Monthly Archives: June 2015

Mukacheve Birth Records

Birth Records, Index Collection

This is a collection of Mukacheve Jewish birth records. It is far from complete, but the records are usually unobtainable by researchers. Some of the Jewish records were in the civil registration books, so some records indexed are not Jewish.

Why This Collection

In the summer of 2012, Banai Feldstein took her first heritage trip to Eastern Europe. While visiting Uzhhorod, Ukraine, she gained access to the Archive and photographed pages from the Mukacheve Jewish birth records to help with her research. For the most part, she photographed entire pages, thus having access to many additional records.

Indexing Notes

  • These records were generally easy to index.
  • The surname search uses the father’s surname. The child’s surname was not specified separately.
  • One page in one book (of those photographed) was bound out of order. Mother’s names are not listed for those records.
  • Difficulties in indexing may have come from the handwriting and the tight binding of the pages.
  • The records are in two languages. The switch from Hungarian to Czech was not even noticed at the time of digitizing. This, among other things, provides for multiple spellings of names in the database.

Statistics

  • Size of database: 1168 entries
  • Digitized: 2012, by hand-held camera

Samples

Abraham Rozenthal (penultimate record), Banai's grandfather, Civil Registration sample
Abraham Rozenthal (penultimate record), Banai’s grandfather, Civil Registration sample
David Alter Rosenthal (fourth from top), Jewish Registration sample
David Alter Rosenthal (fourth from top), Jewish Registration sample

Uzhhorod 1938 Voter Lists

Index Collection, Voter Lists

The Uzhhorod 1938 Voter Lists were microfilmed by FamilySearch and are available across three microfilm reels. These are records for all voting citizens, not just those who were Jewish.

Why This Collection

These microfilms were still cataloged by FamilySearch as both Uzhhorod and Mukacheve. Banai Feldstein’s family comes from Mukacheve. Though no section appeared to be Mukacheve, nobody else seemed to be working on them, especially given they were civil records, so a religious indexing project likely would not have covered them.

Indexing Notes

  • The lists are in Czech but are typed, so they were not difficult to read most of the time.
  • Sometimes the microfilm suggested that this may have been a carbon copy version, with the columns being quite a bit off. When a mistake was made in the typing, it was simply typed over. Most of the errors that are in the index are likely caused by two numbers or letters typed in the same space where it was impossible to tell which was the correction.
  • Sometimes a name was spelled different ways for different family members. Unless it was an obvious mistake, the spellings given are indexed as seen.
  • Corrections to the data are sometimes made in the index. Typos in numbering, names, years (ex. 1900s when they meant 1800s), and genders may be corrected.
  • Months are indexed as written, except that Roman numerals are typed simply as numerals.
  • Surnames for females are often altered, but not always. The ending of -y can be changed to -a: Pensky/Penska. Or the ending -ova appended, sometimes with slight alterations to the base name: Friedman/Friedmanova. We highly recommend using “Begins With” to search surnames.

Statistics

  • Size of database: 15193 entries
  • Digitized: 2014
  • Rabbis indexed: nine (Mor Brodi, Izak Teitelbaum, Aron Feldman, Mayer Oesterreicher, Mayer Blei, Josef Kohn, Bernat Lipsitz, Reihen Leifer, Jakub Valdman)

Samples

Governor Konstantin Hrabar (top right)
Governor Konstantin Hrabar (top right)
Rabbi Aron Feldman (top left)
Rabbi Aron Feldman (top left)

Translation Assistance

Months in Czech:

January ledna May kvetna September zari
February unora June cervna October rijna
March brezna July cervence November listopadu
April dubna August srpna December prosince

Beth David Cemetery, United Bessarabier Verein

Gravestones, Index Collection

The New York City cemeteries are large. Some are indexed online, but others, like Beth David, are not as of this writing.

Why This Collection

In 2006, Banai Feldstein was visiting the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. This was her second visit to see the same gravestone, which was previously overtaken by a plant. Banai photographed the entire section.

Indexing Notes

  • Gravestones are pretty straight-forward. On occasion, the Hebrew letters weren’t clear in the pictures.
  • Photographs were taken quickly. Many photos contain multiple stones. Some stones have multiple photos where the plants were blocking the writing and awkward angles were needed to see the data.

Statistics

  • Size of database: 117 entries
  • Digitized: 2006

Sample

Gravestone of Mary Gordy
Gravestone of Mary Gordy

Welcome

Miscellaneous

Welcome to the website of the Jewish Genealogy Indexing and Research Collective (the Collective, or the JGIRC).

Our goal is to index records that are available to us as well as go out into the world to find more. We are based in Utah, so we expect to have several Utah collections. We also have the Family History Library, where we expect to spend some of our indexing time.

Even more fun than indexing is genealogy research. We plan to provide narratives of family history on this blog. Watch for Utah’s Jewish Family History in the future.