Misspelled Town Names in the Ellis Island Database
mm
direction, but this is one reason it is hard. Does anyone know?
The ship manifest for my grandmother spelled it Ajszyszok, and
attributed it to Russia in 1907.
http://www.avotaynu.com/nu9.htm
Misspelled Town Names in the Ellis Island Database
===================================
The incredible number of misspellings of town names in the Ellis
Island database was brought home by Joseph Fibel of the Jewish
Genealogical Society of New York who recently tried to identify all
immigrants from the town of Eisiskes, Lithuania (Eishishok, in
Yiddish). Fibel found more the 100 spelling variants of the town name
in just 245 records. The list included Aisechok, Aiszeszuk, Ajsaschok,
Ajscheschok, Ajszyszki, Ajszyszok, Asesky, Asiski, Aueshishky,
Auseschok, Echissok, Eischechok, Eischeshok, Eischichok, Eischischek,
Eischischik, Eischischk, Eischischke, Eischischki, Eischischky,
Eischischok, Eischisek, Eischiski, Eischiskky, Eischisschky,
Eischiszki, Eischiszky, Eiseschock, Eisesok, Eishisekki, Eishishky,
Eishisky, Eishizky, Eisischak, Eisischki, Eisischock, Eisischok,
Eisisik, Eisisk, Eisiski, Eisisky, Eisisok, Eisiszok, Eisizck,
Eisoschok, Eisyschik, Eisyzszky, Eiszesok, Eisziczok, Eiszisky,
Eisziszki, Eisziszky, Eiszuszok, Eiszyozki, Eiszyski, Eiszysky,
Eiszyszke, Eiszyszki, Eizesak, Eizischok, Ejciszki, Ejschischok,
Ejsiazok, Ejsischok, Ejsziszki, Ejsziszky, Ejszuszki, Ejszyoski,
Ejszyski, Ejszyszki, Ejszyzok, Ejzyszki, Ejzzyski, Escheschak,
Escheschek, Escheschok, Eschischoch, Eschischok, Eschoschok,
Eseszok/Russia, Esisack, Esischok, Esisok, Esizok, Esyczok, Eszischok,
Esziszok, Eyoziozki, Eyszesski, Eysziski, Eyszyski, Eyszysky,
Eyszyszky, Ezazki, Ezesjak, Ezichok, Ezizok, Ischiski, Iszisaok,
Oischeschok, Ojszyszok, Uscichuk, Uscieczka, Uscieszko, Useszyki, and
Uszezek.
--
Meir
"The baby's name is Shlomo. He's named after his grandfather, Scott."
cindys
http://www.amazon.com/There-Once-Was-World-Chronicle/dp/0316232521
The author, Yaffa Eliach wrote an entire book about Eishyshok, which
is located about 40 miles southwest of Vilna.
Best regards,
---Cindy S.
mm
<cst...@rochester.rr.com> wrote:
>Forgive the top post, but here is something that may interest you:
>
>http://www.amazon.com/There-Once-Was-World-Chronicle/dp/0316232521
>
>The author, Yaffa Eliach wrote an entire book about Eishyshok, which
>is located about 40 miles southwest of Vilna.
Thank you very much.
I have the book, and periodically it occurs to me that the book would
say this, but then I forget again. But you found it for me.
It's a really long book and I havent' even started it. Shame on me.
Before the book was even published, I called her in Brooklyn and she
was interested in my family. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't write
her what I knew in time for the printing. But she might not have
used it since I didn't know much. But that's just my rationalizing.
Maybe would have listed the names at least.
She did tell me that my great-grandparents almost certainly didn't
starve to death as I was told probably happened, but most likely died
during the typhus, or typhoid, epidemic. If I read the book, I'd
probably know which.
Ed Asner's family, or he himself, is also from Eysheshok.
And the photo exhibit (next to the shoe exhibit iirc) at the Holocaust
Museum is of Eysheshok, but there are no names or signs in any of the
pictures. Oh, I see from your link that she did that.
Okay, if it's 40 miles, that almost surely means my grandfather in
1905 or 6 didn't go to yeshiva in Vilna and also teach my grandmother
and her brothers at their house. So he must have gone to the (only?)
yeshiva in Eysheshok. Which I'm sure wasn't far from any place else
in Eysheshok. (Got to read that book)
My great grandfather had an inn (restaurant or hotel? Got to read the
book.) and also raised honey. He went to town once a week to sell the
honey, and now I know that certainly wasn't Vilna. It must have been
the market in Eysheshok, maybe the Eysheshok shuk, or the Eyshe-shuk.
Thanks a lot for your post
cindys
Best regards,
---Cindy S.
On Nov 11, 9:17 pm, mm <NOPSAMmm2...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:47:41 +0000 (UTC), cindys
>
mm
Some of the excess detail here is because I'm sending this to my
brother also. And after I verify a couple email addresses, to my
cousins.
On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:27:50 +0000 (UTC), cindys
<cst...@rochester.rr.com> wrote:
>Read the book, Meir. It's wonderful.
>Best regards,
>---Cindy S.
I appreciate the recommendation. I Really mean that.
