People get hooked on genealogical research for many different reasons. Some have heard various accounts of grandparents or great-grandparents leaving the “old country” which seem to be contradictory depending on who is telling the tale and want to find the truth. Others simply want to know more about their family background. And then there is my story. As a child and a teenager, I knew only basic facts about my immediate origins, namely that I was born in Australia; that I had arrived in New Zealand, a short hop across the Tasman Sea, at the age of six months; and that I was an only child. I knew my maternal grandparent’s names and that of my maternal great-grandfather, a well-known figure in Melbourne, Australia. I also learned that the family lived in Lithuania prior to migrating first to England and then to Australia. And that was the sum total of what I knew. I certainly wanted to know more, but I sensed from an early age that my parents would not respond to any questions about our family. I had no contact with any member of the family in Australia except for one visit when I was three years old, and for which there were photos but, of course, I had no memories of that meet-up.
In my later teenage years, my need to know more increased together with my detective skills. I searched our home rigorously when my parents were out of the house, looking for any clues. Nothing of any help was discovered. After that period life got in the way. I had other things to do and was not able to focus on my search. After completing my studies, marrying, and having my first child, I moved to Malaysia and was offered employment as a lecturer at a local university. Again, I had no time to concern myself with knowing more about my family history.
Once the internet came into my life, I paid for a subscription to ancestry.com and searched for my name. Nothing. I did not exist in their records. This was exceedingly strange to my mind; after all, I knew my name, my birthdate (1949) and place of birth. Again, I gave up for a while.
Then I decided to email the Registrar of Births in the State of Victoria, Australia providing them with the information that I had. Once more, I was told that I did not exist. Pinching myself with frustration proved that I did, in fact, exist so why was there no record of my birth?
In January 2016, at which point of time I was already a retiree, I received an email from an unknown person living in Melbourne who told me that she was my half-sister and that I had two other siblings, the eldest of whom had already passed away. She had discovered my email address on a website of an association of which I was a committee member. Admittedly, I could not help but wonder whether this message was a scam and yet the facts she provided seemed to fit the little I knew. We emailed back and forth and slowly I began to understand the secrets my parents had been keeping all this time. My first attempts at researching the basic data on my family was aided by the wonderful resource that is https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/. This is an effort to digitize nearly all the Australian newspapers dating back to the 1840s! It provides free access to a wealth of information, including at least four newspapers published by the Jewish community in Australia in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century. Australian historians are indeed fortunate to have this information available. One article published in a local newspaper in mid-1950 explained why my parents had kept family information to themselves and why we had left Australia when I was so young. They had created a scandal significant enough to warrant publicity. My very existence was the outcome of that scandal which had been carefully kept from me throughout my parents’ lives. The article not only described the scandal, it also provided my father’s surname – the one he was born with and which he had changed upon arrival in New Zealand.
By early 2018, I had a clearer picture of “who I was”. Armed with my new knowledge, I once again emailed the Victoria Registrar of Births. This time the result was immediate. Yes! They could provide a copy of my birth certificate which I had never sighted, providing I paid a small fee. I duly paid, and within less than two weeks, for the very first time in my 69 years, I held a hard-copy of my birth certificate in my hands, it having been posted to me immediately. This was an extremely emotional moment. I chose not to tell my mother, aged 98, still alive in New Zealand, that at long last I knew her secret. Nothing good would have come out of doing so. Indeed, she passed away some 12 months later.
From 2018 onwards, I became fanatical in my genealogy research (see the OCJGS Blog Post November 2023 and March 2024). In these preliminary forays into genealogy, I was quite ignorant. It took me a while to understand that different countries had different types of records relevant when looking for family. For example, the United States (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada all conduct a census every decade and the information on individuals in that census can be read online through a number of paid genealogy sites and one free site. However, for obvious reasons, I was more interested in records from Australia and to a lesser extent New Zealand. Both of these countries conduct regular censuses but, sadly, information on individuals is not made public. The census is analysed by the authorities in the two countries to examine statistical trends such as the number of persons in different age groups, the ratio of males to females and so on. While this data may be important for economic and social planning, it is of zero use for genealogy. Hence, the reliance on the digitized newspapers mentioned above which are fully searchable by name as well as other key words via Trove in Australia and a site named Papers Past in New Zealand. The same issue applies in Malaysia – a census is held on a regular basis but no information about individuals is divulged; neither are there any digitized newspapers. As a result, trying to develop a family tree for my husband’s family has met with failure, although a relative has done better on one side of his family by interviewing the “elders” who still have memories of who married who as well as the names and number of their children. He has also conducted research in a number of state archives which revealed the work history of several family members who worked for the Royal Palace in their state. For people with Eastern European backgrounds sites such as JewishGen, JRI Poland and LitvakSIG are the go-to sources of information with metrical records dating back to the early 19th century. However, finding one’s family in these records tends to be a matter of luck. With wars and pogroms and other disasters many of the records did not survive. I was able to trace my great-grandfather’s family back to 1775. Most fascinating of all was the revision list (a form of census) which showed that my great-grandfather’s grandfather and two of the latter’s brothers had been exiled to Siberia in 1849. I will probably never know why they were exiled, although my general reading suggests that most exile orders at that time were either because the persons concerned were found to be involved in illegal activities such as smuggling or because of political activities.
