Genealogy with Rabbi Scott

Genealogy with Rabbi Scott Rabbi Scott Kalmikoff is a professional Jewish genealogist based in NYC.

He conducts private, personalized genealogical research for those interested in discovering their family history.

Are you looking for a meaningful and memorable gift for your loved ones this holiday season? Give them a gift that lasts...
11/28/2025

Are you looking for a meaningful and memorable gift for your loved ones this holiday season? Give them a gift that lasts a lifetime—the gift of discovering their family’s story and where they come from.

Rabbi Scott Kalmikoff, a professional Jewish genealogist, will guide your loved ones on a deeply personal and profoundly enriching journey into their roots, uncovering family stories and connecting with the generations who came before them.

For more information, visit www.genealogywithrabbiscott.com or email Rabbi Scott at scott.kalmikoff@gmail.com.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season.

I've been thinking about my Oma, Anne Kalmikoff Miller, over the past two weeks. It would have been her 115th birthday o...
11/18/2025

I've been thinking about my Oma, Anne Kalmikoff Miller, over the past two weeks. It would have been her 115th birthday on November 9th. I was 10 years old when Oma passed away. She was truly the matriarch of the extended Kalmikoff family, deeply loved and admired. She was also the first genealogist in our family. In the 1960s and 70s, she found and reconnected with her aunts, uncles and cousins who were living in the Soviet Union. She corresponded with them in Yiddish, sending letters back and forth. In 1978, she and Opa traveled to Moscow to visit our relatives there.

Oma would often speak about her parents and memories from her childhood. I was too young to remember or appreciate these stories, but they were preserved in a video of Oma speaking about her life that was recorded in the late 1990s.

In one video, Oma speaks about her uncle, Yirma Krevulin, her mother's brother. My great grandmother, Ruchel Krevulin Kalmikoff, would bake cookies called "sukharkes" in Yiddish. On Shabbos morning, uncle Yirma would come over to have the sukharkes that his sister prepared.

I've wondered what these sukharkes were. I asked in a Yiddish Facebook group and was informed that sukharkes were a Jewish version of rusk cakes. A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. In Europe, Jews baked sukharkes from sweet challah-like bread, sliced in biscotti fashion. It was often served as a cookie along with milk, tea or coffee. The word "sukharkes" comes from the Russian word "sukhoy," meaning "dry."

I found kosher rusk cakes on Amazon and they arrived yesterday. I ate them with a cup of tea with my breakfast this morning. Genealogy keeps family traditions and memories alive, even after those we loved are no longer with us.

Below is a video of Oma speaking about her mother Ruchel, her uncle Yirma and the sukharkes.

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
11/17/2025

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Madison and her boyfriend will be visiting Germany in a few weeks. In preparation for their trip, Madison wanted to identify the birthplace of her great-great-great grandfather, Solomon Ullman. Madison knew he was born in Germany, but didn’t know where exactly. We found Solomon in the 1870, 1880 and 1900 US censuses. (We didn’t find him in the 1890 census because the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire in 1921.) We learned that Solomon was born circa 1814 in Bavaria and was a butcher by profession. None of the records we found provided us with Solomon’s exact birthplace.

Solomon passed away in 1901 and is buried in Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn. By searching on Jewishdata.com, we were able to find a picture of Solomon’s grave. Luckily, his headstone said he was a “Native of Bechhofen, Bavaria.” We also learned that his wife’s maiden name was Waldheimer which, according to the Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames by Lars Menk, was a common surname in Bechhofen.

We then found pictures of the synagogue in Bechhofen, which was probably the largest wooden synagogue in Germany. It was painted by Eliezer Sussman, a well-known Galician Jewish artist who specialized in synagogue decoration, in 1732-33.

Rosy, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, stumbled upon the center while attending the New York Jewish Book Festival. She asked if we could help her learn more about relatives who perished in the Holocaust. Rosy knew that her maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were killed. She knew the names of her grandparents and her mother’s siblings, but she didn’t know the names of their spouses or children.

We learned that Rosy’s mother submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of her family in 1971. According to the information she provided, Gita’s brother, Mendel Karelitz, was married to Mariasha Derecyn and they had one child, a son named Nison Karelitz, Rosy’s first cousin. Gita’s sister, Frieda Karelitz, was married to Benzion Fuchs and they had one child, a son named Gershon Fuchs. It was the first time Rosy heard the names of her cousins who were murdered.

