I was born in 193? and have taken the familyfinder DNA test from Family Tree DNA, now finding chromosome DNA matches with 3rd cousins. Many times I have never heard of these 3rd cousins and have the job of trying to figure out the genealogy to understand the connection. What is a 3rd cousin and how far back do I have to go?
Hinde Anna Goldfoot, b: 1870 is from Ian's tree. Our mutual ancestors came from Lithuania. Our grandparents came from Lithuania. She's about the same age as my paternal grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfus/Goldfoot. Hinde's father was Solomon b: 1848-1849, a son of
Ian is her 1st cousin once removed. To me, she is my 2nd cousin once removed.
I now know of 2 branches of Goldfoot. Ian's is originally from South Africa and ours is from Oregon. We are 3rd cousins. Going back farther, our ancestors came from Dublin, Ireland and before that, England and before that, Telsiai, Lithuania and before that, Germany and before that? Judah! Maybe even Jerusalem.
How close is a 3rd cousin or a 3rd cousin once removed, 3rd cousin twice removed, 3rd cousin 4 times removed and so on. We are only told the person is a 2nd to 4th cousin, more specifically a 3rd cousin from FamilyTreeDNA, but that could mean much farther back than a 3rd cousin. Very few cousins come up as 2nd cousins for me. Not too many 3rd cousins come up on my Family Tree Maker report. Most of my 393 matches come up as 5th cousins to Remote cousins. My software genealogy program where I keep all my information lists people as any number of cousin, such as 5th cousin and the tag could be 3 times removed to 8 times removed etc but the DNA program doesn't figure the times removed part though it does tell you the size of the segments inherited such as 40cMs.
My 3rd cousin Goldfoot below and my Goldfoot family came from Telsiai, Lithuania. Telsiai is the name of a town. Many of our Goldfoots were said to come from the Shtetl of Laukova. 96% of all Lithuanian Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Many are listed in Jewishgen records as just from Telsiai.
"Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania
The majority of Jews in Lithuania were not required to live in ghettos nor sent to the Nazi concentration camps which by then were just in the preliminary stages of operation. Instead they were shot in pits near their places of residence with the most infamous mass murders taking place in the Ninth Fort near Kaunas and the Ponary Forest near Vilnius. Lithuania’s Jews were thus the first in Europe to be subjected to the Nazi policy of complete extermination. 48,000 people were murdered at Ponary in the first six months of the Nazi occupation between late June 1941 and December 1941. It is estimated that only 40,000 of the 220,000 Jews in Lithuania at the time of the invasion were still alive by the end of 1941. "
Ian Goldfoot b: about 193? came up from my genealogy tree as a 3rd cousin. His father, Solomon, and my father, Maurice, come up as 2nd cousins to each other, not 1st cousins twice removed. They had different fathers to start with, but shared an ancestor. Luckily, I knew Ian and had his name on my tree. He and my brother tested and have the same Y haplogroup of Q with my brother listed as Q1b1a and Ian listed so far as Q-M378 and have a genetic distance from each other of 3 . From Family Tree DNA I learned that at 4 generations they shared a common ancestor with 22.83% but at 12 generations their percent was raised to 90.53%. A generation is worth 25 years. I was lucky to have found their branch since they had a lot of genealogy facts. Also, I had found our grandfather, after much searching, on Jewishgen.org and discovered for the first time that his full name included Abraham as a middle name. It turns out that his middle child who died in infancy was named Abraham.
Iankel Goldfus is the connecting ancestor, born in
1768. Ian is 4 generations away from Iankel and I am 5 generations away, so even though Ian an I are the same age, we are a generation apart.
1. Ian went back to Solomon b: 1904; Louis b: 1867;
Avrohom b: 1820; and ......................Iankel b: 1768.
2. Nadene went back to Maurice b; 1908, Nathan b: 1872, Movsha b: 1836; Iosel b: 1798 and Iankel b: 1768.
3. Stanley Goldfoot, born 1914, Simon b: 1874, Solomon b: 1848-49,
Avrohom b: 1820, and Iankel b: 1768.
