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 Sive) married Shaya’s second son, Zusman. They emigrated to South Africa. (He died in 1931 and she died in 1933. They are buried at Brixton Cemetery, Johannesburg.)
They left a joint will:
The Revision List (census) taken on 29 May 1858 gives us another clue about Shaya:
The first entry is for Shaya’s oldest son Yankel in 1897, but the second tells us that his father’s name was Hatskel. If you are interested in the process by which names became surnames, there is a really good article here.
Ari, this is how you are related to Shaya:
