Creating a Family List for a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 4

Creating a list of Tuchfelds in Rzeszow using OneNote, was our next step in our genealogy project. Fortunately, Jewish birth and death records for Rzeszow have survived back to 1842 and there are also some census records. Many of the images are online and many are indexed on JRI-Poland. We began this step by searching Tuchfeld in geographic region Galicia> Lwów Wojewodztwo. Using these results, we created a list of couples where one or both had the last name Tuchfeld. This became our master list of Tuchfeld couples in Rzeszow for this one name genealogy study. This became an annotated list where we were able to track these couples through time, including births and deaths. We examined the images of the records related to these couples and recorded the relevant house numbers on this list. Organizing this information is an important step in our family research project.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html  helping you grow your family tree.

Re-examining Research in a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 3

Re-examining our genealogy documents related to our one name genealogy study has proved useful. We were able to document name variations, occupations and dates that had slipped through the cracks during our earlier research.

We also found somethings that led to more questions than answers. The biggest was when we re-examined the 1870 Rzeszow Census for our Tuchfeld branch. The census, as indexed by JRI-Poland, showed a Solomon Tuchfeld with wife and children living with his brother Naftali Tuchfeld and his wife and children and an unmarried sister. Naftali Tuchfeld is our second great-grandfather. This relationship is clearly identified in the index as brat, Polish for brother. They are living in the same house and apartment. We based many years of research on the assumption that they were brothers. This led us to discover Solomon’s parents, thus we assumed we had moved up another generation in Tuchfelds.

1870 Rzeszow Census as indexed by JRI-Poland

Recently we were able to acquire an image of the actual census record for this household. We only gave it a cursory examination, until now. As part of our re-examination for this project we looked at this image in detail. We discovered something shocking and slightly disappointing. While these two Tuchfeld families are living together, the relationship space in the name box that would show the relationship between Solomon and Naftali is blank. Apparently, the JRI-Poland indexers assumed a sibling relationship not in the actual record. This is why it is important to always see the original record, when possible, instead of relying on an index. It is also important to re-examine the records you have already acquired to see if you have missed something.

1870 Rzeszow Census

As you can see, this leaves us with many new questions. Previous research uncovered that Solomon’s wife’s maiden name was also Tuchfeld. Now the question is, how is Naftali related Solomon and/or his wife Rachel? Could Rachel be Naftali’s sister? Might one of them be Naftali’s cousin? The relationships are now unclear and lead us to more difficult research.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html  specializing in Jewish Galician Genealogy Research.

Organizing a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 2

Are all Tuchfelds related? Was our great-grandfather correct? Can he be proven right? Where do we start? How do we start? We need to do this in an organized, logical, scientific way. Where will we document the data we collect? We started in OneNote (Microsoft’s version of Evernote) making a “to do” list, planning the Tuchfeld Project.

We also created a relevant link list, so we could easily find websites that we need to use. Then we examined all records we had already acquired related to the project. Over time we have acquired vital (birth, marriage and death) records and census records for our grandmother’s immediate family. We needed to look at these again to make sure we weren’t missing any important information.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html  Jewish Genealogy Researchers in Boca Raton and online.

Starting a New Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld

We had a few spare minutes and decided to start a one-name study. When we were kids we were told by our maternal grandmother that father told her that everyone with the last name of Tuchfeld was related. Over years of life and research we have bumped into many Tuchfelds whose connection to our family was unclear. We realized that it was not a common name so we tried to save a record when we discovered it. Sure it’s a rare name, but are all Tuchfelds related? We decided to gather as much evidence as possible and see if this could be proven or disproven.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html  helping you grow your family tree.

Don't Be Misled By the Index

Often when researching, you find a family member listed in an index. It is tempting to just accept the information in the index and continue researching. That is never a good idea. Whenever possible, it pays to look for and examine the record that is indexed. Besides the additional information that you will learn from the record, there are often errors in the index that can only be found by looking at the actual record. Check to see if the names are spelled incorrectly or reversed or just completely incorrect, genders are incorrect, ages or dates are wrong, place names are wrong or if there are other major errors in the indexing of your record before you copy your family's information into your files or program. Indexes are very useful, but they are only a guide to finding the actual records. The actual records are the real source of information for your tree. Sometimes the original records are complex because of format, language or handwriting. That is when you need to hire a professional to examine the records and extract and synthesize the vital information for you.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html  helping you grow your family tree.

Profiting from Birth Records

We were searching through the LDS microfilm of Philadelphia birth records looking for our grandmother's birth certificate. Instead of finding her birth certificate, we found an unexpected treasure. We stumbled upon the birth certificate of one of her siblings, previously unknown to us. This clue led us to her death certificate. She was born and died in between U.S. Census years, so she does not appear in any other records. Searching birth records can often be genealogically profitable. They often lead to clues that lead us through a trail of other records and help us grow our family tree.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html
Jewish Genealogy Researchers in Boca Raton and online.

Galician Record Images are Online

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers have posted a new article on our website. Please visit http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogygalicia to read it and learn about the Galician Record Images that are Online. Indexes of Galician Jewish records have been online for many years. This article tells you how to find images of Jewish Galician vital records through JRI-Poland. Free images of your family history could be just a click away. Here's the beginning of the article, to get you started: For more than ten years JRI-Poland http://jri-poland.org has been indexing records for towns formerly in eastern (Austrian) Galicia, now Ukraine. The original records are held in the AGAD Archive in Warsaw, Poland. JRI-Poland has online searchable indexes of births, marriages and deaths for more than 90 Galician towns. Please visit http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogygalicia to read the rest of the Jewish Genealogy article.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html
specializing in Jewish Galician Genealogy Research.