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March 25. 2005
Sometimes Luck is the Answer
by - Ina Levitt-Yanover

Sometimes, the novice gets lucky. As a neophyte, I had a few ideas concerning genealogy, but I really didn't know what I was doing.

I started with a fair bit of knowledge about my maternal and paternal grandmothers, but very little information about my grandfathers. Two factors made the search difficult. There were name changes and problems determining their birth shtetls.

I joined a Jewish genealogy group - the Jewish Genealogical Society of Hamilton & Area (henceforth, JGS-H & A)". At the opening meeting we were told to start at JewishGen, i.e. www.jewishgen.org, so I did. We were told that JewishGen Family Finder (which is a database of surnames and ancestral towns that can identify and connect people who are searching in the same shtetls and for the same surnames) and Family Tree of the Jewish People (with family trees of Jewish researchers) were the places to start, so I did.

The screen at JewishGen Family Finder lets you search surname, town, country. The default for country is "any country". You can enter your ancestor's surname or town or both the surname and town. If you just enter the surname, you can use the default of "any country" and perhaps, find potential relatives that were unknown to you. You can also specify the
country.

(Tip: Many people are unsure of the exact location of the town and country of their ancestors' shtetl. Names of countries have changed, borders have changed and ruling countries have changed. Searchers often enter too little information. Some searchers use the original name of their ancestors' country and some use the current name. It is possible to miss a legitimate relative if the information entered is too exact, i.e., enter the name of your ancestor, but leave the country blank. You might find a relative that way.)

You can search the surname or town by using "Standard", "Wildcard", "D-M Soundex" and "Partial Text". There is an onscreen explanation of the terms.

I entered my maternal grandfather's original last name, SHNIFER. I somehow knew that if I used "soundex", I would find many variations of the spelling of the name. "Soundex" codes the phonetic "sound" of names. There are at least two different types of "soundex". One was invented to account for the "sounds" of German and Yiddish names.

If there is such a thing as luck, I seem to be onto it right now. As I was re-tracing my steps to write this article, I found the name of a possible relative in Sao Paulo, Brazil. When I originally went to the site on June 9, I found a woman with my grandfather's original last name and an e-mail address. I immediately sent a response but the e-mail was inactive. I didn't have any luck that time.

I decided to leave it for a bit, and if I couldn't think of any other ideas, I would write to the synagogues and JCCs in Sao Paulo, Brazil. My grandfather had a sister who lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I know this for a fact because she and her husband came to Hamilton in 1949 for my uncle's Bar Mitzvah and my parents' wedding. Since the Bar Mitzvah and the wedding
were also a family reunion, the event was reported in The Hamilton Spectator. Siblings who had not seen each other for over 30 years were reunited. The article just used GLICKLICH, the last name of my grandfather's South American sister and her husband.

I will return to my story. Today, in JewishGen Family Finder, (JGFF) instead of an e-mail address for Brazil, there was a column that said "Click here to contact JGFF Researcher #". I sent a return e-mail and you better believe that I will check my e-mail whenever I am near my computer. I get so excited by the fact that I might find someone. I always hope that we can help each other find more family members. I also get incredibly emotional about the prospect of finding a relative. I guess that I am just a sentimental person.

As I continued to look through JGFF, I found the name of a potential SCHNIFER relative with a McMaster University e-mail address. Once again, the e-mail address was inactive. I was so disappointed. One of my first thoughts was that I could have invited her for dinner when she was here. (For those of you who don't know me, I love to cook and bake. I do not force food on you, but anyone who leaves my home hungry does so of his or her own free will.)

I found another potential SHNIFER relative. I e-mailed him but he didn't answer my e-mail.
I kept telling myself that it was my first attempt to reach someone. I should have mentioned that I found his name on JewishGen. It was my first attempt to contact someone and I didn't really know what I was doing. I kept telling myself that he could be on holiday or maybe he just wasn't interested. He might have realized that we aren't related. I still would have liked to
hear from him. I do plan to e-mail him again to see what happens. This was somewhat discouraging, but I soldiered on.

I found many variations of the SHNIFER name, 86, to be precise. I found names such as "SAMBUR, SCHNAPPER, SZNIFER, SCHNIFER, SCHNIPPER, JANOVER, COMBER". I only e-mailed those that were, in my opinion, the closest tothe sound of the name.

I then went to Family Tree of the Jewish People (FTJP). I forgot to mention that in order to search these databases, you have to register with JewishGen. Personally, I hate to register or give out personal information and I abhor filling out forms; however my desire to search for my family outweighed my reservations.

JewishGen gives you the option of publishing your name, address, e-mail address or just a researcher number. I chose to publish my name and my e-mail address.

While searching on FTJP, I found a family tree, which had the name of the McMaster student, Naomi SCHNIFER. I was so excited. There were actually two family trees. One tree did not have Naomi's name, but the other names were the same. I e-mailed both and waited on spielkes for a reply. I checked my e-mail every other minute.

I received a reply, on June 10, from a woman in Israel who told me that she forwarded my e-mail to her cousin who would, hopefully, contact me when she returned from holiday.

On June 14, I received an e-mail from Naomi SCHNIFER, asking me to phone or e-mail her mother, Nili SCHNIFER. I immediately e-mailed her mother telling her that I was very excited to hear from her. I included my phone number. I told her that I did not have any new information, but when I learned something new, I would send her the information.

That night we talked on the phone for about an hour and a half. Her father and my grandfather were cousins. My grandfather's father and her grandfather were brothers, I think. She had actually met my mother's brother. She attended the Bat Mitzvah of one of his daughters. His name was included in my initial e-mail. I'm so glad that I included him because she had a connection to me through my uncle. A lot of what she said didn't register. I was very moved by this phone call.

Nili sent me an article that her father had written about the Jews of Plontch. The article, "My Town, Plontch, by Dovid Schnipper", can be found on the JewishGen website
.

I e-mailed Nili and asked her permission to use both her name and Naomi's name in this article. I wanted to respect her privacy, but I also wanted the name "SHNIFER" to appear in this article.

I am still checking my e-mail what seems like every few minutes. I am certainly getting my exercise running up the stairs to my computer on the top floor of my house. Unfortunately, my deadline for this article is looming. I may not hear from my South American relative (?) before the deadline.

If I do not get a reply in a few days, I will try to get my e-mail translated into Portuguese and see if that elicits a response.

I couldn't stand it. I have been checking my e-mail much too often. Today (four days later), I "googled" translations from English to Portuguese. I had no idea how reliable the sites would be, I then "googled" JewishGen translations from English to Portuguese. I used Babel Fish.

I translated my e-mail from English to Portuguese and sent the Portuguese translation followed by the original English e-mail to my potential SZNIFER relative in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Stay tuned. I have many more relatives to find and luck seems to be playing a major
role. As a matter of fact, I found another family of relatives that I wasn't even trying to find. For that matter, I didn't even know that they existed.

This second story is poignant, heart-warming and bittersweet. It is told in the words of those who participated in this search. The Ukraine SIG was able to reunite two Holocaust survivors within 4 days of starting the search.