tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11329764493691274372024-03-05T00:56:23.951-08:00DershSpace Family History BlogThis blog is dedicated to family history research and discovery of our common ancestry, keeping memories alive and bringing family together.Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-50904197749069314732018-10-31T14:03:00.001-07:002018-10-31T14:20:04.676-07:00Isaac Singer plea for helpMy great grandfather, Isaac Singer, wrote to his son Louis in NY of the terrible situation the family was facing in Poland in 1919. Louis was working tirelessly to get his father, mother, sister and her family (Deresiewicz) out of Poland in a very troubled time. Louis faced a difficult bureaucratic battle with the State Department to get a visa to help the family in their time of needGene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-79856121214393125692009-06-08T05:31:00.000-07:002009-06-08T05:47:53.718-07:00Starting in a new locationWell, it's been quite a while since I've posted last and I can only blame it on procrastination. There have been a number of breakthroughs in my family history research and I guess it's time to start documenting them.I've moved all the existing blog posts off DershSpace and into Google Blogger. I think Blogger will allow much easier family notification of new content and the ability to Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-21439305955191444532008-11-26T07:25:00.000-08:002009-05-24T07:28:01.168-07:00Headstones reveal another generationToday in the mail I received photos I had requested from the Montefiore Cemetery in St. Albans, New York. A postcard found among Helen Dershewitz' photos and papers had pointed the way to the burial place of Isaac and Rosa Singer, my great-grandparents. The photos revealed simple headstones with Hebrew inscriptions. It was exciting enough to actually find their burial location but as an added Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-14133908965497256162008-11-10T21:40:00.000-08:002009-05-22T18:52:13.144-07:00An immigrant's road to AmericaOver the past few years I've been trying to piece together a family history for my paternal line. After some false starts and dead ends, the picture has become clearer. My recent trip to New York has uncovered some very important documents that shed some light on the how events in Poland unfolded during the years 1910-1921 and ultimately led to the Deresiewicz family immigration to the United Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-89300130216337081052008-10-30T21:31:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:28:52.649-07:00Final resting place of Isaac and Rosa SingerIn the things that I brought back from New York, I found a postcard that talked about the unveiling of a monument for the "Beloved Husband" of Rose Singer to take place on May 3, 1936. Isaac Singer was my paternal grandmother's father. Both Isaac and Rose came over to the US with the Deresiewicz (Dershewitz) family in 1921 and lived with them in the Bronx. The card was addressed to Mr. and MrsGene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-1791245886602146682008-10-20T21:26:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:29:25.162-07:00Back from New YorkIt's been quite a while since I've posted. It's not that I haven't been busy with the family genealogy, I've just been delinquent.... That aside, I thought I'd start again with my recent spur of the moment trip to New York. A couple of weeks ago I was speaking to my cousin Shelley on the phone. We had a lot of catching up to do as we had not talked in a while. I knew her mother, my aunt Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-60332634467384976282008-01-30T20:38:00.000-08:002009-05-24T07:30:06.067-07:00Louis Singer and the Dershewitz FamilyIt's difficult to imagine the hardships my father's family, father, mother and 7 brothers and sisters, suffered in leaving everything they knew in Poland to travel halfway around the world to a new country and new life. I've never heard any stories so I was left to try and piece together the events. I have come to find that Louis Singer, my grandmother's brother, was the key to bringing the Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-57625766896653314272007-07-24T20:21:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:35:24.396-07:00Joe Dershowitz comes to AmericaA couple of week's ago I had finally found the Ellis Island record for Johann Dersowitz (Joe Dershowitz) after many futile attempts. Again the surname changes bit me.... Once I found the record I ran into another problem. It seemed that the actual passenger manifest image did not match up with the text version of the manifest. Johann Dersowitz was shown to have arrived on August 22, 1905 on Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-78109561917030252402007-05-22T16:56:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:36:17.644-07:00DNA testing, the Dershowitz Surname ProjectLast fall, I became interested in DNA testing as a tool for genealogical research. I did some probing and found that Family Tree DNA had an existing surname project for Dershowitz and variations. There were only 2 members at that time. Since my family history research had hit a dead end I thought I would