Although the Karelitz family lived in Baranavichy, Belarus before and during the war, we learned that Rosy’s grandparents were not originally from that town. Her grandfather, Shmuel Karelitz, was born in Slonim, Belarus, and her grandmother, Itka Jacobson Karelitz, was born in Khomsk, Belarus, the daughter of Gershon and Rashke Jacobson.

Paula made a fourth visit to the genealogy center to continue researching her family tree. We had already found her grandmother’s ship’s manifest from 1900. She arrived at Ellis Island on July 17, 1900. According to the manifest, Rivka Sakolsky was going to her aunt, Ida Abramson, who was residing at 193 Henry Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Paula knew that her grandmother had relatives who lived in NYC, but they had lost touch after Paula’s grandmother moved to Missouri. Paula wanted to learn more about these relatives.

Since Rivka Sakolsky arrived in July of 1900, we assumed we would be able to find her aunt living at 193 Henry Street at the time of the 1900 US Census. We searched for Ida Abramson in the 1900 census, but we didn’t find anyone by that name living at 193 Henry. We then searched for the enumeration district for that address. An enumeration district (ED) was a geographic area designated for a single census taker to cover during a census period. Once the enumeration district was found, we skimmed through all of the pages of that ED until we found 193 Henry Street. Although we did not find an Ida Abramson at that address, we did find an Abramson family living there, David, Fannie and their many children. Could F***y Abramson and Ida Abramson be the same person?

I assumed that we had found the right family, but we needed to understand why Rivka’s aunt would appear as Ida on one record and F***y on another. We looked into the F***y Abramson we had found and learned that she died on March 30, 1928. According to her death certificate, F***y was the daughter of Joseph Block and Rachel Kass. She was buried in Mount Judah Cemetery in Queens. We then found a picture of her headstone which taught us that her full Jewish name was Chaya Fruma Liba. This explained why she was listed as both Ida and F***y on various records. Her first name was Chaya which was often anglicized to Ida. Her middle name, Fruma, which she went by more commonly, was anglicized to F***y.

Emily’s son, Max, visited the center a few weeks ago to conduct research on Emily’s family tree. This week, Emily and Max visited the center together to continue the research we started. We had learned that Emily’s grandmother, Bessie Zeitlin, was born in Daugavpils, Latvia in 1892, the daughter of Hirsch Zeitlin and Tzirka Lafer. The surname Zeitlin stood out to me when we started the research because it was the surname of an important family in the town my Kalmikoff ancestors come from, Shklov, Belarus.

We found Emily’s great grandparents, Hirsch and Tzirka in the 1897 All Russia Census of 1897. They were living in Daugavpils, then known as Dvinsk, at Zhitomirskaya Street 113-7. According to the census, Tzirka was from Komajai and Hirsch was originally from Shklov! Unfortunately, vital records for Shklov did not survive, so we couldn’t pursue further research on that line.

We pivoted and moved onto Emily’s paternal line, focusing on her great grandfather, M. Raphael. Emily wasn’t sure if his name was Meyer, Moses, or Melech. We found his burial location and a picture of his grave. The English inscription said Meyer Raphael, but the Hebrew said his name was Meila, a Yiddish nickname for the Hebrew name Melech. We concluded that he was probably known as Meila in Yiddish, but in America he was known as Meyer since that is a much more common Jewish name. Emily had found her great grandmother coming to the US but never found her great grandfather’s ship’s manifest. Using the new information plus data collected from the 1910 US Census, we found Meila immigrating to the US in 1903. He sailed from Antwerp, Belgium on the SS Kroonland and arrived at Ellis Island on November 17. He was going to his brother, Max Raphaelowitz, who had already settled in NYC.

Two sisters, Cathy and Gail, wanted to research their father’s family. We started by finding information about their grandfather, Morris Domowitz. We found his marriage record which taught us that his parents were Selig Domowitz and Rachel Kaplan. We also found his naturalization papers which taught us he was born in Zambrow, Poland. Using the data from the naturalization documents, we found Morris immigrating to the US with his mother and siblings. They sailed from Antwerp, Belgium aboard the SS Vaderland and arrived at Ellis Island on November 10. Morris’ father, Selig, had immigrated three years before his wife and children.