In early 2024, after I determined that the well-known genealogy sites had no more helpful information relating to my family, I discovered, for the first time Facebook. I was well aware of its existence but was not in the least bit interested in any social media site as I associated them with misinformation and shock-seeking exhibitionists. To my surprise, I found that there are many groups active on the website which specialize in Jewish history and genealogy. There are groups with a huge membership who willingly help solve puzzles and give answers to specific questions, including, most commonly, the reading of Hebrew names on gravestones or assisting to find records which the person posting has not been able to discover. Such groups include Tracing the Tribe, and sites which focus on particular areas of the world; for example: The Jewish East End of London, Jewish Genealogy in Lativa and Lithuania, and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. Joining these groups and reading the posts regularly taught me a great deal. One or two instances of my learning will suffice: Many records state where an individual was born. But I noted that researchers posting questions were often confused because one record they had found about one of their ancestors might state “Russia” and another “Lithuania” as the place of birth, thus they wanted to know which was correct. Without a knowledge of history, a person might not understand that both were correct at different times. A person might have said that they were born in Russia in 1890 and yet on naturalization papers in 1920 they stated they were born in Lithuania. Their descendants may not have realized that Lithuania was in the Pale of Settlement established within the Russian Empire in 1791, and that it only became independent of Russia in 1919 (and lost that independence once again after WWII when it became part of the USSR). Also from Facebook, I found that many people were disturbed by the different years of birth given on different documents of the same ancestor. This sometimes led them to believe that they were studying the documents of two different people with the same name. While that is certainly possible, it is clear that back in the 19th century Jews living in Eastern Europe did not know their exact year of birth, let alone the month and day. We find this more than a little odd today. Where I live, (and in many other countries too), all persons are issued with an identity card, first as a child, and later, at the age of 12, changing to an adult card. This document is necessary for all important transactions including registering for school, opening a bank account, applying for a passport or driving license and so on, and even registering when requiring the services of a hospital or private medical clinic. There is no room for guessing at birthdates.
If a researcher has the funds and time available, another source of information is the country of origin of his ancestors. I had long wanted to go to Lithuania and “walk in the footsteps of my great-grandparents and their families”. A previous plan had come to nothing because it was made during the era when Lithuania was still part of the USSR and visas were difficult to get, especially as there was no consular office of the USSR in Malaysia. I was informed that to get a visa I would have to fly to London in the UK and apply there. I was also told that the visa might or might not be granted. I was not willing to take the risk of taking an expensive 13-hour non-stop flight and yet fail to get a visa. By 2022, however, I was ready to do whatever it took to get to Lithuania. My eldest son was keen to accompany me, visas were not necessary, and we were roaring to go. Still, a major barrier had to be overcome. The only date that my son was willing to go was August 2022, as he was registered to participate in a marathon 5-day bicycle event, London-Edinburgh-London in that month and we were to fly to Vilnius immediately after and take a tour to Telsiai, the hometown of my great-grandparents. The barrier being the Covid virus. Entry into Lithuania by non-citizens was permitted a month or so before our departure date so no issue there, but we still had to pass a medical test three days before our flight to prove we were not suffering from the virus. Much to my great relief, we were clear and were able to leave on schedule.
When researching ancestors, it is essential to know the name of their hometown or shtetl. Luckily, I knew my family were from Telsiai from two records. In 1930, twenty years after arriving in Australia, my great-grandfather had applied to be naturalized, and he clearly stated in the required documentation that his birthplace was Telz (or Telsiai as it is now called). His younger brother who migrated to Canada in 1903 and then the United States in 1919, also wrote Telsiai (spelled Telz) in his naturalization application. The tour of Lithuania chosen by my son and myself only permitted us a visit to Telsiai for one half day, but this was better than nothing. We managed to visit the Old Jewish Cemetery in the town as well as the area which had been the market and central point of Jewish life there in the 19th century.
In my later teenage years, my need to know more increased together with my detective skills. I searched our home rigorously when my parents were out of the house, looking for any clues. Nothing of any help was discovered. After that period life got in the way. I had other things to do and was not able to focus on my search. After completing my studies, marrying, and having my first child, I moved to Malaysia and was offered employment as a lecturer at a local university. Again, I had no time to concern myself with knowing more about my family history.
