last residence: Zaleszczyki
Final Destination: N.Y.
Whether having a ticket to destination: yes

Detail of Sali Ett manifest record (right side)

By whom was passage paid: self
Whether in possession of $50: $1
Whether ever before in the United States: No
Whether going to join a relative or friend: 
          uncle Lebenhauss Leizer 
          Bushwick Ave 299 Brooklyn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In light of what I have already learned about Sarah's brother David Ett's manifest, it is interesting that Sarah traveled under her father's surname. In 1913, David traveled under his mother's maiden name, Wenkert, and changed it back to Ett upon immigration.

Sarah indicated that her last residence was in Zaleszczyki. Sarah's mother, Perl died in 1895 in Skole. Zaleszczyki had been the town (in today's Ukraine) where Perl Wenkert and her husband Hersch Leib Ett were registered. Other records, such as David Ett's manifest, indicate that some of the Ett children were born in towns, such as Uscieczko and Torskie, that are geographically close to Zaleszczyki. We do not know when, but sometime between Perl's death and Sarah's departure, the family moved back to the Zaleszczyki area.

Sarah reported on her manifest record that she would be heading to her uncle's home at 299 Bushwick Avenue. The handwritten name looks like Leizer Lebenhauss (or Leberhaus). In fact, Sarah's uncle was my great grandfather Leiser (Louis) Liebross. This is supported by the 1905 New York State census showing Louis and his family living at 299 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn.[1] The 1905 census also shows Sarah"Att" living with her sister Clara and her family in the same building.[2]

The small X to the left of Sarah's name on the manifest indicates that she was detained by immigration officials. Unaccompanied women immigrants were usually held until a relative could come to claim them and vouch for their welfare. Detention pages are usually found near the end of the ship's manifest pages.

Detail: "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 November 2013), manifest, S.S. Brandenburg, Bremen to New York, arriving 26 December 1903, Record of Detained Alien Passengers, 42 (stamped), number 23, Sali Ett; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715, microfilm roll 423.

 Sali Ett was met, not by her uncle, but by her new brother-in-law. His name is listed as "Alter Applrot" - an interesting take on the name Rappaport. Clara and her husband were living at 406 Bushwick Avenue in December 1903.

Notes:
1. 1905 New York State Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, Assembly District 15, Enumeration District 18, sheet 73, entries 41-50, Louis Lebros family; digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 July 2010), citing New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
2. 1905 New York State Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, Assembly District 15, Enumeration District 18, sheet 74, entries 8-11, Adolph Rappaport family and Sarah Att; digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 July 2010), citing New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

Deadly Coincidence: Charles and Sophie Ett Leiner

The story of the deaths of Sophie and Charles Leiner take the marriage bond to a whole new level. A relative alerted me to the circumstances of their death and, I thought, "That probably made the newspapers." It did. And the story was picked up by several papers nation-wide.

I located this article in the Google News Archive. It was published in the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, 7 November 1949.

--------------------

Husband Follows
Wife in Death
  New York - (AP) - Sophie Leiner, 54, died in her husband's arms early yesterday after a heart attack.
  "What am I going to do without her?" grieved Charles Leiner, 60, to his son.
  An ambulance doctor came and pronounced Mrs. Leiner dead of a heart attack.
  The doctor then returned to the hospital, but when he arrived was told to turn back.
  Returning to the Leiner home, the doctor found the husband dead of a heart attack - just 15 minutes after his wife's death. 

--------------------

Sophie Ett Leiner was my grandmother, Tillie Liebross Wilson's, first cousin. She emigrated to the United States from Torskie, Austria (today Torske, Ukraine) in 1910. [1] [2]

She and Charles, a native New Yorker, were married in Brooklyn on 22 June 1918. [2] They had five children: Jerome, Seymour, Pearl, and twins Jack and Robert. 

Notes: 
1. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 August 2008), manifest, Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, Hamberg to New York, arriving 23 July 1910, List 49, Passenger 18, Sprince Ett; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715.
2.  Torske is one of those places that JewishGen does not include in its Communities Database because, it is believed, it had too few Jewish people. It can be found, however, in the JewishGen Gazetteer.
3. Kings County County, New York, Certificate and Record of Marriage no. 7336 (22 June 1918), Charles Leiner and Sophie Ettinger [sic], New York City Municipal Archives, New York.

Torskie, 9 June 2013

Today was busy and productive. We left Kolomyya about 9 in the morning with plans to visit two small villages of significance for my Wenkert research: Torskie and Ustechko. I told Svetlana that I would be interested in visiting Tovste if we had enough time to do so. We went to Tovste. I'm pretty tired right now, so I'm going to mostly post a few photos from Torskie and call it a night.

At least two of the Ett siblings, David Ett and Sprinze (Sophie) were born in Torskie, a small town north of Zaleszczyki. The village never had much Jewish population and there are no Jewish people living there now. There is only one standing Jewish home.

We were fortunate to meet Mikola Deikalo and this wife Maria Ivanivna. Mikola is a history teacher and the town historian - he's written two books about village history based, somewhat, on his work in the Lviv archives. The photo below shows Mikola and Maria's neighbor, Maria, me and Mikalo.

