About the Website
To see the visual evolution of this website: Click Here
Sources Although professional genealogists like to cite numerous sources and documentation, the sad fact is that for those of us who are Jewish and from Eastern Europe, our primary source of information is interviews with family members. The family tree provided on this website was built from information gathered over many years. I was lucky in that I began when I was small and my grandparent's generation -- the generation that emigrated from Europe -- was still alive.
Our family has what genealogists and anthropologists refer to as a "rich oral history tradition", which basically means that after dinner we sit around telling stories about each other.
Many times, information differed according to who was telling the story and when. Facts are further obscured by incorrect written documentation. This was often done purposefully. For example, Rifka Chizi lied about her age to get into the United States. Birthdays translated from the Hebrew calendar may vary widely. Fifty years later, "the Shabbos after Succot, 2 years after the big flood" isn't as helpful as you might think. Heck, even 30 years later it wasn't all that helpful.
English translations of names often changed over time, and I know for a fact that Rifka's headstone is incorrect -- Becky somehow became Betty, and because it wasn't really her name anyway, it doesn't really matter.
What I find interesting is that by revisiting these stories over and over, I will often hear something I've never heard before. Someone will toss out a random comment like "Oh I remember that! That was when Zayda Louie got shot." What do you mean he got shot? Forty years and no one mentions this? [He was a bystander in an alley while a robber was attempting to escape the police. You'd think this would have come up at some point. <laughing>]
Sometimes we are lucky in that secondary sources, such as naturalization papers and ship manifests provide confirmation of what we have been told. Primary sources such as birth certificates and marriage records are rare, especially for those who lived their lives in Europe.
While sources for certified genealogical data might be sparse, we are lucky in that our family embraced the technological advances of the 19th and 20th centuries. We have photographs, audio and video that we are trying to make available on this site. I feel strongly that genealogy ought to be about more than names and dates -- a website such as this one has the ability to bring people alive for future generations and lets them see a fuller picture of who and where they came from.
Primary sources of information used on this website are:
- Interviews with family members & Vladimiretsers
- Other researchers with ties to Vladimirets and their interviews with their family members
- Written letters and notations on the back of photographs
- Personal documentation -- passports, vital records, etc.
- Headstone inscriptions
- Sefer Wlodzimierzec -- the yiskor book of Vladimirets
- Ellis Island manifests and immigration information
- U.S. immigration documents and databases
- Ship passenger lists
- JewishGen.org
- Ancestry.com
- Rootsweb.com
- Detroit Jewish News Online
- Yad Vashem database
- Bet Hatefutsoth, Genealogy Dept., Israel
- U.S. Federal Census documents
- U.S. Holocaust Museum database
Contributors It is obvious that the content on this site has gone far beyond what one person could do alone. I am tremendously grateful to all who have helped, but certain contributors deserve their own mentions.
- For answering my questions many times over, especially once the immigrant generation had all passed away, my "go to" sources: Sheila Barill, Doris Gottlieb, Harry Bick, Myer Bick
- For all those who took the time to create the Sefer Vladimirets and give testimony at Yad Vashem -- they are both great resources & a starting point.
- For sponsoring not one, but two photographic trips to Vladimirets and doing a lot of the geographical research: Victor Feldman
- For taking on the task of translating the Yiddish chapters of the Sefer Wlodzimierzec: Diane Moore
- For helping translate the Hebrew chapters of the Sefer Wlodzimierzec: Lior Burko, Victor Feldman (who sponsored the translation of a large chapter)
- For tremendous work on sections of the family tree: Tuvia Chizi, Izhar Brill, Yael (Burko) Glaser, Lior Burko and Marilyn West.
Photographs for the photo album were generously provided by:
- Sheila Barill
- Doris Gottlieb
- Deborah Waldman
- Amnon Chizi
- Terryn Barill
- Victor Feldman
- Diane Moore
- Lior Burko
- Moshe Burko
- The modern day photos of Vladimirets were all taken by Vladyslav Tsarynnyk, of Lviv EcoTour. Slav went above and beyond, and we appreciate it!
- Photographs of the Vladimirets museum exhibits graciously allowed by permission of the museum. Thank you Lydia!
- The Vladimirets museum is also helping to locate and scan pre-WWII photographs of Vladimirets and the surrounding areas.
Note on name usage in the photo album-- I struggled with how to enter surnames with photographs. I finally ended up with using the name in use at the time the photograph was taken, although I had originally been using the maiden names to match the database. Please be patient with me, if you notice I missed a name, just drop me a line.
Family Tree Although I have tried using various database programs to capture all the information I have noted on individuals, I have consistently had problems publishing the databases to the web, and the family trees they create don't seem to show a full picture the way that the graphic representations do. Additionally, many of the older generation are on older machines with dial-up access to the Internet, so complex programs and processing doesn't work for them. For these reasons, I have chosen to stick with graphic representations of the family tree, often with additional notes at the bottom of the individual's box. This also allows me to enter information I am unsure of or I have gathered for a specific surname, without putting it in the tree. Many times I have put something on the bottom of a box, only to get an email from a distant cousin later, telling me where that person belongs and making corrections to their portion of the family tree.
Additionally, using graphics protects the information in the tree, as it cannot be "read" by automatic compiling programs (spiders). It also allows me to choose the information shown on the tree, so I can show names and birthdates without showing location or personal information.
- Our website has been recognized by the Whitney Museum of Art as a worthy example of a multimedia family album.
- Bet Hatfutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish People and a great resource, has linked to our site as a genealogical resource through their Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogical Center.
- Rootsweb has been sold, and we saw the effects almost immediately on our website. I apologize for the stupid banner ads at the top and bottom of every page -- I hate them as much as anyone else. However, Rootsweb is still the best place for this site, as they provide unlimited space for free.
Contact Information
This website is maintained by Terryn Barill. Please contact me at the e-mail address below:
Electronic mail address
2terryn (at) gmail.comSnail mail address
301 N Harrison, #484, Princeton NJ 08540 USA
Copyright 1998 - present Terryn Barill, all rights reserved. Photographs and images remain the property of their owner. If you use any portion of this site, please use sections in their entirety, and give credit accordingly. Thank you. Terryn
The images in the photo album remain unlocked so that photographs can be easily shared among descendants. These images have NOT been provided as royalty-free images for any other use, either commercial or non-commercial.
