Effron Family History

Highs and Lows of switching to FamilyTreeMaker 2012

2012-01-18T19:39:00.000-08:00

I've just updated to FamilyTreeMaker software version 2012, and so far, I'm regretting it. I was doing fine with my 2005 version, except that with a new, 64 bit computer I was unable to generate pdf reports. The Indexes and Charts volume of the Efron Family History (http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/) is a pdf generated from my FamilyTreeMaker data, so I certainly needed to update the software.

The issues I'm running into with this updated software are primarily related to the "privatization" function of the software. "Privatization" is where all personal informatin about a person is removed if that person is still living. When I updated the Indexes and Charts volume, I found that many living people were NOT privatized, and some deceased people WERE privatized. The software is not too smart because it does not look at other people in fhte family to determine whether to privatize or not -- it only looks to the death date to see if the person has died. If there is no birth date, the person is not privatize. But if there is no birth date and no death date, it does NOT privatize.

Currently I have just shy of 4000 people in my databas that need to be editted, one-by-one, for me to add "unknown" to their birth field. In addtion, any person in my database born before 1900 is also considered deceased, so they need an "unknown" in their death date field. This will be a long process. Which is too bad because I had other plans for my spare time.

I'm also not pleased that in FTM 2012 privatization removes the given name of a person if they are not shown as deceased. This is unfortunate: I want my privatization to remove data (such as brith and deaht dates and pleases) but not the person's given name! ...

The first problem I ran into was that decased people in my database were being privatized because they did not have a death date listed, EVEN IF THEY WERE BORN MORE THAN 120 YEARS EARLIER!

I had been editing chapter by chapter based on information I've gathered from emails over the years (to the extent I had not already added such information). So, this little diversion will take at least a few weeks.

The Legend of Shael "Samuel Lowenstein" Efron of Amdur and Frankfurt

2012-01-02T19:51:00.000-08:00

I've spent quite a bit of energy trying to determine the genealogy of the family of Shael (Saul) Efron. He's quite interesting for a few reasons, but mostly because of the legend that is told about his business dealings in the mid-1800s in Russia, his jailing and escape from jail, and his exile for more than 40 years in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His interest to me is because his father, Chaim Efron son of Leib and Tsine of Amdur, is my ancestor. That is, Shael's brother, Avraham Efron, was my great-great-great-great-grandfather. I am especially hopeful that there is more information to find out about Shael's mother, who is also my ancestor, because she is supposed to be a member of the famous Katzenellenbogen family: possibly, Chaim is mentioned as a son-in-law in some early 19th century text.

I first learned of him from Sam Effron of Poughkeepsie's 1954 genealogy of the Effron family. In it he wrote:

There was in the city of Grodno, a man by the name of Bregman who, with Shael Effron, was in the fur business. They would go all over Russia buying furs, even as far north as Siberia. The Russian government had gold mines in that section. They still have them in operation today. In Russia, vodka and the rub1e always worked wonders. Shael Effron got acquainted with some officials in charge of the gold mine operations, and a smuggling of gold developed.

The government found out what was going on and the whole gang, including Shael Effron, was put behind bars in prison, awaiting trial. But Bregman was working to get Shael out; Bregman was a wealthy man, so he used vodka and money. Shael escaped from prison. The government placed a reward on his head, if he should get caught, but he went over the border to Germany. Two men came into Germany and started a fur business. They knew where Shael was and got in touch with him, and he engaged in business with them. After a time they had him over the border in a deal, and then revealed themselves as detectives. And he was in prison again! Then the sensational news appeared in the Russian newspapers that "Effron was caught again." But Bregman and all his friends started to work hard again with vodka and money, and he walked out of the prison disguised as one of the officers of the guard. Again he was over the border into Frankfort an Main, where he remained until his death. His wife and one daughter were living in the city of Vilna.

The story of Shael is also told in Yedidia Effron's book about Amdur (pages 68-69), where he wrote:

[T]he wealthy Shael Efron... Reb Shael used to deal with gold in the time of Alexander II, a business forbidden to Jews. He was arrested and spent a long time in solitary confinement, in the Grodno Citadel. A guard was bribed, and Reb Shael’s body was exchanged with that of an executed prisoner’s. He was carted out of the fortress like a corpse. Then he escaped to the other side of the border. The story shook up the entire government, but without results. Reb Shael lived in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, for more than forty years. He was always rich, but rigidly fanatic. He would not touch meat in Germany because he did not trust the ritual slaughterers in Frankfurt, even thought they were devout and strictly orthodox. He died in 1897, leaving a rich inheritance to his sons Moshe, a county judge, and to Leizer.

