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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. |
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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:
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Can you contribute photos,
recollections, memorabilia, documentation or genealogical data?
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Can you spot any mistakes or
inaccuracies in the website?
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Can you make any suggestions for
improvements to it?
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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!
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BULLETIN BOARD
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During my trip
to London last week, I visited the National Archives to look at
various documents. One of these was the naturalisation papers of a
Joseph Goodman of Leeds, dated 1894. I assumed that this was the
Joseph Goodman who was the eldest son of my great-great-grandfather,
Symcha Gutman. However, it turned out to be a completely different
man - Symcha's younger brother! I had not known that Symcha had had
any brothers, but this Joseph applied for naturalisation on the same
day and using the same agent as Symcha had done. Why had I never
picked him up before? Who knows!
After some
initial research, I can say that this Joseph and his large family
arrived in Leeds from Poland in 1888, the same year that Symcha and
his family arrived. Joseph and his branch moved to Manchester at
some point between 1894 and 1897 and I have not been able to trace
them far into the 20th century as yet.
Additions to
this website as a result of this find are:
There are
other Goodman naturalisation papers held at the National Archives,
so I will have to go again when I am in London in early September,
and see if there were any other branches of this family that have
been lost.
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Mazeltov to
Suzy Goodman on her marriage to David Harris in Portsmouth on 22
June!
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Mazeltov and
all my love to my dad, Nachum Marks, on his marriage to Susan Lewin
at Yarnton Manor, Oxfordshire, on Sunday (20 July)! It was a lovely
occasion, the rain just about stayed away and everyone had a good
time.
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Congratulations to Kim White, who married John Knights on 5 July.
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I am very
sorry to announce the passing of Beatrice Kapper in Milwaukee, WI.
When I first discovered my connection to the Tarakhovskii family in
April 2002, I made contacts in each branch of the family tree and
Beatrice was my contact for the Milwaukee branch of the family. She
was always thrilled to hear from me on the phone or by letter and
was a wonderfully family-orientated woman. I was glad to meet her on
my trip to the US in November 2006, although her health had declined
since our initial contact. Nevertheless, she was someone who I
became instantly fond of and who will be sadly missed by all who
knew her. My sincerest condolences go to Ed, Howard, Miles, Sally
and Chuck.
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Following my
contact with Howard Kramer, I tracked down Stephanie Canci of
Montreal, who is also researching a family named Krzywie from Lodz.
After many excited e-mails and a couple of phone calls, I'm happy to
say that Stephanie and I are fourth cousins! Her branch of the
family have some horrific Holocaust stories and her grandparents
were lucky to escape the Lodz Ghetto.
I met Howard
in person yesterday and he told me how his own grandparents were
killed in the Blitz in the East End of London on 13 October 1940.
The following night, a stray bomb fell on my grandparents' house in
Kensal Rise and my grandmother was lucky to escape alive. It seems
the Kramer and Goldberg branches of the Krzywe family lived through
the Blitz together without realising that each other existed.
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Family: |
Tarakhovskii, Hoffman |
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Also
belatedly, although on a happier note, I'm pleased to announce
Shelley and Jeff Dean's new daughter's name is Leora Tova Bella.
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Belatedly, we
wish Sheila Lamb, Bonnie, Nigel and all their family a long life on
the passing of David on 2 June in London.
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I was
contacted a few days ago by a gentleman named Howard Kramer, with a
suggestion he may be related to my Krzywe ancestors. After a little
investigation, I'm thrilled to say that he is indeed my third cousin
once removed and his research has revealed a number of branches
previously totally unknown to me and takes the family back another
generation, to Berek Krzywe, who was born c.1794. Howard has also
established that the Krzywe family did not originate in Aleksandrow
Lodzki, as I had thought, but in Burzenin, just over 30 miles to the
south-west. I will be uploading new Krzywe trees and information
about Burzenin in due course. Meantime, Howard and I are teaming up
to purchase the Krzywe BMD certificates from Aleksandrow in order
that we can learn more.
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Family: |
Goldberg,
Tempelchof |
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Several
announcements of different sorts today...
Finally, after
several years in the preparation, the JRI-Poland indexing project
has uploaded BMD indexes for Lodz covering the years 1901-05. I had
been dying to see these and, as I had hoped, the marriage of my
great-grandparents, Izrael Goldberg and Chana Ita Tempelchof was
listed, in the 1904 index. Sadly, the PSA cancelled their
arrangement with JRI-Poland regarding online ordering, so I'm
ordering this certificate direct from the Lodz Archive and hoping it
will arrive before my dad's wedding on 20 July.
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Family: |
Tempelchof, Temple |
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I regret to
announce that Nat Temple passed away in
the early hours of Friday morning, 30 May. Regardless of his
professional fame, he was a warm family man whom I had the privilege
to meet on two occasions. My deepest condolences to Lynda & all the
family.
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Family: |
Tarakhovskii, Hoffman |
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Mazeltov to
Shelley and Jeffrey Dean on the birth of their second daughter (yet
to be named) in St Louis, Missouri, in the early hours of this
morning!
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Family: |
Niedzwiecki, Kowalski |
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Sadly, I have
to announce the passing of Sara Malka Kamin (née Niedzwiecka) in
Israel. We wish her family a long life.
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Family: |
Tiskofsky, Kowalski |
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Another
mazeltov: this time to Ben and Sarah Ziman on the birth of their
second son, Isaac Che, on 25 March!
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Family: |
Tiskofsky, Kowalski |
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A belated
mazeltov to my dear cousin Elizabeth and her husband Yianni Cheilas
of Athens on the birth of their son, Paris Alexandros, on 20
February! Wonderful to see all these new births in the family.
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Mazeltov to
Alex & Liat King of Jerusalem on the birth of their son, Harel, on 16
January!
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