The Problem with Genealogical Research is ..... Simple. We Focus on 2 Relatives & Forget How Many Great Grandparents We Have...

 

Using this perfect graphic from Google AI

Obviously we have 2 parents. Biological parents vs Step parents.

We have 4 Grandfathers. Most of us know their names.

Then there's the Great Grandparents. We have EIGHT Great Grandparents.

            Odds are the average Joe does not know all 8 names or even 6 of those names.

Then there's Great Great Great Grandparents. Unless you are related to Georget Washington you really, really, really do not have a clue who they are ... unless you have a family tree someone made. 

If this was a Hurricane we would be on the letter P. Like say Hurricane Paul or Hurricane Peter. If you know you know there's logic there. 

We get focused on one or two ancestors that we are interested in and or just want to know more on and we get so focused when we see names that may actually lead us to another great great grandfather we move past them fast as they are not the name we are looking for........   

And yet.......... we just zoom past people we either don't know we know or we are not interested in being related to...

As I like to say everyone wants to be Cleopatra in another life, yet how many people do you know who want to be Cleopatra's Handmaiden ??? Probably none. 

Every family tree has someone famous. A politician, a reverand or a rabbi and somewhere there's a horse thief or an annoying person whose bio seems totally unbeleivable. British families find out they are 51% Irish (oh my gosh) and that really bursts their bubble some, unless they were hoping to be a bit Irish. I mean who would not want to be a bit Irish (they are fun) or say Scottish (sexy) or Swedish (sounds exotic in a Northern Up There way) who wants to find out they are related to Moe Slutsky the plumber on the Lower East Sid? He may have been a sweetheart, but he's not a famous politican or George Washington. 

I use George Washingon because Ancestry did a commercial on a sweet lady who found out she was related to George Washiengton. Now maybe that's Ancestry's basic data base but pretty sure there were people all over America who wanted to throw darts at that lady as they can't even figure out where their Grandfahter Joe came from let alone know the names of his other kids or parents. And, in a tree on Ancestry some stumped descendent probably put down Russia!

Russia in a Jewish tree can be anywhere from:
Lithuania

Poland

Belarus
Ukraine

Latvia
even parts of Austria or Hungary.

Russia is the great "catch all" for ancestors we know nothing about.

No one wants to write Germany unless they are German. Many German's post WW2 became Austrians. Many Romanians are proud others who are Hungarians don't realize they are really Romanian and now their ancestors graves are in Ukraine. Gets confusing. 

I was a Reference Librarian in Miami, in charge of the Archives and Genelogical records. Some nice red haired older guy came in, gave me like 3 names and a town in South Carolina and in a short time period or time I could find his family 4 generations back. Jews name after the dead traditionally and sometimes they change the name and use the letter R so Raizel becomes Renne or Rachel or Shoshana and names change because of Conscription...there's link to book below, the author wrote it while back when I was at Touro College where I was the Librarian. Or they went to Israel after WW2 surviving and deciding to start over a new life as my grandfather's brother Bela from Hungary did changed his name to Simcha after walking from Hungary with friends who fought with him as a partisan to Israel. It's not easy, even if you know what you are doing it's a mish mash, maze of possible names spelled every which way an immigrant could on any given day it changed. Robinwetz in the first cencus because Rabinowetz in figure census records, just an example. 

So yeah sometimes genealogy brings excitement, other times annoyment, other times dismay and other times you just need to take a break and write a blog so you can catch your breath back. 

Welcome to my life.

