Reading the Cemetery Index

Each burial record is shown as one row of a table. The row holds the basic information about the deceased, and the More button opens the rest. This page explains what each field holds and how to read it.

Finding a record

Search (on the Burial Records page) looks through the names of the deceased in Latin and Hebrew letters, other surnames, and the names of the father, mother and spouse. Records in which the name belongs to a relative are listed after the others, with a line saying which relative it is.
By lot: one page for each lot of the cemetery, listed row by row in the order of the graves in each row. Empty plots are not shown, and rows are not aligned with each other, so neighbouring records in a row are neighbouring graves, but records in adjacent rows are not necessarily side by side. Each lot also has a map that draws its graves in place. Records whose lot is not known are on the “Unidentified” page.
By surname: one page for each initial letter, sorted by surname, given name and father’s name. Records known only from the registers, whose grave has not been located, are listed here and in the search, marked “Grave location unknown”.

Names are spelled in several ways (for example ADELSTEIN / EDELSTEIN / EIDELSTEIN), so it is worth searching for every spelling you can think of.

Symbols

?: The information is uncertain: hard to decipher, partly missing, or conflicting between sources. For example 1903? or Ya’akov?.
/: Separates alternatives for the same information, such as spelling variations, other sources or an “also known as” name (e.g. BEZNER / BESNER, Rivka / Regina).
-: Joins two names of one person (e.g. Shlomo-Zalman, MENCZER-SCHREIBER), and separates the parts of a date (e.g. 19-Jul-1923).

Basic information

Name

Any of the following, as known:

Surname(s), in capital letters. Spelling variations and other alternatives are separated by a slash; a double surname such as MENCZER-SCHREIBER is joined by a dash. Where the surname appears on the headstone in Hebrew letters only, the transliteration may be inaccurate.
Given name(s). Alternatives, such as spelling variations or “also known as” names, are separated by a slash; two names of one person, such as Shlomo-Zalman, are joined by a dash.
The Hebrew given name and surname, if they appear on the headstone.

Father

The father’s given name, written like the name of the deceased, with his Hebrew name if it appears on the headstone. If his surname is different from that of the deceased, as for a married woman, it is written as “SURNAME, given name” (e.g. BERENTHAL, David).

Died

The Gregorian date of death, in the format DD-MMM-YYYY (e.g. 19-Jul-1923). Where only the year or the month is known, only those are given. Below it, the Hebrew date of death in Latin letters (e.g. 29-Iyar-5719), if it is inscribed on the headstone. A Hebrew date from the headstone is converted to a Gregorian one, but a Gregorian date is not converted to a Hebrew one.

Age

The age at death, if it is given on the headstone or in the death record. Ages are not calculated from dates of birth. The forms used, alone or combined:

A number with no unit: full years.
A number with a fraction: years and part of a year, e.g. 2 1/2 is two and a half years.
A number with “Years”, “Months”, “Weeks”, “Days” or “Hours”, sometimes with a fraction, e.g. 1 Year 3 Months, or 2 1/2 Months.

Location

The lot and row of the grave, if known, with a link to the record on its lot page. “Show on map” opens the map of the lot, with the grave marked. “Unidentified lot” means the grave is known to be in the cemetery, but not where; “Grave location unknown” means the person is known only from the registers.

Notes

Anything that does not fit into another field, in free text: further text from the headstone (e.g. “Died young”, or “A descendant of the authors of ‘Shnei Luchot Habrit’ and ‘Turei Zahav’”), family relations, the profession, two persons buried in one grave, conflicting information between sources, and so on.

More

A button that opens and closes the additional information below.

Additional information (under More)

Each field is shown only if it is known.

Hebrew name

The name in the traditional form, the given name(s) and the father’s given name(s) with any Jewish title, in Latin letters, e.g. Tsvi ben Baruch HaLevi. Where only a non-Hebrew name was recorded, it is given here as is (e.g. Moritz).

Other surnames

All the surnames that appear anywhere in the record, including the notes, other than the surname of the deceased: a maiden name, or the surname of the father, mother or spouse. They are included in the search.

Mother, Spouse

The given name, with the surname first in capitals where it is different from that of the deceased (e.g. FISCHER, Pepi).

Spouse’s town, Parents’ town

As recorded in the death or birth register.

Marital status

Married, single, widow, widower or divorced.

Place of birth, Place of death

As given in the birth or death record or on the headstone, using the names of the time, e.g. Stanislau and not Ivano-Frankivsk. Many memorial plaques for people who perished in the Holocaust give the place of death as “Transnistria”.

Date of birth

The Gregorian date of birth.

Address

Where the deceased lived, usually also where they died. The form changed over time:

House number only (e.g. House #512), numbered across the whole town, until the early 1900s.
A street name in German with a house number, first still numbered across the town, and later numbered along the street, until the late 1910s.
A street name in Romanian with a house number along the street, from then on.

Surname, Maiden name, Given name, Father, Mother, Spouse (Hebrew)

The names in Hebrew letters, as they appear on the headstone, the father’s name with his Jewish title. Where the Hebrew form is not known, a transliteration is given.

Date of death (Hebrew)

The Hebrew date of death in Hebrew letters, e.g. כ״ג כסלו תשמ״ח.

Sources

Every source of information for the record:

Headstone: The headstone was photographed and the information deciphered from the picture.
Cemetery map: The grave appears on the old maps of the cemetery.
Cemetery index: The burial appears in the partial index of the cemetery made in 2001–2003.
Death register: The death is recorded in the Jewish death registers of Radautz.
Birth register: The person appears in the Jewish birth registers of Radautz, where the death of a child was sometimes noted.
Death index: The death appears in an index of the death registers.
Memorial plaque on another headstone: The name is inscribed on someone else’s headstone, in most cases in memory of a victim of the Holocaust. On the lot pages the record is listed right after that headstone.

Death register

Where the death is recorded: the register and its volume, the year, the page, the entry and the name of the image file (e.g. Radautz Deaths 1887-1902 Vol. 03, 1895, page 16, entry 4, image IMG_6976). The “Request the register image” link opens an email, with the details already filled in, to ask for the image free of charge.

Birth register

The same, for a birth record.

Photo files

The names of the image files of the headstone. The “Request the photo” link opens an email, with the details already filled in, to ask for the photos free of charge.

Record no.

The permanent number of the record. Please quote it when writing about a record.