We then searched for records for the Domowitz family in Zambrow. We found the Domowitz family in a Lomza Area Army Draft List. We then found Morris’ birth record and his siblings’ birth records. We also found Selig Domowitz and Rachel Kaplan’s marriage record. They were married in Zambrow in 1877. Selig was the son of Leib and Malka Domowitz and Rachel was the daughter of Abram Icek and Cypa Kaplan, Cathy and Gail’s great-great grandparents.

I am delighted to be presenting at Limmud New York's LearningFest 2025 alongside so many incredible scholars, educators,...
11/11/2025

I am delighted to be presenting at Limmud New York's LearningFest 2025 alongside so many incredible scholars, educators, artists, and community builders. I invite you to join me on Sunday, November 16th at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. You can register at www.limmudnewyork.org.

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
11/10/2025

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Debra visited the center a few weeks ago to conduct research on her grandfather, Sigmund Fischer. We had learned he was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Arpad Fischer and Rosa Popper and that the Fischer family originated in Szentendre, Hungary, a town 30 minutes outside of Budapest. Debra returned to see if we could find more information about her grandfather’s family.

When Debra’s grandfather immigrated to the US in 1907, he said he was going to his father, Arpad, who was already living in NYC. We learned that Arpad married for a second time on August 26, 1906. His second wife was Julia Fekete. Less than three months later, Arpad had immigrated to the US, arriving at Ellis Island on November 6. Arpad and Julia settled in upstate New York, first in Ramapo in Rockland County and then in Montgomery in Orange County. Arpad’s wife, Julia, passed away and Arpad married for a third time on January 12, 1932. His third wife’s name was Bertha. Arpad passed away seven months later on August 15, 1932.

We also learned that Debra’s grandfather, Sigmund, had at least three brothers: Zoltan Fred and Nikolas. These three brothers also immigrated to the US and settled in NYC. Our only remaining question is what happened to their mother, Rosa Popper Fischer?

Tina is interested in pursuing genealogy as a hobby and wanted us to show her how to get started. We began by focusing on her paternal grandmother, Rose Negvitch. Rose had moved to Israel and changed her surname from Negvitch to Negbo. We searched for Rose in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry and found her burial location. According to her headstone, Rose’s Jewish name was Rachel, the daughter of Moshe and Ethel, Tina’s great grandparents.

We then found Rose’s marriage record from 1925 in NYC and learned that her maiden name was Tachne. Using this information, we searched for a Rachel Tachne immigrating to the US and found her ship’s manifest. Ruchel immigrated in 1920, arriving at Ellis Island on December 7. According to the manifest, she was born in Goworowo, Poland but was living in Ostrów Mazowiecka, Poland prior to immigrating. Her mother, Etka (Ethel) Tachne, was her point of contact in the old country and she was going to her brother, Max (Mates) Tachne, who was already living in NYC.

We then found the Negvitch family in the 1930 census and realized that Rose’s mother, Etka, had also immigrated to the US. She was living with the Negvitch family in 1930 in NYC and was known as Yetta/Ida Tachne. She immigrated to the US in 1923 with Rose’s younger sister, Beyla.

Mark wanted to conduct research on his grandfather’s genealogy. Mark believed his grandfather was from Vilnius, but wanted confirmation that that was true. Mark knew his grandfather as Jonah or Jonas Badash, but nothing came up when we searched for that name. We quickly learned that in America, Jonah appeared as John in all of the records. According to his marriage record, Jonah was the son of Jacob Badash and Rose Subotnik.

Jonah Badash’s naturalization papers did say that he came from “Wilna, Russia” which confirmed that he was from Vilnius. Vilna was both the name of a city, the modern-day capital of Lithuania, but it was also the name of the province in the Russian Empire. We wanted to know if Jonah came from the city of Vilnius or a smaller town or village in the province of Vilnius.

We searched for records for the Badash family using Litvak SIG. We found two birth records for babies born in the city of Vilnius, a baby Miriam and a baby Abraham, who were born to Yankel (Jacob) Badash and his wife, Reiza. These were birth records for Jonah’s siblings. According to the birth records, Yankel’s father was Mordechai Badash and Reiza’s father was Yonah Subotnik, Jonah Badash’s namesake. We then found Yankel and Reiza’s marriage record and learned they were married in the city of Vilnius on October 15, 1871. Yankel, a widower, was 48 and Reiza was 24 at the time of their marriage.