Grandparents: Yay I know all fout of mine and where they came from. Grandma Mary the Southern Belle  was so special and full of stories about life in Key West in the 1880s that her parents told her on what they went through and Tampa where Grandma Mary grew up.  Eventually she went to live by an older sister  "Up North" in Philly after their mother died. That was after she lived in New Orleans by her brother's fiance. Eventually in Philly she met her husband Ben and eventually had a cigar store on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Her brothers sent the cigars from Florida and grandma also had an Ice Cream Parlor in the Cigar Shop. It's been explained to me, it still seems strange but it was a tourist town like Miami Beach where anything goes. Grandma Mary did so love going to Ice Cream Parlors. Her husband from Chernigov who she met in Philly while being a model for Wannamakers finally took her back to Miami in the 1930s to work in the building boom on South Beach.  Mary and Ben aka Miriam Leah and DovBer "Berel" so many names to remember. My paternal Grandma Esther from Plunge via Lodz where her father remarried after her mother died and was in business and sent her to America 2nd Class with lots of money to reunite with her sisters who were living in New Jersey. She was born in Plunge to a family of merchant traders involved in the "new silk road" with a female ancestor named Esther that traveled to Bagdad with her husband which was quite the trip back then. Grandma Esther married Herman, a handsome Hungarian that she met in New York City and they started a family. 

Great Grandparents.

Abrams in USA (Abrahams in Manchester ) something Abrams itz or itch before that in Suwalki...

Marks connected to high level Marks people in Manchester and were Margolin or Margolius before that.

Chitrik Ha Levite from Nezhin & Chernigov as well as towns in Gomel and Riga.

Rosen from Nezhin and eventually Chernigov. When pogroms began in Nezhin they moved to Chernigov.

Schwartz but name was Weiss changed for Conscription long, common story. Badalo in Bereg Hungary.

Weiss on another side from Satu Mare as in the town where Satmar Chassidim became Satmar.
Darn I am stuck on 8 ... I know this hold on.

Naftalin spelled every variation you can find. Very political family, business, Telsai, Plunge, Lodz

Peres or Perres or Peress from Plunge. Connected in business & Litvak/Chabad with the Naftalins.

              lots of Mendels... Menachem Mendels...didn't see that coming in the heart of Litvak world.

                       but then again that's why there were issues with the old guard.

                                  Alter Rebbe was often called "The Litvak" and so he was... 

                                          My Grandma's 2nd cousin was Mayor of Minneapolis. 

                                                    Shame I didn't know that when I spent summers in St. Paul a few years.

Speaking of Chabad

Chitrik/Rosen in Nezhin very Chabad.

Marks ancestors connected to Malarussia ... literally and rabbinical families dabbling in Chabad.

Naftalin's name was literally Mendel and he had a son Berel and well yeah that happened.

Shmuel Peres prayed in the same small shul in Plunge with Mendel Naftalin Nusach Ari. IYKYK.

(note Plunge has records that are as good as German records, so many details..)

This means when my parents became involved in Chabad they were basically coming home.

My father also attended the Kerostirer Sheeble by Gross family neighbors in Bereg. 

                  Rebbeztin Malka Gross granddaughter of Reb Steiner adopted my mother Chana

I'm 1/4 Hungarian 

I'm a good part Southern Belle ...because there was something so Southern about Grandma Mary (omg) who helped raised me. I'm part English as the family was in Manchester and various towns for quite a while before they moved to the South. Grandma Mary said her father Wolfe was an "English Gentleman" which means he put milk in his coffee. Not to be confused with her husband Benjamin (Dovber Berel) who drank tea with a sugar cube between his teeth Nezhin style.  Apparently no one on my material side drank coffee, but my father on the Hungarian side definitely drank coffee.

As for Great Great Grandparents?

I found out Ben's grandfather was Eliyahu Chaim Ha Levite who went by Elya Chaim in Nezhin.

I found out that Eliyahu Chaim's father was Yisroel who guarded the Ohel of the Mittler Rebbe and moved to Nezhin shortly after the Ohel was built, before Yisroel Noah Schneerson became Rebbe there and my family lived together in "Household 152" according to my notes. Gavriel Rosen and Efraim Fishel Rosen are listed in the same household... brothers? cousins? ??? who knows not there yet. 

I know a lot I am not saying as it's my business and not exactly things I expected.

I was really hoping for like 3% Irish and 3% Scottish when I took that DNA test. I mean I know who I am and where I come from but ya never know who married in...  alas not really. Or even maybe like 3% Gypsy as I am part Hungarian and I used to think that meant "Gypsy dancer" til it was explained to me. 