Once the internet came into my life, I paid for a subscription to ancestry.com and searched for my name. Nothing. I did not exist in their records. This was exceedingly strange to my mind; after all, I knew my name, my birthdate (1949) and place of birth. Again, I gave up for a while.
Then I decided to email the Registrar of Births in the State of Victoria, Australia providing them with the information that I had. Once more, I was told that I did not exist. Pinching myself with frustration proved that I did, in fact, exist so why was there no record of my birth?
In January 2016, at which point of time I was already a retiree, I received an email from an unknown person living in Melbourne who told me that she was my half-sister and that I had two other siblings, the eldest of whom had already passed away. She had discovered my email address on a website of an association of which I was a committee member. Admittedly, I could not help but wonder whether this message was a scam and yet the facts she provided seemed to fit the little I knew. We emailed back and forth and slowly I began to understand the secrets my parents had been keeping all this time. My first attempts at researching the basic data on my family was aided by the wonderful resource that is https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/. This is an effort to digitize nearly all the Australian newspapers dating back to the 1840s! It provides free access to a wealth of information, including at least four newspapers published by the Jewish community in Australia in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century. Australian historians are indeed fortunate to have this information available. One article published in a local newspaper in mid-1950 explained why my parents had kept family information to themselves and why we had left Australia when I was so young. They had created a scandal significant enough to warrant publicity. My very existence was the outcome of that scandal which had been carefully kept from me throughout my parents’ lives. The article not only described the scandal, it also provided my father’s surname – the one he was born with and which he had changed upon arrival in New Zealand.
By early 2018, I had a clearer picture of “who I was”. Armed with my new knowledge, I once again emailed the Victoria Registrar of Births. This time the result was immediate. Yes! They could provide a copy of my birth certificate which I had never sighted, providing I paid a small fee. I duly paid, and within less than two weeks, for the very first time in my 69 years, I held a hard-copy of my birth certificate in my hands, it having been posted to me immediately. This was an extremely emotional moment. I chose not to tell my mother, aged 98, still alive in New Zealand, that at long last I knew her secret. Nothing good would have come out of doing so. Indeed, she passed away some 12 months later.
From 2018 onwards, I became fanatical in my genealogy research (see the OCJGS Blog Post November 2023 and March 2024). In these preliminary forays into genealogy, I was quite ignorant. It took me a while to understand that different countries had different types of records relevant when looking for family. For example, the United States (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada all conduct a census every decade and the information on individuals in that census can be read online through a number of paid genealogy sites and one free site. However, for obvious reasons, I was more interested in records from Australia and to a lesser extent New Zealand. Both of these countries conduct regular censuses but, sadly, information on individuals is not made public. The census is analysed by the authorities in the two countries to examine statistical trends such as the number of persons in different age groups, the ratio of males to females and so on. While this data may be important for economic and social planning, it is of zero use for genealogy. Hence, the reliance on the digitized newspapers mentioned above which are fully searchable by name as well as other key words via Trove in Australia and a site named Papers Past in New Zealand. The same issue applies in Malaysia – a census is held on a regular basis but no information about individuals is divulged; neither are there any digitized newspapers. As a result, trying to develop a family tree for my husband’s family has met with failure, although a relative has done better on one side of his family by interviewing the “elders” who still have memories of who married who as well as the names and number of their children. He has also conducted research in a number of state archives which revealed the work history of several family members who worked for the Royal Palace in their state. For people with Eastern European backgrounds sites such as JewishGen, JRI Poland and LitvakSIG are the go-to sources of information with metrical records dating back to the early 19th century. However, finding one’s family in these records tends to be a matter of luck. With wars and pogroms and other disasters many of the records did not survive. I was able to trace my great-grandfather’s family back to 1775. Most fascinating of all was the revision list (a form of census) which showed that my great-grandfather’s grandfather and two of the latter’s brothers had been exiled to Siberia in 1849. I will probably never know why they were exiled, although my general reading suggests that most exile orders at that time were either because the persons concerned were found to be involved in illegal activities such as smuggling or because of political activities.
