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.

Saint Patrick’s Day is special to our family because my grandparents met on this day in 1951.My great grandparents, immi...
03/17/2026

Saint Patrick’s Day is special to our family because my grandparents met on this day in 1951.

My great grandparents, immigrants from Greece, owned a restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan called The Dandy Shop, located at 1908 Broadway. My grandmother, Angelica Paidoussis, grew up working in her family's restaurant with her parents, two brothers, grandmother and great uncle. As a young adult, my grandmother helped her father run the restaurant and tend the bar. My grandfather, Ed Schaefer, came to the restaurant on Saint Patrick’s Day while on a date with a woman named Adelaide. They sat at the bar to have a drink. When the woman went to the restroom my grandfather asked the bartender who my grandmother was. The bartender said that she was the boss' daughter. My grandfather approached my grandmother and asked her if he could take her out on a date. My grandmother thought he was joking because he was on a date with another woman. She jokingly agreed to go out with him. A few days later my grandfather returned to the restaurant and asked my grandmother if she was still interested in going out with him. He had made dinner reservations and purchased tickets to the theatre.
My grandparents were married 10 months later on January 20, 1952.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! ☘️

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
03/16/2026

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

Michele heard that visitors to the museum can research their family trees, so she and her daughter made a special trip to learn about their family history. Michele wanted to conduct genealogical research on her grandparents, Jonas and Annie Liebman. Michelle told me that her grandparents were first cousins, which was very common at the time. The records we found taught us that Annie Liebman’s maiden name was Liebman, so we knew that Jonas’s father and Annie’s father were brothers. According to their marriage certificate, Jonas was the son of Hirsh and Yetta Liebman and Annie was the daughter of Moses and Mollie Liebman. They were married in NYC on January 26, 1918.

According to her naturalization papers, Annie immigrated to the US in 1912, sailing on the SS Amerika from Hamburg, Germany and arriving at Ellis Island on November 16, 1912. After reviewing the manifest, we realized that Annie and Jonas traveled on the ship together. Annie was going to her father, Moses Liebman, who was already living in NYC and Jonas was going to his uncle, Moses Liebman, Annie’s father. By finding their naturalization records and ships’ manifests, we learned that Annie’s father immigrated to the US in May of 1912, just a few months before his daughter, and Annie’s mother, Mollie Liebman, immigrated to the US nine years later in April of 1921.

We found the entire Liebman family buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery with the Erste Uscieczker Kranken Unt. Verein, a society for Jews from Ustechko, Ukraine. By searching on FindAGrave, we found pictures of the graves of Michele’s grandparents and great grandparents. According to their headstones, Moses’ father was Yehudah and Mollie’s father was Pinchas Mordechai, Michele’s great-great grandfathers.

Michele’s nieces, Stephanie and Wendy, joined us later in the morning and asked if we could look into their grandfather’s family. His name was Irving Cohen and he had two brothers, Abraham and Seymour Cohen. We found the Cohen family in the 1940 US Census. According to the census, Irving’s parents were Louis and Sophie Cohen. Irving’s paternal grandmother, Bertha Cohen, was also living with them. The Cohen family resided at 2167 East 8th Street in Brooklyn. By searching the 1940 NYC Tax Photos database, we were able to find a picture of 2167 East 8th Street in 1940 when the Cohen family was living there.

We then found the Cohen family in the 1925 NY State Census which showed Louis, Sophie, Abraham and Irving living at 718 Avenue L in Brooklyn. Seymour wasn’t listed because he wasn’t born yet. Next door lived Louis’ parents, David and Bertha Cohen who were residing at 716 Avenue L. We knew that David had to have died before 1940 because Bertha was listed as a widow in the 1940 US Census. We learned that David Cohen died on December 12, 1933. Cohen is the most common Jewish surname in the world, so we needed a lot of evidence that this David Cohen was the correct David Cohen. The death certificate said that his wife’s name was Bertha and that he lived at 718 Avenue L, proving we had the correct David Cohen.

