Re: [Cz-L]Travel to Chernivtsi

Let me add to what Ilana posted.

Zoya Danilovich is also a reliable email correspondent for Leonid
Lifshitz (who does not speak any English, and only limited Yiddish).
He is the "Raider of the Lost Matzevahs" who will for a fee will help
to find a gravestone (and repair/maintain it) among the many thousands
in the Czernowitz cemetery. We had a purported location from the
JewishGen website that did not work in finding my grandfather. But
two days after we talked to Leonid he was able to direct us to the
exact spot. My list member's photo shows me with my grandfather's
grave on the day we finally found it, an experience I will never
forget.

Let me add that my driver/interpreter Serhiy (see my previous
recommendation) has also established very good working contacts in the
federal archives in Chernivtsi, in addition to Jewish community
leaders in various parts of Bukovina and Galicia.

In our case, we did not have exact dates and were not even certain of
the exact names as they would appear in birth and death records. But
we were able to study the registers in the archives for Czernowitz
(and the limited records for Waschkoutz) and with the help of a very
helpful archivist (who delights in connecting descendants with their
past) found the death reports of our grandparents, and some other
relatives. For a small fee you can get certified copies made of
pertinent records. Tokens of appreciation and gratuities for those
who are helpful are very appropriate and, in light of the salary
levels in Ukraine, very much appreciation.

We also arranged to visit the separate facility where the business
registers of the Romanian period were kept, although these were not
helpful in our own search.

Be fore-warned that more recent Czernowitz records (I believe of the
past 75 years) are still kept separately in the municipal offices, and
access is limited for "privacy" reasons to those who can document
their direct relationship to the person's records.

Mark

On 2/23/11, Ilana Gordon <ilana_at_wordwizardsinc.com> wrote:
>
>
> HI Stephen,
>
> I would add that you should contact Zoya Danilovich ahead of time. She is an
> amazing person who helped me immensely. Since I had dates and names of my
> relatives I sent all the information I had to her and when we arrived she
> had contacted her friend in the archives and birth and death certificates
> were waiting for us when we got there. Otherwise, we were given an
> opportunity to peruse original birth records from 1820s looking for our
> relatives.
>
> Zoya's email is: "Zoya Danilovich" <welcome.zoya_at_mail.ru>
>
> In addition, we brought little gifts with us that we gave to people who
> helped us. It happened to be an election year so in the airport we picked
> (we live in DC) some Obama pins and brought silver dollars. Funny that
> people got more excited about the Obama pins that anything else. But it was
> the gesture that was most appreciated. The archives charge a small fee but
> we were so appreciative that we gave these gifts to whoever helped.
>
> Best of luck,
> Ilana Gordon
>
 
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Received on 2011-02-23 11:36:59