We then found Reiza Subotnik’s birth record. She was born on November 23, 1847 in Vilnius, the daughter of Yonah Subotnik and Menucha Freida. Reiza’s grandfathers were Shimel Aron and Leyzer, Mark’s great-great-great grandfathers. Reiza passed away on February 11, 1927 in Vilnius.

Mindy was told that her grandfather’s name, Morris Miller, was originally Moshe Malovchanik. She wanted to know if that was in fact her mother’s family’s original name and where in Poland they came from. We found the Miller family living in Brooklyn in the 1940 US Federal Census. Morris and Sarah and their four children, Shirley, Abraham, Rebecca and Miriam, were residing at 447 Pennsylvania Avenue. Morris, Sarah and their two oldest children were born in Poland while the two youngest children were born in New York.

We then found Morris’ naturalization papers which confirmed that his original name was Moszek Malowanczyk. According to these documents, Morris immigrated to the US in 1923, arriving at Ellis Island on September 5. He was going to his brother, Jacob, who had already settled in Cleveland, Ohio and changed his name to Miller. At the time of naturalization, Morris’ wife and two children were still living in Poland.
Sarah, Shirley and Abraham joined their father in the US in 1929, sailing from Cherbourg, France aboard the SS Olympic and arriving at Ellis Island on July 17.

We wanted to see if we could find information about Jacob Miller, Mindy’s great uncle who had settled in Cleveland. Jacob was married to F***y and they had four children: Philip, David, Sol and Zelda. Jacob passed away in 1976. We found a picture of his headstone which has a photo of Jacob himself affixed to it. According to the records found for Morris and Jacob Miller, they were from Przasnysz, Poland.

Breisach: A small, quaint German town on the French and Swiss border. Jewish families had lived there for over 300 hundr...
11/09/2025

Breisach: A small, quaint German town on the French and Swiss border. Jewish families had lived there for over 300 hundred years, generation after generation. Bloch, Blum, Breisacher, Burgheimer, Dreyfuss, Geismar, Grumbach, Guenzberger, Kahn, Kleefeld, Levy, Mock, Schwab, Weil and Wormser. These families had lived in Breisach and the surrounding towns and villages in the German countryside for generations. They were the founders and leaders of Breisach's Jewish community. They were middle class German Jews. Many made a living by trading and selling livestock. At one time, they spoke an old Western dialect of Yiddish and maintained their German Jewish customs. The Jews lived on the Judengasse, the Jewish street of the town. This is where the synagogue, Jewish school, Jewish community center and mikvah were located.

My great-great grandmother, Marie Grumbach Weill, was born in Breisach in 1847. My ancestors first settled in Breisach in the early 1600s. I am a descendant of the Burgheimer, Grumbach and Wormser families.

On Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Breisach's synagogue was burned down. About 30 Jewish men from Breisach were taken to the Dachau concentration camp, including the community's cantor. It was the beginning of the end of the Jewish community of Breisach and Breisach's long Jewish history.

Today, I remember the Jewish community of Breisach. I remember my ancestors who lived in that town for so many generations. I remember the synagogue in which they prayed; the same synagogue that was destroyed 87 years ago tonight on Kristallnacht. I remember all of the Jewish communities, history, traditions and culture that we lost in the Holocaust.

Below are pictures of Breisach's synagogue, of the Judengasse and of myself praying in the place where the synagogue once stood.

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
11/03/2025

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Max wanted to research his maternal grandmother’s family. He knew his grandmother, Shirley Klein, was the daughter of Max and Bessie Klein and that she had a sister named Lillian. By conducting a quick search, we found the Klein family in the 1930 US Federal Census, residing at 174 Bay 26th Street in Brooklyn. According to the census, Max was born in “Austria” and was a manager of a restaurant and Bessie was born in “Russia.” The 1940 and 1950 US Federal Censuses provided us with the same information.

We then found Max and Bessie’s marriage certificate. Max Klein and Bessie Zeitlin were married on March 20, 1920 in Manhattan. According to their marriage record, Bessie’s parents were “Harry” Zeitlin and “Celia” Lafer. The marriage certificate also said that she was born in “Votopsk, Russia.”