Leizer Efron, son of Shael, also wrote about his father. Leizer's book, HaMishan Alphin (http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/BIO011.pdf ) has been partially translated. The story of Shael's jailing is supposed to have been repeated there.

Many years ago I received revision list information for Efron families living in Amdur, including this family:

In 1858, Shoul Efron, the son of Chaim, is age 36 (1850 he was 28)
his son Leyzer-Arel, 14 (6 in 1850)
son Chaim, absent (not born in 1850)
wife Sora, 33
daughter Taiba, 5
daughter Chaia-Pesia, 1 ½
mother, Lea, 68

The St. Paul Efrons to the Amdur Branch

2012-01-02T19:16:00.000-08:00

How is the extensive Efron family of St. Paul, Minnesota related to the descendents of Leib and Tsinne Efron, who lived in the town of Amdur? We know they are related, through DNA testing, but how?

Chapter 8 of the online family tree of the Efrons of Amdur (http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/Vol1Chap8.htm ) explains.

The earliest known ancestor is Chaim Efron. He was born around 1825. He lived in Volkovysk -- either the town or the district which is named after the town. Volkovysk district, and the town of Volkovysk, are located in today's Belarus, although in the 19th and early 20th century it would have been considered Russian Poland. Some of Chaim's children also came from a town called Izabelin, which is located in the Volkovysk district, and not too far fromt he town of Volkovysk.

We know about Chaim from the gravestones of his children and vital records. He had six known children. Four of them came to the US: Julia (Yehudit) Mintz; Sarah (Sara Rivka) Bulgatz; Morris (Moshe) Efron; and Anna Nachimoff.

Another child was Ephraim Simcha Efron, and he apparently died before his family came to this country. Although he did not come to this country, his wife and most of his children did, and they all settled in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Julia, Sarah and Morris also came ot the "Twin Cities" and Anna settled in New York City.

Chaim's son Yosef Shmuel Rosenshein did not come to America, but died in the town of Izabelin. Yosef Shmuel Efron was adopted into the Rosenshein family, likely as a way to avoid the Russian draft, and used their surname. We know about him from oral history.

Chaim was born around 1825-1830 because the youngest child of whom we know was born about 1847. He very likely had his first child at the age 20 or so, maybe even younger.

And this is where the research stood for several years, UNTIL, in 2010 when a record was found. The record was from the 1858 revision list (census) project for towns in Grodno and Volkovysk Uezds (counties) which I spearheaded and which is now available on http://www.jewishgen.org/ as a component of the All Belarus database.

There, registered as residents of the city of Grodno, entry 606 were

Khaim Efron, son of Ephraim, head of household, age 32 (that is, born about 1826). PERFECT!

his wife, Sheina Khaia, age 30

his son, Efroim Simkhel, age 9

his daughter, Judes, age 2

Also in the house are his brother and family:

Josel Efron (brother of Khaim), age 30

Josel's wife, Khaia, age 26

Josel's daughter, Bashe, age 6

The revision list's family of Khaim Efron is an extraordinarily good match to what was already known about him from the research of the "St. Paul" Efrons. About Josel, and his brother -- that is for another post. Suffice it to say that this enabled conclusions related to the family of the Chicago Efrons, including the Bashe Schneider family.

How then is Ephraim Efron related to Leib and Tsine, the earliest known ancestors of the Efron family? He is already known from the 1816 revision list, in Amdur, where he is listed as 26 years old (born around 1790), and married to Ghenya. AND, he is known from the introductory remarks on page two of Sam Effron's genealogy of the family (http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/GEN029.pdf ), written as "Afroim."

EfronFamilyHistory website updated

2012-01-02T17:52:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded new files to the http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/ website. This is the first major upload of revised files since the beginning of 2011 -- a year ago. Most of the changes are to the Index and Charts document, where many additional family members have been added. I've also been re-writing several chapters over the past half year or so, based on a review of emails I've received.

I am continuing to review emails I've received on the topic of the Efron family history and additional changes will be made. I have already categorized the emails according to volume (Amdur families vs. non-Amdur families) and chapters within each volume. I've already reviewed emails for the first 16 chapters of the Amdur volume, so most changes are found in those chapters.