Before Ancestry and MyHeritage went all political and rounded everyone off up to various types of Ashkenazi I was consistently almost 6% Mizrachi Persian which is cool and possible considering that would mean I had an ancestor who lived in Bagdad and I was told some of her kids got married there before moving back to Europe that may account for DNA cousins there. Shared cousins on that side have Mizrachi Persian. I'll take it. The amount of DNA cousins that show up with names I cannot pronounce is huge. 

The point is..........   everything is meant to be and we don't see the purpose in things until we look back and go "oh wow" and I'm at the point in life where I am pleasantly saying or thinking "oh wow" a lot and just a bit "oh crap no not dealing with that" and that's why I wrote this blog today. I try hard not to think too hard on things that'll keep me up at night. 

I am going to start bloging to use this forum to save info and print it out. As its easy for me to blog so it makes sense.  Grandma Mary got her story telling talents from quite the story teller who like any writer used most every name in his family to create a character in his many stories. Writers just always have to be writers and anything and anyone is fair and game when they are looking for inspiration. 

Soon I will explain how my children are related to the owner of this magnificent home, this castle like home built over the generations that the Frank family owned. Zecharia Frank was an ancestor of "Opa" my exhusband's grandfather who I adopted and he will be my Opa forever. Loved him and Omi. He told me a story of his ancestor who had license to smoke in the town square, a piece of paper his grandfather (?) had that he had to keep on him always as not everyone could smoke in the townsquare (fires ..one fire burned down the whole town often) so the Frankfurt Au Maim side that I thought was Meyer turned out to be Frank (Omi's side) as it seems the bankers Frank and Meyer were dipping way back from the same gene pool. Explains why Opa never went into details with me, just kept saying his grandfather (or great grandfather) and had a letter from Prince Wilhem ....and yes that's true. 

So good luck with genealogy. Many Germans use a grandfather's name in a son's name and have great records so good luck with that it's easier that trust me. Poland not so much. Hungary not so much. Russia depends on the time and the year. America yes indeed if the relatives were talking to each other.

Friends and Feuds and every family has a few in their Family History. Makes for those brick walls ya know? Or you have an Omi (grandma) who refuses to talk about the dead people in Germany and if you pushed her for names Opa would say "nach" add in "no more" whisper she'll have nightmares for 3 weeks on "dead relatives" and well who was gonna upset Omi or Opa so another brickwall we are slowly working out way through. 

I feel so much better. 

Sorry if I didn't wax poetic on the lack of tropical systems today in the Atlantic but it is what it is..

https://www.abebooks.com/9781930143791/Cantonists-Jewish-Childrens-Army-Czar-1930143796/plp book on Cantonists but you can Google it or the topic ... responsible for most brick walls in Jewish Genealogy as often every son in the family was given a somewhat different surname or the identity of a cousin with a similar name that died which happened to my ancestor who was a Weiss, but became a Schwartz when the Chevra Kadish (Burial Society) helped give him a new idenity. IYKYK

Thanks for your patience.

Just saying careful you may find lots of people you weren't wanting to see in your ancestry tree.

Bobbi breathing now and gonna make dinner lol always feel better when I write. 

Ps Moral of the story is ...........don't get to obsessed with any one anscestor ;) you may find out all sorts of interesting stuff!

Researching my Paternal Grandmother Esther Naftalin Schwartz ...Sailing to America at 17 By Herself... Very Big Indeed.

A very sweet Grandmother.

More on that later when I add data here.

Her ship passage is below.

 

She often spoke on how her Dad sent her to America

on a huge ship and she was sent 2nd Class.

I believed her but it is interesting to see 

the actual info from the 

very large ship 

as she said indeed!

Ancestry translates names wrong sometimes

She went to her sister Ida...

Ida's Hebrew name was Chaya.