Using this information, we searched for information about Bessie’s family in the old country. We learned that Bessie was born in Daugavpils, Latvia on March 20, 1892. Her parents were Hirsh Zeitlin and Tzirka Lafer. On Bessie’s marriage record, Hirsh was anglicized to Harry and Tzirka to Celia. Daugavpils, formerly known as Dvinsk and Denenburg, was located in the Vitebsk province of the Russian Empire. This is why her marriage certificate said Bessie was born in “Votopsk.” According to Bessie’s birth record, her paternal grandfather was Gavriel Zeitlin and her maternal grandfather was Mordechai Lafer, Max’s great-great grandfathers.

Paula visited the center hoping to learn more about her maternal grandparents and their families. A relative had already done some research and created a family tree, but Paula wanted to see if there was anything else we could learn. According to the research that had already been done, Paula’s grandfather, Meyer Hoffman, was from “Vishey” in Russia and was the son of Velvel and Pesha Hoffman. We found a picture of Meyer’s headstone in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Raytown, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. According to his headstone, Meyer’s father was Ze’ev Hoffman, while the family tree said his father was Velvel. Both names are accurate and true. Velvel is a Yiddish name meaning “wolf” and Ze’ev is a Hebrew name meaning “wolf.” Ze’ev and Velvel are two names that could be used for the same person, their legal Hebrew name and their informal Yiddish name.

We identified Vishey as modern-day Veisiejai, Lithuania which was known as Vishey in Yiddish. We searched for information about the Hoffman family in Veisiejai and found a transcript of Paula’s great grandparents’ marriage record. Velvel (Wolf) Hoffman and Pesha Wawski were married in Veisiejai on February 9, 1857. According to the marriage record, Velvel was the son of Hirsh and Cyrla Hoffman and Pesha was the daughter of Shlomo and Eta Wawski. By finding this record, we extended the family tree another generation, to Paula’s great-great grandparents. But the marriage record also included the names of Velvel and Pesha’s grandfathers: Shlomo, Srul, Meyer and Wolf, four of Paula’s great-great-great grandfathers.

Paula was most moved when we found her grandparents’ ships’ manifests. Her grandfather, Meyer, immigrated to the US in 1899, sailing from Bremen, Germany on the SS Roland and arriving at the port of Baltimore. According to the manifest, he was living in “Wischej” prior to immigrating and his final destination was Kansas City. Pesha followed in 1904, sailing with their children from Antwerp, Belgium aboard the SS, Finland and arriving at Ellis Island on December 8. They were going to their husband and father who had already settled in Missouri.

Daniel asked if we could research his grandfather, David Huff. We found David’s WW2 Draft Registration Card which taught us that he was born on August 28, 1916 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. We found the Huff family in the 1930 US Federal Census living in Chicago, Illinois, not Bridgeport. We couldn’t find them in the 1920 census.

By conducting a search on FindAGrave.com, we learned that John Huff’s Jewish name was Shlomo Chaim, the son of Nechemya. We also learned that Huff was actually a name change. The family’s original name was Lifsh*tz, spelled Lefsetz here in the United States. John Huff’s father, Nechemya Lifsh*tz, also immigrated to the United States and was known as Henry Lefsetz. Henry immigrated to the US in 1907 and settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania where his son, John, was already living. John moved to Bridgeport and then Chicago, but Henry, his wife and daughters stayed in Scranton. Henry is buried in the Dalton Jewish Cemetery in Dalton, Pennsylvania. According to his headstone, his father was Rabbi Michel Zelig Lifsh*tz, Daniel’s great-great-great grandfather.

Once we knew that Huff had been changed from Lefsetz, we found Daniel’s grandfather, his parents and siblings living in Bridgeport in the 1920 US Federal Census. According to the census, John Huff’s oldest children were born in Pennsylvania and the younger ones, including Daniel’s grandfather, were born in Connecticut, reflecting the move from Scranton to Bridgeport.

Lindsey wanted to learn more about her grandfather’s family. We started by finding his grandfather’s WW2 Draft Registration Card. Michael Spielfogel was born on September 27, 1917 in NYC. He listed his mother, Rose Spielfogel, as his contact person. Their address was 524 Ocean View Avenue in Brooklyn. We then found the Spielfogel family living at that address in the 1940 US Federal Census. We learned that Michael’s original name was Morris and that he had changed his name to Michael as an adult. Lindsey had no idea that Michael wasn’t her grandfather’s birth name. We also learned that Michael’s father was Isidore/Isaac Spielfogel.