Morris EFRON of St. Louis/Aiken, S.C. - Knyshin and Cordoba, too

2011-12-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

I just discovered the arrival records for the Morris Efron of St. Louis family. Mother Chaje (Ida SURASKY Efron) arrived with her three children, Yankel (Jacob), Mordic(?) (Max) and Gerson (Harry) under the family name EFRAIM. The ship record can be found at http://www.ellisisland.org/ by entering a search for Chaje Efraim arrival in 1900. They sailed from Glasgow, and indicated their last place of residence was Rotterdam. Perhaps Harry was born in either Rotterdam, before they could board their ship, or in Glasgow -- or on the way to Glasgow. Oral history says that Harry was born en route to the U.S., but this ship manifest says he is two-years-old.

I also found the arrival for Morris, under the name of Moische EFROM, also in 1900. On his arrival record, sailing from Rotterdam, it says .he is going to join his cousin, "S. KAPLAN," of Essex St. in NYC. A search of Kaplans with origins in Knyshin located an arrival for a Sore Kaplan from Knyshin (or some spelling variation thereof). This Sore is going to her husband James and brings with her a son and daughter. The family was found in the 1900 and 1910 census. In the 1910 census, the family has living with them two single women in the early 20s, Rebecca and Sarah Surasky. Those two boarders verify that it is the correct Kaplan family! In 1910, the Kaplan family is comprised of James, Sallie (Sarah), Jennie (Dwore?), Hyman (Chaim) and Mamie.

My search and discovery of this new information was motivated by the naturalization papers of Harry Efron, which papers were newly available on Ancestry.com .

Shael Efron of Amdur, Samuel Lowenstein of Frankfurt - Part II

2011-03-05T11:08:00.000-08:00

This is the seond post regarding Shael Efron of Amdur, 1823-1897, who lived most of his life in Frankfurt, Germany as Samuel Lowenstein. In the first post, I included sources of information about Shael.

Despite knowing a lot about Shael's close relations, I have no information about any living desendents. Here's what I do know.

Shael's parents: Shael's father was Chaim Efron of Amdur, son of Leib and Tsinne. Chaim was born around 1780 and was married to Leah Katzenellenbogen, who was a descendent of Shaul Wahl Katzenellenbogen, the famous Polish King for a Night. In 1858, Leah lives with Shael and his family, and they are registered to Amdur. She is then a widow.

Shael's wife: Sarah Sayet was born in Vilna October 5, 1828, and died in Frankfurt an Main, August 31, 1901. Her father was Gabriel, born 1797, and he was the son of Aaron who in turn was the son of Benzion. Sarah's brothers were Yossel (Joseph) and Shmuel (Samuel) and she had a sister Rasa. Yossel was married to Ester Rivka, daugther of Bentsel. Shmuel was married to Sora, daughter of Baruch. Yossel Sayet had children Eliash, Rochel, and Sora. Shmuel has a son Zalman. Sarah Sayet Efron's mother's first name is unknown, but she came from the Berkowitz family. Sarah's maternal grandfather was Benzion Yudel Berkowitz.

Shael's known children are: Leizer Aharon Efron, Hermann, Chaia Peshe (married name unknown, Taube (Theresa?) Weinreich, Zlata (married name unknown) and Moses Lowenstein.

Leizer Aharon "Lazar Shael's" Efron was born in 1844 in Amdur. He married his cousin, Tsinna (or Zina) CHOZE, the daughter of Samuel "Monye" Choze and Tsipporah Efron. One child's name is known -- Berrill or Berel, as he was called in Amdur. Berrill became a dentist for the military in Vilna and also was in Buenos Aires. He died around 1950. He wrote a religious book in which he included extensive biographical details, including that his mother was a Katzenellenbogen descendent (as was his father, but no relation). See prior post on Shael Efron.

Hermann (Chaim) Lowenstein was born in 1855 in Vilnius and died January 1, 1914 in Frankfurt an Main. He once lived in the town of Burgel, Germany. This is all that is known about this child of Shael.

Taube married Fishel WEINREICH. His given names may be Fishel Meyer, or, he was Fishel, the son of Meyer. They were married in Bialystok in 1891. One child is known, Chisza, who was born in Bialystok in 1899. A Weinrach is listed as the owner of the Frankfurt house of Samuel Lowenstein (her father, Shael) after his death. Based on an index of births in Bialystok, Fishel Weinreich was the father of Malka, Gittel and Chesia. That is all that is known of this child of Shael.

Chaia Peshe. She had one daughter. This is all that is known of her and is based on the book written by her brother Leizer (see prior post on Shael Efron).

Zlata. She was born February 11, 1861. I need to locate where this information came from!!

Moses (Moshe) Lowenstein. He was a judge in Germany. He was born in 1864. His wife was Rosa Reinheimer, who was born in 1867 in Gross Zimmern, Germany. Moses and his family lived in Kirchen an der Sieg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Before that, Moses lived in Wiesbaden and Heidelberg, maybe at the university there.

During the Holocaust, Rosa and two daughters were hidden in Moenchengladbach, Germany. There was another child of Moses, named Kurt Theodore, but he died in 1929.

See Chapter 5 of the Efron Family History for more information and sources.

Back to: EfronFamilyHistory.com

2011-02-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

OK -- I've now reverted back to http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/ . I will continue to edit and update the website, but at this point the basic structure is there, and nearly all of the source documents can be found within the appendixes.

My next major goal is to make the site easier to use.

New.EfronFamilyHistory.com

2011-02-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of revising my new webpage, but am doing so at a different location. So, find my more user friendly site, where I am now placing my updates (I might update every month or so). Sometime in the next month or two I will update what is now found on http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/ with what you find on http://www.new.efronfamilyhistory.com/ .

New Efron Family History Website: EfronFamilyHistory.com

2011-01-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

I have started a website for my hobby! Most of what I've done for the Efron Genealogy has been posted there, but it all needs work. Basically, I have to edit the documents and fix the hyperlinks. And of course, I need to make everything super easy! The website is EfronFamilyHistory.com.

Shael Efron of Amdur, Samuel Lowenstein of Frankfurt

2010-02-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

Are there any living descendents of Shael Efron? He was born in 1823 and his story is told by his son, "Lazar Shael's," in Lazar's book, Khamishan Alfin . Lazar, more formerly known as Aharon Eliezer, tells how his father was put in the Grodno prison because he dealt in gold, which was forbidden by the Russian authorities.

Shael escaped from prison and went to Germany with his wife, Sarah. There, he settled in Frankfurt with the alias "Samuel Lowenstein." From the information in Lazar Shael's book, plus some information from Yedidia Efron's Amdur, Mayn Geboyrn Shtetl and a reference in Sam Effron's genealogy, I feel I've got to know this family pretty well.

I was thrilled to find the gravestones of Shael and his wife in the collection of photos of the Rat Beil St. cemtery in Frankfurt, posted by the JewishData.com folks. The photo requires a subscription to JewishData.com . The lengthy Hebrew text on the imposing monument erected for Shael "Samuel" is not legible, but it is transcribed in his son's book!

Publishing The Efron Genealogy -- The Game Plan

2010-02-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

I am working hard to publish the research I've collected for the past 20 or so years. The Efron Genealogies will be published as a book, on DVD, and online. There will be Four parts:

Volume I -- The Efron Family of Amdur
Volume II -- Other Efron Families: Origins Other Than Amdur
Volume III -- Descendency Charts and Index
Efron Genealogies Appendix

I have just completed a review of all ship arrivals in Volume I, and in the process found about 40 additional ship manifest. I also reviewed Volume I to remove all confidential information about living individuals.

There are several more steps needed before Volume I will be ready for publication:
Moving reference information from the body of Volume I to the Appendix
Getting more family photos
Incorporating some interesting documents in Volume I, instead of just as part of the Appendix
Making the text more readable
Focus on interesting individuals

Why Genealogy? A Common Question. The Puzzling Answer

2008-11-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've been asked many times, often by complete strangers who are contacted by me for information about their families, why I am "doing this." The answer can be long or short.

The short answer, a defense of genealogy usually given to those who ask accusingly and suspiciously why it is that I am building family trees of EFRONS, is:

"Some people collect stamps, some people collect coins -- I collect EFRONs"

This sort of explains the hobby of genealogy, because often it is the thrill of adding on to one's compilation of people that is satisfying -- just like any collection-type hobby. But there is a lot more to it, just as there is much more to stamp or coin collecting.

Here's what I think is my motivation: It's just darn interesting and fun and it is intellectually satisfying. Genealogy is the solving puzzles -- and I've always loved puzzles.

Well, I know I'm not the first one to say that genealogy is like a jigsaw puzzle. But more than that, it is a puzzle that at one time was far from being a puzzle, so it is like a treasure hunt. It is a puzzle that has only one, certain, true and eternal solution, so it is like scientific discovery. It is a puzzle that requires a multitude of skills and strategies to solve, and so it is like life itself. Sort of.