Bertha passed away on April 29, 1944. According to her death record, Bertha’s parents were Ber and Nechama Weinchelbaum, Stephanie and Wendy’s great-great-great grandparents. David and Bertha are buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery with the First Berezner Woliner Benevolent Association, a society for Jews from Berezne, Ukraine. Using this information, we found Bertha’s parents in an 1858 Revision List in Korets, Ukraine. Bertha’s parents’ full names were Khuna Ber and Chana Nechama Veynshelbeym (Weinchelbaum). Khuna Ber’s parents were Michel and Vichna Veynshelbeym and Michel’s father was Khuna Ber, Stephanie and Wendy’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

Joan visited the center with a specific goal. Her grandmother, Bessie, told Joan that Bessie’s mother, Clara Klein, died when she was a little girl. Joan wanted to find out when Clara died and where she is buried. We found the Klein family in the 1910 US Census. Joan’s great grandfather, Henry Klein, was living in Newark, NJ with his second wife, F***y, his two daughters from his first marriage, Bessie and Celia, and his son from his second marriage, Morris. According to the census, Bessie and Celia were both born in New Jersey, sometime around 1892 and 1894, respectively. I then found Bessie in the 1900 US Census. She was living in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Newark which was located at 536 Clinton Ave. Joan told me that her great grandfather placed his daughters in the orphanage after their mother passed away.

New Jersey took its own census in 1895. I hoped to find the Klein family living in Newark in the 1895 NJ State Census. I found Henry, Clara, Bessie and Celia in the census, which narrowed down the year of death for Clara. She had to have died in between the 1895 NJ State Census and the 1900 US Federal Census. We searched the NJ Death Index on Ancestry.com and found Clara listed as Clara Klien. She died on July 5, 1896. We submitted a request to the NJ State Archives to receive a copy of her death certificate which will provide us with the name of the cemetery she is buried in.

Steve, visiting from Atlanta, wanted to learn exactly where his grandfather, Joseph Levitan, came from. We found Joseph’s naturalization papers which taught us he was born in Linkuva, Lithuania and that he immigrated to the US in 1906/07, arriving at Ellis Island on January 4, 1907. We found his ship’s manifest showing him arriving as Josel Benzel Lewitan.

Using this information, I found the Levitan family in a list of residents in Linkuva from 1908. Joseph was listed as Iosel Bentsel, the son of Hirsh David and Chaya Pesa Levtian, Steve’s great grandparents. According to this list, Hirsh David was the son of Chonel Levitan and Chonel was the son of Mendel Levitan, Steve’s great-great-great grandfather. We found Hirsh David’s death record which showed he died in Linkuva on February 13, 1929. The death record provided us with his mother’s name: Mina Gita.

I then found the Levitan family in a Revision List from 1883 in Linkuva and learned that the Levitan family originally came from Seduva, Lithuania, leading me to find records for the family there as well. We found the Levitan family in a Revision List in Seduva from 1852. This revision list included Steve’s great-great-great grandfather, Mendel Levitan, and his wife, Chana Levitan. The revision list taught us that Mendel was the son of Chaim Levitan and Chana was the daughter of Moshe, Steve’s great-great-great-great grandfathers.

Joseph Levitan - grandfather
Hirsh David and Chaya Pessa Levitan - great grandparents
Chonel and Mina Gita Levitan - great-great grandparents
Mendel and Chana Levitan - great-great-great grandparents
Chaim Levitan - great-great-great-great grandfather

Barbara, also visiting from Atlanta, wanted to learn more about her grandmother, Clara Newman Gruberg. She knew that her grandfather came from Tulcea, Romania and that he was a waiter at Ratner’s, a legendary kosher dairy restaurant on New York City's Lower East Side (138 Delancey St), operating from 1905 to 2004. We actually found her grandfather’s WW2 draft card which said that he was a waiter at Ratner’s. She didn’t know anything about her grandmother or where she came from.

By finding her naturalization records, we found out that Clara was also born in Tulcea, Romania. She arrived at Ellis Island on November 30, 1920. According to the manifest, she was going to her brother, David Newman who was already living in NYC. We also found Clara’s marriage certificate from 1922 when she married Barbara’s grandfather, Louis Gruberg. According to the marriage certificate, Clara’s parents were Abraham Newman and Goldie Schmal. Using the information from the marriage record, we identified three of Clara’s siblings: Eva Newman Pfeffer Lehman, David Newman, Harry Newman.