We noticed in the census records that there was a large age gap between Michael and his younger brother, Sidney. Michael was born in September of 1917 and Sidney was born in August of 1928, almost an 11 year gap between the two brothers. By finding their parents’ marriage certificate, we learned Rose Spielfogel’s maiden name was Bacharach. Using that information, we then learned that Rose had given birth to two daughters who died in infancy. According to their death records, Pearl Spielfogel passed away on August 1, 1924 at the age of 8 months and Sarah Spielfogel passed away on May 20, 1926 at the age of 6 months. This explained the large age gap between Michael and his younger brother. No one in Lindsey’s family knew about her grandfather’s siblings who had passed away.

David, visiting from Australia, is the son of Holocaust survivors from Warsaw, Poland. He knew his grandparents’ names were Hersh Yankel Helfgott and Liba Zissel Tabakman, but he wasn’t sure where they were from. By conducting a quick search on JRI Poland, we found a transcript of David’s grandparents’ marriage record. They were married in 1887 in Lukow, Poland, a town 63 miles southeast from Warsaw. We then found Liba Zissel’s birth record and learned that she was born in Lukow on January 7, 1867, the daughter of Aron Tabakmacher and Brajna Loterman.

Using this information, we searched for David’s great grandparents, Aron and Brajna, and learned that they were married in Lukow in 1862. Aron was named Aron Tabak in the marriage record, the son of Lejbko and Szejna Sylka, and Brajna was the daughter of Abram and Cwetla, David’s great-great grandparents. Aron Tabak was born in Siedlce, Poland on August 17, 1838. His mother, Szejna Sylka, passed away on February 17, 1843 in Siedlce.

We also learned that Tabak means “to***co” in Yiddish and German. The surnames Tabak, Tabakman, and Tabakmacher are occupational surnames for someone who was involved in the to***co trade.

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
10/27/2025

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Brian, visiting from Baltimore, MD, wanted to learn more about his grandparents, Meyer and Goldie Schwartz. We found the Schwartz family living in Baltimore in the 1910 US Federal Census. Meyer and Goldie were residing at 302 Exeter Street with their three oldest children, Nathan, Abraham and Morris. According to the census, their two oldest sons, Nathan and Abraham, were born in Russia. According to Brian, his grandfather’s original surname was Chernobulsky, not Schwartz, and his grandmother’s maiden name was Cohen.

We then found pictures of Meyer and Goldie’s graves which taught us that Meyer’s father was Avraham Chernobulsky and Goldie’s father was Mordechai Cohen, Brian’s great grandfather. We then searched JewishGen.org to see if we could find any information about Meyer and Goldie in the old country.

We found a birth record for a baby named Avrum Chernobulsky who was born in Mokra Kalyhirka, Ukraine, on December 8, 1902. This baby’s father was Meyer, the son of Avrum Chernobulsky and the baby’s mother was Golda, the daughter of Mordechai. This was the birth record for Meyer and Golda’s second oldest son, Abraham Schwartz. By finding this birth record, we learned that Brian’s family came from Mokra Kalyhirka, Ukraine. We found Brian’s grandfather in a list of Jewish males living in the town in 1875. According to the list, Meyer’s father was Avrum, which we already knew, and Meyer’s grandfather was Nison Chernobulsky, Brian’s great-great grandfather.

Debra is planning a trip to Budapest and wanted to find information about her grandfather who supposedly lived in Budapest before immigrating to the United States. We learned that Debra’s grandfather, Sigmund Fischer, was born on September 12, 1888 in Vienna, Austria, the son of Arpad Fischer and Roza Popper. He immigrated to the US in 1907, arriving at Ellis Island on February 1. According to his ship’s manifest, Sigmund was living in Szent Endre, Hungary prior to immigrating. Szent Endre is a riverside town 30 minutes north of Budapest.

We were surprised to learn that Sigmund was married prior to marrying her grandmother. Sigmund married his first wife, Elsie Laupheimer Mann, on April 9, 1915 in New York. Unfortunately, Elsie passed away in June of 1926. Sigmund married his second wife, Debra’s grandmother, in October of 1926 and Debra’s mother, Elsie, was born a year later in October 1927. We realized that Debra’s mother must have been named after Sigmund's first wife, Elsie Laupheimer Mann Fischer!

