Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Goldfus (Goldfoot) in Papile, Lithuania
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.
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.
Chaim most likely was a cousin of his.
"Papile
Written by Dov LevinTranslated by Shaul Yannai
"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.
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 the18th 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 6th 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."
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
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
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
Tsipa Goldfus's male line starts with my records of Descendants of Iones "Jonah" Goldfus
1 Iones "Jonah" Goldfus b: Abt. 1730 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania
. 2 Abram Goldfus b: Abt. 1752 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania
..... +Unknown
. 2 Mark Goldfus b: Abt. 1753
Tsipa's father was Abraham Chaim Goldfus b: c1820
Her mother was a Hinde,/Inde/Ginde b: c1820
Siblings were:
*Solomon Zalman Goldfus b: 1848-1849 in Dublin, Ireland-married Chaia-Feiga "Fanny" Fridjhon Frijon, died in South Africa
Gita Menukha Goldfus b: 2/23/1856
Fanny Goldfus b: c1861-married Isaac Joseph Kaitcher, may have died in Ireland
Isaac Goldfus 1861- married Annie Letowitch Spero; d: Brynmawr, Wales 2/28/1931
George Goldfus 1862-1866 married Rebecca Richmond; d: Dublin South, Ireland age 74
Louis Yehudah Leib ben "Hyman-" Goldfoot 11/19/1867; married Blume bat Yahudah Leib HaKohain Cohen died in South Africa
Chana Pera Goldfus c1869 married Dovid Isaacson, probably was born and died in Ireland
Rosie Goldfus c1870
Tsipa's father was Abraham Chaim Goldfus b: c1820
Her mother was a Hinde,/Inde/Ginde b: c1820
Siblings were:
*Solomon Zalman Goldfus b: 1848-1849 in Dublin, Ireland-married Chaia-Feiga "Fanny" Fridjhon Frijon, died in South Africa
Gita Menukha Goldfus b: 2/23/1856
Fanny Goldfus b: c1861-married Isaac Joseph Kaitcher, may have died in Ireland
Isaac Goldfus 1861- married Annie Letowitch Spero; d: Brynmawr, Wales 2/28/1931
George Goldfus 1862-1866 married Rebecca Richmond; d: Dublin South, Ireland age 74
Louis Yehudah Leib ben "Hyman-" Goldfoot 11/19/1867; married Blume bat Yahudah Leib HaKohain Cohen died in South Africa
Chana Pera Goldfus c1869 married Dovid Isaacson, probably was born and died in Ireland
Rosie Goldfus c1870
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
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 |
| GOLDFUS, Khaim | Abram, Iosel Inde | 19/11/1867 4 Kislev | Telsiai Telsiai Kaunas |
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 |
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.
An independent Lithuanian Republic was established in February 1918.
"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 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)
| 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 | ||||
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
Labels: Gochin, Goldfus, Lithuania, Papile, Piel, Telsiai
Comments:
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Thank you for this amazing article/tree information.
I may be descended distantly of the same people as I have a lot of Swedish surnames which are the same and I'm Askkenazi. I also recognise some of the names you have listed. They are from my father's side. in Poland/Lithuania.
Sally
I may be descended distantly of the same people as I have a lot of Swedish surnames which are the same and I'm Askkenazi. I also recognise some of the names you have listed. They are from my father's side. in Poland/Lithuania.
Sally
I very much appreciate your article on Papile. I'm just starting to look at the roots of my (small) family, and am following up on a small note my Mom made in my father's diary which says that "Jonas Kusleika (my grandfather) came from Papile." However, not a lot of other hints about origins. It would be interesting to know if there are town records- marriages, baptisms, deaths etc.-- as I've found for other regions in Lithuania. (I did find these for Radviliskis, the birthplace of my grandmother Ona.)
The story about the 1941 massacre is of course quite disturbing, but a piece of history which is worthy of remembering and reflecting on. Makes me wonder about how everyone got along in these towns/regions. You can contact me at johnkush@msn.com. Thanks,
John, Seattle WA
The story about the 1941 massacre is of course quite disturbing, but a piece of history which is worthy of remembering and reflecting on. Makes me wonder about how everyone got along in these towns/regions. You can contact me at johnkush@msn.com. Thanks,
John, Seattle WA
Hallo
just started researching my family tree.
My grandmother chana goldfus came from papile (popelan).
her mother was sheine ette and her father was isaac, a shoemaker. they were both from papile but came to south africa where they eventually passed away and are buried in the brixton cemetery, johannesburg.
would love to connect with you
Post a Comment
just started researching my family tree.
My grandmother chana goldfus came from papile (popelan).
her mother was sheine ette and her father was isaac, a shoemaker. they were both from papile but came to south africa where they eventually passed away and are buried in the brixton cemetery, johannesburg.
would love to connect with you
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