Is a Puzzlement - Piecing together the Telefus Tree (Part 2)

In my last post I laid out the puzzle. Three TELEFUS families, each from Khotin, Ukraine. How do the three relate to each other? When I finally felt my internet resources were tapped, a few of the descendants of these families decided to hire a researcher in Europe. I've had success in the past this way, but only when the archivist was recommended. The researcher is based in Chişinău, Moldova, where some 19th century census records for Khotin are archived. (If you'd like a recommendation for this researcher, please contact me directly).

The archivist in Moldova found records for Telefus in the 1848, 1854, and 1874 censuses and revisions! Information about the censuses can be found here. The censuses were incomplete, often ignored female family members, and are known to have been inaccurate. Still, they are records, and I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Image from the 1854 revision of the Khotin census. Record for TELEFUS

From these records - plus some likely related records at JewishGen - I was able to piece together two 19th century TELEFUS families (below). The names in the first family below correspond to my family (my grandfather's Hebrew name was "Shemarya," and so is mine - an uncommon name to be sure), but the dates don't match up. The problem is that the information gathered in US records only goes back to the 1880s and 1890s, and these records stop in the 1870s. Vital records from 1880 - 1900 would help us make the connections among the current families and the 18th century records, but those records seem to be missing. Maybe DNA testing would shed some light on the connections. For example, my great-grandfather was Itzak TELEFUS (#20), the son of Chaim Hirsh TELEFUS (#41). And there is a father/son pair named Izak TELEFUS and Haim Hirsh TELEFUS below (#226 & #231). But the age difference between the two Izaks is 20 years! That is too wide to be a simple error.

So, for now, this is a wall. I'm not sure it is a genealogical brick wall; hopefully it's one we may be able to climb one day. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

19th Century TELEFUS Family 1

Haim Telefus (204), d. before 1848

+Pesea (--?--) (205), d. between 1848 and 1854

├── Shmaria Telefus (220), b. 1789, d. 1848

│ +Ruhlea (--?--) (221), d. before 1854

│ ├── Aron Telefus (224), b. 1817

│ │ +Ester (--?--) (225), b. 1816

│ │ ├── Feiga Telefus (230), d. before 1854

│ │ ├── Hana Telefus (228), b. 1839

│ │ ├── Sura Telefus (229), b. 1840

│ │ ├── Haim Hersh Telefus (226), b. 1850

│ │ │ +unknown spouse

│ │ │ └── Izik Telefus (231), b. 1872

│ │ ├── Mordco Telefus (227), b. 1852

│ │ ├── Shmary Telefus (232), b. 1854

│ │ └── Srul Telefus (233), b. 1862

│ └── Mendel Telefus (222), b. 1833

│ +Perla (--?--) (223), b. 1836

│ └── Shmary Telefus (234), b. 1855

├── Yos Telefus (206), b. circa 1803

│ +Zlata (--?--) (207), b. 1823

│ ├── Yanckel Telefus (211), b. 1826

│ │ +Etea (--?--) (212), b. 1829

│ │ ├── Haim Telefus (235), b. 1850

│ │ │ +unknown spouse

│ │ │ └── Shleoma Duvid Telefus (236), b. 1868

│ │ ├── Hessel Telefus (237), b. 1855

│ │ └── Azril Telefus (238), b. 1867

│ ├── Manoil Telefus (208), b. 1834

│ ├── Ezra Telefus (209), b. 1844

│ └── Shleoma Telefus (210), b. 1849

└── Ghetsel Telefus (213), b. 1805, d. 1848

+Hantsea (--?--) (214), b. 1815

├── Haim Telefus (215), b. 1836

├── Leiia Telefus (217), b. 1838

├── Menea Telefus (218), b. 1840

├── Sheila Telefus (219), b. 1844

└── Yanckel Telefus (216), b. 1845

19th Century TELEFUS Family 2

Hasckel Telefus (239), b. before 1777, d. before 1848

+unknown spouse

└── Froim Telefus (240), b. 1795

+Reiza (--?--) (241), b. 1795

├── Nehama Telefus (243)