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
03/09/2026

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

Ted, the son of Holocaust survivors, visited the center in hopes of acquiring an EU passport. We found his mother’s displaced persons card from after WW2 which taught us at that Ruth Chajet was the daughter of Michael Uhrmacher and Yocheved Flaks. She was born in Wilno, Poland (Vilnius, Lithuania) on July 20, 1925. By searching on JewishGen.org, we found Ted’s grandparents’ marriage record. Michael Uhrmacher and Yocheved Flaks were married in Vilnius on January 9 1921. According to the marriage record, Michael was the son of Moshe and Liba Rochel Uhrmacher and Yocheved was the daughter of Sender and Sheina Eidel Flaks, Ted’s great grandparents.

We then learned that Ted’s great grandparents, Moshe and Liba Rochel, died in Vilnius in 1926 and 1936, respectively. Moshe was the son of Abram Yossel and Rochel Uhrmacher and Liba Rochel was the daughter of Michel and Riva Reiza Awrach, Ted’s great-great grandparents.

We then searched the Yad Vashem names database to see if we could find information about Ted’s grandparents there. We found pages of testimony that were submitted to Yad Vashem in memory of Ted’s grandfather, Michael Uhrmacher, and Michael’s two brothers, Shimen and Shlomo. The pages of testimony included pictures of Ted’s grandfather and his great uncles. It was the first time Ted saw a picture of his grandfather.

Irene grew up in the Soviet Union. Her family knew that her grandfather, Joseph Meilechov, had a sister named Dina who immigrated to the United States sometime around 1912. Her great grandfather was Eliyahu (Elijah) Meilechov. The family came from the area of Bryansk, Russia. Irene hoped that with this information, we would be able to find out what happened to his grandfather’s sister and locate living relatives.

By conducting a quick search using the Ellis Island Passengers Gold Form on SteveMorse.org, I found a woman named Dina Bele Meilechowa who immigrated to the US in 1913, arriving at Ellis Island on May 29. According to her ship’s manifest, her point of contact in the old country was her father, Elie Meilechow. We then found Dina’s naturalization papers and learned that she married Louis Entin and was known as Diana Entin in the US. She married Louis in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1915 and lived in Chicago with her husband and two sons, Oscar and Arthur. We knew that Diana Entin was Dina Meilechowa because her naturalization papers provided us with the name she arrived under and the date she arrived.

By using WhitePages.com and social media, I was able to locate Diana Entin’s living grandson, Irene’s second cousin. I called him and told him the whole story and connected him with Irene. After 113 years, this family has been reunited.

Stephanie has visited the center a number of times and returned to continue her research. This time, we focused on her grandfather, Ben Rosenthal, and his family. Stephanie wanted to know when exactly Ben came to the US and to learn more about his siblings. Stephanie knew that Ben’s Hebrew name was Baruch and that he came from Chernowitz (Chernivtsi, Ukraine). According to the census records we found for Ben, he immigrated to the US sometime between 1906 and 1908. By conducting a quick search, we found him immigrating to the US in 1906 with his mother, Itte Rosenthal. Baruch and Itte sailed from Rotterdam on the SS Nieuw Amsterdam, arriving at Ellis Island on May 22, 1906. They were going to their father and husband, Max Rosenthall, who was already living in Brooklyn.

We then found the marriage record for Ben’s brother, Harry, who married Ida Lubinsky on June 29, 1909 in Brooklyn. According to the marriage record, Itte Rosenthal’s maiden name was Zafrin. By finding Harry in census records, we learned that he had four children: David, Bernard, Ruth and Shirley. Harry died in 1934 and is buried in Mount Zion cemetery. His death certificate said that Ettie’s maiden name was Safrin, matching the information on the marriage certificate. We found one of Harry’s granddaughters who created a family tree on Ancestry.com and connected Stephanie with her. They are second cousins.

The origin of Hamantaschen:Today is the fun and joyous Jewish holiday of Purim! Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews eat Hamant...
03/03/2026

The origin of Hamantaschen:

Today is the fun and joyous Jewish holiday of Purim!

Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews eat Hamantaschen, triangular pocket pastries, on Purim. How did Hamantaschen come to be our favorite Purim cookie? Curious rabbinical explanations abound, involving hats, ears and so on.