We then learned that although Sigmund Fischer was born in Vienna, Austria, his family originally came from Budapest. His parents, Arpad Fischer and Roza Popper were married in Budapest on July 8, 1884. Arpad was born in Budapest on May 10, 1863, the son of Salomon Fischer and Rosalie Reik, Debra’s great-great grandparents.

Eden, visiting from Florida, stumbled upon the center during her visit to the Museum of Jewish Heritage. She asked if we’d be able to conduct research on her grandparents, Morris and Bessie Gelman. We found Morris’ naturalization papers which taught us that he was born in Beltsy, Russia, which we identified as modern-day Balti, Moldova. Morris immigrated to the US in 1914, arriving at the port of Philadelphia on July 16 aboard the SS Prinz Aldabert.

According to his obituary, Morris’ wife’s maiden name was Bessie Reisser. We found Bessie in the 1910 US Federal Census and learned that her parents were Joseph Reisser and Celia (Sima) Braverman. We noticed that the census said that this was the first marriage for Joseph and the second marriage for Celia. We concluded, based on the ages and dates, that Joseph Reisser was not Bessie’s biological father. She had to have been the daughter of Celia’s first husband. We still do not know who Bessie’s biological father was.

We did learn that Sima’s parents, Pinchas Shmuel and Rose Braverman, Eden’s great-great grandparents, immigrated to the US as well. They first settled in Toronto, Canada and then immigrated to the US in 1907, joining their son who had already settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. According to Rose’s obituary, she and Pinchas Shmuel, known as Zeda, were the parents of 8 children: Meyer, Max, Joseph, Michael, Irving, Esther, Lena and Celia, Eden’s great grandmother. We even found pictures of Pinchas Shmuel and Rose’s graves which had pictures of them attached to the headstones.

Cheryl’s father was a Holocaust survivor from Tarnow, Poland. Cheryl said that her father never spoke about his experiences during the war or about the family that had been killed. She wanted to see if we could find information about her father’s family. We learned that Cheryl’s grandparents were Mechel Roth and Kreindel Roth, Cheryl’s namesake. Her grandmother’s maiden name was Roth and she married a Roth. Not only did two Roths marry each other, but Mechel’s brother, Sam Roth, and Kreindel’s sister, Rose Roth, married each other.

We found pages of testimony that Cheryl’s father submitted to Yad Vashem in memory of his parents and siblings. We learned that Cheryl’s aunts and uncles were Rose, Bashe, Yossel and Herzig Roth. We also learned that Cheryl’s grandparents came from Ryglice, Poland. Cheryl’s grandfather, Mechel Roth, was the son of Naftali Hersh Roth and Esther Salander, and Cheryl’s grandmother, Kreindel Roth, was the daughter of Manes Roth and Sheindel Gewelber.

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My Story

Rabbi Scott Kalmikoff was born and raised in Staten Island, NY. He grew up in a two family home where he lived with his parents, younger brother and maternal grandparents. Growing up, Rabbi Scott had a particularly close relationship with his grandparents who shared many stories with him about their lives, relatives and family history. These family stories inspired a curiosity within Scott who wanted to learn more about his family tree. Rabbi Scott began his genealogical research fourteen years ago at the young age of fifteen. Since then, he has traced parts of his family tree as far back as the 1600s and discovered roots in Belarus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania and Wales. Rabbi Scott has traveled across the globe, visiting the towns his ancestors emigrated from and meeting distant relatives. Rabbi Scott received a BA in Jewish Studies with a concentration in Jewish History from Yeshiva University. He was a recipient of the university’s Altshul, Pearlman Memorial Award for Highest Ranks in all Jewish Studies. Following graduation from Yeshiva University, Scott began his studies at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and was ordained in June 2018. He currently resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In 2020, Rabbi Scott was inspired to offer his genealogical expertise in American and European Jewish Genealogy to those who are interested in connecting with their roots. For Rabbi Scott, genealogy isn't just a hobby or profession. Genealogy is a wonderful journey of personal exploration and self discovery. While learning about our ancestors we learn about ourselves. While learning about our history we connect with and deepen our Jewish identities. Jewish history and our families' stories are our story and deeply influence who we are today in ways we may never fully comprehend. ​Genealogical research provides us with a precious gift we can pass to the next generation, L'Dor VaDor.