HirschGen: The Home of Alsace and Lomza Genealogy

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HirschGen: The Home of Alsace and Lomza Genealogy

Family Tree (over 1900 names and growing!)

My tree (dynamic Java)
My tree (HTML)
Surnames
Individuals
for surnames, town names, etc.
Photographic Family Tree.
Photographs.

LOMZA Gubernia, Poland

My grandmother's candlesticks from Poland. (Closeup)
A map of RAJGROD, Poland.
A brief history of Poland in the last 200 years.
A memoir of LOMZA.
A brief description of KOLNO.
The synagogue in TYKOCIN.
Hamburg immigration and shipping lists and pictures.
The discussion group for ROTEROZEN cousins. (Subscribe)
View the researchers for related Lomza towns: (click button)

ALSACE, France

Jewish History:
Photographs and pictures:
1. Some foods of the Alsatian cuisine.
Maps:
1. KRAUTERGERSHEIM.
Books:
1. At the Edge of the Forest, Schirrhein, Schirroffen, 1995, ISBN 2-84208-000-9, in French.
The discussion group for SCHIRRHOFFEN, Alsace. (Subscribe)
Alsace Jewish Genealogy Portal (Add your site to Portal)

View the researchers for related Alsace towns: (click button)

Louisiana

Interesting article, Genesis and Exodus, on the history of Judaism in NEW ORLEANS.
Another interesting article on Judeo-Alsatians in the Deep South.
A very short description of Westlake, Louisiana.
A map of the Lake Charles/West Lake area, which is where Michel Hirsch and Elise Mendel married.
Archives index of Calcasieu Parish.
Calcasieu Parish genealogy website.

Surnames

From A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland, Alexander Beider.

DREYFUS: from German Dreifuss, literally meaning three feet The three feet designation was based on the money changer in Alsace. He carried with him a table that he tied around his waist. It was supported on a leg in front of him -- thus, the three feet. The table held a scale where the money changer weighed the money and based its value on the amount of the precious metal present. Then he could go on with his other work. The bigger time money people worked with legal notes and regular payments in the money of the time, or if any question existed, back to precious metal again. Please also see here for more very good information on the origin of this name, based on the name of several towns in Germany, France and Italy.

GLINKA: from the village of Glinki (Szczuczyn d., Mazowieck d., Kolno d., Przasnysz d.) or Glinka (several in Poland). Also, from Polish glinka, meaning clay, white bole. [bole: 1. any of a variety of soft, unctuous clays of various colors, used as pigments].

HIRSCH: from German hirsch, meaning deer.

LEW: from the given name Lew (Lev in Yiddish) derived either from 'lew' or 'lowe', both meaning lion. Its genesis is analagous to the Yiddish given name, Leyb, (used as a kinnui for Yehuda [Judah]) because in the Bible Yehuda is compared to the young lion. Levite.

MOEL: from the Yiddish word mohel, meaning circumciser.

ROTEROZEN: from German rote Rosen, literally red roses.

RUCKA/RUTZKI: from numerous place names and nouns, most of which are connected with the Polish root rudy, meaning red-haired, ginger-haired, or ruda, ore. It can be a variant spelling of Rudzki, which would mean one from Ruda or Rudy, and there are many places by those names.

SREBNIK / SILVERMAN: means silversmith, from the Polish word srebro, silver (which is very similar in many other Slavic languages).

Relatives found through Genealogy research on the Internet

Blood Relatives	Location	Surname linkage	Met in person?
Suzi Jordan	Dallas, Texas	ROTEROZEN	Yes
Marilyn Tuttleman	Washington, DC	ROTEROZEN
Lewis Stein		ROTEROZEN
Haran C. Rashes	Ann Arbor, Michigan	ROTEROZEN
Abby and Ian Steinsapir	Santiago, Chile	ROTEROZEN
5th cousin	England	ROTEROZEN
Binyomin Rosenberger	Brooklyn, NY	ROTEROZEN	Yes
Steven Gary Steinsapir		ROTEROZEN
Russ Chase's ex-wife		ROTEROZEN
Elaine Rashes	Queens, NY	ROTEROZEN
Alex Friedlander	Brooklyn, NY	ROTEROZEN
Marci Cohen	Cherry Hill, NJ	ROTEROZEN	Yes
Shirley Rosen	Philadelphia	ROTEROZEN	Yes
Marvin Rosen	Philadelphia	ROTEROZEN	Yes
Denise Williams Cohen	London, England	ROTEROZEN
Ilene Steckler Cohen	Yorktown Heights, NY	ROTEROZEN
Ann Liebschutz Selnick	Reston,VA	WELSCH
Beatrice Metz Adelman	Chicago, IL	WELSCH,HIRSCH
Gilbert Metz	Jackson, Mississippi	HIRSCH,WEIL
Sylvain Metz	Jackson, Mississippi	HIRSCH,WEIL
Lawson Metz	Jackson, Mississippi	HIRSCH,WEIL
Joan Benjamin Goldberger	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	WELSCH
Ellen Hyman Saltz	Metairie, Louisiana	DREYFUS
Laurent Zimmern	Paris, France	DREYFUS
Meryl Marks Rosenbloom	New Orleans, Louisiana	WEIL
Andrew Castle	San Francisco, CA, USA	WEIL
Jean Camille Bloch	Metz, France	BLUM,DREYFUS,LOEB,WEIL
André Blum	France	BLUM



Other Relatives	Location	Surname linkage	Met in person?
Randy Friedman	Providence, Rhode Island	FRIEDMAN
Ellen Cleary	Kenner, Louisiana	FRIEDMAN
Adele Levy Adatto	New Orleans, Louisiana	GLINKA
Ralph Levin Lewis	South Carolina	LEW
André Franck	Rehovot, Israel	BAEHR
Nicole Plattier	Le Kremlin-Bicetre, France	BAEHR
Philippe Blachais	Nice, France	BAEHR, LIEBSCHUTZ
Nancy Weill	La Grange, Park, IL	LIEBSCHUTZ
Jerry L. Powers		OUBRE
Morris Roitman	Toronto, Ontario	ROTEROZEN
Sara Jo "Jojo" Levy	Cleveland, Texas	WEIL
Jacques Blamont	France	WEILL

Sources and Credits

Sources
1. 1725 Census -- courtesy of Ernest Kallman.
2. Fraenkel 1700 Marriages -- Mémoire juive en Alsace, contrats de mariage au XVIIIe siècle, A.A. Fraenkel.
3. Index to Fraenkel -- Index de Mémoire juive en Alsace, contrats de mariage au XVIIIe siècle, Rosanne and Daniel N. Leeson.
4. 1784 Census -- Le Dénombrement des juifs d'Alsace de 1784
5. 1808 Name Change List -- Recueils des déclarations de prise de nom patronymique des Juifs en 1808, [Decree of Bayonne by Napoleon July 20 1808], Pierre Katz.
6. 1851 Census -- Les Communautés Juives du Bas-Rhin en 1851, Pierre Katz.
7. Vital records for Schirrhoffen, Rothbach, Bas-Rhin, France and Kolno, Tykocin, Rajgrod, and Wizna, Lomza, Poland. [Research still in progress.]
My sincerethankfulness to the following individuals for their very kind help:
1. Philippe Blachais
2. Eve Line Blum
3. Alex Friedlander
4. Metz Kahn
5. Rosanne Leeson
6. Dr. Mars
7. Leonard Robbins
8. Michael Tobias
9. Manuela Wyler

Your comments are very welcome.

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