Hamantaschen actually owe their Yiddish name and three-cornered form to an 18th century German dessert craze for dough filled with poppy seeds, called “poppy pockets,” or “MonTaschen” (Mon meaning poppy and Taschen meaning pockets). To European Jews, Mon sounded like Haman, the villain of Purim, so punny folks began calling them Hamantaschen and eating them as a Purim treat. By the turn of the 19th century, the nickname had gained such wide popularity that “Hamantaschen” had simply become the cookie’s new name.

Wishing everyone a Happy Purim!

What is your favorite Hamantaschen filling?

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
03/02/2026

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

Last time she visited, we focused our research on Dana’s maternal grandfather. She returned to the center to research her maternal grandmother’s family. She wanted to know if her grandmother had siblings and whether they had any descendants. Dana knew that her grandmother had been married before marrying her grandfather, that her grandmother’s first husband died from the Spanish flu, and that his last name was Freed. I started by searching for her grandmother’s marriage to her first husband and found Dora Shapiro marrying Harry Freed in New York City on November 3, 1912. According to the marriage certificate, Dora was the daughter of Morris and Rebecca. We then learned that Harry died on October 6, 1918. The cause of death on the certificate was “pneumonia.”

We then found Dora’s naturalization papers, which showed that she immigrated to the United States in 1909, arriving at Ellis Island on September 3. According to her ship’s manifest, she was going to her brother B. Shapiro, who was living on East 111th Street in Manhattan. We then found Benjamin Shapiro in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, living on East 111th Street with his wife, Bertha, and their daughter, Esther. Benjamin passed away in 1946. His death record listed his parents as Morris and Rebecca, confirming the names of Dana’s great-grandparents. According to the death record, Rebecca’s maiden name was Taubes.

Dana said her mother had a cousin named Florence Shapiro but wasn’t sure how Florence was related. Dana also said that she was named after a relative of Florence’s named Joseph, which is why her middle name starts with the letter J. Through our research, we learned that Dana’s grandmother had another brother named Harry, who was married to Minnie. Harry and Minnie had two sons: Joseph and Charles. Joseph married Florence Cohen. We concluded that Joseph Shapiro was Dana’s mother’s first cousin and that Florence was his wife. Joseph died in December 1950, and Dana was born in 1951.

Neil, the son of Holocaust survivors, wanted to research his father’s family. We found a prisoner card from Mauthausen concentration camp stating that Jeno Neumann was born on June 28, 1923, in Zsdenyova, which is located in modern-day Ukraine. Jeno was imprisoned at Ebensee, a subcamp of Mauthausen in Ebensee, Austria. We then learned that Jeno’s brother, Victor Neumann, gave a Holocaust interview through the USC Shoah Foundation. According to the interview, Jeno and Victor had two more siblings, Leo and Pesi. Their parents, Neil’s grandparents, were Naftali Tzvi Neumann (Neil’s namesake) and Ethel Weisz.

We then found Pages of Testimony that Neil’s aunt, Pesi Neumann Feuerman, had submitted to Yad Vashem in memory of her grandparents. According to the Pages of Testimony, Naftali Tzvi Neumann was the son of Noson and Ruchel Neumann, and Ethel Weisz was the daughter of Leib Weisz and Ruchel Rosenberg, Neil’s great-grandparents. We then searched for records for Neil’s great-grandparents and found birth records for the siblings of Neil’s grandmother, Ethel Weisz Neumann. The Weisz family had roots in Zsdenyova, Neil’s father’s birthplace.

David wanted to research his grandfather’s family tree. By conducting a quick search on Ancestry.com, we found Leo Gruskin’s memorial page on Find a Grave, which included a picture of his grave. Leo was born in 1927 and died in 2013. Linked to his memorial were the memorials of his parents, David and Anna Gruskin, David’s great-grandparents. According to their graves, David’s father was Eliyahu, and Anna’s father was Shraga Feivel. In about two minutes, we had traced back to David’s great-great-grandfathers.

We then searched to determine where David and Anna Gruskin originally came from. We searched for David’s naturalization papers, which showed that he was born in Bielsk, Russia (modern-day Bielsk Podlaski, Poland), and that Anna came from Kamanetz, Russia (modern-day Kamyanyets, Belarus). According to his naturalization papers, David Gruskin arrived under the name Ajzyk Dubiner. We found David and Anna sailing from Danzig, Germany, on the SS Susquehanna and arriving at the port of Boston on April 12, 1921. We learned that Anna’s maiden name was Dubiner and that David arrived under the name of one of her relatives. Anna’s brothers changed their surname from Dubiner to Rubin in the United States.

