What's New
July 2007
March 2007
- After a year & a half, I'm back, but not enough to update all
the pictures Marv Brooks has been finding. All I've managed to do is
clean up non-working links & add two new sites to the home page,
and a new map link to the map links page. Scroll down 'til you find new 3/07. I'll be removing those at the end of the year. Thanks to Riva Kimbell, who posted about Radzima & Ellen S. Renck, who explored both that site & Bagnowka.
- With the kind permission of Litvak Sig's webmaster, I'm trying a site web search feature. [Fingers crossed]
July 2005
- Marv Brooks has found more postcard images.
The new ones are marked "new 7/05" in red.
- An image of a stopper has been added to the beer page.
June 2005
May 2005
March 2005
- Rhonda B. Cohen has transcribed
the tombstones in the Beth Lida Section of Roselawn Cemetery in
Toronto,
Canada. Her work updates the much older cemetery records
donated
by
Elaine Rosenbloom. The permanent link is from the Lida
City Home Page, under "Former Lida Residents Abroad"
"Canada".
February 2005
- Map of the Ivye area -thanks to Miriam
Klepper. The
original is about 14" x 18" (36cm x 46 cm), so there are 4 sections.
The original was printed in 1925 by the Polish Military
Geographical Institute. There
is type down to 2 or points or so, so the scan had to be at high
resolution. The files are on the order of 2MB, so take a long
time to load. Ivye is in the upper
right
section. Upper left
section Lower right
section Lower left
section. The permanent link is
from the map links page.
To
make it easier to pick out the recent additions, I've added at the end
of each entry, in red, "new": & a month & year.
January 2005
- Map of much of the Lida
area; in
German. Thanks to Dariusz Lasocki & Marv Brooks, who arranged
its
purchase on a Polish e-auction site. The permanent link is
from
the map links page.
- There are new postcard images on the postcard
page, thanks to Marv Brooks.
- Yes, it's been a long time since I've updated the site.
I
have not been lazy, I've been snowed under! I'm coordinating
translation of Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky's "Holocaust
in Belarus" from Russian to English. Please
consider donating
to this project - it will take $2000 to do the entire book.
If
you can translate Russian, please consider volunteering for a section;
due to a shortage of volunteers, I've been doing the material that
doesn't take knowing any Russian myself
September 2004
- There are two projects to translate the LDS microfilms of
Lida
area records. Judy
Baston
is coordinating the translation of records filmed in Vilnius, and Tova Jaffe is
coordinating
translation of the records filmed in Grodno. The records will
be
entered into the All-Lithuania Database and the All-Belarus Database
respectively. People who can read cursive Russian or cursive
Hebrew are needed!
The records were kept in columns on pre-printed forms, so
there
are
few words per record.
- New postcards, thanks yet again to Marv Brooks.
- The
beer page has been updated with two labels.
- Irene Newhouse is coordinating a project to translate Dr.
Leonid
Smilovitsky's "Holocaust in Belarus" from Russian into English.
The project has a
home page
on the Yizkor Project. I originally envisioned an
all-volunteer
translation, but the rate of progress was not encouraging.
Therefore, Yizkor is collecting funds toward a professional
translation of the remainder of the book. $1900 should do it.
Donations may be made online.
This project is the third project down on the list.
Volunteer translators will still be greeted joyously!
August 2004
July 2004
- More new postcards!
- Maxime Rafailovitch has also donated his eye witness story
of the
end of the Piaski Jewish Community.
Because Piaski was never in Lida District, but there's not
yet a
ShtetLink for it, the permanent link is the last entry on the Holocaust Page.
- Another new
postcard:
of the Karol Chodkiewicz Memorial Gymnasium in Lida.
- Maxime Rafailovitch, as he was known as a partisan, has
donated his story of a
visit to the
Bielski
camp during World War II. The permanent link is
from the Holocaust Page.
June 2004
- Jay Avilev has donated a page deriving from his heritage
trip to
Vasilishki and Lipnishki in 1999 - the story of the sole survivor of
the Vasilishki mass murders in May 1942, Saul
Kushner. Thanks to Jose Gutstein, webmaster of the
ShtetLink
for the "other" Szczuczyn, for help in converting the document to html.
The permanent link is on the Vasilishki
Area Page.
- The page
describing the most recent
Holocaust memorial in Lida has been updated with links to the story of
the discovery of this mass grave, forgotten for 60 years, and the
vandalism of the memorial soon after its dedication. Permanent links
are near the bottom of the Holocaust
page
& on the Lida Area Page
under "Lida
Today". There's also a link to an extract from the memoirs of
partisan
J. Jaffe near the bottom of the Holocaust Area Page.
- A permanent link to the 10th anniversary celebration of the
Jewish
Community in Lida
has been added to the Lida Area
Page, under "Lida Today".
- More new postcards!
Another of Lida castle, two of Suwalska St., and the barracks
in
Lida.
- Marv Brooks has a photo of
unknown
cousins from Lida, probably members of the Wein family.
If
they look familiar, please contact him. The permanent link is
through the Lida Area Page
- Apparently people from Lida form a distinct genetic
subpopulation
& Landslayt have had problems getting bone marrow transplants;
matches subsequently made when people with Lida heritage registered.
Please register your bone marrow; you may help a long-lost
cousin! Permanent statement on top of the home page.