Mikola told us that in 1900 there were only about 61 Jewish people in Torskie. Maria only recalled about 10 before World War II. She mentioned the following first names: Shlomko, Chanina, Bartko, Shaye, Ruchla, Mortko and Feibush. Feibush owned a pub near the east side entrance to the town. Ruchla, Shaye's daughter was the only Jewish person shot during the German occupation. The rest were sent to the ghetto in Tovste. 

Two more Torskie photos. Old homes.

Lviv Archival Records: Ett in Uzciezcko

This morning I met again with Natalie Dunai at our hotel, the Nobilis, and walked to the archives. The Central State Historical Archives in Lviv is located in the former monastery attached to St. Andrews Church, built in the early 1600s and now operated as a Greek Catholic Church.

One enters stepping over about a 12 inch tall threshold and passing through the substantial metal doorway. One then heads up well-worn wooden stairs to the archives.

The check-in clerk sits at a small, poorly lit desk. One must fill out paperwork and then leave one's passport or driver's license in exchange for an electronic key used to enter the archives area. Large bags must be placed in lockers. 

There are no lights on in the naturally-lit hallway. Nor are there lights in the reading room which is filled with about ten small desks all occupied by researchers and archive workers. Natalie tells me that the archives, like everyone else, is charged a premium if they go over their allotment of electricity use. They are extremely diligent about keeping the lights off. Yesterday we turned them on while taking photos of records. While we were in the midst of that, someone turned them off. In addition, should a bathroom break be necessary, better have a personal supply of tissues/toilet paper. The archives cannot afford that, either.

Today, we arrived about 10 o'clock and snared the last desk in the reading room. Fortunately, it was by a window, affording adequate natural light. Natalie had selected books from Uzciezcko and Torskie, two small towns north of Zaleszczyki. I was looking for more evidence of the Liebross and Wenkert families. These towns were (and are) much smaller than Zaleszczyki and the records are less robust. We searched records similar to those we'd searched yesterday for Zaleszczyki. 

No Liebrosses or Wenkerts. I did, however, find Abraham Eth and his widow Feiga in Uzciezcko in about 1850. The earliest Ett family member I previously knew about was Hersch Lieb Ett who had married my great grandmother's sister Perl Wenkert Ett (the same person whose grave I sought in Skole a few days ago). Abraham Eth is likely a relation of Hersch Lieb.

I took the opportunity to photograph pages that included lists of all Jewish homeowners. I will probably put these names on a spreadsheet that may be shared with other researchers.

This is our last day in Lviv. Tomorrow morning and for the next few days we head to the southeast with Svetlana, an associate of Alex, for Kolomyya and visits to Zaleszczyki, Uzcieszcko, and Torskie. I am not sure of Internet accessibility. So, my blogging may be intermittent.

Ukraine 2013: Mapping the Journey

My daughter, Katherine, and I will be leaving in a few days for Ukraine. I will be suspending my Tombstone Tuesday and Treasure Chest Thursday blog posts until I get back (unless, of course I find something wonderful and have an overwhelming need to share under those themes immediately!).

In the meantime, here is a concept map of the planned trip. I say "concept" because while we will pretty much take these routes, there is flexibility built into the schedule and things may change.

Map constructed in Google Maps, 26 May 2013

Our journey will start in the Galicia section of Ukraine, part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. We will arrive in Lviv (A) about mid-day on 3 June. The next day we will head to Yaremche (B) with Alex Dunai (our genealogist, translator and guide) to take in Hutsel culture. I had hoped to hike Mt. Hoverla, the highest point (6762 feet) in Ukraine, but we've already had to change that plan due to a foot injury Katherine, my daughter, suffered yesterday. 

After at least looking at Mt. Hoverla we'll wend our way back to Lviv through the Carpathian Mountains. We will stop at Bolekhiv (C), the shtetl that Daniel Mendelsohn wrote about in his book The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. I am finally getting around to reading it. Alex Dunai is featured as Mendelsohn's Ukrainian genealogist.

My first family shtetl stop will be at Skole (D). Skole is the place where Jutte Ett Barath was born on 21 January 1894 and where, her mother (also mother of David Ett, and Sophie Ett Leiner, Sarah Ett Cohn, and Chaitze Ett Rappaport) Perl Wenkert Ett died on 18 August 1895.

We will then spend a couple of days seeing the sites of Lviv and working in the archives. Records will likely be in Polish script. I have been reviewing "Reading Polish Handwritten Records," a 3-part tutorial in the Learning Center on FamilySearch.org.

After Lviv, we will once again head south to continue treading the ground where my Wenkert and Liebross (maternal) relatives trod: Kolomyya (E), Chernivtsi (G) and Zalishchyky (F), Ustechko and Torskie. By the way, I have not been able to put Ustechko on the above map (I didn't even attempt mapping Torskie!). Each time I ask Google Maps to include Ustechko, Google places a dot north of Ternopil - way off from Ustechko's actual location just north of Zalishchyky. So, I had Google Maps place a dot near Chortkiv (H), which is a little north of Ustechko.

