I have tried to help other friends and family search for their relatives.  The hardest search has been trying to find a family tree for my daughter’s grandmother.  Her family came from Lithuania at the turn of the 20th century. They came to the United States in order to find a better life and to escape the horrible treatment of Jews in Eastern Europe.

Jacob and Mamie Gershonowitz Kramer

I have searched and searched, but I can’t find Mamie Gershonowitz’s entrance into the United States through Ellis Island, New York. We know that she was born (approximately) in May of 1888 in Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania and died on 12 August 1931 in Kansas City, Missouri. In the 1920 Federal Census, it states that she arrived in the United States in 1906. Please note that a lot of the earlier census reports had typos.

1920 United States Federal Census about Mayne Kermer
Name: Mayne Kermer
Age: 33
Birth Year: abt 1887
Birthplace: Poland
Home in 1920: Kansas City Ward 11, Jackson, Missouri
Race: White
Gender: Female
Immigration Year: 1906
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Marital Status: Married
Spouse’s Name: Jake Kermer
Father’s Birthplace: Poland
Mother’s Birthplace: Poland
Able to Read: No
[Yes]
Able to Write: No
[Yes]
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Jake Kermer 37
Mayne Kermer 33
Samuel Kermer 9
[9 8/12]
Annie Kermer 7
David Kermer 3

There is a great site to search for Jewish ancestry records — http://www.jewishgen.org — and this site adds new records daily. Even if you don’t have any Jewish relatives, please look at this site. There is so much history here. There are many volunteers working to translate the records.

When searching for Jewish relatives, there are many road blocks. First, language and translation. Second, the Hebrew calendar and searching for dates. Third, name changes. And finally, World War I and World War II changed the borders of countries and their names changed also.

I have found more information about my daughter’s great grandfather, Jake Kramer. Jake was born in Lithuania. But some of his records say he was born in the Russian Empire on 15 Nov. 1887 in Kiev, Ukraine (Russia). I am not sure what is correct as Eastern Europe was in turmoil. Jake died in Kansas City, MO on 25 Feb. 1965.

His father, Aron Kramer, was born about 1862 in Yanow, Kowno, Russia and died 19 April 1942 in Droga Lubienska, Janowska. Both Aron Kramer and his wife Tema Malka Kramer died during the Holocaust.

Aron Kramer

Name: Aron Krämer
Death Date: 29 Apr 1942
Death Place: Droga LubienskaJanowska
Burial Date: 2 May 1942
Burial Plot: A II
Burial Place: Lviv, Lwow, Ukraine
Comments: Lviv Cemetery Records – 1942
Cemetery Burials: 7772
Cemetery Comments: The city of Lviv, Ukraine was formerly Lvov, USSR; Lwow, Poland; and Lemberg, Austrian Empire. Included in this cemetery data are files from 1941 and 1942, written in both the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets. The data for this cemetery is contain

His wife, Tema Malka Kramer was born about 1862 in Lithuania and died about 1941.

Tema Malka Kramer

Holocaust: Krakow (Poland) Transport Lists, 1940 about Małka Kremer
Name: Małka Kremer
Birth Date: 1861
Date Transported: 17 Mar 1941
Departure Location: Lublin
Marital Status: Married
Address: Krasińskiego 5
Transport Number: 61
Transportee Number: 88