Think about this: at one time my great-great-grandmother, Rivka Rochel (nee EFRON) BRAWERMANN, was the daughter of two parents, had a spouse with two parents, had brothers and sisters, and had children. Now, I have little idea who her mother was and do not know the names of four of her daughters. But I have learned the first name of her mother, her father's name and some of her great grandparent's names, and the names of seven of her children and numerous descendents.

What skills are required to solve these puzzles? Good interviewing skills where the correct questions are asked; the ability to read, at least phonetically, in several languages; a lot of geography and in my Jewish genalogy a fair amount of Hebrew onomastics (the study of names). Persistence, patience and imagination are required to get to an evasive solution.

Example: an Israeli-American who was born in Russia tells me that his mother says that her Efron relatives - Yosef, Mottel and Shmuel -- had immigrated to Sao Paolo, my first step is to start searching Sao Paolo phone books. Then some searches through FamilySearch.org (the LDS Church's site) and in JewishGen.org. Nothing. Think. Think. Have I seen a family with these three names anywhere else in my research?

Of course I have! These are some of the brothers of the family that settled in St. Paul, Minnesota!! Not Sao Paulo, Brazil! And yet, the same place name.

I hope to post some current, particular puzzles to share, and invite you to sleuth along with me to solve them!

Earlier Efron Genealogies

2008-11-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

Long before I began my 20-year hobby of building family trees of Efron families there already existed written records of the family history. Here follows an acknowledgement and summary of those genealogies, and the people who wrote them. I may have left off a few, and to those folks I say sorry. But my main intent here is to show how much information was already compiled.

There were still lots and lots of family trees which I had to build myself, not the least of which was the entire Braverman and Heffron branches of Boston.

Here then, my tribute to those upon whose prior work I've built

Sam Effron. Born in Amdur as Shevach Effron, he came to Poughkeepsie, NY in 1899 by way of Argentina. His autobiography has been published on my FamilyTreeMaker website -- see the links near the bottom of the home page at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/y/a/r/Jim-Yarin/index.html . But he also wrote a genealogy of the family. In that genealogy, which is not yet available on the web, he mentions the brothers of Motte Tsinne's, but does not give further information about them. At the end of the genealogy, he recounts the story of Shael Efron, but does not indicate how Shael is related to Motte Tsinnes (Shael is a nephew of Motte).

I have relied to a great degree on Sam Effron's genealogy. I have verified in one way or another most of the information in the genealogy, although some of it is taken on face value -- specifically, the head of the family's name, the matriarch, Tsinne, and her sons' names.

My draft genealogy (unpublished) quotes from Sam's genealogy extensively. I have also managed, with the basic information supplied in this genealogy, to fill in many gaps and bring family trees down to current generations.

Yedidia Efron. He wrote the history of the town of Amdur, and included a substantial portion of it to his own family history. You can use the above link to access the book, including the project where portions of the book are now bing translated. In addition to a chapter where he specifically speaks about his family, there are many references throughout the book to his Efron relatives. In many cases it is the combination of information in this book with other sources that has allowed me to make connections. For example, Yedidia discusses Avraham Shlomo Tzines, who is the head of the Goldberg family genealogy done by Bill Lowenstein.

Julio Mazo. Julio lives in Israel, and used to live in Argentina. Julio has done extensive work to create family trees of the Efron families that came to Argentina. Many of those families are very large. Julio's wife, Martha, works at the Hall of Names at the Daniel Goldmann Museum in Tel Aviv, and the genealogy that Julio did has been submitted into their database.

Max Effron. He is from the Motte Matsul branch and did a family tree of his family which adde to Sam Effrons information and allowed some branches to be linked together.

Joanne Goldberg. Joanne did a very thorough genealogy of the Morris Efron family of St. Louis/Aiken, SC

Colin Silver. He authorized a genealogy of the Australian branch, who are the descendents of Chatskil Efron. Most of the descendents of that family settled in Australia.

Joy Adams from Chatanooga put together the family history of the family that settled in Chatanooga, TN and environs.

Bill Lowenstein was a young man from Pittsburgh, PA who because interested in family history at a young age and compiled the branch of the family descended from Eliezer, son of Motte Tsinne's.

Tina Efron. Tina compiled a genealogy of the branch of Yael Chaim of Slutsk.

Eli Efron and his son, Nathan Efron, of Cincinatti. They left detailed genealogical notes about his immediate family,

Frank Effron did a family tree for his branch, which is that of Leon Effron the Phildelphia dentist.

Sidney "Tiff" Simon created a very helpful family tree of the descendents of Mina Affron of Kingston.

