Ukraine SIG Today - the SIG's Newsletter

Number 1, October 4th, 2011

We are almost two months into our Ukraine SIG revitalization. Although there has been a lot of activity 'behind the scenes', the changes we are making may not be visible to most of you. To keep you better informed, I will try to send you regular notes about what is going on ... at least weekly, and sometimes even daily. They all will have 'Ukraine SIG Today' as the Subject line.

Let me give you some highlights in this first message.

Marilyn Robinson continues to extract data and name lists from various Russian language websites. Marlis Humphrey , Ukraine SIG Projects Director, and Ariel Parkansky, Odessa Town Leader, are cataloging these items in an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet currently has 133 entries (and many more coming) for towns throughout Ukraine. It soon will be available on our website and will be sent to our Town Leaders so that they can begin new data/document acquisition projects. We need additional volunteers to work with Marlis. If you are able to read Cyrillic, please contact Marlis.

Chabad of ZHYTOMIR has been photographing and transcribing matzevot from one of the Jewish cemeteries of Zhytomir. Their website has an index of about 4,000 entries. The Index records surname, given name,patronymic, birth year, and death year. Chabad has given us permission to translate and post their Index. Alex Kopelberg has begun the translation. The translated 'A' list (57 entries) soon will be available on our website. JOWBR has complete transcriptions and photos of about 1,370 of these matzevot. HLUKHIV/GLUKOV, ODESSA, UPPER KHORITSA, and MEDZHIBOZH also are ready for translation. If you can transcribe Cyrillic names and use an Excel spreadsheet, we need you to help Alex.

Several years ago, a group of Jewish genealogists interested in ODESSA split off from JewishGen and established a separate group on Rootsweb. Ariel Parkansky has been operating a website for the group and has collected data that group individuals obtained from Odessa Archives and submitted to him. Ariel has agreed to bring his website back to JewishGen and is merging it with the Odesa KehilaLinks site (which has been inactive). He will post translations of the collected data on that site and will process the data for submission to the JewishGen Ukraine Database. The Excel spreadsheet currently has almost 1,500 birth, marriage, death, and Census records, with more than 4,000 names. Ariel has established a JewishGen-erosity Fundraising Project to pay for translations of the collected data. You can contribute to this project here. Scroll down to Odessa Document Acquisition and Translation Projects.

Mel Werbach and Allan Dolgow obtained a 1795 Census for OSTROH (OSTROG). Mel is leading a project to translate the Census from Russian and Polish to English. He has established a JewishGen-erosity Fundraising project to raise money needed to pay a tri-lingual translator. You can contribute to this project here. Scroll down to Ostroh Document Acquisition and Translation Projects.

Arnold Chamove has submitted 6 matzevot photos for BALTA. Inscriptions are in Hebrew and Russian. We need a volunteer to translate them. Arnold also has submitted a 1914 list of 300 Residents in the City and County of Balta. The list includes surname, given name, and occupation. We need a volunteer to proofread the Google translation from Russian. After proofreading the list will be posted on our website. We also need a Town Leader for Balta since Arnold can not take on the job at this time.

Joshua Skarf has agreed to be Town Leader of POHREBYSHCHE (Pogrebishche). He has submitted a spreadsheet with partial extractions of 590 records from the Ellis Island Database. We need a volunteer to go back into the database and record the fields that EIDB did not index (person at destination and person left behind).

Jeff Wexler is trying to identify Jewish records for TIRASPOL on 5 LDS revision list microfilm reels. He needs help from someone who can read handwritten Cyrillic and has access to an LDS Family History Center where the films can be reviewed.

Victor Miller has agreed to be Town Leader of TROSTYANETS. Wayne Frankel has provided us with 174 photos from the Jewish cemetery, most of which are closeups of matzevot. We need a volunteer who can read Hebrew and Russian to transcribe and translate the inscriptions. In addition Wayne sent a number of photos of the town. We will post those on our website. Wayne obtained permission from Victoria Khiterer to translate and publish her article about Trostyanets. Wayne then created a name index for the article. The article soon will appear on our website.

Pamela Lucas is creating a name index for the book, The Slaughter of Jews in the Ukraine in 1919 by Heifetz. Included among the towns discussed in the book are DUBOVO, FELSHTIN, OVRUCH, PROSKUROV, and UMAN. When completed, the names will be submitted to JewishGen Ukraine Database and the book and index will be posted on our website.

Pamela Lucas also has developed a series of clickable maps for each of our Guberniyas. These will be featured on our website. She soon will begin working as an Assistant Webmaster with Hilary Henkin, our Webmaster.

We have a lot more work underway. I will report to you on this work in future editions of Ukraine SIG Today. In the meantime, please, please volunteer for our projects if you have the required skills. Even if you don't have the necessary skills, you can help by donating to one of the town projects or to the Ukraine SIG General Fund. Donations can be made here.

As always, I look forward to your comments and suggestions as we continue revitalizing Ukraine SIG.

Ron

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Ron Doctor (rddpdx@gmail.com)
Coordinator, JewishGen Ukraine SIG
www.jewishgen.org/Ukraine
Researching DOCTOR (DIOKHTER), VARER, AVERBAKH, KORENFELD ... all from Kremenets, Oleksinets, Yampol, Vishnevets
and KAZDOY (KOSODOY), DUBINSKI, DUBOWSKY ... all from Kiev, Uman, Odessa