try the DNA approach and see what insights I might gain.I spoke with Barbara Leibell who Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-29324764446111332372007-05-22T16:50:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:37:10.338-07:00New cousins found.....Well it's been almost a month since my last post so I guess it's time to do some catching up. Quite a bit has happened. After getting in touch with Rachel Bernstein, a genealogy researcher, I discovered I have three previously unknown second cousins scattered around the US. All are grandchildren of my grandfather Solomon's brother, Joe Dershowitz.Maimoona Ahmed (Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-16854318677514083152007-04-27T16:46:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:37:36.408-07:00The search gets a shot in the arm....Yesterday I was doing my bimonthly check for updates to the JewishGen databases and noticed a new entry in the Family Finder looking for Dershowitz in the Nowy Sacz area of Poland. I sent off a reply to the researcher, Rachel Heller Bernstein, with a brief overview of who I was and where I was in my current family history research. By the time I came home from work, there was an Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-57680929929460714292006-10-21T10:25:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:38:10.453-07:00Polish family placesIn my research into the Dershewitz (Deresiewicz) family, there has been a certain consistency in the area in Poland from which these leads come. I guess in the late part of the 19th century, people didn't move far from their homeland unless of course there was some monumental turn of events. Poland was a very turbulent place during this time with world powers using it as a Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-59636520609978023322006-10-20T10:13:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:41:33.595-07:00Treasure from the pastMy cousin Marty Dershewitz and I have been reconnecting after over 30 years going our own ways. We've found that we both share an interest in saving what we can of our family history. Marty was born and raised in New York, close to most of the original Dershewitz immigrants and consequently was able to interact with them and heard the stories they had to tell. He has the memories of those Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-56419627586912687242006-10-15T10:03:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:42:42.033-07:00Keeping track of family history researchFamily history research is like a jigsaw puzzle with many puzzles all mixed together. Our job is to first determine which puzzle pieces are ours and then put them together. Keeping track of these pieces is a real chore. Organization is the key.... As a computer professional I tend to organize my things electronically these days. I looked at the software solutions the were available for Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-39530827932728623152006-09-21T07:07:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:39:23.103-07:00Taking Inventory - 1930 CensusEvery 10 years, the US Census Bureau goes door to door and attempts to count every nose in America. They have been doing this since 1790, collecting a variety of interesting data about the people it finds. They have a policy of not releasing the actual census records until 72 years have passed. So, the last records made public were the results of the 1930 census. While the Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-66861530440787867602006-09-18T07:04:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:39:43.020-07:00Ellis Island - Coming to AmericaLike most immigrants to the United States in the late part of the 19th and early 20th century, the Dershewitz family arrived at and was processed through [EllisIsland]. Finding the family's Ellis Island record was the breakthrough I needed to go further back into the family history. It doesn't really tell of why they left Poland, the hardships they faced on the trip over and Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-22907531846767625232006-09-12T07:01:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:40:00.389-07:00Start of the SearchI guess I'm the type of person that lives for the day and leans toward the future. I hadn't spent much time looking back beyond my own life. At times, however, I would wonder where I came from, how am I the product of the generations that came before me? For the last several years, probably since the deaths of my father and mother, I have thought of beginning a quest to discover my roots. Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132976449369127437.post-15004143506778210052006-08-07T06:58:00.000-07:002009-05-24T07:40:16.336-07:00Birth of DershSpaceSince beginning my quest for knowledge of family history I have discovered how important it is to reach out. My family knowledge is but a small piece of the entire puzzle that is the Dershewitz family. Since my father and mother moved away from New York and the bulk of my father's family in the late 1940s, I grew up not really knowing one whole side of my family relations. What started out as Gene Dershewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18340280177310340146noreply@blogger.com0