Iosel b: 1798 and Avrohom b: 1820 were brothers. Their father, Iankel b: 1768 was married to a Khana, where the name of Anna appears often in the Goldfoot line. I have listed 15 children from findings on Jewishgen.org, which may not be quite correct. The families tended to use the same first names over and over again and it was quite confusing to follow.
On December 24, 2002 I had contact with
Mike Posnick who is the other Goldfoot researcher besides
Rabbi Abraham Goldberg, who was killed recently in Jerusalem in a synagogue while doing his morning prayers. . Mike told me that his Goldfus family lived in
Laukuva, Lithuania, which was the southern-most town in the former Telsiai district of the Kovno province of the Russian Empire. The town is located at the crossroads of the Kaunas-Klaipeda and Taurage-Riga highways. I have found the following in Laukuva:
Chaim b: 1801; Leyb b: 1835-43; Abram 1840; Gersh 1861, Yankel 1876, Chaim 1880-85; Dore 1915.
On Nathan's headstone in the cemetery in Hebrew, his name lists Nathan ben Chaim Itzak Goldfoot His wife was the one to give this information. The Nathan I found on jewishgen.org was Nathan Abraham Goldfus, and his father was Abram. It was the ONLY Nathan that I found in Lithuania records, no other Nathan. I sure wish I had been able to talk to Rabbi Goldberg about this. So I went with jewishgen's records. We never knew of any middle name. Neither my grandfather or grandmother were able to read or write in English. Grandfather died when my father was 3 or 4 years old, so he did not learn any family lore.
On Nathan's marriage certificate that I sent for, to Lena Goldfberg in Dublin, Ireland that only lasted a few weeks, Nathan said his father was Morris Goldfoot who was deceased. This is interesting because Nathan's 2nd son with Zlata Jermulowsky, my grandmother, was named Moshe which was then anglicized to Morris. Naming is done by naming after the deceased. I did find
Movsha ben Josel Goldfus in Telsiai,Lithuania in the Jewishgen.org information and figured he must be the right father. Lena's deceased father was Naftolee Goldberg. We did know that Nathan had previously been married for a short period without any issue.
Mike Posnick went on to say that we believe that all of the Jewish Goldfus(s) and Goldfoot families are related to one another. All appear to have originated in the area around Telsiai. Those who adopted the name Goldfoot all appear to have resided in the British Isles for at least a short time before moving elsewhere. My grandfather, Nathan did that, too before moving to Dublin, Ireland where other Goldfoots also resided.
4/2/15 Nathan lived at
13 Arbutus Place, South Circular Road, Dublin Ireland in 1893 when he married
Lena Goldberg. (
I wonder if this was Rabbi Goldberg's connection to Goldfoot?) I found this about South Circular Road from an unknown party: "(I (not my grandfather) was born in 1949 in a nursing home located just down the street at 102 South Circular Road, Portobello, (now renumbered as no. 18), which had been the home of the President’s father, the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Isaac Herzog, throughout the 1920s. (He later moved the short distance to 33, Bloomfield Avenue for the remaining years of his ministry here before becoming Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel.) I was accordingly born in the same house where Chaim Herzog spent most of his Dublin childhood and where his gifted brother, the late Ya’acov Herzog, had been born in 1921." Nathan left this address on South Circular Road at least 4 months later after February 21, 1893 when he married Lena. He had been listed as a commercial traveler, fancy title for "traveling salesman."
Finding out about an ancestor is the best part. Here's what I found out about our mutual ancestor, from Ian's father,
Solomon. On 3/11/08 I was given the oral history from Stanley Goldfoot and Ian's father, Solomon Goldfoot in that they were descendants of the
Vilna Gaon, who was
Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman. 1720-1797. Talmudist. He was born in Lithuania and was early famed for his scholarship. From 1740-1745 he traveled among the Jewish communities of Poland and Germany, settling in
Vilna where he taught and later founded his own academy. He lived in seclusion and refused rabbinic office. He was called a saint and a scholar. He led the opposition to the Hasidim in Lithuania, ordering their excommunication and the destruction of their literature. His obdurate attitude checked the spread of Hasidism in Lithuania. When he was about 60, he set out unaccompanied for Palestine but returned before reaching it. His reputation lies primarily in the field of Halakhah. He sought to establish critical texts of the authoritative rabbinic writings, resorting also to emendations. He avoided pilpul and based his views and rulings upon the plain meaning of the text. He regarded highly the early Kabbalistic works, and was extremely critical of philosophy. He was interested in secular studies insofar as they threw light on the Torah, but he opposed the Haskalah. His works include commentaries on the Bible, annotations on the Talmud, Midrash, and Zohar, works on mathematics, the geography of Palestine, Hebrew grammar, etc. He exercised a vast influence on his own and succeeding generations, the Mitnaggedim regarding him as their spiritual leader.
