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Sunday 03/25/2001 7:37:40pm
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Name:
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Anna
Bikont
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E-Mail:
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a.bikont@wp.pl
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Dear
Jose,
The
virtual shtetl of Radzilow you created is without doubt the best version
ever of the town. I am a journalist, I work in Gazeta Wyborcza in Warsaw
and now I am writing a book about Radzilow. I can't imagine how I could
complete it without your contribution. Thank you for all.
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Thursday 03/22/2001 9:29:01pm
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Name:
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Michael
Kelemen
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E-Mail:
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m.kel@home.com
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Referred
By:
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Just
Surfed In
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Location:
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Comments:
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Thanks
for making the information on this site readily accessible.
What
a sad story.
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Wednesday 03/19/2001 8:51:00am
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Name:
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Mark
Yedvabny
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E-Mail:
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azoh@rcn.com
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Referred
By:
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Friend
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Location:
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Comments:
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Jose:
My
name is Mark Yedvabny. It was like a miracle to run into your web site. My
family's many years of tracing our roots have resolved in a story, which
may not be true, but, sure as hell, rings like one. From our family last
name, one can assume that there is a strong probability that my ancestors
could be coming from this tragic place called Yedwabne (Jedwabne) in
Bialystok province. Unfortunately, no one of the older generation in my
family is still alive, and there is no way we can collect even pieces of
my family history. But we, who are surviving, all have our children and
grandchildren, and it's important to pass to them if not theverified and truthful family account, but a story, which resonates
of butchered lives of so many people in these places at that time.
I
build my assumptions on the fact that the last names originated in Russia
and the Ukraine sometime in the middle of the 19th century. There was a
legal naming procedure by which people were given their last names
originated in the profession of the head of the family or in the place,
where a family was coming from. There were, of course, many cases when the
all-powerful rulers amused themselves giving people what they thought were
"funny" names. That makes my grandparents the first generation,
which came to Western Ukraine from, what we know, was a place in Poland.
I
don't generally attribute much significance to physical permutations
accompanying anyone's family history unless there are lessons to learn.
The lesson, which I draw from the information found on your web site, is
that there is a strong probability that I would not be writing to you
today, my big family would have never existed, and my grandparents
together with their six children would be burned alive in this barn in
Jedwabne on July 11, 1941 if it were not for this move of my grandparents
from Poland to the Ukraine.
And
here is the main reason why I decided to write to this web site. As I
build my family story not on facts, they are lost, but on most likely turn
of events, I wonder, what were those most likely events, which uprooted my
grandparents from their place in Jedwabne. Again, the information
published on your web site gives a glimpse at what it might have been. In
Mr. Kalman Lasky Reminisces I read: "I recall, evenings when everyone
was looking out to the horizon pointing to Yedwabne. If the sky reddened,
this was a certain sign that our neighboring shtetl Yedwabne is, G-d
forbid, burning".
I
know for a fact that my father's family was not rich. Their flight from
Poland was not in pursuit of "better economic opportunities", my
father started working when he was 12. So, would the reddened sky of Yedwabne be the kind of fireworks commemorating their departure.
Someone's house was burning for the sky to be lit, wasn't it?
I
am looking forward to reading the upcoming book by Jan Tomasz Gross
"Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in
Jedwabne". From what has appeared in the media, it seems that some in
the official Polish circles try to explain hatred for the Jews by
associating them with communists and Russian occupation. But if my
"rebuilt" family story has any flavor of truth, their "sky
reddened march" out of Jedwabne happened close to a hundred years
before the word "communist" even entered vocabularies. To set a
Jewish home on fire was an argument of choice for their Polish neighbors.
I doubt that it was a strong neighborly custom to check if anyone was at
home before putting the torch to the house. On July 11, 1941, it happened
that 1,600 people were in the house. Well, as they say, "Traditions!
Traditions!"
With
great gratitude for the work contributed to this web site,
Mark
Yedvabny and family,
Lexington, Massachusetts, USA
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Thursday 03/015/2001 7:45:58pm
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Name:
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Jennifer
Wood
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E-Mail:
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jenn_m_wood@yahoo.com
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Jose:
I
am very impressed with the documentation of this town and the history. I found your site through google.com after reading an article about
Jedwabne in the New Yorker magazine. You should be very proud of this web site. It is very, very good.
Thank
you for all of the information. Before
today, I did not know anything about this place.
Good
luck with all of your work,
Jennifer
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Thursday 03/08/2001 11:37:35pm
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Name:
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Myrna
& Shael Siegel
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E-Mail:
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ssi448@nwu.edu
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Jose:
Congratulations
on a job well done---you can be very proud of your efforts. Our trip to our ancestral towns in 1995 was our most
memorable traveling experience. In
the towns of Wizna and Trzcianne we visited the birth places of our
grandparents Moshe Ogrodnitsky and Sprintza Niedorf.
In
Wizna our guide Tomasz Wisniewski led us through heavy undergrowth to the
site of what he describes as the most unusual cemetery he has ever seen. Only the tops of a few headstones were visible.
