How Important is a Good Translation?

How important our translations in the work of genealogist? If your family came from countries which are not English speaking, you surely understand the important of trying to translate original documents.

Recently, I become involved in translating the Kamenets-Litwosk memorial book. The translation of this book is part of a large push by JewishGen.org to translate hundreds of Yizkor (memorial) books written after the holocaust by surviving members of many towns and cities from Eastern Europe. For years these books have been largely unavailable to the general public because of the few copies in circulations and the lack of translations into English from Hebrew and Yiddish. When I submitted a few translations, relevant to a branch of my family to the Kamenets project, I learned they were in the process of trying to get the book ready for publications in English. I've offered to translate as much of the pending Hebrew sections as I can. Being a native Hebrew speaker, but not a professional translator has added to the difficulty of this task. I left Israel at the age of thirteen, yet I've made a concerted effort over the years to maintain a high level of Hebrew. The Yizkor books are written in an old style Hebrew, repleted with elevated vocabulary and many religious references and texts as well as scores of abbreviations all of which are a challenge for me. As I plow through these sorrowful chapters, stories full of longing to a culture long destroyed and unfathomable tragedy, I struggle with how to translate the words into an English which makes sense to the modern reader, yet remain true to the original intention of the writer.

Working on the Kamenets book, motivated me to try and have another of the Yizkor books dear to my heart translated, the Belitsa book. Those of you who read my memoir, Stored Treasures, will recall that Minnie Crane, my great grandmother is from a small shtetl in what is now Belarus, called Belitsa.
(53°39' N, 25°19' E) located 16 miles south of Lida  and also known as Белица in Russian. Yiddish: בעליצע in Yiddish, Беліца in Belarusian, בייליצע in Hebrew and Bielica in Polish.

Simeon Baker (Botschkowsky), Minnie's nephew,  was a part of the original Belitsa landmanshaft (community) organization and an integral part of the publication of the Belitsa Yizkor book. He wrote the introduction (the only section of the book published in English), as well as a few other chapters in Yiddish. Minnie wrote one of the last chapters of the book, in Yiddish. A few years ago, Simeon's son, gave me a copy of the Belitsa book. A large part of the book is in Hebrew, but the Yiddish section remains out of my reach. The Belista book is not listed on the JewishGen.org/Yizkor book project, which means no one had voluteered to take on the project of translating this book. Heading the project requires creating a proposal, prioritizing which sections to translate and raising funds for the translations and eventual publication. Since Belitsa, was a tiny shtetl, with a Jewish Population of 679 in 1897 which went down to 483 in 1921, it was not surprising no one had been found to translate the book. I was in the process of preparing a proposal for the project, when I made a last minute search for an available translation.  Last summer, I heard there was a translation somewhere, but I never found it assume the information I had was wrong. I contact my source again, a researcher in holocaust studies who directed me to a translation which was available at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. To my amazement, this 2010 publication of the English version of the Belitsa book, was available not only at the holocaust museum, but at various university libraries. Within a few hours, I held in my hands Brandeis's only copy of my ancestral shtetl's Yizkor book translated by Jacob Solomon Berger.

Original Yizkor book (right), Jacob Solomon Berger's translation (left)

Genealogy is a jigsaw puzzle. I was hoping the new translations would solve parts of this puzzle, yet as often is the case, rather than answers, I find myself asking more questions.

Previously, I had in in my possession two translations from Yiddish to English. Two, I believed were done by Minnie. The first was for a chapter Simeon wrote about his father. He left a translation for the same chapter and they are quite similar, though not identical. The second was a translation of Minnie's chapter, a chapter about her brother Bernard Crane. I included much of this translation in her Memoir. I was curious as to the quality of the Yiddish translation in the book I had just taken out of the library, and shockingly, I found that Berger's translation differed in three key places:

The first paragraph in Minnie's translation talks about her father's only sister, but never mentions a name. Berger's translation mentions her name twice, Tsin'keh. I looked at the Yiddish and there it was easy enough to detect: צינקע.