- We have another new postcard, thanks to Marv Brooks.
Look
for the new ones near the bottom of the page.
May 2004
April 2004
- Thanks to the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American
Jewish
Archives & Marv Brooks' efforts, we have received a CD
containing
close to 600 pages of material relating to the search for witnesses to
war crimes in the Lida area conducted by the World
Jewish Congress in the 1960s. Some of these materials are
survivor
testimonies, & I've translated the ones I can read &
they're
now up. The link is through the Holocaust
Page, just below the Yad Vashem testimonies & the
link to Dr.
Dworecki's autobiography.
- Thanks again to Roger Stein, we now have an index for all
the Ostryna marriage records
on LDS microfilm.
The permanent link is from the Ostryna
Area Page.
- List of Jewish Men in the Lida District in
1875 Being Translated by LitvakSIG – You Can Help!
After the Lida District 1858 revision list was
acquired and
translated by LitvakSIG (with help from many Lida District
Researchers), many of you showed strong interest in Lida District
information from the 1870s. For some time LitvakSIG made this
interest known to our contacts in the Vilnius Archives. What was made
available to us was an Alphabetical List/Index of Jewish Men in the
Lida District in 1875.
With funds left over from LitvakSIG’s Lida District 1858
Revision List
Project, LitvakSIG was able to buy this list and
get more than 10,000 names translated. But the letters S, T, U, F,
Kh, Ts, Ch, Sh, Shch, Yu and Ya are left to be translated, and it is
estimated it will take approximately $600 more to do so.
If you are able to donate additional funds to LitvakSIG to help finish
this translation, it will be much appreciated. Information
for
donating to LitvakSIG to help finish this project is at the bottom of
this message.
When the translation is completed, it will eventually be searchable in
the All Lithuania Database and also in the All Belarus Database through
JewishGen’s All Country Database system.
On Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Routes Archival Database, this
list is
described as an index to vital records. This description was provided
by the Lithuanian State Historical Archives
for Miriam’s database. This description appears to be
accurate,
but it appears that this list may be an index to other records as
well as vital records. To the extent that it is an index to vital
records, it provides a reflection of information that may have been
subsequently lost, because vital records for many Lida District towns
have only survived beginning in the 1890s, if at all.
Three years ago when I was at the IAJGS conference
in London, I met with Lithuanian State Historical Archives Chief
Archivist Galina Baranova and asked her to find documents for my
BASTUNSKI family cited in this 1875 list. She wrote me some months
later that she could not find any. However, about a year ago,
I shared the information on this 1875 list for the VAIN family with
another Lida researcher. He wrote to Galina and received information on
some family members who are cited on this list. The
information
Galina sent him came from an 1875 list that includes both chronological
age and apparent age. The citation for the documents sent to
him
is 380/120/769.
There was some correlation between numbers on the list/index being
translated and the numbers on the documents that he received, so it
appears that in some cases, the 1875 index/list being translated can be
used as a key finding aid for
further research with the Lithuanian Archives.
As mentioned above, when the translation is finished, it will
eventually be searchable in the ALD and ABD. Any researcher who makes a
contribution of $100 to the LitvakSIG Lida District
1875 List Project will receive the entire Excel file of the
translations for your own personal research. Previous contributors have
already
been sent the translation through the Cyrillic letter
“R”.
Contributions to LitvakSIG http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/by
check or credit card are tax-deductible as provided
by law. Mail contributions to LITVAKSIG, inc., Department
77-9253, Chicago, IL 60678-9253. Contribution forms may be faxed to
661/299-9198. Please note that this is for the LitvakSIG Lida District
1875 List and include e-mail address with your contribution.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Judy Baston, Coordinator,
LitvakSIG Lida District 1875 List Project
JRBaston@aol.com
March 2004
- Thanks to Roger Stein & Marv Brooks, there's an
index for Nowy Dwor marriages,
1897-1899
- Again, thanks to Roger Stein, we now have an index for
Ostryna
divorces, 1899 & Ostryna
deaths,
1897-1900, items 1-5 of LDS film 2329356. The permanent links
for
both Ostryna & Nowy Dwor vital records is on the Ostryna Area Page.
- Thanks to Roger Stein's efforts at photocopying, we now
have an
index for Nowy Dwor deaths,
1898 and 1899
from LDS film 2199342, item 2. There are several other
sections
pertaining to Lida Area towns which need copying on this film.
If
you have an interest in these towns and can spend the time at a Family
History Center copying some of these sections, please let me know!
If sent
the photocopies, I can transcribe the names. [Because I have
a
school-age daughter, I'm too housebound to be able to do the copying
myself].
February 2004
- If you're going to the
annual Memorial Service
and meeting of the United Lieder Relief Society, it's time
to plan. Click
here
to
download the flier.
- Web page memorial to the Wigdorowicz family from Ostryna
Permanent
links on the Ostryna Area Page,
about 1/2
way down & at the bottom of the Holocaust
Page. Thanks to Mischa Reisel
- There's a new postcard on the postcards page: Kamenska St.
Scroll down to
the center, street shots are alphabetized. Thanks to Marv
Brooks.
January 2004
- There is a Jewish
Community
in Lida,
now 10 years old! Their page is also available in English.
Thanks
to Leon Lauresh for this link.
Copyright © 2004,2005 Irene Newhouse
HTML by Irene
Newhouse
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