And his Hebrew name is.....

Rabbi Illana is AMAZING! Within 20 minutes of  emailing the photographs of the headstones to her, she had emailed back the translations. To know my Great Grandfather's full Hebrew name is totally blowing my mind. So the man I knew of as simply Simcha is actually Simchah Yehudah, the Cohen.

I asked the Rabbi what "The Cohen" meant and here was her explanation: The Cohen means, hereditarily they are part of the priesthood that existed in ancient Israel. The Cohanim and Liviim (the Cohens and Levites) ran the Temple in Jerusalem, saw to the sacrifices, offerings and other things. For many modern Jews, this is no longer an issue. For those who are waiting for the Temple to be rebuilt and sacrifices resumed, they want to keep track of who was part of which tribe.

So, now I know that my Great Uncle Sandor found it extremely important to have "The Cohen" inscribed on the headstones of Simchah's children. Now if I can just track down where Simchah and Great Grandma Pepi are buried. If I can find Pepi's headstone then I will be able to find her Hebrew name and the name of her father which would be INSANE!

Cheers!
Sammee

Update on Hebrew Translation

Woo Hoo! The Rabbi from Congregation Kol Ami is going to translate the Hebrew on the Headstones from my family plot in Mount Hebron Cemetary! And if she is too busy, there are other people in the office that will do it. I am so fricking excited I can't even stand it....PLUS....there is a member of their congregation that is from Hungary and she is going to see if he is willing to help me search for Pepi and Simcha in Hungarian records. I may actually be one step closer in finding out the names of their parents, OH YAH, UH HUH, OH YEAH, DO THE BUTT DANCE ( \ ) ( I ) ( / ) ( \ ) ( I ) ( / )!!!!!

If at first you don't succeed....bang your head against the wall!

I have taken some time away from research to try and get my mind to calm down and quit over thinking things. The 1940's census is still being transcribed and because I don't know the district numbers or the areas of the relatives I am looking for, I have to wait for that info to become available through a normal search on Ancestry.com. I have however been updating my Grandmother's brothers and sisters, since adding their birth and death dates Ancestry.com has exploded with hints that I have been able to look at and attach to my relatives. Case in point, I now have a census for my Uncle Sandor (whom I am named after, yeah fun to know I am named after a man, LOL) who was the head of the family after my Great Grandfather passed away. I knew he was a successful business man but I never knew that he was a restaurantor and owned his own restaurant. For me, it is these little nuggets of information that make all the difference. They are what keep me going since those family members are no longer alive to share their stories with me.

I wound up contacting two Ancestry.com members because I found two family trees, one listing my Uncle Sandor and one listing my Uncle Shimon. I am assuming they are Grandchildren of my Uncles but I have not heard back from them. That is a little disconcerting since I am trying to not only piece my family together but also to bring my family back together. I also haven't heard back from the Rabbi at the local synagogue and I can't translate the Hebrew on their headstones myself. I plan on calling the Synagogue to see if there is anyone else in the congregation who would be willing to translate the inscriptions for me. So that is where I am at, I will forge ahead, I know this all won't come together as quickly as I would like but it will happen. Some how, some way, I will learn the story of the people that I come from.

Until Next Time,
Cheers!
Sammee

And I am stuck....again

Right now I am sitting in neutral while I wait for people I emailed on ancestry.com to get back to me. Three were regarding my Spears Family and two were regarding my Goldman Family. Plus I am waiting to hear back from the Rabbi at the local synagogue because I need some who can read Hebrew to translate information on some headstones. A wonderful woman named Dyane in New York went to Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, New York and photographed the main plot for my Grandmother's brothers and sisters. It was surreal to see my Great Aunt's and Uncle's headstones, I mean, this is something I have never seen before. There is a secondary plot that I have asked her to also photograph when she has time. This plot was for the children and grandchildren and there are A LOT. Anywho, that is where I am, I have been helping out with the data entry for the 1940 census on Family Search so that has been super fun and has been keeping me busy until I hear back from folks.

Cheers!

Baptism by Proxy and What does that Mean?

As I have been putting together Family Group Sheets for my Mother-in-Law, I noticed that some of her ancestors were baptized by Proxy between 2002 and 2010. I found this odd because my Mother-in-Law's family was LDS, came over with Brigham Young and even founded and settled Panguitch and Garfield, Utah. SO, why I ask you, would they be Baptized by Proxy if they lived and died a member of the faith? Definitely food for thought for the day.

You know them by one name but they are really called.....

I just had something happen that is a lesson for all genealogists and ancestry buffs. I was typing up the family group sheets and realized that I didn't know my husband's Uncle's full name. So I picked up the trusty cell and called my Father-in-law. I know my husband's Uncle as Uncle Tobe and that is what everyone calls him. I as well as my husband assumed that his name was Toby because my brother-in-law Shawn's first name is Toby (after Uncle Tobe). Well you could have called me a monkey's uncle when my Father-in-law told me that his brother's name is Charles. NO WONDER I hadn't  found any information about him!

How do you handle little kinks such as this and how do you go about researching when this happens? I know that by knowing Uncle Tobe's actual name it will make it a lot easier to search records.

Cheers!
Sammee

I am an Ancestry.com Ace!

What does being an Ancestry.com Ace mean? Just that I get all the information about the 1940 census before anyone else does! Of course it is going to take awhile for the 1940 census to be uploaded to their site but it's nice to know when the censuses I am looking for will be posted. They already have a few states up and they are working on New York right now, it should be posted within the next couple days. That is the one I am itching to get in my hot little hands. To see a census with my Grandmother and Grandfather AND my Auntie on it.....she is just going to die. There was an article online this morning that said about 21 million people from the 1940 census are alive today....they are a part of living history, how cool is that! I hope that when the 1980 census drops I will still be around. To read the article, click on the link here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-1940-census-20120402,0,2777746.story

Here is to a fun and fantastic search for all. I know it's not going to happen as quickly as I want it too but come on, it's been 78 years already so a few more days won't hurt:).

Cheers!

Sammee