No 61 - Spring 2000

 

  ABSTRACT OF N°61

Revue du Cercle de Généalogie Juive N° 61, Spring 2000

NEW MEMBERS, PERSONAL NOTICES, ACTIVITIES OF THE SOCIETY

 

SOME ETHICAL QUESTIONS RAISED BY GENEALOGY
Anne Lifshitz-Krams

 Anne LIFSHITZ-KRAMS has examined the postings relating to ethics from the JewishGen discussion group, over five years. The participants are mainly Anglo-American, but also European, Latin-American and Israeli. Most postings cover three main topics : "what is a Jewish family ?" with two sets of contradicting opinions : blood line vs. social connection and precedence of truth vs. Freedom of the researcher's choice; "sources" i.e. use of non-kosher data (e.g. Nazi or Mormon), and questioning third parties ; "transmission and recipients of the information". In all choices, the governing idea is to add some "flesh" on past individuals thanks to the "truth" for which the genealogical methods provide assistance.


DOCUMENTS

Jewish weddings in Constantine (Algeria) in 1847 and 1848
Fernand Deray

The publication of Fernand DERAY's group is continued. This publication has already helped complementing the Dictionary of French Judaism in the 19th century under preparation by the editorial staff of Archives Juives.

 

FAMILIES

Austrians in Odessa
André Landesman

The author's paternal ancestors originate in Odessa, Ukraine. Their name being obviously of Germanic origin, the author, ANDRÉ LANDESMAN, locates Landesman namesakes in Moravia, many of which moved to Vienna during the 19th century. Odessa, founded in 1794, became part of the "Jewish residence zone" ant thus attracted a large Jewish community, eager to take advantage of the business opportunities of the new port on the Black Sea.

Reconstituting connections : two families in Moselle
Pascal Faustini

Pascal FAUSTINI studies two families which, at first sight, have no connection. They are located in three villages on either side of the border between the Moselle Département and Sarre. Having exploited all conventional sources, he happens to read court proceedings of 1777-79 citing several Jews. This allows him to bridge time gaps and make use of earlier, until then unrelated documents, and finally connect these families. This paper demonstrates that, at least in France, chance and method allow to overcome the "1792-barrier", marking the beginning of civil life records.

The earliest ancestors of Captain Dreyfus in Soultzmatt
Denis Ingold

Denis INGOLD, prompted by a ketuba provided by an American correspondent, modifies the ancestry of Captain Alfred Dreyfus published earlier and reconstructs his patrilineal ancestry, leading to the village of Soultzmatt.

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

Jewish Paleography
Eliane Roos-Schuhl

Eliane ROSS-SCHUHL deciphers a series of 35 mappoth from Porrentruy, in the Swiss Jura, lent by 2000. A specific mappa is translated and commented in the paper.

A PROPOS

Denis INGOLD deciphers a sandstone tomb stele, discovered by René Grumbach on the occasion of a house demolition in Wintzenheim ; he identifies the deceased woman using the data of the Mohelbuch of R. Hirtz Blum from Uffholtz.

Laurent KASSEL suggests changes to certain family connections published in Mémoire Juive en Alsace by André A. FRAENCKEL which he finds contradictory and puts forth the idea of systematically researching similar errors for publication.

Ernest KALLMANN extracts from the CGJ A.A. Fraenckel Documentary Fund a 1725 census, permitting to reconstruct families from 37 Lower Alsace communities, exemplified by the Kahn family from Kolbsheim.
 

RECENTS EVENTS
In memoriam Naftali Bar-Giora Bamberger ; Alexandre BEIDER thesis : Ashkenazi given names, history and migrations ; conventions and exhibitions

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