└── Itsko Telefus (242), b. 1831

+Tsiva (--?--) (244), b. 1831

├── Haia Telefus (245), b. 1850

├── Mendel Telefus (246), b. 1850

│ +unknown spouse

│ └── Ghershko Telefus (247), b. 1871

└── Froim Telefus (248), b. 1869

Is a Puzzlement - Piecing together the Telefus Tree (Part 1)

My mother's father was a TELEFUS. Well, maybe technically it was his father who was a TELEFUS, since the name was changed to TELLES when they immigrated to New York from Chotyn, Bessarabia - now Khotin, Ukraine. Since starting this family history research, I've discovered quite a bit about my family, including reconnecting with the family of my great-grandfather's brother in Israel after a 40+ year separation.

TELEFUS is a funny name. According to the authoritative source, Beider's Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, TELEFUS means "Telefus (common in Khotin; Kamenets) N: see Terfus. N: from `talepus' [Yiddish] big-bellied person." Or maybe it means "Tarfus: from `tarfu' [Hebrew] food forbidden by Jewish law." (Note: I have not checked the most recent revised edition. My information is from the first edition). Either way, the description is apt for me these days, but I digress. Over the years, I've sought out anyone I could find with the TELEFUS surname, and they all seem to have a Khotin connection. I've always assumed that we are all simply related, but couldn't see exactly how to discover this relationship.

Looking through US census, immigration, naturalization, and vital records - and the family stories of those I've discovered with TELEFUS connections, I've identified three major families in the US. I've tried to remove the information for any living family members for privacy considerations. Incidentally, my family is "Telefus Family 1." The numbers in parentheses are index numbers to keep things straight for discussion.

So, the question is, how are these three families related? In my next post, I'll share the results of research by an archivist in Moldova - research that revealed more questions than answers.

Telefus Family 1

Chiam Hirsh Telefus (41), b. at Bessarabia, Ukraine, d. after 1909 at Bessarabia, Ukraine

+Mary Cohen (69), m. before 1865

├── Rachel Telefus (70), b. circa 1865

│ +(--?--) Marcus (71)

│ └── Bluma Marcus (72), b. 1897

└── Sheava Telefus (44), b. c 1873, d. 1955

+Aron Fisherman (46), b. c 1870

├── Louis Fisherman (47), b. 1894

│ +Sadie (--?--) (65), b. 1901, d. 1929 at NY

│ +Rose (--?--) (68)

├── Minnie Fisherman (52), b. 1898 , d. 1987

│ +Melvin Presser (53), b. 1903, d. 1988 at FL

├── Anne Fisherman (51), b. 1901, d. 1984

└── Mickey Fisherman (49), b. 1902

+Roberta (--?--) (50)

+Leah Berenstein (58), m. circa 1875

├── (--?--) Telles (45),

├── Pesach Telefus (42), b. at Bessarabia, Ukraine, d. at Isreal

├── Anna Telefus (43), b. 1887, d. 1968 at NY

│ +Chaim Telefus (67), b. 1887, d. 1922 at NY

│ +Max Lichtenstein (66), b. 1877 at Ukraine,, d. 1961

└── Isador Telles (20), b. 1891 at Bessarabia, Ukraine, d. 1951

+Sarah Birnberg (21), b. 1893, m. 1913 at NY, , d. 1965

├── Meyer Jack Telles (22), b. 1913, d. 2003 at CA

│ +Helan Konsky (23), b. 1915, m. 1936, d. 1994

├── Sam Telles (6), b. 1917, d. 1972 at NY,

│ +

└── Harris Telles (31), b. 1923, d. 2002 at TX

+

Telefus Family 2

Chiam Telefus (116), b. before 1862, d. between 1898 and 1910 at Bessarabia, Ukraine

+Sarah (--?--) (115), b. 1858 at Ukraine, d. 1923 at NY

├── Rachel Telefus (134)

