Goldfoot Genealogy

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

H.Hochfeld is the 2nd cousin of my 1st cousin, N. Goldfoot.  N.s father, Charles Goldfoot b: 1906,  was married Helen Hochfeld b: 1909, who was H,s 1st cousin once removed.  That means that Helen's  father, William Hochfeld b: February 22, 1882 in Kiev, Ukraine,  was H.s 1st cousin.  
                               

William Hochfeld's father was Harry Chayim David Hochfeld b: September 16, 1830 in Biala, Tzerkaw, (Zerkow)  Poland.
Herb's father was Frank Burrick Hochfeld b: April 6, 1892 in Russia.
Frank's father was Simon "Solomon" Samuel Hochfeld b: July 1855 in Lutsk, Ukraine, formerly part of Poland. .
Simon's father was Harry Chayim David Hochfeld b: 1830 as stated above.  
Harry was the father of 7 boys and 3 girls of which  his 1st son was Simon b; 1855 and his 10th was William b: 1882.  

 Now I find many of our family are related to H.Hochfeld by DNA, so we have a connection to his family much farther back, which is quite common with Ashkenazi Jews.
                                                                             

Diagram of 4th cousin connection We have to go WAY back to find 4th and 5th cousins to gggrandparents of 5 generations ago with 32 ancestors; 16 females and 16 males, inheriting 3.125% of our genes from each; back to about 1891.  .

   My brother and I are H's. 4th cousins, decided by DNA matches.  We are the children of Charles Goldfoot's brother, Maurice Goldfoot.  Therefore, Helen Hochfeld and Charles Goldfoot were sharing DNA matches as well, making them at least 3rd cousins unknowingly.
                                                                           
Charles and Maurice's sister, Anne's daughter, another of our 1st cousins, is also a 4th cousin to H. by DNA.

My daughter-in-law is found to be H.'s 5th cousin, but not her brother.  Siblings don't always match the same people.
My good friend, born in England but now living in my area, is also H. Hochfeld's 5th to remote cousin.
One of the heads of Halpern & Branches Group on FTDNA matches H Hochfled as a 4th cousin, opening the possibilities of also becoming a member of this group since we also belong.

What I find interesting is that H Hochfeld is the oldest of us all at 92, and bears the highest Near East genes of us all who match him with DNA.  Many Jews had to flee from Jerusalem when it fell to the Romans in 70 CE and Jews who became Ashkenazi Jews have found refuge of sorts in Europe while our siblings stayed in the Middle East and Spain and became the Sephardim Jews.  Ashkenazis with H Hochfeld as an example of his age bear the proof of still carrying over 13% of specific genes found in the Near East.  That's what I have found from my sampling of Ashkenazis connected to us with both parents that were Jewish; from over 10% to over 13% of genes from the Near East on an Admixture heritage MDLP Project results.

That's very good, considering that only 10 generations ago, we each have 1,024 ancestors; 512 male and 512 female and inherit only 0.09765625% of our DNA per gggggggggrandparent which was only 250 years ago.  How many generations ago was the year 70 with 25 years fixed as a generation?  About 77 generations ago.  To show this much DNA from the Near East, as the testing called it instead of the Middle East, I think is quite an accomplishment for us-and I returned to Israel, making aliyah in 1980.
                                                                         

Cohens at the Temple; first to read from Torah, descended from Aaron, chosen by Moses as high priest to carry out duties, now serving in synagogues. Cohens today are descended from these priestly families, from the Tribe of Levi.  The family of Aaron was the actual priest responsible for supervision of hygienic purity, sacrifices which we don't have today, and instructing people in the Mosaic Law.

He's also a Cohen; both in the synagogue and as shown by his DNA Y haplotype-that of J-M267.  There are others in the group who are also Cohens such as J-M172.  Another match to us and to H Hochfeld is another Cohen-  J-P58.  It's splendid to know that this history was handed down probably through oral means and perhaps through writings, of being a Cohen as this was a very responsible position to bear.
                                                                             
Another fact found about H. Hochefeld is that his family has found that he has connection to  a very famous rabbi born in 1525 who died in 1609, Rabbi Judah Low ben Bezalel (Der Hohe Rabbi Low) of Prague, known as the Maharel of Prague.  He was the head rabbi in Moravia, which is now part of the Czech Republic.   Moravia was the former province of Bohemia, later Austria and now Czechoslovakia.  Jews had lived there from the early Middle Ages and then suffered in massacres in 1337, and again during the Black Death in 1349-being blamed for causing it.  Jews were then expelled in 1421.  Polish persecution happened from 1648 onward.  From the 17th century, there had existed a General Council of Moravian Jewry.  The city of Brno or Brunn was an important center of rabbinic learning.  45,000 Jews living there in 1938 died from the Nazis.  Few returned after WWII.

