Category Archives: Family Historical Documents

The journey finding a family connection is often long . . .

The journey for finding a family connection is often long

Here is a short history of how an almost NINE YEAR genealogy research journey progressed from ‘we’re not connected‘ to ‘Welcome to the family cousin!

June 21, 2001: I had registered on JewishGen.org as a researcher for GARFINKLE Surname with roots in Philadelphia.

November 27, 2005 I received a query:   Hello:

I am related to Garfinkle family members who settled in Philadelphia in around the 1890’s.  Please let me know what your connection is and what you are looking for.

November 29, 2005 I replied with my GARFINKLE Family data, and was advise that there was no family connection between our Philadelphia GARFINKLE families.

November 15, 2007 . . . two years later: I emailed all Garfinkle researchers and received this reply:
Dear Ronald, 
Please tell me more about your Garfinkle family.  My grandmother was a Garfinkle from Philadelphia. I immediately replied with a link to my family history site, containing what I had on my GARFINKLE family.

She immediately replied . . . “I remembered contacting you before.”  And I’m thinking . . . yes . . .TWO YEARS AGO!  She added that our data was just coincidental . . . no connection.

For over three months we exchanged many Emails as we shared documents, data, and ideas for further research.

February 24, 2008 I was finally able to email:

Hey Cousin Leslie, . . . our family connection is even more wonderful as I remember our initial emails which we ‘knew’ there was no family connection.  Then, when I sent you another email in error – not realizing we didn’t have a connection – followed by your email to me reminding me we were not connected . . . . followed by our emails and exchanges which now reveal that we are connected!  Wonderful.  When we discover the definitive documents I think we should share our story of discovery and connection. I’ll keep in touch as my research develops in the search for Henry (Hyman, Henech, or whomever).

2013: And so we’re still on the trail trying to discover documents verifying our family connection. We know we are cousins, just can’t prove it with documents . . . yet.

 Brick Wall    It’s another BRICK WALL . . . . NO MORE!

UPDATE November 2017:  Ely A. GARFINKEL is Ikhel Avrum, as listed in the 1854 Bessarabia Revision (Census) List.  He was living in the town of Lyubin,  as Simon’s son Yechiel = Ikhel for sure.  So we have finally confirmed for sure how we are related.  Moses Shimon was Eli’s first cousin since their fathers (Geinikh and Simon were brothers living in the same household in Lyublin  (Town),  county of Soroki (Uyzed) in the Province of Bessarabia (Today’s Moldova and the city is now called Nimereuca), in the Russian Empire (Pale of Settlement).

Leslie and I took from 2005 to 2017 to prove our family connection.
Our great GGG Grandfather’s were brothers.  Ely and Moses headstones reference different paternal names (bar Geinikh = Enoch in Leslie’s case. and bar Yakov = Jacob in Ron’s.).  Their father, our GGGG Grandfather was Moshko GURFINKEL (ca1790 – abt1854) who was married to Enta SOROKOVA (1791 – XXXX).  For our younger descendants Moshko will be their GGGGGG Grandfather.  WOW!

For more detailed information, view the Garfinkle Family Connection SURNAME HISTORY page.

Brick Walls

Brick Walls in genealogy exist when documentation eventually leads to . . . no more documentation.  And documents are the basis of good genealogy research.  Family stories often serve as a replacement to documents.  And in our Internet age it is not unusual for previously unknown, or untranslated, documents to become available.  It’s always a good thing when documents reinforce – and often prove – the oral family history events and activities.

But even when documents are not available, it’s often the family stories that can lead to the eventual documents.  One example.  My maternal great grandfather was, as the story was told to me, a merchant who lived in the south (Alabama) around the turn-of-the-century (1900).  My maternal great grandmother was said to have been born in Philadelphia but her 1893 marriage license shows she was born in Russia. To make a long story short, their marriage license established the truth that he lived in Alabama, and it provided the name of my great grandmother’s father, Henry, and their address 319 Catherine Street, Philadelphia.  Her home address confirmed hitherto unknown Philadelphia relatives.  Another document shows my great grandmother’s name as Millie which confirms family oral history that my aunt Millicent was named after her grandmother. Now we have an entire new branch of relatives.  So . . . still a brick wall YES

I can find no record of her parents past 1908: No burial in the Philadelphia area; no census data for 1910 or 1920; no death certificates.

Yet I haven’t given up hope that some day their grave sites will be found . . . or some other record revealing what happened to them.  UPDATE: June 2016

Brick Wall Update: I’ve Discovered Sophie Garfinkel’s Parents Names and Graves!  

My breakthrough came when Ancestry advertised the availability of probate records and I found Mollie Garfinkel’s probate document.  The probate filing listed Mollie’s children, which included Sophie Goldenberg, nee Garfinkel, who was married to Charles Goldenberg.  The proof was Mollie’s other children, especially the girls, who married into surnames I had in my family tree.

My next step was comparing all the names to the 1910 US Census which listed Matilda married to Eli, not Millie married to Henry, as was on my great-grandmother Sophie’s marriage license.  Leslie, my ‘assumed cousin’ (we assume we’ll eventually find a family connection), had cemetery records for Mollie and Elijah’s graves.  As an aside, Leslie had these ‘unknown’ Garfinkel grave records in her files for 10 years. Keeping them although never knowing if they were relevant. Years ago, I also kept an ‘unrelated’ ship manifest that eventually years later proved to be my relatives. Lightning can strike twice!

The answer to my brick wall question relating to what happened to Henry and Millie is that they never left Philadelphia and are buried there as Elijah and Mollie in side-by-side graves.  

I started searching for this information in 1993 after I retired.  It’s been a long convoluted journey. Documents have the given names Henry, Eli, Elijah and Matilda, Mollie, and Millie.

I couldn’t have ‘connected the dots’ without Leslie’s help; we have been corresponding since 2005 trying to resolve our family connection.  The story is not complete as we continue seeking documents connecting Sophie to Leslie’s Garfinkel relatives and the family connection between Sophie and Jacob. 

Today’s brick wall may be tomorrow’s breakthrough.   And as a final thought . . . I wish, as so many of us have, that we had long, long conversations about the old days. So I encourage everyone to ask your parents, grand parents, and great grand parents about their lives.  And I encourage you to share the stories . . . . it may break down a brick wall some day!

Brick Wall