├── Boruch Telefus (133), b. circa 1878 d. circa 1942 at Ukraine

├── Joseph Telefore (123), b. 1880 at Ukraine

│ +Sadie (--?--) (129), b. 1893 at Ukraine

│ +unknown spouse

│ ├── Lyman Telefore (124), b. 1903 at Ukraine

│ ├── Annie Telefore (125), b. 1907 at NY

│ ├── Yetta Telefore (126), b. 1910 at NY

│ ├── Jacob Telefore (127), b. 1911 at NY

│ └── Louis Telefore (128), b. 1913 at NY

├── Benjamin Telefus (96), b. 1885 at Ukraine

│ +Yetta (--?--) (97), b. 1887 at Ukraine, m. 1904

│ ├── Sam Telefus (98), b. 1906 at NY

│ ├── Harry Telefus (99), b. 1908 at NY

│ ├── Ethel Telefus (100), b. 1909 at NY

│ ├── Lillian Telefus (120), b. 1911 at NY

│ ├── Morris Telefus (121), b. 1915 at NY

│ └── Jacob Telefus (122), b. 1918 at NY

├── Nathan Telefus (117), b. 1888 at Ukraine

├── Jennie Telefus (118), b. 1890

└── Julius Telefus (119), b. 1898

Telefus Family 3

Yitzchak Telefus (87)

+Ida Hamburger (203)

└── Joseph Tellis (88), b. between 1879 and 1881, d. 1947

+Anna Wasserman (89), b. 1886, m. 1904, d. 1948

├── Lewis Tellis (94), b. 1905, d. 1953

│ +Mae Glucha (155), m. 1927

├── Ada Tellis (93), b. 1907, d. 1963

│ +Morris Gandelman (156)

├── Lena Tellis (91), b. 1911 at NY

│ +Jerry Grenadier (160)

├── Harry Tellis (90), b. 1914 at NY, d. 1962

│ +Mary (--?--) (163)

└── Albert Tellis (92), b. 1916 at NY, d. 1959

+Rose (--?--) (166)

+unknown spouse

├── Sam Tellis (101), b. 1885, d. 1950

│ +Lena Kashlinsky (102), b. 1890, m. 1909, d. 1961

│ ├── Dianah Tellis (180)

│ │ +Mel Bornstein (181)

│ ├── Frank Tellis (173)

│ │ +Mildred (--?--) (174), m. 1947

│ ├── Irma Tellis (176), d. 1950

│ │ +Murray Brauer (177)

│ ├── Edward Tellis (184), d. 1959

│ │ +Belle (--?--) (185)

│ └── Max Tellis (103), b. 1910 at NY, d. 1961

│ +Fay Benowitz (189), b. 1910, d. 1972

├── Efriam Asher Telefus (74), b. before 1890 at Bessarabia, Ukraine

│ +Hinde (--?--) (75)

│ ├── Leika Telefus (81)

│ ├── Rubin Telefus (76), b. at Bessarabia, Ukraine

│ └── Chana Telefus (80), b. circa 1901

│ +Jacob Gandelman (82), b. 1900, m. circa 1924 at NY

└── Louis Tellis (104), b. 1891

+Yetta (--?--) (130), b. 1887

├── Benjamin Tellis (131), b. 1913 at NY

└── Harry Tellis (132), b. 1918 at NY

Why I am doing this family history project...

• Genealogy is a journey of self discovery, at least it has been for me. In many respects, the person that you are is a reflection of the people who came before you. That is why know who came before you is important.
• In school, history sometimes left me feeling disconnected. Studying my own family's experiences has allowed me to see how we fit in the larger historical context.
• When I was younger, I asked my parents where our family was from. My father said "I don't know." So did my aunt and all of their cousins. I was never satisfied with that, and I reliezed that if I wanted better answers, I'd have to find them myself. And I've been trying...
• When my Grandmother, Marian Weil nee Goldner, passed away a few years ago, we found some brittle documents in Romanian. I had them translated, and they turned out to be my great-grandparent's dowry agreement, signed by my great-great-grandparents Leib Faibish and Shmuel Goldner! I regret not talking to my Grandmother about them before she passed away, and I never want to have similar regrets.
• I love detective work, and genealogical research is dectective work. You get clues from interviews and documents, and they lead you in different directions.
• Genealogy is a perfect hobby for a self-absorbed busybody like myself. :)

[Originally posted by me to the TangerineCrafts website in 2002.]

Florida's Place In My Family History Research

Somehow, we avoided the Wicked Blizzard of 2011. We got the last three seats on a plane for Fort Lauderdale the day before the storm and started our vacation/visit early. It hasn't quite been beach weather, but it sure beats the 24" that I'm told was filling my driveway!