So I recently found some other foreign city I'll tell you about later
on google maps, and I'm still trying to find Eysheshok on google maps.
That's why the post about 100 spellings was so interesting to me.
By the way, my grandmother probably didn't spell it Ajszyszok, because
she wrote mostly in Yiddish, even 50 years later. And the forms were
filled out by steamship company employees, in this case in Antwerp, I
guess.
Nevertheless, I first tried Ajszyszok Lithuania, and it said it
didnt' know where that was.
So I tried Eysheshok, Lithuania, and it said "Did you mean: Eishyshok
LIthuania" !! Wow, I must be getting close.
So I clicked on the last two words and then it said "Did you mean:
Eishyshok LIthuania near Miami, FL" ROTFLOL Who says google doesn't
have a sense of humor. Hmmm. The more I think about it, Eysheshok is
near Miami Florida now. At least my brother and his son (and wife)
live only 20? miles away and they have a little of Eysheshok in them.
I clicked on that even though I did not mean Miami, Florida, and I
actually got a map with it on it! The caption** is "A Eisiskes? -
more info » Eišiške.s (Polish: Ejszyszki also Eishyshok) is a city in
southeastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus. It is situated on a
small group of hills," It's only a mile from the border. It's only
got about 7 streets east-west and 7 streets north-south. But the
blocks are long. I estimate 250 to 300 houses.
You can also find it this way, I think:
http://maps.google.com/maps?source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Eishyshok+LIthuania&vps=3&jsv=187d&sll=51.581177,-0.281353&sspn=0.023254,0.055189&ie=UTF8&cd=1&lr=lang_en|lang_iw|lang_es&hq=Eishyshok+LIthuania+loc:&radius=15000.000000&split=1
Wow, our mother's parents' hometown is only 55 miles by crow from my
father's home town, Grodno***. (He left when he was 1.) In a western
corner of Bylorussia. So close. And my brother's father's family is
also from Grodno, and I think his wife's too. I used to want to go to
both places, but I don't think I want to anymore. I see that
Grodno's much much much bigger than Eysheshok.
***which they spell Hrodna (and something similar in Cyrillic) This
must be related to the fact that there is no H sound in Russian and G
is used where other languages use H.
**The second caption was "B Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center? - more
info » 20400 NE 30th Ave, Miami, FL? - (305) 931-0010?
Write a review "Born in Vilna, now Vilnius, Lithuania, daughter of
Leah and Yisroel Benosher, Sima was the devoted older sister of Fania,
Sharon and Merele of whom only ..." nytimes.com" That must be where
it got the idea it was near Miami Forida. Except that Eisheshuk isn't
mentioned in the blurb or "more info" or the NYTimes link.
Came across this
http://yivo1000towns.cjh.org/
"People of a Thousand Towns":
The Online Catalog of Photographs of
Jewish Life in Prewar Eastern Europe
========================
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has placed a portion of their
photograph collection, some 17,000 photos of Jewish life in Eastern
Europe, on the Internet at http://yivo1000towns.cjh.org. Titled
"People of a Thousand Towns", it provides a visual record of thousands
of communities where Jews lived before the Holocaust. Most of the
pictures are of people, and in some cases they are identified by name.
There is a search engine that allows you to isolate pictures by town
or by keyword. By using the keyword feature and entering the various
surnames I am researching, it is likely that I identified a picture
that includes a collateral relative named Hyman Tarre from Chicago, a
vistor to Bialystok at the time.
It is fascinating to read the captions of the pictures, which
demonstrate that as recently as the early 20th century, Jews referred
to themselves colloquially by nickname rather than using the surnames
they had adopted less than 100 years earlier. A typical caption was
one of a studio portrait that read "the revolutionary tanners' caucus
[of Bialystok] (right to left) Fayvl the Odesser, Itske the boot
fuller, Hymen Tarre (now in Chicago), Mordkhe Roznoyer, Shloyme
Yitskhok the Vitebsker, and Shlomo Yitskhok the fuller. ("Forward,"
1932.)" Note that Hymen not only used a surname but had already
abandoned his European surname of Tartacki in favor or a more
Americanized "Tarre." My records indicate that he arrived in America
less than one year before this picture was taken.
===> How could he have arrived in America until AFTER the picture was
taken? Meir
The pre-World War II Jewish communities are located in Czechoslovakia,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, and
Ukraine. They span the late 19th century to the early 1940s and
document the lives of large Jewish centers as well as many smaller
towns and villages. The online presentation covers only a small
fraction of YIVO's extensive photographic holdings, one of the world's
foremost collections of photographs of Jewish life around the world.
Most of the pictures used in Avotaynu's "Where Once We Walked: Revised
Edition" come from YIVO's collection.
You have to register in order to do a search, a minor inconvenience.
Meir: But there seems to be no unguided browsing. Probably putting in
the name of a town is enough.
Susan S
<NOPSAM...@bigfoot.com>:
>I'm trying to find out how far from Vilna this is, and in which
>direction, but this is one reason it is hard. Does anyone know?
>
It looks like your town is about 50 miles from where my grandfather was
from, Vselyub.
Susan Silberstein