Goldfoot Genealogy

Suwalki is where Nathan Goldfoot's wife, Zlata Jermulowski was from (yellow section).  She actually lived in Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania/Poland as it had then been taken over by Poland.  Lazdijai was on the border. From 1855 to 1857, Lazdey's Jewish population was 1,546, which was 60% of the town.  By 1897 it had dropped a little to 1,439 which was 57% of the population.   Lazdijai has been a part of Poland though originally it was part of Lithuania. Lazdijai (Lazdey)54*14/23*31'  According to contemporary Russian Empire statistics, from 1889 the Suwałki Governorate was predominantly Lithuanian since they comprised 57.8% of the population. Lithuanians formed a majority only in the northern part of the governorate in the counties of Kalvarija, Marijampolė, Naujamiestis, Vilkaviškis as well as the eastern part of the Sejny county.

Augustowa is where a new DNA match, R. Freedman's grandfather-Hayman Freedman was from.  Hayman came to the US in 1881.  At the time, Augustowa was in Suwalki which is now part of Poland.. Augustów ([au̯ˈɡustuf] ( listen); Lithuanian: Augustavas, formerly known in English as Augustovo or Augustowo) is a town in north-eastern Poland. It lies on the Netta River and the Augustów Canal.  Coordinates: 53°50′37″N /22°58′46″E.  Poles were in a majority in the southern part of the governorate in the counties of Suwałki, Augustów and in the western part of the Sejny county.

Augustów actually is a resort town in northeastern Poland on the Netta River. It's known for its therapeutic spas. Flanked by lakes, the town also borders the Augustów Primeval Forest. At the junction of the river and the Augustów Canal, the Augustów Canal Museum traces the waterway’s 19th-century origins as a trade route. Forests and wetlands cover Biebrza National Park to the south and Wigry National Park north of town.

A town called Alytus or Alite was also in Suwalk Gubernia and in 1897 had a Jewish population of only 481 which was 33% of the town's population.  Augustowa was not listed. Alytus (Alite)54*24'/24*03' 

"In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, all of Lithuania was annexed to Russia, as a result of which Lazdey was included in the Augustowa Province (Gubernia), and in 1866 it became a part of the Suwalk Gubernia as a county administrative center."  

During the years of its existence, Lazdey suffered from many fires.

                  Papile bridge over Venta River in Lithuania

Papile, Siauliai, Kaunas was home of the Gochin family of whom one matches our Goldfoot line.  Siauliai County  In October 1795, Catherine II of Russia granted Šiauliai the city rights and the privilege to become the capital town of the region. Administrative division of Russian Empire remained unchanged up to the end of World War I. When the war came to its end, in 1918 Lithuania was restored as an independent state.  So Papile was the closest place to Telsiai, and that's how the Gochins and Goldfus got together. One of our female Goldfus married a Gochin. What we have in common is the interest and work of genealogy, so were able to match our findings, pretty good work for two 4th Jewish cousins.  

 Notice that there is the Telsiai and Siauliai endings.  In Lithuanian, each noun has 7 endings for the singular and 7 for the plural. So the word "vyrai," "men," has the ending -ai that tells the reader that it is plural and the subject of a sentence, so it is in the nominative case. If the word was "vyru", it would mean "of or belonging to the men" -- the genitive case. Both endings build on the same root "vyr-".  Some cities and towns are always plural, like Siualiai. In the Lithuanian phone book you will see "Siauliu r." This means in the region (rajonas) of Siauliai. The root of Siauliai is "Siaul-"Other towns or cities may have the nominative ending "-as," such as "Kaunas" or the ending "-is," such as Virbalis, or "-ys" as in Pasvalys. The roots of these names are "Kaun-", "Radvilisk-", and "Virbal-"

As it turns out, R.  Freedman and my brother, David, and I have a DNA match.  R. and David both also belong to the Y haplogroup (male line) of Q which gives them another common DNA  fact.  It doesn't always happen that men from the same male line also are related by having common DNA segments as well. My brother's line of Q-M242 has been tested again in the big Y test as being listed as QBZ67, new title pinpointing where he is on the tree of life.   R. Freedman also tested as Q-M242, same as David, so he may also be the same or just slightly different to show he's a Freedman and not a Goldfoot.  This Jewish line of Qs makes up about 5% of the Jewish population which is 0.02% of the total world population.  We are related to a lot of Freedmans of several different Y haplogroups.   

When the Q group was first organized  at Family Tree DNA, we discovered a group of us of Ashkenazi Jewish (Eastern European Jews) were Y-DNA Haplogroup Q which at the time was considered to have originated in Siberia. We wanted to know how this could be and we started this group to find out what we all had in common. We were originally one of the few groups focused on Jewish men and so we invited any Jewish person to join our group if they were interested in our common ancestral origins.

This group is specific to the branches of Q that are found in any and all Jewish Diaspora populations from Ashkenazi Jews in Europe to Yemeni Jews in Africa. While many people with these lineages may not be practicing the Jewish faith today, we come together to explore our common history and heritage.(Family Tree DNA)

Just for comparison with the above towns, the coordinates-Latitude and Longitude for Portland, Oregon are:45.5152° N, 122.6784° W

Resource: 

Preserving our Litvak Heritage by Josesf Rosin;  Joel Alpert, Editor, published by JewishGen,Inc. 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/littlelithuania/ending-of-towns-in-ava-iai-t6819.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suwa%C5%82ki_Governorate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August%C3%B3w