I've been coming down to south Florida since I was a kid, first visiting my grandparents in Hallandale and then visiting my wife's grandparents in Boynton Beach. My parents have a place here now, doing the "snowbird" thing for a year or two before officially nesting here. Two of my aunts and uncles are here, a few of my father's cousins, and a good chunk of my parent's friends from New Jersey. This Jewish migration to Florida from the New York Tri-State region is as ingrained in my folk understanding of Judaism as eating Chinese food on Christmas, and it seems to be happening on schedule!

On this current trip, I started thinking of the affects of this resettlement from a genealogical perspective. In tracing my family tree, I've rarely done research on Florida because families were mostly born and raised in New York. My superficial internet research suggests that this aspect of the Jewish experience hasn't been studied too extensively (although perhaps I should read this book). But in many cases in the families I research, the latter decades of folks' lives took place in the state. If I'm really trying to understand their experience - and not just recording their names and vital records - I shouldn't ignore Florida.

I had a couple of thoughts...

• Who was here? My grandmother, Marian Goldner Weil, had three siblings with her in Florida (David, Morris, and Bessie) - four out of ten siblings who reached adulthood. My grandfather, Jacob Weil, was down in Florida with his older brother Harry. Plus a bunch of cousins, nieces and nephews. On my mother's side, my great-grandmother used to come down on vacation, and there are a few cousins still scattered about. There is still some extended family in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Coming down here is always a good time to reconnect.
• What was their experience? Going to 3G Deil, it is clear that there is still a significant Jewish population here. We always joke that we bring the average age down by a few decades when we walk into the room, although as the years go by it is clear that isn't always going to be true! Once there were a critical mass of Jews here, the cultural and religious supports became sustainable. That includes synagogues, newspapers, Yiddish and Hebrew language groups, Jewish philanthropic organizations, Kosher and faux-Kosher restaurants, etc. All of the aspects of life in New York were here, only warmer.
• Death certificates & Obits. I've ordered my share of Florida death certificates to get information about family member's birth dates, parent's names, and next of kin. My wife calls Florida "God's Waiting Room." I bet I could get more info from obits than I currently do if I knew where to look. All of these gated communities have their own newsletters, and I bet their remembrances are more personal.
• "Vacation" destinations. I'll be honest. If my wife's grandmother and my parents weren't down here, we wouldn't be here. This isn't where I'd go on vacation, Disney notwithstanding. But for more than a half century, south Florida has been the school-vacation week destination of tens of thousands of Northeastern Jews. What parts of the country are we missing out on because its time to go back to Boca to brunch with Bubbie and Zeydie? On the plus side, there are some wonderful things to do here, and I hope my kids have nothing but good memories. In fact, that is a major source of stories for my wife and me. I've spent a lot of hours hearing about my wife's family and getting the guided tour of 90 years of photo albums.

I'm going to try to make more, genealogically speaking, of my next trip to Florida. But on this trip, it was mostly about making sure that my kids spent a lot of quality time with their grandparents and great-grandmother.

Family Closer than I Thought

My grandmother's sister Anita was 12 years older than my grandmother, and so she remembered more about life in Ukraine than my grandmother (who was only 2 when they emigrated). Over the years, she told my Aunt Phyllis many stories, and I'm very lucky that my Aunt has a tremendous memory.

Anita was extremely petite. I only remember her at the very end of her life at the nursing home in Riverdale - nearly blind, nearly deaf, mind as sharp as a tack, and tiny compared to my 6' 2" adolescent body. As a child, Anita's size worried my great-grandfather Abram Broitman. He used to send her to his sister Riva's house because there were a lot of children there. He thought she would eat more with other kids around.

It got me thinking: what happened to all of these "kids"? We're still in contact with the descendants of one of those kids, who also immigrated to NY and lived very close to my mother's family. But what about the other siblings who stayed in Ukraine? On the heels of finding family on that side of the family searching through the pages of testimony at Yad Vashem, I thought I'd see if I could find any additional living family who had submitted records of family who perished in the Holocaust. So, a few nights ago I spent a little more time (literally 15 minutes) looking through the records at Yad Vashem. Eureka!