Rose Brownstein put together a nice family history, showing the descendents of Asher Efron of Krynki.

Norman Levitz sent me the family tree of the Schneider family of Krynki (Krinik). The matriarch of the family was Bashe (Efron) Schneider, and it also shows her relationship to the Avrohm Simche Efron family. (this paragraph added 11/11/08).

Variations on the Name Efron

2008-11-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

Nearly all families that have any of the following spelling variations have been researched by me and I have built family trees of those families: Efron, Effron, Affron, Ephron, Efran, Effront. But that is not everything.

Some families related to the families that used the above spellings use a spelling which is typically used by Irish families: Heffron. In Boston, a large Jewish Heffron family established itself 100 years ago, and they are definitely Efrons -- they just use an unusual spelling.

And some related, Jewish families or small parts of families use other spellings: Efrein, Efrin and Hafron, for example. All families who spell their names in one of these ways has been researched by me.

Those of course are English spellings, and there are many variations of spelling the name in Hebrew as well. First of all, in Hebrew the name starts with an Ayin or an Aleph, two different vowels. The second vowel in the name is usually a Vav, giving the second vowel and "O" sound, but there are variations on that as well.

The Belgium enzymologist Jean Effront used a decidedly French or Swiss spelling, just as the Boston Heffrons found themselves using a decidedly Irish spelling.

The most universal spelling is EFRON, but perhaps the most common English spelling is EFFRON.

The AFFRON families were found primarily in Kingston, NY, from whence they've since spread.

EPHRON is used by certain branches or sub-branches, and is the accepted Engish spelling of the Biblical character from Genesis, who drives a hard bargain with the Patriarch Abraham in order to sell Abraham a burial place for his wife, Sarah.

It is unlikely that the source of the name EFRON (and its variants) is from the biblical Ephron the Hitite, who sold Abraham the Cave at Macphelah. The source of this family name will need wait for another Blog posting.

Hi and Welcome -- Now I'm a Blogger too.

2008-11-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to set up a good web presence that will allow me to complete my 20-year genealgoy odyssey (gee, I hope this has spell check) of research of families named EFRON -- and spelling variations. My goal -- publish in book form, on disk, and on the web a family history of all families that have this surname.

First, a word to the fans of a certain 21 year-old movie star, a star who is the most popular idol of girls age 6-16 (61?) since Frankie Avalon (the 61 year-olds will understand that). I ask you PLEASE do not send me email. I have promised not to put any information about Z A C or his family into my online genealogy because I want to respect the privacy of his family. Period.

So, what have I done so far, and what else am I planning to do? I have done a lot of research and have acquired a lot of research done by others. I have put up some information on the web. If you found this, then you have found that (or will easily find it).

I have a file, unpublished, that is broken into chapters representing the different families. One of the families is huge, of which I am a part, but most of them are small, and may only go back to some Efron who was born around the mid-1800s. There are about 40 different branches. So that file I call my "draft genealogy," and it will eventually become the final, published genealogy. As part of that file, I have about 25 appendixes wherein each contains a certain type of reference. For example, Appendix C lists all of the census references I've located. To illustrate, within Appendix C I have listed 100s of 1920 and 1930 census references, and revision lists (Russian census) references, etc. Each entry has a unique nunber, or alphanumerica identifier. I will try and post these appendixes to Google docs, and reference these appendixes in this blog. For many of the references listed in the appendixes I also have source documents, including many pictures of gravestones, ship manifests, natrualization papers, etc.

In parallel to my "Draft Genealogy" with its appendixes, I have a Family Tree Maker file wherein I list the same names and family relationships as found in the Draft Genealogy. I have published my FTM file to the internet on my own FamilyTreeMaker web page, which you can find easily enough (and yes, I can and will reference the site in this blog) by Googling key words Efron, Effron, Ephron, Affron -- you get the picture.

My current work being done on the draft genealogy, to reach my goal of publishing the thing, is to make sure the info in my draft genealogy matches the info in the Family Tree Maker file. The FTM file only lists name, date and place of birth, marriage and death, and relationships. The draft genealogy currently has everything else, including unpublishable personal information that needs to be removed before it can be put up on the web. Note, the FTM file now on the web has not been updated for a while, but that is one reason why I am working on bringing it up to date -- so that I can republish it to the web. The other reason that I want it updated is because it will serve as an index and graphics for the final genealogy that I publish. Also, it is a good way to communicate with family members to show them what information I am still seeking.

I guess that's enough for my first posting. I can do this anytime I want? Cool.