Tovah’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Poland. By searching the Arolsen Archives, we found her grandfather’s Displaced Persons card. According to this record, Fishel Barasz was born in Haifa, Palestine, on May 14, 1915, the son of Lewek Barasz and Faiga Comber. This wasn’t 100% accurate: he was actually born in Łódź, Poland, had immigrated to Palestine, and then returned to Europe.

We then searched the Yad Vashem Shoah Names Database and found Pages of Testimony that had been submitted in memory of Fishel’s father and sisters. We learned that his sisters’ names were Liba Frimet, Perl, Tuna Devorah, Tovah Gittel, Esther Channah, and Chaya Rasha. His father, Leib Barasz, was the son of Fishel and Itta Barasz, Tovah’s great-great-grandparents. We wondered why there was no Page of Testimony for Tovah’s great-grandmother, Faiga. We learned that she died in 1923 and is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Łódź.

American Jews are kvelling over Jack Hughes, the Jewish hockey star who scored the winning goal for team USA in men’s ic...
02/23/2026

American Jews are kvelling over Jack Hughes, the Jewish hockey star who scored the winning goal for team USA in men’s ice hockey at the 2026 winter olympics, securing the gold medal for the United States after 46 years. To celebrate this historic win, I thought I would research Jack’s Jewish heritage.

Jack is the son of Jim Hughes and Ellen Weinberg-Hughes. According to her Wikipedia page, Ellen is a former ice hockey player who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Dr. Warren Abraham Weinberg and Penny Klamon. By searching on newspapers.com, I found Warren and Penny’s wedding announcement which was printed in the Blytheville Courier News on February 1, 1964. According to the article, Jack’s grandparents were married on January 19, 1964 at the Chase Hotel Regency Room in St. Louis. Rabbi Alan Fuchs of Fort Knox, Kentucky officiated the ceremony. Penny’s parents were Jerry Klamon and Bernice Gruskin and Warren’s parents were Nathan Weinberg and Pauline Stein, Jack’s great grandparents.

Continuing through his maternal line, I found a picture of Jack’s great grandmother, Bernice Gruskin Klamon, his mother’s, mother’s, mother, in her high school year book from Williams Memorial Institute High School in 1939 in New London, Connecticut. I then found the Gruskin family in the 1940 US Federal Census living in New London. According to the census, Bernice’s parents, Jack’s great-great grandparents, were Morris and Eleanor Gruskin. According to her naturalization papers, Eleanor was born Nellie Rubenstein in 1897 in Leeds, England. She immigrated to the US in 1908, sailing from England to Canada and then crossing over the US-Canada border.

Using the information in her naturalization records, I found Eleanor’s border crossing manifest showing her, her mother, Rebecca Rubenstein, and her siblings crossing the border from Montreal to Vermont in August of 1908. They were going to their husband and father, Wolf Rubenstein, who was living in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I then found the Rubensteins in the 1910, 1920 and 1930 US Censuses and learned that Jack’s great-great-great grandparents, William (Wolf) and Rebecca Rubenstein, first settled in Scranton and then moved to Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

William Rubenstein was living in New London, Connecticut and was listed as a widow in the 1940 US Census. I learned that his wife, Rebecca Rubenstein, died on June 18, 1936 at Beth-El Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. According to her death certificate, Rebecca’s maiden name was Kaplan. She is buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Queens with the Shater Progressive Benevolent Association, a society for Jews from Seta, Lithuania. Taking the information from her grave and death certificate, we learned that Rebecca’s parents were Shaya Leib Kaplan and Menucha Kurtz, Jack Hughes’ great-great-great-great grandparents, going straight up the maternal line.

Jack Hughes
Ellen Weinberg-Hughes - Mother
Penny Klamon Weinberg - Grandmother
Bernice Gruskin Klamon - Great Grandmother
Eleanore Rubenstein Gruskin - Great-Great Grandmother
Rebecca Kaplan Rubenstein - Great-Great-Great Grandmother
Menucha Kurtz Kaplan - Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
02/23/2026

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

Only once Dana was in her 30s did she learn that her grandfather, Nathan Weissman, was married before marrying her grandmother, Dora, and had two children with his first wife. Dana wanted to see if we could find the names of her grandfather’s children from his first marriage and learn if there are any living descendants of those relatives.