 "Connecting to the family of the Vilna Gaon of Lithuania was :Rabbi Moshe Rivkas who came to Vilna from Prague in the early 17th century.  During the Cossack massacres in 1655, Rivkas fled to Amsterdam, where he completed his commentary on the Shulkhan Arukh called Be-er Hagolah. 


                                                                     

Rabbi Samson Wertheimer (1658-1724) born in Worms, Germany, Financier in Vienna, became chief rabbi of Hungary in 1719, nephew of Samuel Oppenheimer.

The rabbi the Halpern Group found through DNA testing  that many of us connect to  Rabbi  Samson Wertheimer or his brother,  Moshe.  The article about him is below.


Resource:
Family Tree DNA
GedMatch.com
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://goldfoot_genealogy.blogspot.com/2015/07/were-from-court-jews-of-vienna.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kiev
Book:  Eliyahu's Branches-descendant of the Vilna Gaon and his family by Chaim Freedman 1997

Nadene Goldfoot                                            
It doesn't happen very often, and I haven't really heard of it EVER happening, but my 4th cousin DNA match and I have found the connection between our two families of Gochin and Goldfus/Goldfoot; Papile, Lithuania!  We even found where a Gochin male had married a Goldfus/s female.  Both families have branches that had moved to South Africa, or to the USA.  We in the USA didn't even know there were other Goldfoots in the world!

My father, Maurice Goldfoot's (b: 1908 in Oregon)  family came from Lithuania, and they were Jewish.  "Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe bordered by Sweden,Denmark, Latvia, Belarus, and Poland. It was formerly united with Poland. The official language is Lithuanian." This is amazing because my mother's mother came from Sweden, and was not 
Jewish.  I have DNA 

from people in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and of course, Sweden.  Mom converted to Judaism.

I have found some Goldfus families or people that lived in Papile, Lithuania besides  Telsiai, Lithuania.
Papilė, Lithuania
56°09' N 22°48' E
227 km NW of Vilnius
Papile was probably a village, a shtetl.  
Most Goldfus families lived in Telsiai/Telz which was much bigger.  

One was a woman married to a Gochin. Gochin lived in Papile, Siauliai, Kuanes(Kovno) , Lithuania I've since found a Gochin that is a match to many of my family with DNA through Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas.

Elsie Goldfoot, my aunt; born 1911 in Oregon.  Perhaps Tsipa resembled her? Elsie actually looked more like Zlata, her mother from Lazdijai, Lithuania.

Descendants of Faive Shrago Gochin (The closest I've found to the first name of Faive is the Russian name of Fajvl, meaning Eliezer, Ezekie, Iezekiil, Ioil, Iri, Irshrago, Khaim, Neemiya, Samson, Samuil, Urij, Urshrago

1   Faive Shrago Gochin b: Abt. 1837 in Lithuania
.. +Tsipa Goldfus b: Abt. 1842 in Lithuania
. 2   Sarah Gochin b: 1862 in Papile, Lithuania
..... +Sholem Piel b: Abt. 1859 in Tryskiai, Lithuania
..... 3   Child Piel
My DNA cousin is _____ Gochin, the great, great, great, great, great grandson of Samuel Gochin b: c1802.  he was the son of Shmuel Gochin, son of Yankel Gochin b: 1780, with a daughter, Leah b: c1813 and son Nisel.
Yankel b: c1780;  had a son, Samuel born in 1802 who married Frieda.
Leyzer was born in 1806.
Leyzer b: c1806

Other Goldfus living in Papile, which is the name of the town, Siauliai-name of Uyezd, Kaunas-Name of the gubernia, were: 
1. Leyba Goldfus in 1877 who lived in a wooden house.
2. Itsyk Goldfus in  1897 who was a shoemaker and his son with wife and 2 daughters.
3. Sheyne Eta Goldfus in 1904 most likely a female, who received money from South Africa.  She lived with her husband and 3 daughters.  Soon one daughter would be leaving on the next tax schedule.  

On another listing:
 1.Leyb Goldfus, 56, son of Abram, was never under investigation, registered at Jewish community Center 27 July, 1879.
   Leyb Goldfus 57, son of Abram, paid tax on 24 October 1880.
   Leyb Goldfus,66, son of Abram, signed in Yiddish with Russian translation on 17 June, 1885.
   