Further more, Minnie's original translation of the second paragraph reads:

First section of a translation to the Minnie Crane's Belitsa
chapter about Bernard Crane.  (Click to enlarge).

"... he (her father Moshe Aaron Kranowitz) became a teacher in one of the surrounding villages." at the end of the paragraph she reveals an important genealogical clue: "... a romance developed, and the teacher married the oldest granddaughter of the house of Jacob Yarmovsky. The sons were later a well known Hebrew teacher in Pinsk, the other a building contractor in Atlantic City."

Years ago, when I found her translations, I learned a lot from this short paragraph. I learned how Minnie's mother, Feige Yarmovsky, met her husband, Moshe Aaron. I learned she was from a near by village to Belitsa but there was no name of the village. I learned that her grandfather's name was Jacob Yarmovsky and she was the oldest granddaughter. According to this paragraph one of her uncles was a teacher in Pinsk and the other a contractor in Atlantic cities. Other parts of the memoir contradicted this fact and the two aforementioned uncles turned out to be her brothers, not her uncles.

Berger's translations reveals different information:

Same chapter by Minnie Crane, translated by Jacob S. Berger
(click to enlarge).

"...he became a teacher with a rich settler in the village of Peskovty." Note: he actually names the village! Then, further down it reads: "There my father studied Torah with the small boys, the grandchildren of the settler. But the girls of the family would also listen to the lessons. And from this, it happened that a marriage was arranged for him, with a girl named Faygl, who was a daughter of Yankl Yarmovsky, a well-known Hasid from Slonim."

The section about the son's or rather uncles was completely missing.

This made my mind spin. I had resolved the uncle dilemma years ago. I've learned a lot about the Atlantic City contractor Harry Yarmovsky and felt this was a typo in her translation. But I never tried to check the Yiddish. Now that I had a very different Yiddish translation, I decided to look at the Yiddish more carefully. Clearly, Berger would not have made up names of villages. Were those in the original Yiddish? Was she the daughter or the granddaughter of Jacob (Yakov in Herbrew and Yankl in Yiddish)?

Original chapter by Minnie Crane in Yiddish from the
Belitsa Yizkor book (click to enlarge).

Even without understanding Yiddish, it was not difficult for me to spot the name of the villages: פיעסקאווצי and סלאנימער חסיד (which means Hassid from Slonim). The Yiddish paragraph ends there, omitting the section about the uncles. Why had Minnie left out the names of these villages and her father's sister Tsin'keh in her translation? I've been trying to figure out for years, where the Yarmovsky family was from, and here it was in plain Yiddish, right under my nose for all these years.

Google translator has it's limitations but when I entered the last sentence in the paragraph:

קומען א שידוך צווישן אים און א מיידל מיטן נאמען פייגל, וואס אין געווען א טאכטער פון יאנקל ירמאווסקי,  א באוווסטער סלאנימער חסיד.  

This is what google came up with: ... "enter a shidukh between him and a girl named bird in which being a daughter of yankl irmavski, a known Slayer Hassid." 

Google doesn't know the word Shidich, which means match. It also didn't realize that Feigel is a name and gave the literal translation, bird. In addition, it failed to recognize Yarmovsky as a name, and Slonim the village, but it clearly says that the match was made between Feige who was a daughter of the house of Yankl.

Now, I'm left with many new research questions rather than answers:

1. Who typed the copy of the article Minnie wrote in English? Did she type it herself? Did someone else? Was it a draft for the Yizkor article? Or was it a translation she prepared for her daughter and grandchildren? If this was a draft, could she have submitted this draft and someone edited it? Possibly her nephew Simeon. Did he add the names of the villages? On the other hand, if this was a translation prepared for the family, did she choose to omit certain details which didn't seem important, such as names of villages they never heard of? Did she choose to add facts instead, such as the details about the uncles/brothers?