Seems Ancestry thought it was Clara

(okay a bit close in script)

She arrived in NYC  on the 

Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse

Definitely a huge ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Kaiser_Wilhelm_der_Grosse

More info from Google AI

1912

October

22

Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse

Record details

Name	Esther Neftalin
Gender	Female
Ethnicity/ Nationality	Hebrew
Marital Status	Single
Age	17
Birth Date	abt 1895
Birth Place	Russia
Other Birth Place	Lodz
Last Known Residence	Lodz, Russia
Departure Port	Bremen
Arrival Date	22 Oct 1912
Arrival Port	New York, New York, USA
Residence Place	Russia
Final Destination	Passaic, New York
Height	5 Feet
Hair Color	Black
Eye Color	Black
Complexion	Fair
Money in Possession	67
Person in Old Country	Genkin Naftalin
Person in Old Country Relationship	Father
Person in Old Country Residence	Lodz Petrikan Russia
Person in US	Clara Neftalin
Person in US Relationship	Sister
Father	Genkin Naftalin
Sibling	Clara Neftalin
Ship Name	Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse

Will be updating more later...

The Story of 2 Esthers .... Esther Naftalin in Baghdad in the 1860s and Esther Naftalin Leaving Lithuania to Travel to America at 17 in 1910 Treasures Found Doing Genealogy

 

Just some facts and figures. No fancy photos. A woman named Esther was born in 1840 and she married Yitzchok Naftalin.  Years ago I saw this entry and I wondered if that was where my Grandma Esther's name came from as her father was a Naftalin. I mean she could have been named after Queen Esther the heroine of the Purim holiday that is coming up this week. It's not an usual Jewish name, however I do two have an Esther Naftalin in m family. The one born in 1840 easily could have been the woman my grandmother was named after. As Jews name after the dead usually we are named after a grandmother or relative of a grandparent or a great aunt or someone who did good deeds. 

A while down the genealogical road that I have been traveling I came across lots of records from Plunge, Lithuania a city in the Kovno region and I was surprised to learn that a female ancestor donated money to the Persian Relief fund. She is noted in the records as "the wife of" the name of her husband. She was the only woman to donate money to this fund. That stood out as strange. Most of the records from the 1800s for Plunge reference men more than women. Apparently someone was collecting money to send to Persia or Bagdad, I can't remember the specifics. I'd rather type my thoughts now and fill the facts in later such as the specific name.

MyHeritage results showed I am a little over 5% Mizrachi Persian which was very cool, but surprising. My family started out in Europe in various places back in the 1800s. I did some research and some people related to me had married women in Baku where they were while hiding from war in Europe. Apparently that was a place many went to do business and to hide; Rabbis doing spiritual work and others involved in the modern version of the Silk Road doing other business. I've always loved reading about the Silk Road, so I was excited, but skeptical but curious. Again the nagging thought of ancestors named Esther and the women who donated money to a relief fund for Persian Jews who lived in Plunge Lithuania far away in the Askenaizi European world. Why? Sometimes there is no why but it's nagged at me over time as strange.

Recently I was doing a deep dive on the Naftalin family on Google AI and looking through old records. It turns out that an Esther Naftalin married to a Izik (Yitchok) went to Bagdad with her husband who was a merchant dealing with the updated Silk Road and yes they lived in Persia. That is the record at the top of the page. I mean you can't get more Persia than Baghdad. Apparently times were rough, there was a famine and while the Jews with more money looked out for the others, many moved on to India and beyond to build a life elsewhere. You can compare it to the Potato famine in Ireland that spurred migration to America. But in this case most of the migration went from Persia further East.

Apparently there was a "Magid Fund" in Lithuania and they would collect, often before Purim and all records (even the women) were recorded. This was the charity I remember seeing. Kind of timely seeing as how Purim is in less than 24 hours from now. The link to more info is below as well as a paragraph of explanation. From JewishGen https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/misc/HaMagidIndex.htm

"The appeal "caught fire" in the Pale of Settlement, and particularly in Lithuania, where it had an especial poignancy because the Lithuanian Jews had been going through hard times and food shortages themselves and understood the meaning of food deprivation.  Collections were made in many towns, often at the instigation of the local Rabbi.  Sometimes collectors were appointed who went from house to house, and sometimes an appeal was made in the synagogue, for example, appropriately on Purim.  Many of the donations were extremely small, but they were nearly all recorded."