Based on my previous research (an interview with Anita before she died and a death certificate), I knew that the parent's names were Riva Broitman Krutoy and Jacob (Yakov) Krutoy. Riva was sister to Abram Broitman, my greatgrandfather. Entering "Krutoy" into the database, I was amazed to find an entry for “Abram, Krutoi,” of Odessa, Ukraine the son of Riva and Yakov Krutoi. A very likely match, given the names.

The page was submitted by Abram's son Konstantin. If alive, he'd be in his 80s. He'd be my grandmother's first-cousin once-removed. The page of testimony submission was originally in Russian, and the translations into English do not include the submitter's address. I asked a colleague who reads Russian to help me interpret the handwritten page to see if I could get more information. I assumed the address would be in Ukraine or Israel.

Nope. This cousin lives in Brooklyn! Coney Island, to be specific. One of the many older Russian Jewish immigrants in some very large apartment buildings. I wonder what his reaction will be when he receives the letter I'm writing?

Howdy! I've Moved (my blog)

Welcome to my new home!

I've grown too accustomed to Blogger to be happy at LiveJournal, so I've packed everything up and moved to Blogger. "MindfulMeanderings" wasn't available, so now I'm "MindfullMeandering." I'm sure all 4 of my regular readers will adjust!

http://mindfullmeandering.blogspot.com/

I'm going to blog more in 2011, mostly about genealogy. I've been looking for an outlet to capture the process and little successes in my family tree research, and this seems to be a great venue for that. Hope you stay around.

More Found Family!

Over the last year, I've been reconnected with cousins in Israel and Australia through JewishGen and through my family tree website. Now I've been connected with family through the kindness of strangers and Yad Vashem.

My great-grandfather, Abram Broitman, immigrated from Savran, Ukraine following the pogroms of 1918 and 1919. They fled to Bucharest Romania, then Toronto Canada, and finally to New York via a short stint in Philadelphia. We didn't have much extended family on that side of the family, and the family we knew we didn't quite know how to connect with our branch of the family. When I started my first family tree in 1985 as a fourth grader, I asked my Aunt to “interview” my grandmother's older sister, Anita about the family. Anita provided the names of all of Abram’s brothers and sisters as well as his parents names. I somehow saved that piece of paper and used it when I started researching our family’s history and experience as an adult. Over the years, this slip of paper has helped me piece together the branches we were in contact with. 

About five years ago, the database at Yad Vashem which documents those who perished in the holocaust became publicly available online. It included translations of all of the submitted names from the past decades. Looking for “Broitman” from Savran then, I found the name “Etel Broitman Erlikh” from Savran, the daughter of Shulum Broitman. That was a perfect match with the names that Aunt Anita had given years earlier - my great-grandfather's sister! I thought there was a good chance that she was related, and tried to contact the name of the person who submitted the page – a man living in Mariupol, Ukraine. I sent letters to every person by that name that  I could find in Ukrainian, Israeli, and US phone directories—in English, Hebrew, and Russian. No luck then. I got one phone call back from a kind woman in Brooklyn who explained that Erlikh was the “Smith” of Ukraine.

Last week I posted an question to a Jewish Genealogy mailing list about Savran. Although unrelated to my question, a helpful researcher in Israel suggested that I check Yad Vashem to see if there were any connections to relatives, and I told him about my fruitless search for the Erlikh family. That researcher decided to look again, and found that the submitter’s daughter had submitted additional pages – and that she lived in Israel. He called her up on my behalf, and I received an e-mail from her daughter a few hours later. While the connection isn’t definitive because of the passage of time and the lack of records, I’m pretty confident that we’re cousins because the names, dates, and locations we know all line up.

The family lives in central Israel. I’m in contact with folks who would be my second-cousin once removed and my third cousin. Etel Broitman Erlikh, her husband Abram Erlikh, and three of their four children perished in the holocaust. One child survived, although I do not yet know how. He stayed in Ukraine until he died in the 1990's. They've even sent me a photo from the 1930s (above).

I am incredibly grateful for the kindness of the Israeli researcher, the availability of the Yad Vashem database, and the power of the internet to reconnect families after over 90 years!