Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Sarah’s mother, Part II


On Jewishgen, you can look for other people searching for similar family names. I have mostly come up with dead-ends with this tool. The people looking for Korenbaums are people I already know; there is one person looking for Zylberken (my grandfather’s family name) but they didn’t respond to my email; the people looking for Wasserstroms did answer my email, but had no Liba in their family tree and did not have any information on anyone in their family being in Sosnowica.
After finding a possible birth record for Sarah’s mother, I looked for anyone searching for Wodinski’s. I found someone searching for Wodinski in Siedlce, and sent an email. A few days later, I received this reply:
My parents came to Israel from the area where the town Siedlice is located. It is less than 50 miles from Warsaw. My father's family is Wodynski, and the town they lived in is called Stochek, not far from the town Siedlice. My mother is also from the same town. I know that they mentioned a lot of relatives who lived in Siedlice. I do not know Chana Wodynski, but I am sure she is from "our" Wodynski family - the location points it out.
Unfortunately, there is no one to ask. All the Wodynski's I know of passed away (some of them only in the last decade). There was a large "branch" of the Wodynskis in the States - they spell their name "Wodinsky" and lived in Boston, LA and surroundings. My mother who is still with us, is not in a position to remember - she is almost 97 years old.
I am sorry I cannot confirm the relation. I think you should also try the "witness pages" of YAD VASHEM in Jerusalem - I think you can do it using the internet.
If you find something of value, please do not hesitate to share it with us

Giora
I look at Yad Vashem, and find lots of Wodinski's from the town of Stochek. I do not find Chana Wodinski. But I also do not know what name she would have been using, or if she was still alive when the Nazis arrived. Her married name would have been Zylberkant, but did divorced women keep their married names in Poland in 1880? Or would she have remarried? More stories we will never know. But I feel some sort of satisfaction; at least I have been able to give her a place and a family. She is no longer an empty space in the family story.

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