Anyway I found out that this ancestor Esther Naftalin who left Lithuania with her merchant husband Yitzchok aka Itzik in the mid 1800s and went all the way to Baghdad. It's a famous story, while not well known it's recorded in various places. Imagine traveling in the mid 1800s across Europe to Baghdad. Several routes were suggested that they may take and that suggestion is listed below.  Again the Silk Road travelers were a network of families well known who often interacted and even often intermarried as they built up their family business empires. I can't imagine taking such a trip in the 1800s, there was no videon YouTube to check out or reviews on Yelp of the hotels. Add in plagues and no penicillin it's sort of miraculous to me that they even made the journey let alone survived the journey. And, apparently they thrived both in business and in charitable work while living in Baghdad. Records show that Esther ran some sort of "soup kitchen" as we'd call it today for people who needed and was well known in the community.  Did they stay there or go back to Kovno or somewhere else where business was favored for her merchant husband? Did they have kids there? Probably. Records show they lost a baby before departing, maybe traveling was a way to not think on that tragedy.Who knows as babies died all the time from the measles and bronchitis. I'm part of a world where it's common for couples to travel off to far away cities to do work for Chabad. I left Miami for Los Angeles with my first baby and pregnant with my second child on the West Coast far from home. But it wasn't in the mid 1800s. 

Record of the baby that died before they left...

...for Baghdad. 

Saw this years back but it was depressing.

Abram Itzik was the father.

Generally just Itzik in records.

Honestly the family has spelling issues.

Naftalin, Naftolin, Neftalin.

All the same family. 

 I imagine she was an Esther definitely worth naming a new baby girl after years later in Lithuania years as she was a woman who did good deeds and lived an extraordinary life living in Baghdad raising money for charities, raising children and running a large household where people Jewish and otherwise were welcome. Records show her home and her table was a friendly place to receive food or help. I'm sort of in awe. That's really amazing. A Lithuania woman in the world of Mizrachi Persian Jews far from home in Lithuania in the mid 1800s. 

Birth record for my grandmother.

Ester in Europe.

Esther in America.

 My Grandma Esther was born in September of 1895.

Oddly she's the only girl with one name.

Most have two names.

Chaya Hinde aka Ida

Pesha Neche aka Bessie

and 

Esther

The woman on the left is my Grandma Esther.

On the right is her sister Ida.

Ida was a twin.

Naftalin family was famous for twins.

Another story for another day.

I stand just like that always.

With my hand on my hip.

She was a sweet lady.

Ida, her older sister, was close to my father.

He took care of her in Miami Beach...

..until she died.

He would drive to her apartment...

..check she took her medicine.

Drive back sometimes in the evening.

Check she took her medicine.

Ida is another story for another day.

It amazes me really the things you find when you do genealogy. Actually the things you weren't looking for while you have problems finding the things you were trying to find and can't find and yet I found this story about an Esther who went to Baghdad from Lithuania near the Baltic Sea.

The Naftalins were merchants and some were on the well to do side. My Grandma Esther told me several times how her father sent her to America to her older twin sisters that were already there on a huge ship and he sent her 2nd class. She had a photo of herself at age 17 sitting on a fancy wrought iron bed in what appeared to be a cabin. Sitting politely at the edge of the bed with a quiet smile and long hair. I found out online recently that it was common to have photos taken on the ship to send back to the relatives in Europe as proof of the beauty of the cabin that was 2nd class and that they were well on their way. I also learned that by going 2nd class they were sort of "fast tracked" at Ellis Island. Her travel records show she traveled 2nd Class, she was traveling with a good deal of money (equivalent of close to $2,000 in today's money) and going to her sisters in 

New Jersey.