I am really looking forward to Kamyanets-Podilskyy (I). The photos I've seen indicate a picturesque location: a walled town with a castle. One of my floater "relatives," Samuel Myers (nee Zise Malzmann) lived in K-P before emigrating to the United States.

Visits to the archives in Khmelnitsky (J) and Zhytomir (O) will mark my entrance to the old Russian Empire and Volhynia Gubernia and my father's side of the family (Garber, Mazewitsky/Morris, Malzmann, and Kesselman). The Family History Library has been unable to film any records for Yurovshchina [once Labun (K) and Lubin], Gritsev (M) and Polonnoye (L). These towns, having been neither part of Poland nor the Austro-Hungarian Empire since about 1795 , have no records in the Warsaw archives (accessible to JRI-Poland). So, the best bet is checking the Ukrainian Archives. The records will likely be in Russian script. I'm working on understanding that, too.

I hope to not only find family records but to locate village records for Labun, Gritsev, Polonnoye and Baranovka that may be acquired, perhaps at a later date, for use by other Jewish researchers.

I'm trying not to be too excited about setting foot in Yurovshchina. I just don't know what to expect. But I will come prepared with early 20th Century maps for comparison sake and a photo the the bath house (pictured here) repaired with the American Joint Distribution Committee's help in 1923. I'd like to see if we can locate where it was located in the town. I want to know where the Jewish section was. I want to visit the cemetery - if there still is one. And I want to know where the Jewish people lived. 

I know that many Jewish people were slaughtered along with their Jewish neighbors from Polonnoye in a location near Polonnoye. I want to go there, too. 

I would like to visit Baranovka (N) so I can see the town where Feiga Grinfeld (Fannie Greenfield) was born. I've written so many posts about her, I've an investment (!). 

We'll end our trip with a few days in Kiev (P) and then fly home on 22 June. I hope to have my iPad and Dropbox folders filled with photos to share. If all goes well, I'll be able to blog a bit about my trip as it happens. If not, I'll be sure to post quite a bit when I return to the United States.

Treaure Chest Thursday: Jutte Ett Birth Record

Jutte Ett Barath was the only Ett child who did not emigrate from the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today's Ukraine). She was the youngest of six siblings: Gittl Ett, Clara (Chaitza) Ett Rappaport, Sarah Ett Cohn, David Ett, Sophie (Sprintze) Ett Leiner, Jutte Ett Barath). Jutte and her husband Moshe Barath were murdered in 1941 when the German's occupied their community and shipped all the Jewish people to a ghetto in Tluste (14 miles north of their home town of Zaleszczyki). Their two children escaped harm and emigrated after World War II.

I have found the Wenkert and Ett family mostly in the area of Zaleszczyki, Ukraine, including the villages of Ustechko and Torskie (6.1 kilometers west of Ustechko). However, as noted in a previous post, Jutte's mother Perl died on 17 August 1895 in Skole, about 240 kilometers west-north-west of Zaleszczyki. The record, below, indicates that the family was in Skole when Jutte was born in January 1894.

Birth Record for Jutte Ett, 21 January 1894, Jewish Metrical Books, Town of Skole Deaths 1878-80 & 1883-1903, Stanislawow Wojewodztwa, Fond 300, Year 1894, Akta 6, Sygnatura 1149, Archiwum Giowne Akt Dawnych (Central Archives of Historical Records), Warsaw, Poland.

Translation of first page:
 

Column Heading	Entry
Record Number	6
Date of Birth (day/month/year)	21 January 1894
Location: Town/House number	Skole/1
Date of Bris or Naming (d/mo/yr)	22 January 1894
Location: Town/house number	Skole/1
Child’s Given Name	Jutte
Male/Female	Female
Born Legitimate or Illegitimate	Illegitimate
Father’s Name, Surname, Occupation and Place of Residence	[blank]

Translation of second page:
 

Column Heading	Entry
Mother’s Name, civil marriage status, occupation, parents names, place of residence	Perl Wenkert from Skole, daughter of the couple Israel Hersch and Rosa Wenkert, lived in Zaleszczyki.  Married in a religious ceremony, Leib Heth, laborer in Skole [factory? fabric?]
Signature of Official or Witness and place of residence	Leibish Gottfried [occupation?] from Skole
Signature of Mohel and place of residence	[blank]
Signature of Midwife and place of residence	Selde Fuchsgelle from Skole
Report of Stillbirth	[blank]
Remarks	[blank]

Born Legitimate or illegitimate:

During this time the Austro-Hungarian Empire required that Jewish people comply with civil marriage laws and register marriages with civil authorities. Many chose to have religious marriage ceremonies not in compliance with these laws. When this occurred and when children of the union were born, the government considered the children illegitimate and the child's legal surname would often be recorded as his/her mother's surname. [1]

In Jutte's case, we can see on the first page that her birth is considered illegitimate. On the second page the note acknowledges that Jutte's parents had had a religious marriage ceremony. 

Notes:
1. Wynne, Suzan F. The Galitzianers: The Jews of Galicia, 1772-1918, Wheatmark: 2006, p. 59.