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| Vilna Gaon b: 1720 d: 1797 |
I bought the research book about the Vilna Gaon, and to my disappointment, Goldfoot or Goldfus was not listed as one of the descendants. The book is
ELIYAHU'S BRANCHES by Chaim Freedman. . They must have been connected through another surname in the family. I hope we're connected to that person as well. Our Goldfus family lived in the county of Telsiai which was about 150 miles from Vilna, a good 2 hours 30 minutes away by today's standards.
1. In the list is a
Khaya Halpern married to Akivah Pines and it is Pines who is connected on page 378.
2. Khone Joseph Hirschhorn b: 1899 in Jukst, Latvia, director of the Hirschorn Museum who was married to Jennie Berman and listed on page 430 is a person that we are connected to.
He died at age 92 from old age, on Lithuania death list of LitvakSIG. On Tevet 5. also from Jewishgen through researcher, Dennis Khan.
3. I found
Yisrael Sieff listed on page 450. Evidently Sieff is from the surname of Ziv. Going back a ways, Reizel Klatzki married Rabbi Azriel Ziv b: 1760, son of Gershon Mendel Ziv. Reizel died in 1833 in Vilna, Lithuania. Reizel was the most probably link with the
Ziv (Sieff) and Grad families, based on the tradition related to Lord Israel Sieff by his great-grandfather that he was descended from a brother of the
Gaon of Vilna. Sieff recalled the name of the Geon's brother as Joshua, which was probably a distortion of Yissakhar Ber. There is a conflict in the sources with regard to the identity of Azriel's father.
4.
Michelle Richmond, p. 466 is listed. She is married to
Jonathan Lee Rubin who was the one listed. We do have a Russian
Rebecca Richmond married to a
George Goldfoot who died in Dublin, Ireland in 1935 from BS Russia. George was the son of Avrohom Goldfus b: 1820.
5. We have a Sally Hermer married to
Samuel Goldfoot b: 1890 in Dublin, Ireland. There is a Johanna Hermer on page 432 who married
Wolf Friedlander b: 1846 who is the connection. They married in 1904. He had a farm in De Aar. Also, on the tree I have Lazer Hirshhorn b: abt 1858 married to
Amalka Friedlander b: prob.1864 in Djukst, Latvia/ Courland, Russia.
6. An
Evelyn Gershon on p. 120 is connected to the Gaon. We have a Leja Gershon b: 1915 married to
Dore Goldfus who married in Pilviskiai, Vilkaviskis, Suvalki, Lithuania. Dore's father was from Laukuva, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania where Goldfoots were said to be from. Evelyn had married Minnas Goodrich b: 1900 in Dvinsk, Latvia. Minnas died in 1957 in Macon, Georgia.
I somehow made a connection with Joseph Hirschhorn's daughter,
Gene Harriet Hirschhorn, better known as
Gene LePere, author. I have 2 of her books. "
Never Pass this Way Again;" pub. 1987 which was also made into a TV movie, and "
Little Man in a Big Hurry, " a most interesting book about her very interesting father. She's a great writer and had a most interesting experience. She helped me by double-checking my Goldfoot findings from Jewishgen.org since she also had a Goldfoot on her tree.
11/6/08 I had made contact with Gene through Jewishgen about
Gertrude Goldfoot, a new Goldfoot I had found on her tree. She put me in touch with
Seiff. Gertrude is wife of her 2nd cousin. I then found
Gertrude Goldfoot and she is from Ian's tree, now blended with my tree, but I am not a cousin of hers. She was the daughter of Morris Maurice Yankel Meier Goldfoot. who was the son of Leib Gershon Goldfus, another branch. Then again, I could have made a mistake finding the fathers. This again is where DNA comes in handy. Therefore, I'm not a cousin of Gene LePere's either, but we connect to the same people. I think we're just "Mishpuka." or maybe, shirttail relatives. Now, a DNA would tell the whole story if we are related in any little bit.