2. Shmuel Iosel Goldfus, 33, son of Leyba, paid on 17 June 1885.
3. Shoul Goldfus, 66, son of Mendel, had no real estate but can vote. paid on 17 June 1885.  
Here's the information about this town that did not make it into the book, Preserving our Litvak Heritage by Josef Rosin which does contain information about 31 Jewish communities;   cities with populations of Jews. Fortunately, Telsiai, did make it into that book
                                                                   
My grandfather: We knew him as Nathan Abraham Goldfoot, born January 1, 1871 in Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania.  .
Here it says his father was Movsha, son of Iosel; mother was Beile.  On his tombstone, Zlata had son of Chaim.  Where did she get that?  Chaim was someone important, evidently.

GOLDFUS, Nokhum Abram

Movsha, Iosel Beile

1/1/1871 20 Tevet

Telsiai Telsiai Kaunas

Chaim most likely was a cousin of his.

GOLDFUS, Khaim

Abram, Iosel Inde

19/11/1867 4 Kislev

Telsiai Telsiai Kaunas

"Papile

Written by Dov LevinTranslated by Shaul Yannai
In Yiddish, Popelyan
A county town in the Siauliai district.

Year	General Population	Jews	Percentage
1841	207	Tsipa Goldfus was one..	..
1897	1,877	965	51
1923	1,432	257	18

"Papile is located in northeastern Lithuania, in the Samogitia province, not far from the Latvian border. It is on the right bank of the Venta River, and is 47 km northwest of the district city of Siauliai.
A few artisans and merchants already lived in Papile in 1610. At that time, the town had a few taverns and public bath houses, which were owned by the region's Catholic bishop. Since 1702, the town had the rights to hold an annual market fair. The railway line between Libau in Latvia and Romny in Ukraine, which passed through Papile, was constructed during the years 1871-1873. As a result, the town began to develop economically and socially. A fire broke out in the town at the end of 1888 and all its houses burned down. Most of them were rebuilt. In 1895, a regional hospital was established in Papile. During the period of Russian rule (1795-1915), Papile was administratively part of the Vilnius gubernia (region) and from 1843 it was part of the Kaunas gubernia. The town burned down again during WWI. Papile was a county town during the period of Independent Lithuania (1918-1940) and also during the period of Soviet Rule (1940-1941)."

Going way back, "By the mid-fourteenth century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had expanded into a large state, including substantial territories that today are part of Latvia,Belarus, and Ukraine. In 1386, it was joined to Poland in a personal union; the same monarch occupied the thrones of the two states. In 1569, Lithuania confederated formally with Poland in the Union of Lublin, forming a state often called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita). With the Polish partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795, virtually all of the historic Lithuanian lands were incorporated into the Russian Empire.

"In the 16th century, Lithuania and Poland formed a commonwealth, with a joint sovereign and parliament, but separate administrations. Following the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, the commonwealth lost lands in the west to Prussia and in the east to Russia. What remained became the Kingdom of Poland.

Following the annexation of Lithuanian territories by Russia, Lithuanian Jews

(except those in Suwałki province, which was part of Polish territories not

 included in the Pale of Settlement) found themselves within the 

boundaries of the Pale of Settlement and subject to laws applying to all 

Jews in that territory in the western border regions of the Russian 

Empire. Nearly half lived in rural areas and made their living from the 

manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages, or the leasing of 

inns, mills, fish ponds, and other agricultural activities. Other Jews were

 involved in commerce and artisanry in roughly equal proportions. 
                                                         

My paternal grandmother, Zlata Jermulowske b: 1/11/1886, came from Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania/Poland.  It did come under Poland's rule when this town was annexed.  She immigrated on 5/6/1903 at the age of 17.  

