Testimonies:

Wladyslaw Szlengel’s pre-war records on CD

Activity of Jewish Family Search members is not focused only on genealogy. In our free time we explore and protect other aspects of the Jewish history, e.g. collecting and transferring pre-war shellack records…

On 19th and on 20th of May , the main polish newspaper , Gazeta Wyborcza, will be sold with additional CDs including re-issues of pre-war tangos with lyrics written by a Jewish-Polish poet from Warsaw, Władysław Szlengel. Tomasz from Jewish Family Search worked as sound engineer for the project, transferring and remastering the original shellack records, removing all the unnecessary clicks and noises but at the same time trying to preserve the original vibe of the 1930’s shellack records.

Wladyslaw_Szlengel_CDWładysław Szlengel, born in 1914, was the most recognizable lyricist in Poland in late 1930’s. During the War he stayed in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he wrote several poems describing everyday life during the Holocaust. He and his wife were killed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

More about Władysław Szlengel on Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). The records for the CDs were selected by dr Katarzyna Zimek.

After 20th of May the CDs will be available on Kulturalny Sklep.

The Barn testimony

If it weren’t for Tomasz’s expertise our recent trip to Ukraine would not have been possible. Through incredible hard work, unparalleled knowledge and only a small amount of information with which to begin, Tomasz was able to find what we were certain no longer existed; A barn that had been a hiding spot for 18 Jews during the Holocaust. He was wonderfully helpful during pre-production and once we arrived in Ukraine helped organize scheduling, transport, security and interviews. He is an exceptional guide and a wonderful person to be around. We can’t recommend him highly enough. Thank you Tomasz!

Phil Berger                  Alexis Fishman

Director                         Crew member

The Barn (Trailer)

Watch a trailer to The Barn, a documentary movie which we have consulted and which features Tomasz as a guide for Karl Schapiro and his granddaughter to the forgotten barn in Eastern Galicia where Karl’s life was saved during the Holocaust.

The Barn is currently in production phase. It’s directed by Phil Berger, produced by Rachel Kastner, and co-produced by Matthew Hiltzik and Nancy Spielberg.

Recently Jewish Family Search received very positive testimony from Rachel Kastner, Karl’s grand daughter.

From the press release:
“Eighteen year old Rachel Kastner recently traveled to Germany, Poland and Israel on the Heritage Tour, where she walked the same paths at Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz that led millions of Jews to their deaths. She stood stunned at the mass graves where 2,400 Jews were murdered in the forest just outside the shtetl of Tykochin.

But it was one afternoon in Krakow that changed her life forever.

It was there that she met Paulina Plostkaj, a 90-year old Christian Polish woman who is also one of Yad Vashem’s Righteous Gentiles. During the war, Paulina miraculously hid and saved EIGHTEEN Jews. But what she did not know prior to this trip was that one of these Jews who Paulina saved, was… her grandfather, Karl Schapiro”.

Genealogical Research in the Khmelnytsky Archives

Thank you so much for your help. I have been quite overwhelmed with the information you found for me. Now I have great-great- grandparents! The whole process was conducted with such quiet efficiency and delivered to me in a format which was so clear and simple to understand. I have a friend who is a translator of Russian and he has been amazed at how much of the old script you were able to decipher and read.

Jewish birth record from Russian Empire

Jewish birth record from Kamyanets-Podilsky found during the research

It has been such a pleasure to work with you – I would recommend your services to anyone, in fact to everyone.

Apologies for the delayed response, but my first task has been to share the information with others in the family who are also interested and amazed at the amount of information you managed to obtain.

Thanks again.

Maureen Schiller

Tideswell, UK

Call me a doctor

dokt_webOfficially approved since  2014.

Forgot to write that in 2014 I’ve got Ph.D. in history for the demographic study Jewish population in Piotrkow Trybunalski, 1808–1870. The study has been developed in to a sub-project for International Institute for Jewish Genealogy Family and Kinship in the Jewish City of Piotrków Trybunalski in the 19th Century.