Hopefully we will be able to make a return trip in the near future.
Myrna
and Shael Siegel
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Thursday 03/08/2001 7:22:26am
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Name:
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Mariusz
Beblowski
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E-Mail:
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mbeblowski@poczta.onet.pl
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Warsaw
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Comments:
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As
a citizen of Radzilów it was interesting for me to read these pages.
I feel shame when I think about history, and it is a pity
that there are still so much anti-Semitism, and anti-Polonism. I am still an
optimist.
I would like to connect with people that knew my family from
Radzilów (Mieczyslaw, Tadeusz Rogowski, Józef Beblowski). I would like to correspond with Radzilowers from many
countries.
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Saturday 03/03/2001 12:59:07am
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Name:
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Avraham
David Dorogoy
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E-Mail:
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dorogoy@zahav.net.il
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Referred
By:
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Friend
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Location:
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Ramat-Gan,
Israel
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Comments:
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Dear
Jose,
A year ago before you contacted me I knew
almost nothing about Radzilow. You contacted me and asked me if I
knew that my family name had deep roots in north east Poland and that the
first victim in the pogrom in Radzilow whose her head was cut off (my
father's sister) was a 17-year-old girl named Dorogoy. At that time I
didn't even know where exactly Radzilow is located.
Talking with you and surfing in your wonderful
web site increased my knowledge about my family and this place.
A deep dark cloud is still covering the events
that took place 60 years ago and an historical justice needs to be done
before any real reconciliation can take place. One "miserable"
memorial stone can not represent 500 years of Jewish history - not for anyone of my family that got murdered !
I don't know Jose if you will find that our
families in Radzilow were somehow related, but for me you are a brother.
Thank
you for your wonderful work.
Avraham
Dorogoy
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Wednesday 02/28/2001 11:47:19pm
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Name:
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Stanley
Diamond
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E-Mail:
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SMSDiamond@aol.com
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Homepage
Title:
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Genealogy
and Genetics
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Homepage
URL:
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http://www.diamondgen.org
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Referred
By:
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Friend
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Location:
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Montreal,
Canada
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Comments:
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Congratulations,
José. A great start to what I am sure your landsman will find very
useful. I am delighted to have been able to contribute in a very small way
to your photographic library.
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Friday 02/23/2001 02:43:50pm
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Name:
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Rita
Radzilowski
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E-Mail:
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ritaraz@yahoo.com
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Monday 02/22/2001 9:55:34am
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Name:
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Krystian
Chmielewski
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E-Mail:
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krystianch@yahoo.com
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Referred
By:
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Friend
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Location:
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Warsaw
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Comments:
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Just
excellent!!! I have already shown it to my friends! I appreciate your work
very much! All the best!
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Monday 02/19/2001 11:57:59am
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Name:
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Dariusz
Stola
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E-Mail:
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dstol@isppan.waw.pl
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Referred
By:
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Friend
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Location:
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Warsaw
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Comments:
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You
have done a wonderful job. This is an excellent, informative website.
It
is great that there are people like you, somewhere far away, who care and
make such beautiful things. You made something valuable not just for
Jewish Radzilowers but also for Radzilow of today, and thus for my
country.
Do
you see yourself a third (fourth?) generation emigrant?
Many thanks Jose.
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Monday 02/05/2001 2:44:14am
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Name:
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Bruce
Zatz
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E-Mail:
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bzatz@iopener.net
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Monsey,
New York
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Comments:
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My
sincerest appreciation for all of your dedication to the history of our
shtetl. If it wasn't for you, I never would have known that I was from
Radzilow. You've allowed me to find 6 new ancestors (so far), and I owe
any further progress on that side to your information. Many thanks!
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Sunday 02/04/2001 7:06:52pm
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Name:
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Margaret Atlas(owicz) Kendziorek
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E-Mail:
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wmarken@earthlink.net
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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California
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Comments:
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We, Margaret and I, enjoyed your site very much. I have the original of the picture of
Margaret's grandparents that you have on your album page. Congratulations on your investigative work. I wish that I could find some info re my family, Kendziorek, from Gorka, Poland. I have very little.
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Sunday 02/04/2001 6:31:45pm
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Name:
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Marshal
Kendziorek
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E-Mail:
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marshalk@gci.net
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Referred By:
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Friend
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Location:
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Juneau,
Alaska
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Comments:
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Thanks
Jose, I was so happy to see the memoirs of MJ Atlas (Atlasowicz), my
maternal grandfather. I knew
he had written them but I had no way of reading them.
This is a labor of love for you, and the rest of us love your
labor. Thanks and keep it up.
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Wednesday 01/24/2001 10:31:48am
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Name:
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Jennifer
A Swartzendruber
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E-Mail:
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the_crowess@hotmail.com
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Referred By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Michigan, USA
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Comments:
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First,
the site is very good-- well-organized,
etc. I, despite the German
surname, hold Polish heritage and am trying to trace family records. I recently learned my great grandmother's maiden name is
Krawczyk; she immigrated here not long after the turn of the 1900s.
