Schlaum Levin Feinstein is Ari’s 6x great-grandfather, born in about 1760 in Palanga, Lithuania. The only record we have for him is the 1845 All Lithuania Revision List on JewishGen, which tells us that he is no longer listed because he died in 1830. All Lithuania Revision List on JewishGen The  LitvakSIG page tells us that “Revision Lists (“Reviski Skaski”) are comprehensive lists of the taxpaying population to which almost all the Jews belonged. They were first recorded in

Ari’s 5x great-grandfather Shaya Hatskelzon (or Khatskelzon) was born in Silale, Lithuania, some time in the 1820s, and we know that he was still there in 1896 when he was recorded as a tax-payer. What else do we know about him? The main evidence is the Lithuanian tax and voter lists on JewishGen: This shows us Shaya in Silale in 1877, 1885, 1892 and 1896. Shaya had married Jennie in about 1843. The fourth record is obviously a relation, and it turns out that Basia Ziv (or Si

Earlier this week I was contacted by someone who found me through the JewishGen Family Finder. This is a wonderful resource that allows you to list the names and places that you’re interested in, so other researchers can find you to share notes. Her query was “I am searching for Nisman family from Parichi. I can go back to my 4 time G grandfather Haim Nisman.” I was pretty sure from this that we were related, and there is a Hayim Nisman in our tree. He was married to Haya Nis

Isaac Katz was the father of Maurice Katz, and was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather. He was born in about 1842 in Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine (now Dnipropetrovs’k), and died in Hackney, London on 1 Jan 1912. He married Hinda (later called Jane) in about 1863 while still in Ukraine, and they had five children there. I only know about Maurice, his older brother Nathan, and sister Rosalie, but the 1911 census shows that the total number of children born before then was five, and none had d

Ari’s great-great grandfather Louis (pronounced in the French way rather than the English) was born Ludwig Feinshtein on 28 Oct 1900 in Libau (Liepaja) in Latvia, and died on 15 Sep 1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His birth is recorded in the Latvia Births Database on JewishGen: The story told by his wife Rose was that Louis’ mother Hinda died in 1901 and the children (Louis and three older sisters – Bessie, Mary and Sara) were sent to stay with relatives (I don’t know wh

Eleazer (or Lazarus) Loshak was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather. We know he was born in about 1845, somewhere near Gritsev, Ukraine. The date of birth comes from this amazing papercut, handed down in the family and now in my possession, which gives the date of his bar mitzvah in Hebrew. I found this information by uploading the image to a wonderful resource called ViewMate on the website JewishGen, where you can ask for translations. Rivka Chaya Baddiel kindly sent me this very he

Isaac Abram Feinstein was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather. He was born in about 1827 in Polangen (now Palanga), on the Baltic coast of Lithuania, and died on 23 March 1901 in Libau (now Liepaja), which is further north on the same coast, in Latvia. We don’t know much about him, but some records are available on JewishGen, including one from the All Lithuania Revision List Database from 1845 (below): and one in the Latvia Deaths Database: Isaac (called Itsik) and his wife Sheva had