2. The big question: was Yankel Yarmovsky her father or grandfather?

At this point I can only theorize on the answers to these new questions.

1. If this was an early draft, or a late translation, I'm not sure, but the names of the villages were documented in the Yizkor book and it is significant. I have yet to locate this so called Peskovty village, nor the a Yankel Yarmovsky in Slonim but this is a very important clue in tracing the Yarmovsky family. From the paragraph, it seems Yankel was originally from Slonim but later on in life he lived in Peskovty.

2. The second dilemma is even more complex. According to our family tree, Feige's parents were Vevel and Chaya Minucha Yarmovsky. This information was on the original printed copy of our family tree which I inherited from my grandmother and which has proven to be very accurate. Vevel parents are not on the tree. When I first read Minnie's typed translation, I was excited to add a new forefather, Jacob (Yankel) Yarmovsky to our tree as Vevel's father. Now, I'm not so sure. Could Vevel have been Vevel Jacob (Yankel) or Jacob (Yankel) Vevel? Or was the name Vevel on the tree a mistake. This tree, compiled since the 1970s is not sourced, therefore I have no way of knowing who provided his name. It could have been Minnie or someone from her generation, but I can not be sure?

It is clear that in her typed translation, she did make a mistake with the generations. She lists Feige as the granddaughter of Jacob while her brothers she lists as Jacobs sons. One of the statements is wrong, the question is which ones? Why does the Yiddish translations state she was the daughter of the house of Yankl? In Jewish tradition, one often describe someone as being "son of the house of ...". Could she have not meant literally: "daughter of the house of Jankel Yarmovsky",  but rather mean granddaughter of the household? Who was the famous Hassid? Was it her father or grandfather? It could be that her grandfather was the rich settler from the town of Peskovty and her father the Hassid from Slonim? Or visa versa? Or were they both same man as the paragraph seems to imply?

Bottom line, I don't know! I'm confused! I've proven to myself that it is very important to look at the original sources and not rely solely on translations. In this case, I still can't make heads or tales of this part of the story! Your input would be greatly appreciated!

Should Genealogist Spill Family Secrets?

One of two photos Max Crane (far left).

One of my most mysterious ancestors is Max Hyman Crane.  His story has been difficult for me to tell. It's a "secret" family tale, full of taboos. Almost ninety years have passed since Max died, and though I struggle with making it public, I think it's a story that needs to be told. It's the kind of story you don't expect to encounter when you dig into your own family history, yet every family has stories like this. We can all learn something from them. I learned a lot from Max. I learned that like today, my ancestors struggled between their responsibilities and their passions, sacrifice and love. Most of all they were human.

Max was my great-grandmother Minnie's older brother. In Stored Treasures, Minnie credits Max with bringing his siblings to America. Here is how she describes her beloved Max. 

1903 was ".........the summer my brother Max came back from living in Pinsk.

Max was the second brother (the family’s third child). Max or Chaim Mordechai, as he was called in Hebrew, was a very sensitive boy. At a very young age, he was sent to study at the Yeshiva in Pinsk with my mother’s brother Hillel (Yarmovsky). Max went to continue his studies, help his uncle with the younger students, who were rich, spoiled kids, and sort of look after them. Max’s job was to wait on the kids, bring their lunches, run errands, and so forth. Somewhere in the process of study, he became indoctrinated with the ideas of socialism through some young revolutionaries. Uncle Hillel had a small printing press for his school. Max and his radical friends secretly printed propaganda leaflets on the school printing machines. Unfortunately, they were found out.

Pressure was put on Uncle. “Either you send Max away, or we tell the police.” He packed Max off home without any ceremony. 

Max found our small hometown to be intolerable. There was no one his age in Belitsa with whom he could exchange ideas. He left for America. Max was seventeen when he came to the United States. From America, he wrote his interesting letter telling us of his adventurous journey. Max’s ship, was not permitted to land at the first port of arrival because there was an outbreak of cholera at the port. 

 It took Max eleven months to finally land on United States soil.

