Goldring Family in Lodz

Bear in mind that Lodz is a city, and also a province of Poland.

The records for Lodz (the city) on JRI-Poland are pretty good. For the rest of the province it varies from town to town.

Thank you Jeremy! I will have a look on JRI Poland

I usually use the map function, and then filter through decade by decade. Gives a really good feel for where people are at particular times.

Great info, Jeremy! I'll check there too! Incidentally, I am searching for the names of my biological father's parents, siblings and extended family members. My father was Abram Jacob Finkelstein, born Oct 10, 1924 in Lodz. When he came to the U.S. he changed his name to Jack Finkelstein. He came here with his wife, Feige Lieberman Finkelstein and also his first cousin, Rose Gertner Horowitz and her husband in 1949. I believe his parents may have been Wolf Finkelstein and Liba Grynstein. Keep in mind, both surnames have multiple spellings to consider. I know my father had at least one half brother who was born sometime before 1922 and was studying to be a doctor. I believe my father had a sister named Ita Perla Finkelstein born in 1922 in Lodz. My father survived the holocaust but we are unsure about his immediate and extended family members. In my research I found that my father had lived on Muhlgasse and I have found several Finkelstein's who lived on same "street" but different "house" numbers and I believe Finkelstein was a fairly common surname in Lodz. This is all of the information I have since finding out who my father was, but hoping someone out there may have more info for me... Many of my DNA matches have the following surnames: Cohen, Katz, Gleit, Stein, Katzover, Gross, Greenberg, Feldman. Thank you for any suggestions you might have!
Kindest regards,
Melinda Finkelstein Gier

Hi Melinda Finkelstein,

I think that Poland's laws restrict data for 100 years after birth, which means that you may not see much data in Poland.

Another thing to bear in mind is that there were hundreds of thousands of Jews in Lodz, and the process of getting records online is very much still underway (and may take many more years).

Do you have naturalization records? Death cert? Even better, a photo of a tombstone, which hopefully (but not always) provides a Hebrew name with patronymic? All of these can potentially list parents.

Also don't exclude other towns in Lodz Province! I've made that mistake before, and it cost me years of fruitless searching.

With respect to DNA searches, unless the match is around 1.5% or higher, it could well be background noise. The surname list may not tell you anything in fact.

Regards,

Jeremy

Also worth checking Yad Vashem's database for all of the family members listed above. Sometimes people filled in detailed sheets with background info on families.

Will do that! Thank you so much!

Jeremy, So, other than the Lodz ghetto, I'm not sure of other towns I should search in... I mean of course I would find other towns listed in Lodz via the map but I believe I refer to Lodz because that is actually what appears on the paperwork which I do have but I'll definitely go back over the paperwork and take a closer look. After I received my DNA results, I discovered I am 50% Jewish and I also have a living paternal half sister! Happy to say I contacted her just about one year ago and we've spent this past year getting to know each other and we've learned so much! She is very warm and kind and it was she who sent me copies of my biological father's naturalization papers, along with a few other valuable documents. My father listed his father's name as Wolf Finkelstein and his mother as Liba Finkelstein. I'm having a difficult time trying to verify their identities and manner of existence and I have been wondering if their first names are their Hebrew names and if maybe that is why I can't find information of them. I'll start with the databases you suggested. Thank you so much for your help!

Hi Melinda,

Names will vary a lot from the Anglicized versions you're used to.

Typically Jews in Poland would have several different types of names:

* in Yiddish, people typically had two names, which were pretty much interchangeable (i.e. not exactly like we use first name / middle name, but perhaps a bit more like how a fancy lawyer might use their first initial / middle name). Names in Yiddish aren't exactly the same as in Hebrew either. Your father's name, Abram Jacob, might be rendered as "Avraham Ya'akov" in Hebrew, but as "Abram Yankel" in Yiddish.

* a Hebrew name, by which they would be referred to in religious terms (i.e. for men, when being called to read from the Torah). The Hebrew name would often just be the same as the Yiddish name, but not always. Even when it's the same name, the pronunciation would typically be different. In your grandparent's case, "Wolf" might be "Ze'ev" in Hebrew. "Ze'ev" just means a wolf. Liba might be identical (it means "beloved").

* a nickname by which they'd be known by Polish neighbors. Again, this might be the same name as the above, but it might also not be. I've seen Jacob/Yankel rendered as Joachim.

Any of these names might appear on official documents, combined with the fact that there was no standardized spelling for surnames.

Jeremy

This appears to be your father's record (obviously he survived) at Yad Vashem: https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=...

So, yes, Lodz-the-city, not Lodz-the-province.

It doesn't give parent's names, but the DOB is identical.

You may want to keep track of the address, as that may help with matching later on.

And his sister (note the address): https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=...

Thank you, sincerely, for taking the time to assist me with my research. So very thoughtful and kind of you. I'm anxious to review this information later today. I really appreciate your explanation of given names. I've been fumbling my way through and learning all that i can to solve my family history mystery. Thank you, sincerely, for sharing your knowledge with me.

You're welcome.

Any assistance with any Goldring family from Poland would be greatly appreciated!