Any information regarding the Krawczyk family would be helpful.
Thanks.
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Wednesday 01/24/2001 9:23:16am |
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Name: |
Penny Peters |
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E-Mail: |
PennyDP@aol.com |
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Referred By: |
Friend |
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Location: |
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Comments: |
Dear
Jose, Thanks for sharing the updates with me. This web site is just
BRILLIANT! I don't know how you pulled it all together. You deserve a Golden
Globe and an Oscar and a Pulitzer.....and a Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, all
you get is my praise, respect, and gratitude. Penny |
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Tuesday 01/23/2001 4:56:43pm
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Name:
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Natalia
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E-Mail:
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nlis@mail.com
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Hi,
I'm a young Pole and Catholic. I have red about Radzilow and Jedwabne in
Polish press and on your page. I just want to say that it hurts me a lot
that my countrymen could perpetrate such crimes. Your ancestors suffered a
truly tragic fate. But please don't assume that we are (or were) all like
that. Being a Polish patriot or believing Christian does not consists of
being Anti-Semite and those who don't understand that are neither good
Poles, neither good Christians.
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Sunday 01/21/2001 2:32:35pm
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Name:
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Rafael
Harpaz
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E-Mail:
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ejherman@juno.com
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Jose
-
Whew!
what an accomplishment! I have only scratched the surface of what you have
in your incredibly organized and comprehensive site. While we will never
recover the rich lives that our ancestors had in Radzilow in particular
and in Europe in general, your site certainly makes that richness more
real. Congratulations!
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Friday 01/19/2001 3:32:01am
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Name:
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Geoff
Chait
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E-Mail:
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newport@iafrica.com
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Think
you are doing a great job, have really enjoyed your research.
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Monday 01/15/2001 4:41:52pm
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Name:
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Joseph
Cohen
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E-Mail:
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rebpatt@aol.com
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Comments:
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Jose.
Your material is incredible. You are a GOLDMINE of information.
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Sunday 01/14/2001 9:27:49pm
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Name:
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Judith
Lessne
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E-Mail:
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Conjud@aol.com
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Referred
By:
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E-Mail
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Location:
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Comments:
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I
am so pleased that you have shared your site with me. I have enjoyed
looking through it. I plan to review it again and share it with others in
my family. You did a wonderful job. Fondly,
Judy
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Sunday 01/07/2001 7:29:20pm
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Name:
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Daniel Caplunik
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E-Mail:
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capcomp@minick.ch
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Kuesnacht - Switzerland
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Comments:
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Mi familia viene de Radzilow (Malka Bejnsztejn), de Stawiski (Berek
Chizdo), de Jedwabne (Szmerl Stryjakowsky) y de Szczuczyn (Chaia Fridlender). Mis abuelos Minna Chizda e Iser
Stryjakowsky vivieron en Grajewo y emigraron a la Argentina en el 1923 y 1930. Estoy buscando informaciones sobre ellos o sobre alguna otra rama de mi familia.
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Translation:
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My
family came from Radzilow (Malka Bejnsztejn), from Stawiski (Berek Chizdo),
from Jedwabne (Szmerl Stryjakowsky) and from Szczuczyn (Chaia Fridlender).
My grandparents Minna Chizda and Iser Stryjakowsky lived in Grajewo and
emigrated to Argentina in 1923 and 1930. I'm searching for information
about them or about other branches of my family.
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Sunday 01/07/2001 7:17:50pm
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Name:
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Daniel Caplunik
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E-Mail:
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capcomp@minick.ch
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Referred
By:
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Search
Engine
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Location:
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Kuesnacht - Switzerland
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Comments:
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Estimado Jose:
Felicitaciones por tu excelente trabajo. Es un viaje por Radzilow y su historia a travez de imagenes, musica, relatos y
mapas.
Nuevamente felicitaciones.
Daniel
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Translation:
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Dear
Jose: Congratulations on your excellent work. It's a trip through Radzilow and
its history, by way of images, music, accounts and maps. Again,
congratulations.
Daniel
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Friday 01/05/2001 11:13:01pm
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Name:
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Carol
Streem
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E-Mail:
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rcs9219@sprintmail.com
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Referred
By:
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NewsGroups
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Location:
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Cleveland, Ohio
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Comments:
|
Dear
Jose........I went into your website today.
You have done an enormous job!
Your website is so
wonderful.......creative.......organized.......detailed.
I loved learning about Radzilow and your family in Cuba.
Thank you for the Jewish and Cuban music.
I may just be at your site for hours!
My Smolenski/Smolinsky family is in the surname list from Radzilow.
I have been unable to find any information on them.
I have been successful finding information on the following Lomza
residents (do not know what shtetl or town or village within Lomza):
Frenkiel, Ptakus, Mrosowicz, Wierzbowicz, Chanowicz. We have been
in contact before (several years ago) and it looks like you have been very
busy since then. Thank you
again for your wonderful website. Happy,
healthy new year to you and yours. Carol Streem, Cleveland, Ohio
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