Max arrived in New York. Mother’s brother, Harry Yarmove (changed from Yarmovsky), was there to greet him, but Max did not like New York. Instead, he headed to New Britain, Connecticut, where father’s youngest brother, Oscar Kranowitz (also known as Aaron) had settled. Uncle Oscar had five young children, two daughters and three sons, all of whom were nice to Max. They treated him like one of their own boys. He found work in a large food market. He went to night school and worked days as a clerk and delivery boy for the large market. Max was a young boy of seventeen or so, attractive with blond, baby soft, curly hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and a mischievous nature. The women customers liked to have Max take their grocery order and deliver it to them. Yes, in the pre-supermarket days, groceries were delivered. Max’s popularity with the ladies made a nice profit for the owner. Max could always get another job if the one he held did not suit him. Max made a nice living and saved his money. When he had saved enough, he sent for Brother Will (Vevel) and then for the rest of us."

She sprinkled only a few more Max tidbits later in the book. Max moved out of the family apartment to marry Freda Levit, a woman ten years his elder, whom Minnie didn't seem to like very much. She describes her as shy, and sickly. Minnie suggested Freda's often faned illness. They had a prodigy son, named Milton. What captured my attention was, that in her writings, Minnie failed to mention that Max committed suicide in 1925. He was thirty-six years old. She never explains the circumstances of his death.

A couple of years ago, at our Kranowitz/Crane family reunion, I learned a bit more about this tragic story. The Crane elders reported that Max was rumored to have had an affair, with his uncle Harry Yarmove's young wife. This is the very same uncle who received Max when he arrived from Russia and later offered work to the Crane brothers in Atlantic City. The lovers were about the same age, and almost a decade younger than their respective spouses. The wealthy, young aunt, was about to leave her husband, when he fell ill. Devastated, Max took his own life. No one was quite sure how (drowning, gas oven?). Freda, Max's wife was so angry, she threw away every photo she found of Max. Only two family photos were rescued from her rampage. He left behind a devastated wife, a young son (seven years old) and a torn apart family. I can only imagine the pain he was feeling and the stigma, shame and pain of those who loved him. My great-grandmother's choice not to share this story, reflects here generation. While today, memoirs are filled with traumatic events (or else it wouldn't sell), she chose to protect her family from such sorrow.

Uncle Harry Yarmove and his wife Annie (Back)
with their nephews Bernard and William Crane
at Bernard's graduation from Medical School
(University of Michigan) 1921

In his memoir,  Tales of A Clam Digger, Sidney Crane (Max's nephew), alludes to the affair. Referring to his great-uncle Harry Yarmove, Sidney wrote:

"Despite an early hectic family life, he treated his wife, Aunt Anne and children, as though they were the royalty he had once placed on thrones of gold."

According to Sidney, uncle Yarmove was a kindly mand and played an important role as patriarch. It was comforting for me to learn that the Yarmove family found a way to heal after such an ord.

Max himself remains as a puzzle and I decided to double check my document collection for clues. Years ago, before the internet, my cousin Minda spent long hours researching at +, YarEllis Island. Amazingly, she found four pertinent records and passed the information to me. According to Minda, Max arrived at Ellis Island on September 16th, 1905 aboard the Pretoria. The Pretoria departed from Hamburg. Here is the Ship Manifest I attached to Max, on the family tree:

Line 8 reads: Mottel Krainowitz, age 15, tailor, from Bilitz. He headed to Brooklyn NY with $15 dollars in his pocket. He paid for his own trip and was meeting an uncle, Joseph something (very hard to read, maybe Passisovsky?)
(Click to enlarge)

Since I've encountered this record three years ago, the following things have trouble me:
1. It is difficult to read. Many names are crossed out.
2. Kranowitz spelling is questionable. Ellis Island transcribed it as Kreinawitz while ancestry Krinsawitz. I can live with either. Misspelled Russian names are a dime a dozen in our line of work.
3. There is no other record indicating Max was a tailor. I can also live with this fact. Maybe he never worked as a tailor again. He was only fifteen. Perhaps he invented a profession because he was unskilled (a yeshiva student) and wanted to ensure his entry to the United States.
4. The Cranes had many uncles, none were named Joseph.  Illegible as Joseph's last name is on the manifest, it's neither Yarmovsky nor Kranowitz, the two known uncles in America.
5. Is Bilitz the same as Belitsa? I've never seen the shtetl's name spelled this way, but again, I could overlook this one.


