Using House Numbers for a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 8

In our previous post, we discussed the use of a timeline in genealogy. We sorted our Tuchfelds born in Rzeszow before 1800 with the eldest at the top. We hoped this would help us connect these Tuchfelds to each other and then later generations.

The records we examined also gave us house numbers. We used house numbers to connect elder Tuchfelds in the timeline and theorize relationships. We examined the house numbers and found three Tuchfelds, born before 1800, died in the same house. Kreindl Tuchfeld 1796 - 1848, Joel Tuchfeld 1788 - 1856, and Pesche Taube Tuchfeld 1789 - 1856. Is this a married couple and sister, sister-in-law, or second wife, etc.? Who is Joel Tuchfeld married to? The house numbers narrow down the possibilities, but do not give us the answer.

Kreindl Tuchfeld’s 1848 Rzeszow Death Record

Joel Tuchfeld’s 1856 Rzeszow Death Record

Pesche Taube Tuchfeld’s 1856 Rzeszow Death Record

How will we determine who is the correct Mrs. Joel Tuchfeld, mother of his children? How will we best connect as many Tuchfelds to each other as possible?  We can address these questions in our next blog post.

House numbers did help us solve other genealogical questions related to this project. When we found the death record for a Hersz Tuchfeld who died Aug 22 1856 in house 88 at age 55 we were unsure of whose death record we had found. There were two Hirsch (Hersz) Tuchfelds who fit the profile. One was married to Chana and the one was married to Szeindel. Chane Tuchfeld died Dec 19 1856 in house 88 age 52. Szeindel did not die in Rzeszow. This leads us to believe that the Hersz Tuchfeld, who died in house 88, was the husband of Chane Tuchfeld, who died in house 88 four months later. House numbers came in handy for this Rzeszow couple.

Hersz Tuchfeld’s 1856 Rzeszow Death Record

Chane Tuchfeld’s 1856 Rzeszow Death Record

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

Using Timelines for a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 7

Since we are trying to connect all of the Rzeszow Tuchfelds, we decided to create a Tuchfeld Timeline using the information we had already acquired. Genealogists often create a historical timeline, where an ancestor’s life is comingled with historical events. Sometimes we create a chronological list of events in one ancestor’s life. Often, we do this for our clients to bring the research to life for them. For our genealogical research project, we decided to go with a different type of timeline.  So far, we have gone through the available Rzeszow birth, marriage, death and census records back to 1842. We wanted to see if we could find any connections between these early Rzeszow Tuchfelds. We also wanted to find the Tuchfeld who is the earliest patriarch on record. We hoped this could be the key to connecting them all. We created a timeline showing the name, birth year, death year, and house number of all Rzeszow Tuchfelds born before 1800.

Tuchfeld Rzeszow Timeline

To create this Tuchfeld Timeline, we searched through all of the Rzeszow Tuchfelds we had collected and recorded in our Family Tree Maker program. We identified those born before 1800 and created a list with all known information about those individuals. We were able to identify twelve Tuchfelds in Rzeszow records who were born before 1800. We created a timeline with the eldest known Tuchfeld at the top. The eldest recorded Tuchfeld was Henne Tuchfeld, 1769-1853. Henne was born almost 20 years before Jews in Galicia were required to adopt fixed surnames.

1853 Rzeszow Death Record for Henne Tuchfeld, eldest recorded Tuchfeld found to date

So how do we connect these elder Tuchfelds to each other, no less to the later generations of Tuchfelds? That’s for the next blog post to deal with.

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

Using Family Tree Maker for a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 6

In addition to creating lists and examining records of the Rzeszow Tuchfelds, we also added these possible family members to our Family Tree Maker program. Family Tree Maker allowed us to build separate trees for each of these lines. We were able to organize these Tuchfelds and build family groupings. We added names, dates, places, causes of death, occupations, etc. and sourced everything. We were able to create multiple generation trees for some of the Tuchfeld lines. We were able to connect some of the lines to each other after examining them in the Family Tree Maker. Family Tree Maker helped us see the big picture, multiple generations and family connections. Family Tree Maker allowed us to see each possible family member using the People Workspace and Person Tab Overview or the family group using the Family Group View.

People Workspace

Person Tab

There are also lots of charts and reports. These charts and reports allowed us to see the family relationships in different ways.

Relationship Chart

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

German and Polish Language Records for a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 5

Examining the images of the records related to our Tuchfeld Project turned out to be a slow and complicated process. Luckily, many of the images are online but they are not all on the same website. We used the Family List that we created (discussed in our last blog post) to help us identify the individual records we needed to examine. We went page by page through Rzeszow birth, marriage and death records 1842-1910, where available. These records are all handwritten, in script, in either German or Polish (or a combination), and not in the best condition. This made them very difficult to decipher and it took a lot of time to fully examine each genealogical record.

1862 Rzeszow Birth Record with no maiden name for mother, German

The amount of information in each record varied greatly. Some records were done contemporaneously, some decades after the event. Some of the birth records included the mother’s maiden name, and later ones even had the mother’s parents' names. This information helped us to identify family groupings.

1882 Rzeszow Birth Record with mother's parents' names, Polish

Most records included a house number. It was not always clear if the house number is the residence or the location of the event being recorded. In the early 1900’s Rzeszow renamed the streets and renumbered all the houses. We recorded these house numbers on our Family List to help track the Tuchfelds and look for possible connections between families. The new house numbers added to the confusion. Seeing the record images gave us bonus information not in the index. This included fun stuff like occupation and sad stuff like cause of death. It also helped to verify or disprove the indexed information.

1846 Rzeszow Death Record without parents' names, German

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

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.