1
Simon Sieff
b: July 25, 1911 in Cork, Ireland
..
+
Gertrude Gertie Miriam Goldfoot b: April 18, 1906 in Dublin South, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Gene's 2nd book is the remarkable story of "Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who donated the largest private art collection ever accumulated to the people of the United States. A rags-to-riches story of an immigrant Jewish boy, barely eight years old, who arrived in the United States from Latvia in 1907 and who, through oversized ambition, energy, smarts, luck, and determination, accumulated a multi-million-dollar collection of contemporary art which is now housed on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in a Smithsonian Museum which bears his name:
The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Joe's father died in Latvia when Joe, the twelfth of thirteen children was one year old. By 1906 his mother, with two of her daughters, arrived in Brooklyn where they worked in sweatshops to bring the remainder of the children to America. From this humble beginning, ambitious Joe set out to lift his family out of poverty. His first financial successes were made as a broker's broker, with later successes in gold and uranium mining. He was also married four times, and struggled to balance family life with the work that consumed him. Having developed a fascination with art that brightened up "ugly walls" where he had lived as a child, Joe Hirshhorn began a hobby that would soon turn into a joyful obsession, buying and collecting art. After he accumulated a vast and impressive collection, offers to house the collection came pouring in from London, Italy, Canada, and Israel. Finally, under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, a suitable museum was built where Mr. Hirshhorn's collection is on display today. This is his amazing story, as told by his daughter".
About the Author
Gene Hirshhorn LePere is the second daughter of
Joseph Hirshhorn, born in October of 1926. Ms. LePere received her B.A. from the University of Southern California in 1949, and her MBA from Pace University in 1977. Raised in Great Neck, New York, the author has lived a bi-coastal life, living in both Los Angeles and New York. She has traveled extensively to India, China, the South Pacific, Jordan, Israel, Oman, Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, and "everywhere but South America." She is the author of
Never Pass This Way Again, and has worked as a marketing researcher, antiques dealer, decorator, and social worker, as well as working for Reader's Digest magazine. The author currently works as a genealogist and enjoys hand quilting in her spare time. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
In Israel I found an insurance agent and an archaeologist by the names of Goldfus, our original name. Each man was named Chaim Goldfus. They are 1st cousins to each other, evidently named for a deceased relative. I have 3 Chaim Goldfus on our tree. The picture of their grandfather is below. They must be related to us. The familyfinder test would tell us just how close or far apart we are.
1.
Chaim Goldfus b: 1880-1885, married to Elke Zaksaite, both of Laukkuva, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania. Dore Goldfus was their son b: 1915.
2.
Chaim Goldfus b: 1801 in Laukkuva, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania. . Leyb b: 1835-1840 and Abram b: 1840 were his sons.
3.
Chaim Goldfus b: 1867 to Abram, son of Josel Goldfus, and he was son of
Iankel Goldfus b: 1768 in Telsiai, Lithuania. and in turn he was son of Abram Goldfus b: abt 1852 in Telsiai. His father was Iones Goldfus b: abt 1730 in Telsiai.
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Stanley Goldfoot and 2nd wife, Helen
Stanley was my grandfather Nathan's 1st cousin twice removed. That means they were a distance of 2 generations with Nathan born in 1872 and Stanley in 1914. |
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| Stanley Goldfoot and family |
When I was in Israel from 1980-1985, I met with my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, who turned out to have been the Chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group when he was younger. He lived in Jerusalem. He's my 3rd cousin. His father was Simon Goldfoot b: 1874. Simon's father was Solomon b: 1848-1849. Solomon's father was Avrohom b: 1820. He's Ian's 2nd cousin.
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| My father's brother, Charles b: 1906 |
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Grandfather Goldfus from the Israeli branch living in Jerusalem
Resource: http://jewishwebindex.com/Lithuanian%20Shtetls.htm
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/04/baltic.asp
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