My Biggest Brick Wall - Wed, 22 May 2024

Will I break it now?

Today on Facebook, Alex Krakovsky posted:

  Alex Krakovsky  34m ·

Yes, it’s true. FamilySearch started publishing Jewish metrical records from the Odesa archive. Something that all of us were waiting for many many many years.

So far they have published 81 books. 69 of them were never ever available online. 12 books from inventory 5 we published before.

I published all the references on Wikisource pages so you can now instantly access them with a blink of an eye.

I’m glad we came this far.

Here’s the list for your delight.

Fond 39

Inventory 2

https://uk.wikisource.org/…/%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1…/39/2

No. Name Year Pages FamilySearch DGS number

1 . Birth 1875 174 115149335

1a . Birth 1846 29 115149391

1b. Marriage 1854 32 115149339

1v. Divorce 1854 15 115148873

1g. Death 1854 89 115149357

1d . Birth 1847 15 115149367

2 . Birth 1875 179 115148874

3 . Marriage 1875 68 115149358

4 . Divorce 1875 34 115149365

5 . Death 1875 149 115149379

6 . Death 1875 147 115148881

7. Birth 1876 217 115148882

8 . Birth 1876 236 115149369

9 . Marriage 1876 87 115148880

10 . Marriage 1876 87 115149397

11 . Divorce 1876 29 115149427

12 . Divorce 1876 28 115149429

13 . Death 1876 201 115148888

14 . Death 1876 201 115148878

15 . Birth 1877 205 115148879

16 . Birth 1877 204 115149395

17 . Marriage 1877 68 115149371

18 . Marriage 1877 68 115149363

19 . Divorce 1877 27 115149362

20 . Divorce 1877 27 115148886

21 . Death 1877 160 115148875

22 . Birth 1878 232 115149327

23 . Birth 1878 205 115148877

24 . Marriage 1878 112 115149337

25 . Divorce 1878 36 115149373

26 . Death 1878 185 115149361.

Inventory 3

https://uk.wikisource.org/…/%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1…/39/3

No. Name Year Pages FamilySearch DGS number

1 . Death 1877 160 115149401

2 . Death 1878 172 115149405

3 . Death 1879 137 115149411

Inventory 4

https://uk.wikisource.org/…/%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1…/39/4

No. Name Year Pages FamilySearch DGS number

1 . Birth 1879 226 115149409

2 . Born 1879 28 115149415

3 . Birth 1879 244 115148890

4 . Marriage 1879 134 115149417

5 . Divorce 1879 36 115148904

6 . Death 1879 168 115148891

7. Birth 1880 235 115149414

8 . Birth 1880 224 115148906

9 . Marriage 1880 110 115148894

10 . Marriage 1880 109 115149435

11 . Divorce 1880 33 115149437

12 . Birth 1880 33 115149453

14 . Death 1880 202 115148895

15 . Birth 1881 236 115149423

16 . Born 1881 27 115149322

17 . Birth 1881 236 115148897

19 . Marriage 1881 95 115148898

20 . Divorce 1881 28 115148901

21 . Death 1881 182 115149449

22 . Death 1881 182 115148893

23 . Born in 1882 235 115148899

24 . Born 1882 19 115148900

25 . Born 1882 17 115149451

26 . Marriage 1882 133 115149444

27 . Divorce 1882 29 115148902

28 . Divorce 1882 29 115148903

29 . Death 1882 177 115149446

30 . Birth 1883 226 115148896

31 . Birth 1883 226 115148889

32 . Born 1883 21 115149406

33 . Born 1883 21 115149431

34 . Marriage 1883 93 115149433

36 . Divorce 1883 23 115149421

37 . Divorce 1883 24 115148905

38 . Death 1883 180 115149440

Inventory 5

https://uk.wikisource.org/…/%D0%90%D1%80%D1%85%D1…/39/5

No. Name Year Pages FamilySearch DGS number

3 . Birth 1884 237 115148907

9. Death 1884 193 115149351

10. Death 1884 193 115148864

11. Birth 1885 232 115149466

13. Birth 1885 246 115148908

14. Divorce 1885 22 115149326

15. Divorce 1885 23 115149345

16. Marriage 1885 95 115148911

19. Death 1885 214 115149458

25. Death 1886 199 115149464

26. Birth 1886 249 115148910

27. Birth 1887 278 115149461

My father’s stepfather, Louis Kessler and his first wife Sarah Katkow is my one research line that is my biggest brick wall.  Louis’ father was Tsvi Joseph and Sarah’s maiden name was in one document written as Katkow and her parents’ names were Jidel (Yehudah) and Chana Rivka.

They emigrated from the Russian Empire to Saskatchewan, Canada in the early 1900s and I presume were already married when they came since I cannot find any Saskatchewan marriage record for them.

They had no children and I don’t know of any living relatives they might have had, so there is no one to DNA test.

It wasn’t until 3 years ago during the WikiTree Challenge, that I was able to determine that they were from Odessa.

The 1911 Canada Census indicates that Louis may have been born in May 1878 and Sarah in April 1876. The records from the above include those years!!

So now it’s time for a bit of elbow grease and to manually start going through those records and put my Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) course on Researching Russian Genealogy Records to good use.

I’ll be going through the birth records in and around the years 1876 and 1878 looking for the handwritten version of these names:

Wish me luck.