The database build for the purposes of these projects is searchable through MyHeritage search engine, it covers births (1808 – 1875), marriages (1808–1888), and deaths (1808–1870). For additional information on the individuals from these databases, please write us.

Research for a documentary movie

I just returned from the most incredible heritage experience in Poland and Ukraine, with credit to Tomasz Jankowski and Lada Moskalets. Their dedication, thoroughness, dependability, and sheer intelligence is so admirable and makes working with them a joy. I feel so fortunate to have happened to find this organization. The work that they do, digging through the past, is creating new moments of history. I HIGHLY recommend their services.

Rachel Kastner

NY, USA

Genealogical research in Kirovograd

Tomasz Jankowski is thorough, intelligent, and highly experienced.  When involved in a research assignment he is also thoughtful, kind, and patient in answering all queries. I highly recommend his services. VERY HAPPY CLIENT (and Editor in Chief, BOMB Magazine)…

Betsy Sussler

 

Galician Cadaster partially on-line

Galician Cadaster

One of the maps scanned recently from the Galician Cadaster collection held in the Krakow Archives

True mapping ecstasy. National Archives in Krakow updates their on-line database and makes scans of 1652 cadaster maps publicly available!
This remarkable silent update brings digital copies of all available at the Krakow archives extremely detailed (unstitched) cadaster maps from Bochnia, Brzesko, Chrzanów, Dębica, Jasło, Jaworzno, Kolomyia, Kraków regions. Almost half (856) of the digitalised part of the collection includes from the Krakow region.
Scans from other regions will be uploaded gradually next year.

In the meantime Jewish Family Search is working on the ultimate catalog of the Galician Cadaster, currently distributed between more than 10 archives and other state institutions in Poland and Ukraine. The on-line collection includes only small percentage of the original collection, once held entirely in cadaster archive in Lviv.  If you’d like to learn whether a map or property owner list for your town survived in any Polish or Ukrainian archive and access it, just write  us.

Jews surviving the Holocaust in Rozhniativ (documentary movie)

We did an extensive research for the US crew working on movie depicting story of a Holocaust survivor coming back after years to the place where he was hidden during the war. In a small Galician town at the feet of the Carpathian Mountains, Rozhniativ (Rożniatów, Rozhniatov), we’ve found a tiny cottage with a cellar where he had spent two years of his childhood, 1942–1944.

Here we present our own footage of the site layered with the excerpts from an interview with Adela Shplak, the only one neighbour and eye-witness of the events.

In 2006 a Pole and an Ukrainian, Michał Jagiełłowicz and Ostap Yurechko who helped the Jews to survive, were awarded the title of the Righteous Among the Nation.
We’ll keep you updated about the forthcoming US movie on the story.

Update 2016: the movie is finished. It’s called “The Barn”.

“Our” Finding Your Roots episode on November 4th

Finding Your Roots episode on Galician families

Finding Your Roots website: episode on Galician families

Perhaps you’ve seen the recent news that the JRI-Poland indexes has tremendously contributed to the production of “Our People, Our Traditions” episodoe of Finding Your Roots featuring Alan Dershowitz, Carole King and Tony Kushner.”We were able to provide our guests with information about their 3rd and 4th great-grandparents that would have been virtually impossible to uncover without this resource” — says Josh Gleason, Finding Your Roots producer. As we’ve mentioned previously, the producers of the series has decided that Jewish Family Search should search the original files and contribute even more detailed information to the “Our People, Our Traditions” episode. We have carried out extensive one-week research in the State Archives of Sandomierz, Tarnów and Przemyśl. JRI-Poland indexes has led us to a census of Tarnobrzeg population from 1880. As JRI-Poland database includes only briefly indexed data from the census (just surname, given name, page number page entry, house number, birth year, town born) a deeper investigation in the original file was required (reference no PL/24/525/11). Thus we learned extremely important data on family relations, profession, places of birth and living, education.

Tarnobrzeg 1880 census

The Tarnobrzeg Census from 1880 lists Jewish as well as Christian families. It’s only briefly indexed on JRI-Poland