Dear Suchostaw Region Research Group,
I sense a scent of fall in the air as I write, and clearly the
days of Elul and the High Holydays are just around the corner.
While we review the past year(s), we also plan for the future.
I'd like to cover both in this, our fifth SRRG Newsletter.
1. MEMBERSHIP.
First, let me say welcome to all new SRRG members and hello to
all "old" members. Jack Hoadley, our terrific Data Coordiantor,
reports that we now have 151 members of SRRG! What a growth curve!
This is great news but, like any young organization, what
we need in order to grow and prosper is YOUR input. What I'd like
to ask from each and every one of our 151 is a response to me
right after you read this Newsletter. Just a hello would be lovely.
Even better would be a sentence or two on your own neighborhood
research--whether it's a success story or a plan or a question
or an interest for the future. And better yet would be your volunteering
to help with a project (maybe one that's listed below or maybe
an idea you'd like to suggest). For everyone what is needed is
a contribution (no, no money; we are all volunteers and there
are no charges here) to our web site--a piece of information about
your town or a photo of a family member born there or a copy of
a document you have found. Check the Submission Guidelines right
on the SRRG web site for related info. As my 21 year old daughter
would say: "Bring it on!"
2. SPECIAL PROJECTS.
We have several special projects in the works or in our thoughts.
We look forward to sharing information with you in the near future.
If you have ideas or can volunteer to help, please contact Susana
Leistner Bloch, our SRRG Special Projects Coordinator.
-AJDC ARCHIVES: Susana will soon be visiting the Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee Archives in NYC to search for records
related to our towns.
-RESEARCHING HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS: We will also be organizing
a process to try to reach Holocaust survivors from our shtetlach.
-RECORDS: Thirdly,we are thinking about creating a data base
of family name records that members have collected from various
archives.
-AGAD ARCHIVES: Last but not least is linking in with the
JRI project to access AGAD records of our towns.
3. WEB SITE
Have you really studied the SRRG
web site lately? Under the caring guidance of our Webmaster
Tom Weiss, the site grows almost daily. Want to see the fabulous
SRRG flyer
Tom made for the IAGS conference? Or a photo of a few of our members at the Conference?
Or read some reports of trips to the SRRG neighborhood? Or check
out the names of all 151 SRRGmembers
or view this data by
shtetl or by family
name being researched? Do you want to read about "famous sons and daughters"
from SRRG towns See a host of great maps
of the area plus a few made expressly for SRRG? For all that
and lots more, go directly to the SRRG web site.
4. SHTETLACH.
Every week we learn about a new town in the SRRG area. It appears
to have been quite a populated space and probably despite the
transportation difficulties, there was much socializing. religious
and communal holiday sharing, and business interchange in the
neighborhood. No doubt arranged marriages and other family relationships
existed quite commonly within and among the towns and is what
makes our regional group (rather than researching single towns
on a separate basis only) so important. So we'd like to know as
much as possible about each and every town and any relationships.
Again, we need your help on this. Please help us add information
to all our shtetlach pages and to our "Regional anecdotes"
department. Scouring your files or calling a relative may produce
a little gem.Any information--history, population data, a photo--would
be good. Please send this along, when possible,with your registry
of a new town or add it to a town with an existing SRRG web page.
Thanks so much.
5. SUCCESS STORY
A short little success story from new SRRGer Liliane V
who lived in France until she was 10 years old and now lives in
Mannheim, Germany. "Thank you for Carol Mc.Call I found her
and have contact since a week with her. We find out we are from
the same family-:) So its a big success for the SRRG. The world
is really a little ball. So sorry for my bad English. Thank you
again very much."
6. ACT OF KINDNESS.
I'm including one interesting post from JG in case some of you
missed it. "People often write in asking if someone can visit
a cemetery for them, do a courthouse look-up, etc. You might consider
checking with someone who volunteers with Random
Acts of Genealogical Kindness. The web site will explain how
it works and give you a list of volunteers (mostly US, but some
abroad). There's even a search that will tell you what county
your US city is located in. Most people volunteer to do one act
of kindness a month. And, why not volunteer yourself?"
Cathy J. Flamholtz
Brent, AL
7. SRRG STATISTICS.
Jack Hoadley gives us an update of SRRG stats: " As of August
21, 2000, there are 151 members
of the Suchostaw Region Research Group. Collectively, we are researching
41 shtetls and
390 unique surnames. Our website includes a complete membership
listing with the shtetls and surnames that each member is researching.
The website also includes a list sorted by surname, which allows
you to see if your particular surname is being researched by someone
else in the region -- even if it is not in the same shtetl.
Ten of the 41 shtetls we are researching are the subject
of interest for ten or more of our members. Our largest membership
is for Chortkov (22 researchers),
followed by Tolstoye/4850
(18 researchers), Buchach
(16 researchers), and Terebovlya
(16 researchers). Other shtetls with at least ten researchers
are Gusyatin (15 researchers),
Kopychintsy (14
researchers), Grimaylov
(13 researchers), Dolina (10
researchers), Skalat (10 researchers),
and our namesake shtetl of Suchostaw
(10 researchers). A complete list of the shtetls being researched,
together with the relevant member names and surnames being researched
is on our website. These appear both in one overall listing and
in separate listings on the information page for each shtetl.
8. MEMORIAL DATES.
Israel Pickholtz has been working to gather memorial dates for
our towns. He could really use your help. Please read the following
from Israel. "I would like to invite you to participate in
a new web page that will present the memorial days for East Galician
towns in calendar form. This calendar will track the official
memorial day for each town as well as the first day of each actzia.
For each event there will be three dates - the Jewish date, the
Gregorian date in the year the event took place and the next Gregorian
date. It will also include the dates of Holocaust Remembrance
Day and the Day of General Kaddish. There will also be links from
this page to the yizkor books of those towns which have them available
and to ShtetLinks pages.
I have put up a preliminary version with the dates I had immediately
at hand and request that all those who can supply official memorial
dates and dates of actziot in other towns to send me this information
soonest. (Please put "YizCal" in the subject line.)
The preliminary version can be seen at http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Memdates/YizCal.htm
8. TRAVELLING WEBMASTER.
A note follows from Tom Weiss, our Webmaster, who will be traveling
to Buchach and the neighborhood in a few weeks. During the month
of September, it will probably be best if you send things directly
to me rather than filling up Tom's In box. We'll be eager to have
him back at SRRG work in October and also reporting on what he's
seen and learned and accumulated on his trip. Tom writes: "The
web site will be on hold for the month of September. I will be
gone Sept 5-26. But, I will not be idle. I expect to get lots
of pictures and videos in Poland and Ukraine. All technological
problems of which I am aware have now been resolved. I can store
digital pictures and video clips in my laptop, and GPS receiver
data can be downloaded into the laptop."
Enjoy the rest of summer and be in touch!
Joan Baronberg, SRRG Membership Coordinator
