Goldfoot Genealogy

 Nadene Goldfoot   

below: Zlata Jermulowski/e 

Under 5' tall                                                         Almost 6'tall

After the 1917  Russian Revolution when my ancestors, Nathan Abraham Goldfus/foot and his wife, Zlata Jermulowski/y,  were already here, the Communists took a new census and destroyed the 1897 census that was so complete and loaded with information.  Many copies stored in local or regional archives have been lost because of war, fire, flood and other disasters.  

Portions of the original returns still exist in the archives in Vilnius, Lithuania, Riga, Latvia, Grodno, Belarus, and archives in the Ukraine, some places and Russia and possibly elsewhere, at least since 2002.

Nathan Goldfus/foot came from the Telsiai (Telz) District as far as I know, most likely born there.  On this 1897 Ccnsus of the Russian Empire for selected districts in Lithuania, I see that the total population was 183,351.  Out of that, 22,695 were Jews, which was 12% of the population.  More Jews came from the Kovna (a city in the Kovno District) with a total population of 227,431 and in which 45,353 were Jews.  That made up 20% of their population.  In 1870 Telez had 6,481 residents, including 4,399 Jews which was 68% of the population.  Grandfather Nathan A. Goldfus was born January 1, 1871.  His father, Movshe, died in 1878 when he was only 7 years old.  

The Jewish numbers in Telsiai had gone up.   In 1797, only 2,500 people lived in there.  Out of that number, 1,650 were Jews which was 66% of the population. The % of Jews remained pretty much the same, the majority being Jewish.  At this time it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, when the 3rd division of Poland by the 3 superpowers of those times, Russia, Prussia and Austria, caused Lithuania to become partly Russian and partly Prussian.  Telz was in the Czarist Russian ruled area, 1st from 1802 as part of the Vilna Province (Gubernia) as a district administrative center and from 1843 as part of the Kovno Province.  Kovno Governorate or Governorate of Kaunas was a governorate (guberniya) of the Russian ... and Northwestern Krai. The governorate included almost the entire Lithuanian region of Samogitia and the northern part of Aukštaitija.     

Jews there suffered from the " BLOOD LIBALS" one in 1758 and the 2nd in 1827.  In both cases, the so called "accused" were released by the court, but as a result, the Jewish population suffered through a period of fear.

There were also plots by estate owners who saw the Jews as competitors in producing and selling alcohol.  I believe that my grandfather, Nathan Goldfus's father was Movsha ben Josel Goldfus (b: 1836-d: 1878 in Telsiai).  That's because my father was Moshe Goldfoot, probably named for him. Movsha died at age 42.  Strangely, Nathan died at 41. Our Morrie died at 59, a great improvement.   

 Great grandfather, Movsha was a DISTILLER.  The distiller mixes yeast, water, and sugar (or a sugar-containing grain) in a fermenter, aka a mash tun. After three to seven days of voracious fermenting, the yeast has consumed most of the sugar, turning the mash into a wash (10 or 12 percent alcohol by volume). A pump moves the wash into the pot of the still.  Craft distillers have a great job.  And sure, they do oversee the production of a beautiful liquid that makes many people very happy. But there’s a daunting degree of unceremonious routine required to fill every bottle. So if you’re thinking of cashing it all in pursuit of your life goal as whiskey maker, consider what goes into each day on the job. Think this is some magical, carefree existence? Dream on.  Jews, of all the people on earth, have a very low % of alcoholics, or rather, have had, since we use wine in our religious beliefs, and not for fun, except on Purim, when we are allowed to get drunk if need be.  Today, people are changing.  I hope we're not in this case.  

In 1825, the nobles asked the Tsar to expel the Jews because they.....spread diseases....and threaten to rob and to steal...  Duh, Jews usually in every case of epidemics or contagious diseases were least likely to catch it because of their law of Kashrut which includes cleanliness.  That made them the targets of spreading the disease, because they didn't catch it.  

In 1879, Jewish women established a vocational school for girls and nearby a boarding school for girls from oor homes.  Feige Lurie was head who donated money for maintenance.  Poor children studied at the "Talmud-Torah" schools and others at institutions of the "Kheder" type, where they learned reading and writing. and bible with "Rashi" commentaries and "Gemaera" (Talmuid).  Grandfather Nathan, at age 8 but whose father was dead, would have started maybe at the age of 5 and was learning reading and writing and a little Bible.  My father remembered sitting on his lap and he had a beard then.                                      

Charlie on left, Moshe (Morris) on right

   Nathan, dying in 1912 in an accident, left my father at age 4 without a father.  His brother, Charlie, was only 6.  It's good that Zlata had a brother living nearby for emotional support.  She had many half-siblings.  Bessie and Jenny were still living in Council, Idaho with their husbands.  Louis and wife Dinah and Lilly and husband Frank might have also been in Portland or Council.  Charles could have been in LaGrande along with sister Alice.

Reference:

Avotaynu, Volume XVIII, #3.Fall 2002

https://www.jewish-heritage-lithuania.org/

Preserving Our Litvak Heritage-a history of 31 Jewish Communities in Lithuania

Distiller's tools: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk02JoupGrnNgP0-ErszV8c0InxgTVg:1611096127266&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=distiller&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwip-_TiiKnuAhUyHzQIHY-pD4EQ7Al6BAgmEF4&biw=1863&bih=901 pictures

Labels: census, distiller, Goldfus, Jewish, Lithuania, Nathan, Telsiai, Telz

# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 4:12 PM