Big ship indeed!

She wasn't making that up!

Both Esther's traveled far across the globe.

In America she married my grandfather Herman.

Herman had necktie stores... 

..an exclusive contract with Bloomingdales for his silk ties.

Grandma loved being with her sister Ida in Miami Beach.

They'd come down for the Winter....

..eventually they retired to Miami Beach.

She painted and studied art.

My Grandfather Herman used to say:
"she's a city girl"

as he was raised in the country 

in a small town in Hungary.

Tomorrow night is Purim.

The name Esther really takes on new meaning.

I have a daughter Esther who goes by her middle name.

Kind of like Itzik.

Wow... 

I imagine she had some children in Bagdad.

Those descendants show up as Mizrachi Persian cousins.

I have a daughter Miriam who is married to a very sweet man from Netanya who is half Yeminite and half Persian. When they are pregnant in Florida with a new baby I never push names on them though if asked I suggest a few. Their second son Gavriel looks most like his father was given the name because they liked it. Gabriel is an angel name. At the bris I said to my son-in-law quietly "did you know my Great Great Grandfather was named Gavriel?" and he smiled and said "no but what goes around comes around" and with a big grin. I giggled. Indeed. That Gavriel lived in Nezhin. My grandson Gavriel lives in Miami.

Genealogy. What a trip.

Happy Purim!

And, yes will be looking deeper into this as there are records in archives mostly academic. I ran an Academic library for Touro College so I know how to fine them but for now I'm busy with pre Purim preparations. I made chocolate fudge hamantaschen!

Below is the suggestion AI gives as to how they may have traveled. Something to think on ..on Purim

Thanks for reading along. 

Again this is just my blog to keep notes for myself. If anyone wanders in ... hope they enjoy it.

"In 1862, a person traveling from 

Plungė

 (then part of the Russian Empire's Kovno Governorate) to 

Baghdad

 (then part of the Ottoman Empire) would have faced a multi-week journey involving horse-drawn transport, newly emerging railways, and steamships. 

1. Lithuania to the Black Sea (Overland) 

The first leg required traveling south through the Russian Empire toward a major port like 

Odessa

. 

• Initial Stage: From Plungė, one would travel by horse-drawn carriage or mail coach to a regional hub. While the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway was completed in 1862, it primarily served the Vilnius–Grodno corridor; a traveler from Plungė would likely reach the rail line at a station like Daugavpils or Vilnius.
• Rail to the South: By 1862, the Russian rail network was expanding but not yet fully connected to the deep south. A traveler might take a train toward Kiev, but the final stretch to Odessa often still required a tarantass (springless carriage) or stagecoach. 

2. Crossing to the Ottoman Empire (Maritime)

From the port of 

Odessa

, the most efficient route was by sea. 

• Steamship to Constantinople: Steamship companies like the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (established 1856) operated regular lines across the Black Sea. The voyage to Constantinople (Istanbul) typically took 2–3 days.
• Entry to the Ottoman Empire: In Constantinople, the traveler would transfer to an Ottoman or European steamship (such as those from Messageries Impériales) heading toward the Levant or the Persian Gulf. 

3. The Final Leg to Baghdad

Depending on their budget and tolerance for desert travel, the person had two primary options:

• The Overland Desert Route (Faster but Arduous): Disembark at a Mediterranean port like Beirut or Alexandretta (Iskenderun). From there, they would join a horse or camel caravan traveling through Aleppo and across the Syrian Desert to Baghdad. This journey could take 15–20 days by caravan.
• The River/Sea Route (Longer but Steadier): Travel by sea around the Arabian Peninsula to Basra. From Basra, they would take a river boat or small sailing vessel up the Tigris River to Baghdad. While the "Baghdad Railway" was discussed in this era, it would not be built for decades; river transport remained the primary method for heavy goods and comfortable travel into Mesopotamia. 

Total Estimated Travel Time: 4 to 7 weeks, depending on weather and caravan schedules.

...wow.

Goodnight... Bobbi