The unusual marriage of Eva Gazan and Ruben Koperberg

We all have ancestors whose marriages were at times unusual. For some it may have been where they married, or when they married, and for others it was who they married. In one instance it was how they married.
 In his book, Stories Of Our Fathers; a multi-generational narrative of the Gazan Family through sorrow and triumph (FHL book #929.273 G258g); Harold S. Gazan describes one of the more unusual marriages that I have read about. He writes;

 "Eva Gazan was born on 11 June 1895. She married Ruben Koperberg. He was born on 25 May 1895, in Amsterdam and died on 3 Mar 1997 in Baarn. Eva's marriage to Ruben was a "marriage of the glove". This means that Ruben was not present for the marriage ceremony that was held in Amsterdam. Ruben had already traveled to the Dutch East Indies. It was neither practical nor possible for him to return home for the wedding ceremony. Because Ruben and Eva were engaged, the marriage ceremony occurred with a representative of the groom who stood in for him."

He later goes on to tell how after the marriage ceremony, Eva, departed on the six week journey to be united with her new husband. I guess it just shows that not even long distance can stop true love.

Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and Orient updated

The Knowles Collection continues to grow. Today, the Jews of Africa and the Orient databases has been updated to now include the records of almost 23,000 Jewish people. This is an increase of almost 50% since this database was last updated in February of 2013.  While the increase came from multiple sources the greater part of the growth came from burial records from Turkey.
The remaining databases will all be updated over the next month. The entire collection now contains the records of almost 800,000 people.

Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh City Deaths, 1870-1905

On the 26th of May, Familysearch added a new collection of records that will helpful for those researchers who have family in the state of Pennsylvania. The collection, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh City Deaths, 1870-1905 contains over 160,000 images of the deaths recorded in Pittsburgh.

The records give a great deal of information about those whose deaths were recorded. A search for the death of Lazarus Cohen, who died in September of 1873, finds the record of his death on 19 September 1873. He was the son of Marks and Anna Cohen.

On the basic record above, it show him to be age 0, and does not tell us where he was buried. However, the original image which can be viewed for free (seen below) adds some additional information.

From the original source, we find that he died at the age of four days, the family lived at 265 Fifth Avenue and the name of the cemetery where he was buried. This is also a great example of why it is always a good idea to try and view the original document. We would have missed some great information had we not viewed it.

California, San Francisco Passenger Lists, 1893-1953

When looking for our ancestors in the United States, one of the first places we search are the passenger lists of arrivals. While many people first check ports such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston or New Orleans, there are other less researched ports.
One of these ports is San Francisco, which has just had over 900,000 of its images added to www.familysearch.org. The collection, California, San Francisco Passenger Lists, 1893-1953, contains some incredible information for researchers.
Using information I already knew,  I searched for Abraham Cohen, who was born in Constantinople, Turkey in 1870. He and his wife and 3 children arrived in San Francisco in the late 1920's. That information quickly led me to the Abraham Cohen I was looking for. The image below is the basic information provided at FamilySearch.

After verifying that this was the person I wanted, I was then able to look at the original passenger list by clicking on the view Image button on the lower right side. That image, shown below, gives great information on the family, and shows that they left Shanghai, China on 10 July 1929.

This collection is very easy to use and as always with FamilySearch is free of charge.

Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952

The number of databases available at FamilySearch.org which are useful for those with Jewish families continues to grow. One of the newest is Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952. As of today the collection does not include the original images, however it does have a name index to over 1.6 million records.

The amount of information included in this database should help those who had family in Michigan. The entry below for example, shows the death of Arthur Mittledorf. From the record we find that Arthur, the son of Osias Mittledorf and his wife Annie Beidner, was born in Detroit on 6 May 1926 and died there on 17 Aug 1927. For those who would like to look at the original record, the Family History Library film number (1972984) is also included.

When added to the other  databases on Familysearch.org, the ability to find families in Michigan has been greatly increased.

The Jews of Mozambique

 On 16 November 1910, the Ship Garth Castle landed at Southampton, England. The ship had departed out of the Port of Delagoa Bay, Mozambique. On board that ship was Minnie Buirski, a Jewish mother traveling with her 8 children, and most likely very pregnant as her ninth child, a daughter named Beryl had arrived in time to be listed as a 2 month old on the 1911 Census of England. According to that census, mom was born in England, the eight children who sailed with her were all born in South Africa and Beryl brought the family full circle as she was also born in England.
The fact that a Jewish mother with such strong ties to South Africa and England would wind up sailing out of Mozambique may seem surprising to some, but

the country of Mozambique and its small Jewish community has been tied to both countries. The congregation in Mozambique actually was founded in 1899 when Joseph Herman Hertz arrived from Johannesburg. He convinced the Jews of Lourenco Marques to organize a community and to begin acquiring land for a synagogue and a cemetery.
The original Jews who settled in Mozambique were a very diverse mix. Equal parts Ashkenazic and Sephardic, they arrived from places such as Vilna, London, and South Africa.
In 1926 The Sephardic Jews  and Ashkenazic Jews came together and built a synagogue that they shared. However, the fact that even combined as one the community was just not large enough to support having their own Rabbi. During the time of World War II, a large number of Jews arrived from Nazi occupied European countries.
Even with these Jews arriving, the community never really grew and by the time of the Mozambique Independence in 1975, most of the Jews had left the country. In the late 1980's a move was started to bring the synagogue back to the Jewish community. Since the recovery of that synagogue, the community has begun to grow. Although still small, the y have begun to reclaim the cemetery and they have reestablished the Jewish traditions to their younger members.

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah)

MAY WE NEVER FORGET

Netherlands, Marriages, 1565-1892

In posts over the last few months, I have discussed various collections of births, deaths and burials from the Netherlands. These are located at www.familysearch.org. Now, it has been brought to my attention that I have not also mention that a database of marriagess for the period 1565-1892 is also available.
That database which now has over 560,000 records is name search able, and provides great information for each marriage. The record below is the marriage of Benjamin Abraham Cohen and his wife Hanna Marcus Dwingersma.

This collection can be of great help in linking families together. It can be searched at Netherlands, Marriages, 1565 -1892. As always, Familysearch can be searched free of charge.