INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Shmuelbennachum.com – A Genealogical Study. My name is Saul Marks and I am a professional genealogist and lecturer in tracing Jewish ancestry. My career choice was a direct result of years of research into my own family history, and this website is intended as a summary of that research, facilitating the sharing of information with family members, immediate or distant. It is also hoped to solve some the many minor mysteries within the family, and reconnect with descendants of as many of the numerous “lost” branches as possible.

How It All Began

Click this link to read an answer to two of the questions I am asked most frequently: “When did you first become interested in tracing your family tree?” and "How did you become interested in genealogy?"

SUBDIVISION OF THIS WEBSITE

I have subdivided the website exactly as I did the 1992 version of my family tree, with one section for the family of each grandparent. Links to each of these four sections are below. Of course, over the years, more and more ancestral surnames have been found and added to the tree. These sections are referred to as groups and all the families within them are referred to as families of that group. For example, the Goldberg group families include Brajtbart, Cymerman, etc. For the benefit of more distant family members, as well as unrelated visitors to Shmuelbennachum.com, I have included an alphabetical list of some of the main surnames within each group of families. My ancestral surnames are in CAPS; others are not. All surnames are listed in their original Polish or Russian male form, where these are known, with any later Anglicised spellings in brackets below them. This should help to direct your navigation of the site.

The website menu bar is at the top of every page, enabling you to navigate between sections easily. Each group homepage contains a number of sections, containing various types of information on as many as possible of the families in that group. To see how the families fit together, go to the Trees section of each group homepage. You can use the Search section to search Shmuelbennachum.com for a particular word, phrase, or even surname. Remember to try different spellings of any surnames you enter.

For a run-down of my direct ancestral families, their places of origin and interrelationships, click here.

A TEAM EFFORT

I could not possibly claim the rights to all the information I now have about my ancestry. Any genealogist, particular one working on his or her own family, relies heavily on others to provide information, stories, photos and, where necessary, funding. I have been fortunate enough to have had a great deal of help in all these areas, not only from my immediate family, but also from many of those with whom I have had contact over the years. Each group section of this website includes an acknowledgements section, in which I thank my main contributors personally.

This site has been designed to evolve with the research, and it is hoped that it will be the catalyst for more connections to be made and more information to shared easily amongst those of us who are interested. Therefore, I would urge all who read this to address the following questions:

• Can you contribute photos, recollections, memorabilia, documentation or genealogical data?

• Can you spot any mistakes or inaccuracies in the website?

• Can you make any suggestions for improvements to it?

• Are you related to one of the families mentioned here?

If any of your answers are "Yes!", PLEASE contact me at saulmarks@hotmail.com. Genealogy is all about co-operation, communication and teamwork to achieve common goals, and the establishment of this website would not have been possible without this attitude. I would love to hear from anyone, inside or outside the families covered on this website, who feels they can contribute in any way to the research. There are many people all over the world who have done just this, and discovered connections they never knew existed!

Finally, if you like what you see at Shmuelbennachum.com, I would appreciate your comments in my Guestbook!

 

BULLETIN BOARD     Date: 9 May 2010 Family: Debson, Goodman, Reuben   I can now confirm that Louis Debson indeed died on 13 March at 7.30pm. May his dear soul rest in peace.   Mazeltov to Paul Lewis and Kathryn Sherry on their marriage in Melbourne on 10 April and to Yair and Feigy Reuben on the birth of their second son, on 1 May.     Date: 19 April 2010 Family: All   I apologise for the inaccessibility of this website for the last couple of months, but it's now back online, as you can see. I started receiving e-mails from an encouragingly large number of people, saying that the website was down. I checked the billing status and made sure that both the server space and the domain name were renewed, but still the address wasn't leading to the website. My lifestyle is so busy these days that I simply didn't have time to ring Bizland (from whom I rent the server space and domain name) and sort it out. Finally, this evening, I've got round to doing it. It appears that the web address had been set to point at a "parking page", which is what you saw if you visited this website since mid-February. It was easily corrected by Bizland's technical support team over the phone. This setting was not of my doing and, after a little persuasion, they have agreed to give me a credit for the two months lost.   So, everything is back up and running. Sadly, the website's fifth anniversary in early March was missed due to the technical problem, but it's definitely worth a mention here. I had a lot more time, back in 2005, to work on this website and my family history in general. I do still try to make updates when I have time, but that's not too often. I am still grateful to everyone who visits. It was encouraging to find quite a few people e-mailing me about the site, so at least it does receive some readership!   I will conclude by wishing mazeltov to Sarah and Matthew Barron of Leeds on the birth of their second son Sonny Nathaniel on 2 February and also to the Lipman family in general on the marriage of Sarah's sister Amanda to Kevin Crooks on 10 April in Harrogate. On a sad note, I must also report the passing of Dr Louis Debson of New Brighton, aged 95, on or around 13 March. I have yet to establish the precise details or send my personal condolences to Uncle Louis' family, but he was an inspiring and courageous man with a strong sense of duty and responsibility, who will be sadly missed.     Date: 15 February 2010 Family: Rothstein, Kaitiff   Sadly, I must announce the passing of Bernard Rothstein last month. He was a lovely, sweet man whom I first met at the Tarakhovskii family reunion in Liverpool in July 2002. He will be missed by all his extended family.     Date: 13 November 2009 Family: Peters, Rose   Mazeltov to Adam & Esther Peters on the birth of their second son, Yisroel Yitzchak, on 2 October!     Date: 26 October 2009 Family: Debovitch   With regret, I must announce the death of Edith Debovitch of Leeds, at the age 100, on 3 October. Her grandson, Dr Alexander King of Jerusalem, has created these two memorial pages:   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151513681850 http://bit.ly/debovitch     Date: 26 October 2009 Family: Plager, Feldman   Mazeltov to Charles & Kate Plager on the birth of their son, Adam Benjamin, on 22 October!     Date: 26 October 2009 Family: Hoffman   Mazeltov to Jeff & Shelley Dean on the birth of their third daughter, Shira Neshama, on 20 October!     Date: 14 April 2009 Family: Goodman   Mazeltov to Simon & Rafaela Goodman on the birth of their son, Daniel Jack, on 9 March!     Date: 6 March 2009 Family: Rothstein   I must also report the passing of Mattis Rothstein in Manchester on 1 February. He was a long-term servant of the Leeds community and we wish a long life to his brothers Bernard & Michael & to all the family.     Date: 6 March 2009 Family: Tarachow   Sadly, I have to report the passing of Jerry Sher in Florida on 2 March. We wish a long life to Helen & the family.     Date: 27 February 2009 Family: All   I should also probably announce that my girlfriend Leanne & I are now engaged...!     Date: 27 February 2009 Family: Tiskofsky, Ronen   Mazeltov to my dear cousin Zivi Sainsbury & husband Mark on the birth of their daughter, Lily Jane, on 9 December. Apologies for the late notification.     Date: 19 February 2009 Family: All   The 1911 census of England & Wales was released a few weeks ago at www.1911census.co.uk, and I've now created pages containing transcriptions & images from this census, relating to our ancestors. I haven't collected all the census returns yet, as I simply can't afford to fund everything in one go, but the pages at the moment are: Goldberg Group 1911 census Tarakhovskii Family 1911 census Tyszkowski Group 1911 census Gutman Group 1911 census