              The Jewish Settlements Till After World War I

"The first Jews settled in Papile in the middle of the18^th century." This is the time I have recorded about living in Telsiai; 1730 with Jonah Goldfus.  "The peak of their population was reached during the years that preceded WWI. The location of the railway line helped their commercial activities. They exported crops, flax and timber to Germany, which stabilized their economic conditions. The Jewish population maintained a high level of social and cultural activities. In addition to those who studied Torah and the Talmidei Khakhamim (scholars) whose life revolved around the Beth Midrash, Papile also had quite a few graduates of gymnasias and universities in Russia and abroad. Most of the children and youth studied in institutions such as the “Kheder” and the “Small Yeshiva”. The Beth Midrash burned down during the big fire of 1888 and difficult economic conditions prevailed in the town at that time. A request for help which was published in the “HaMelitz” by Illa Abel, one of the community's dignitaries, said: “hundreds of families are scattered in the fields without shelter”. The truth of these words was confirmed in the same publication by Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (Gardan). In that year, the town's Jews organized a “volunteer firefighter's brigade”. Within a few years, the damages were repaired and the Jews once again enjoyed good economic conditions.Among the Rabbis who served in Papile during that period were: Rabbi Shraga-Feivel, the son of Rabbi Josef (1827-1892); Rabbi Hillel-Arieh Lifshitz; Rabbi Tsvi, the son of Rabbi Azriel Valk; Rabbi David Regensberg; Rabbi Josef, the son of Rabbi Avraham Lamdan, who was known for his communal and public activities and was elected as a delegate to the 6^th Zionist Congress in 1903, the year he became Papile's Rabbi. Rabbi Aba-Moshe Rabinovitz, a scholar and community worker, distinguished himself in religious and public activities in the town.
The lists of donors from the years 1898, 1899 and 1903 for settling Eretz-Yisrael note the names of 15 Jews from Papile. The delegates were: Yitzkhak-Aharon Kotler, Avraham-Yake Lemkhen, and Shraga Levinson. A delegate from Papile participated in the Regional Conference of Russian Zionists which took place in 1899 in Vilnius. In 1902, 53 “Shekalim” (tokens of membership in the Zionist organization) were sold in the town.
In 1915, the entire Jewish population of Papile, as well as their brethren in the surrounding areas, was expelled to the interior of Russia.
After WWI, only a small portion of Papile's Jews returned to the burned down town. In spite of their difficult economic conditions, many of them responded favorably to Rabbi Lamdan's request to help the Jewish refugees in Russia and donated 20,000 marks, a substantial sum during that period." .

"On July 18, 1941 (23 Tamuz, 5701), dozens of armed Lithuanians broke into the stables, took the Jewish men to a nearby forest and after torturing and beating them, they shot them to death.
The women and children, who remained without food and in horrible sanitary conditions and who were sick and exhausted, were transferred on August 25 on wagons to Zagare, where they were locked up in the local Beth Midrash together with the surviving Jews from the surrounding towns. For more than a month, many of the women were tortured and raped by armed Lithuanians and Latvians. On October 2 (11 Tishrei, 5702), the women and children, together with the other Jews from Zagare, were taken to a nearby forest and where they were all shot to death. Only a very few of Papile's Jews remained alive."

• Telšiai (Alternate names: Telšiai [Lith], Telshi [Rus], Telzh [Yid], Telsze [Pol], Telsche [Ger], Telši [Latv], Telšē, Teltsch, Telshe, Telschi, Telsh, Telshie, Telšių, Telz):  
• Telšiai is 28 miles S of Leckava
• Papile (Alternate names: Papilė [Lith], Popelyan [Yid], Popelyany [Rus], Popielany [Pol], Popelian, Papilės, Popyle)

1897 Census in Lithuania: about when many Jews were exiting Europe.

Uezd / District	Gubernia	Total Population *	Total # of Jews *	Jews as a % of Population	# of Jews in Remaining Records	# of Jewish Families in Remaining Records	% of Jewish Records Remaining
Kovna (Kaunas)	Kovno	227,431	45,353	20%	0	0	0
Vilkomir (Ukmergė)	Kovno	229,118	30,153	13%	4,291	834	14%
Novo-Alexandrovsk (Zarasai)	Kovno	208,487	26,463	13%	3,646	637	14%
Ponevezh (Panevėžys)	Kovno	222,881	27,207	12%	1,397	251	5%
Rossieny (Raseiniai)	Kovno	235,362	26,447	11%	1,083	194	4%
Telz (Telšiai)	Kovno	183,351	22,695	12%	607	82	3%
Shavl (Šiauliai)	Kovno	237,934	34,348	14%	713	161	2%
Kovno Gubernia Total		1,544,564	212,666	13.7%	11,737	2,159	5.5%
Vilna (Vilnius) (not including city of Vilna)	Vilna				1,728	316

from : http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Lithuania/LithCensus1897.htm
Other Resources:   http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_lita/lit_00470.html
http://cjh.org/p/pdfs/Lithuania07.pdf
Gochin family Tree
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/lithuania
Russian-Jewish Given Names by Boris Feldblyum