In early 2024, after I determined that the well-known genealogy sites had no more helpful information relating to my family, I discovered, for the first time Facebook. I was well aware of its existence but was not in the least bit interested in any social media site as I associated them with misinformation and shock-seeking exhibitionists. To my surprise, I found that there are many groups active on the website which specialize in Jewish history and genealogy. There are groups with a huge membership who willingly help solve puzzles and give answers to specific questions, including, most commonly, the reading of Hebrew names on gravestones or assisting to find records which the person posting has not been able to discover. Such groups include Tracing the Tribe, and sites which focus on particular areas of the world; for example: The Jewish East End of London, Jewish Genealogy in Lativa and Lithuania, and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. Joining these groups and reading the posts regularly taught me a great deal. One or two instances of my learning will suffice: Many records state where an individual was born. But I noted that researchers posting questions were often confused because one record they had found about one of their ancestors might state “Russia” and another “Lithuania” as the place of birth, thus they wanted to know which was correct. Without a knowledge of history, a person might not understand that both were correct at different times. A person might have said that they were born in Russia in 1890 and yet on naturalization papers in 1920 they stated they were born in Lithuania. Their descendants may not have realized that Lithuania was in the Pale of Settlement established within the Russian Empire in 1791, and that it only became independent of Russia in 1919 (and lost that independence once again after WWII when it became part of the USSR). Also from Facebook, I found that many people were disturbed by the different years of birth given on different documents of the same ancestor. This sometimes led them to believe that they were studying the documents of two different people with the same name. While that is certainly possible, it is clear that back in the 19th century Jews living in Eastern Europe did not know their exact year of birth, let alone the month and day. We find this more than a little odd today. Where I live, (and in many other countries too), all persons are issued with an identity card, first as a child, and later, at the age of 12, changing to an adult card. This document is necessary for all important transactions including registering for school, opening a bank account, applying for a passport or driving license and so on, and even registering when requiring the services of a hospital or private medical clinic. There is no room for guessing at birthdates.
If a researcher has the funds and time available, another source of information is the country of origin of his ancestors. I had long wanted to go to Lithuania and “walk in the footsteps of my great-grandparents and their families”. A previous plan had come to nothing because it was made during the era when Lithuania was still part of the USSR and visas were difficult to get, especially as there was no consular office of the USSR in Malaysia. I was informed that to get a visa I would have to fly to London in the UK and apply there. I was also told that the visa might or might not be granted. I was not willing to take the risk of taking an expensive 13-hour non-stop flight and yet fail to get a visa. By 2022, however, I was ready to do whatever it took to get to Lithuania. My eldest son was keen to accompany me, visas were not necessary, and we were roaring to go. Still, a major barrier had to be overcome. The only date that my son was willing to go was August 2022, as he was registered to participate in a marathon 5-day bicycle event, London-Edinburgh-London in that month and we were to fly to Vilnius immediately after and take a tour to Telsiai, the hometown of my great-grandparents. The barrier being the Covid virus. Entry into Lithuania by non-citizens was permitted a month or so before our departure date so no issue there, but we still had to pass a medical test three days before our flight to prove we were not suffering from the virus. Much to my great relief, we were clear and were able to leave on schedule.
When researching ancestors, it is essential to know the name of their hometown or shtetl. Luckily, I knew my family were from Telsiai from two records. In 1930, twenty years after arriving in Australia, my great-grandfather had applied to be naturalized, and he clearly stated in the required documentation that his birthplace was Telz (or Telsiai as it is now called). His younger brother who migrated to Canada in 1903 and then the United States in 1919, also wrote Telsiai (spelled Telz) in his naturalization application. The tour of Lithuania chosen by my son and myself only permitted us a visit to Telsiai for one half day, but this was better than nothing. We managed to visit the Old Jewish Cemetery in the town as well as the area which had been the market and central point of Jewish life there in the 19th century.
 Old Jewish cemetery in Telsiai |  Decorated house at the gateway to the Jewish Ghetto, 1941-1943 |
Of course, there was nothing much to see that would have existed in the 1890s when my family left Telsiai but it was exhilarating to be there nevertheless. The most significant landmark associated with Telsiai is the famous Yeshiva and this has been beautifully refurbished and is now a community centre.
My quest to determine who I am and where I came from continues but at a more leisurely pace now. I am focusing more on the history of Jewish migration and the struggles faced by people who migrated to adapt to their new countries, just as I did for a short period after I came to Malaysia. I do not expect to find much more information about specific ancestors, although I would be very happy if I did.
About the Author:
Marilyn was born in Australia, raised in New Zealand, and has lived in Malaysia for over 50 years. Since retiring from teaching at the largest university in the country, she spends all her spare time researching her family history. Marilyn, using the professional name of Maimunah, is the author of a number of books relating to industrial relations, employment law and human resource management. Her latest book, published in 2023, is the story of her ancestors, entitled Fears, Tears, Secrets & Successes, published by i2i Publishing UK.
My quest to determine who I am and where I came from continues but at a more leisurely pace now. I am focusing more on the history of Jewish migration and the struggles faced by people who migrated to adapt to their new countries, just as I did for a short period after I came to Malaysia. I do not expect to find much more information about specific ancestors, although I would be very happy if I did.
About the Author:
Marilyn was born in Australia, raised in New Zealand, and has lived in Malaysia for over 50 years. Since retiring from teaching at the largest university in the country, she spends all her spare time researching her family history. Marilyn, using the professional name of Maimunah, is the author of a number of books relating to industrial relations, employment law and human resource management. Her latest book, published in 2023, is the story of her ancestors, entitled Fears, Tears, Secrets & Successes, published by i2i Publishing UK.
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