We first found Nathan’s Petition for Naturalization which listed all of his children, their names, and places and dates of birth. The petition said that his oldest children were Benjamin and Sarah, who were from his first wife who received a divorce on March 1, 1920. We found Nathan and his first family residing at 592 Stone Ave in Brooklyn in the 1910 US Census. Nathan’s wife was Pauline and his children were Benjamin and Sarah. According to the census, Nathan, Pauline and Benjamin were born in Russia and Sarah was born in New York. Nathan immigrated to the US circa 1902 and Pauline and Benjamin immigrated circa 1904.

We then found Pauline and Benjamin immigrating to the US. They sailed on the SS Finland from Antwerp, Belgium, arriving at Ellis Island on November 7, 1904. Pauline and Benjamin arrived under their original names, Pessie and Beric Weissman. They were going to their husband, N Weissman, who was living in Brooklyn.

After the 1910 census, Pauline and her children disappeared. We could not find Pauline, Benjamin or Sarah Weissman in any other census records. I then searched on Ancestry.com for Benjamin Weissman using his original name, Beric Weissman. I found Benjamin’s naturalization records but discovered that Benjamin Weissman became Benjamin Hegel. Pauline and Sarah also became Hegel. This explained why we couldn’t find them when we searched for them under the name Weissman.

I then found Pauline, Benjamin and Sarah in the 1930 US Federal Census. They were living at 127 West 111th Street in Manhattan. We learned that Pauline also got remarried, her second husband being Morris Milles. Benjamin married a woman named Anne and Sarah married Irwin Liefcourt. Neither Benjamin or Sarah had children, so there were no living relatives to look for.

Another person named Dana visited the center on the same day. She has been conducting genealogical research on her own for a number of years. She was able to trace her lineage to her great-great grandparents, Jacob and Rachel Idzal. Dana wanted to see if we could learn the names of Rachel’s parents, her great-great-great grandparents. By conducting a quick search, I found Jacob and Rachel in the 1885 Iowa State Census living in Des Moines. Rachel’s parents, Louis and Fannie Conigisky, were living with Jacob and Rachel. We successfully learned the names of Dana’s great-great-great grandparents.

We then found the Conigisky family in the 1870 and 1880 US censuses living in Peoria, Illinois. According to the censuses, Louis and Rachel were born in Russian/Poland in 1830 and 1832, respectively. We then found a transcript of the marriage record for Louis and Fannie’s son, Abraham Conigisky. According to his marriage record, Fannie’s maiden name was Tilzer. This excited Dana very much. According to family lore, they are related to Albert Von Tilzer who wrote the music to many hit songs, most notably "Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” According to his Wikipedia page, Albert Von Tilzer was born Elias Gumbinsky and his mother’s maiden name was Tilzer. We need more information, but it is possible that Dana’s great-great-great grandmother, Fannie Tilzer Conigisky, and Alber Von Tilzer’s mother were sisters.

Brad asked if we could conduct research on his great grandfather, Samuel Weckstein. We found the Weckstein family in the 1930 US Census. Brad’s grandfather, Albert Weckstein, was living with his mother, Jeanette Weckstein, and her parents, the Hartensteins. Jeneatte was listed in the census as a widow. We then found Samuel Weckstein and Jeanette Hartenstein’s marriage certificate. They were married in Brooklyn on March 1, 1921. According to the marriage certificate, Samuel’s parents were Abraham Weckstein and Rose Rudolph. Based on the information in the marriage record and 1930 census, we know Samuel Weckstein had to have died between 1921 and 1930. We then found Samuel’s death certificate. Samuel died on November 2, 1926 in Manhattan.

We searched to find Samuel coming to America and learned that he immigrated under the name Isaac Wekstein, arriving at Ellis Island on January 15, 1920. According to his ship’s manifest, he was most recently living in Pretoria, South Africa. He was going to his sister, Mrs. M Rudolph, who was already living in NYC. We identified his sister as Anna Weckstein Rudolph who was married to Max Rudolph. We found a picture of Anna’s grave which said that her father was Abraham, confirming that Anna and Samuel were siblings.