Of all the many travel manifests I've found for my  numerous ancestors, this one is the least satisfying. Out of maybe fifteen facts, five are fishy. It was time to double check. I examined another record I had for Max, a US Naturalization Index Card. These cards frustrates me, because they don't provide much information. I can't afford to order so many records from the national archives. Instead, I wait for them to upload more documents while I save the index cards as a reference. I decided that, in Max's case, it was worth paying for the Naturalization Petition. These petitions, are rich with information, sometimes photos, and almost always provide information about how the immigrant arrived in the US. I bit the bullet, paid the ten dollars to our National Archives.

To my delight, they located Max's records quickly. On Monday, a thick envelope was waiting at my doorstep. Jackpot! Max's citizenship petition and records form 1908-1913. Low and behold, something jumped out at me from the page: Max was not aboard the SS Pretoria, from Hamburg. He departed from Liverpool, England on the Saxonia, arriving in Boston on October 5th, 1905!

One of three documents I received from the National Archives reporting Max Kranowitz, born 3/15/1889 in Belica,
Russia declared his  intention to become a citizen on Nov 8, 1908. He was 19 years old and a metal worker.
According to this document he arrived at the port of  Boston, Mass on the Saxonia, on 10/4/1905. 

Armed with this information, I was instantly able to located the Saxonia Passengers List:

Line 29, lists a Motel Kranowitz, 15 years old, a tailor, heading to Brooklyn New York. He paid for his won trip, carrying only $11 dollars and met his uncle with the last name of Yarmovsky, and if I'm not imagining it, the uncle's first name might say Hirsh (note: Uncle Harry Yarmov's Yiddish name was Hershel. 
(Click to enlarge)

Minda was very close! Her Motel, very much resembled our Motel. They were both fifteen and tailors! But this is our Motel-Max Kranowitz, who later (January 13, 1913) changed his name to Crane. Minda could not have known that Max enter the United States through Boston and not Ellis Island. (I will have to update the second edition of Stored Treasures with this information).

Here is my second favorite find of the week. It's from a new database recently released by +ancestry.com: the Connecticut, Military Census, of 1917.

Connecticut, Military Census, 1917 for Max Crane

Aside from the standard information, I learned some fascinating thing about my ellusive great-uncle Max. He was not only tailor, metal worker and shopping clerk, he was also a meat cutter! He knew how to ride a horse, handle a team of horses and drive a vehicle. He also considered himself to be a good swimmer!

The Crane siblings after William returned from WWI. Max is seated in the front,
 with his son Milton in his lap and wife Freda to his right.

The Crane/Kranowitz descendants, owe much to Max. He was the first to make the journey across the Atlantic. His experience not only shape his life, but encouraged his siblings to follow. His hard work was instrumental in bringing his family to America and helping them during their early years as new immigrants. He was the first to change his name to Crane. He was far from perfect, and sadly, his story met a tragic and premature end. As I am not from my great-grandmother's generation, I decided to share his story.

Now, I could use some help from my genealogy friends and of course family members who might have some information I don't. As always, the more I discover, the more questions arise. Here are a few:
1. I have not been able to corroborate Minnie's story of Max being stuck at sea for eleven months due to a cholera epidemic. Any ideas?
2. I would like to find a record of Max's death. I only know he died around 1925, but I don't know where. I would love to find his death certificate and his grave.

And here is another question for you all:
Do you think genealogist should "spill" these kinds of family secrets?