What a wonderful body of work! And I'm very excited about the long term project. and love the sample art work you're showing here. Let me know the shtetls where your ancestors are from in case we have any locations in common. Also, where do you do your genealogy research?
Thank you so much, Nina! I've only done research on Ancestry and JewishGen so far. I also have a giant family tree one of my cousins made. My maternal great grandparents are from Baranovichi, Belarus and Bohuslav, Ukraine.
I need to turn on my ancestry account soon because there's a lot of new stuff, and some is international. Alas, I missed my chances to go to Belarus when I was in Lithuania (paternal side is Lithuanian). It was such a PITA to get a Visa.
I’m also on Ancestry, though not active lately. You might find the book “The Last Ships from Hamburg” by Steven Ujifusa really interesting because something I wondered about was how did all those poor Jews in the Russian Empire have the wherewithall and money to get themselves to the US. This book answers that question in a way that surprised me! Also have you looked at the shtetl info on Jewish Gen? https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/
Thanks. I did find an article about how to track ticket payments made by Jewish immigrants to bring family over. I think I found one great grandmother’s family but I have to do more research because names are not unique so…. Why towns did your family come from?
The story in the book has to do with how three very wealthy German Jews set up the transportation system (all inclusive on one ticket) that enabled Russian Jews leave the shtetls on trains to get to a port where a boat was waiting for them. I always wondered how my relatives got from inland Russia got all the way to places like Rotterdam and even Glasgow, and from there embarked on ships to the US. (Lithuania, of course, is closer to the coast, but still.)
My Lithuanian family was from Nishtot (Kurdikos Naumientis) and Ponevezh (Panevezys) in Kovno. Ukrainian family was from Kovel. Russian family from Zlynka (later Gomel).
Interesting - Naumiestis means new city or new town. Miestelis is a diminutive of miestas (city) and would be the Lithuanian word used for shtetl. Like a market town. Bigger than a village. Smaller than a city.
Wow I can’t wait to read that. Another interesting book I’ve read talks about travel agents and what we would call “coyotes” in the southern USA border with Mexico — The Great Departure by Tara Zahra.
I loved seeing your project ideas. I hope you move ahead and get this dream accomplished.
What a wonderful body of work! And I'm very excited about the long term project. and love the sample art work you're showing here. Let me know the shtetls where your ancestors are from in case we have any locations in common. Also, where do you do your genealogy research?
Thank you so much, Nina! I've only done research on Ancestry and JewishGen so far. I also have a giant family tree one of my cousins made. My maternal great grandparents are from Baranovichi, Belarus and Bohuslav, Ukraine.
I need to turn on my ancestry account soon because there's a lot of new stuff, and some is international. Alas, I missed my chances to go to Belarus when I was in Lithuania (paternal side is Lithuanian). It was such a PITA to get a Visa.
I’m also on Ancestry, though not active lately. You might find the book “The Last Ships from Hamburg” by Steven Ujifusa really interesting because something I wondered about was how did all those poor Jews in the Russian Empire have the wherewithall and money to get themselves to the US. This book answers that question in a way that surprised me! Also have you looked at the shtetl info on Jewish Gen? https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/
Thanks. I did find an article about how to track ticket payments made by Jewish immigrants to bring family over. I think I found one great grandmother’s family but I have to do more research because names are not unique so…. Why towns did your family come from?
The story in the book has to do with how three very wealthy German Jews set up the transportation system (all inclusive on one ticket) that enabled Russian Jews leave the shtetls on trains to get to a port where a boat was waiting for them. I always wondered how my relatives got from inland Russia got all the way to places like Rotterdam and even Glasgow, and from there embarked on ships to the US. (Lithuania, of course, is closer to the coast, but still.)
My Lithuanian family was from Nishtot (Kurdikos Naumientis) and Ponevezh (Panevezys) in Kovno. Ukrainian family was from Kovel. Russian family from Zlynka (later Gomel).
Interesting - Naumiestis means new city or new town. Miestelis is a diminutive of miestas (city) and would be the Lithuanian word used for shtetl. Like a market town. Bigger than a village. Smaller than a city.
Wow I can’t wait to read that. Another interesting book I’ve read talks about travel agents and what we would call “coyotes” in the southern USA border with Mexico — The Great Departure by Tara Zahra.