Here are a few highlights from my day at the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center at the Museum of Je...
02/16/2026

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

Talia, visiting from Ithaca, NY, asked if we would be able to identify the town that her great grandfather, Max Laster, came from. Talia’s family believed that Max came from Chernowitz, modern-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine, or the surrounding area. Chernivtsi was the capital of the Bukovina Province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to Max’s World War Two draft card, he was born in Kliwodin, Austria. Using the JewishGen Town Finder, we identified Kliwodin as modern-day Klyvodin, Ukraine which is 18 miles north of Chernivtsi.

Justin, a college student visiting from Boston, has been conducting a bit of genealogical research on his own. He asked if I could help him find more information about his great grandmother, Ethel Jane Hirsch. Through our research, we were able to go back to Ethel Jane’s grandparents, Justin’s great-great-great grandparents, Pelta Peltason and Miriam Diamond Peltason. The Peltason family lived in St. Louis, Missouri. We found Pelta and Miriam living in St. Louis in the 1870 US Federal Census. According to both the 1870 and 1880 censuses, Pelta and Miriam were born in Prussia.

By searching on newspapers.com, we found an advertisement in The Jewish Voice, a weekly English-language newspaper based in St. Louis, for matzah that Pelta was selling. According to the advertisement, Pelta Peltason was the sole agent selling Livingston and Korsosky Matzos. Pelta died on October 2, 1897 in St. Louis. We found a picture of him and an obituary printed in The Jewish Voice on October 8, 1897. The obituary said “Mr. P. Peltason, a true Israelite, a man of faith and devotion, died at his home, 3518 Laclede Avenue, last Sabbath, and was laid to rest in the Mt. Olive Cemetery last Monday afternoon, Dr. Messing officiating. The unusually large attendance of friends testified to the worth of Mr. Peltason as a man and a neighbor. He passed through a lingering illness and death came to him as a deliverer from suffering.—We are unable this week to do full justice to his memory, but will be better prepared for it next week. In the meantime we say: תנצב״ה”

Pelta and Miriam had a son named Max Peltason who, according to this World War One draft card, was born on December 29, 1876. In honor of being born in the 100th year of the United States of America, Max’s full name was Max Centennial Peltason.

Mitch returned to the center to spend more time researching his grandfather, Albert Breit. We found Albert’s World War One draft card which taught us that he was born in NYC in 1892 and that he registered for the draft on May 28, 1917 at the age of 25. We then found an abstract of his military service from the First World War. Albert served in the US army in Battery D of the 306th Field Artillery Regiment of the 77th Infantry Division. He served overseas from April 24, 1918 through April 29, 1919. He was promoted to Private First Class on May 20, 1928 and was honorably discharged on May 14, 1919.

We then found the manifest showing Albert being transported from Hoboken, NJ to Europe on April 24, 1918 on the USS Leviathan. The USS Leviathan, originally the SS Vaterland, was built as Germany's largest passenger liner and launched on April 13, 1913. The ship was seized at Hoboken, by the U.S. Shipping Board when the United States entered World War I, on April 6, 1917. Operating between Hoboken and the European ports of Brest and Liverpool, she completed 10 round trips, carrying over 119,000 fighting men, before the armistice on November 11, 1918. After that date USS Leviathan reversed the flow of men as she transported the veterans back to the United States with nine westward crossings ending September 8, 1919.

Neva visited the center hoping to learn more about her grandfather’s family, including the names of his parents, siblings and the town they came from. I found Kalman Frumkin’s obituary from 1970 which said he was born in Pink, Russia. The obituary also mentioned that he was survived by two sisters, Mary Tessler and Sonia Lipcus. Mary lived in Montreal, Canada and Sonia lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We found a picture of Mary Tessler’s grave in Baron de Hirsch Cemetery in Montreal which said her father’s name was Abraham. We also found a burial record for Sonia Lipcus in the Jewish cemetery in Berazategui, Argentina which also said her father was Abraham and her mother was Chinka. Using this information, we identified Neva’s great grandparents as Abraham and Chinka Frumkin.

We learned that Chinka immigrated to England and died there on March 17, 1946. We found a picture of her grave in the East Ham Jewish Cemetery in London. Shortly after Chinka’s death, Kalman and his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn in July of 1946. According to his naturalization papers, Kalman was born in Stoln, Russia which is modern-day Stolin, Belarus, which was in the Pinsk district of the Russian Empire.

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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.