Dear Mark, Thank you. The entries are stranger-looking than they are, and the register itself explains them.
All five are "late registrations": the opening words of each entry cite an order of the Romanian Ministry of the Interior (one in 1923, two in 1925) under which a birth of 1894, 1906, 1907, 1910 or 1914 was entered into the Waschkoutz book years later. That is why the dates are so late, and your guess is the usual reason: a birth certificate was needed for a passport or for emigration, and the brothers left in 1927. "Illegitimate, child of Ruchel Wiznitzer" means only one thing in these books: the parents had a religious marriage, but no civil one. Under Austrian law a Jewish marriage without civil registration did not exist for the state, so the children were recorded under the mother's name as illegitimate. This was very common in Bukovina; my own family has such entries. The next entry on the same page shows the other half of the mechanism: a girl born in 1912 to Perl Locker is recorded as illegitimate, and then, after her parents' civil marriage on 12 March 1925, "this child is therefore legitimate". Your family had no civil marriage to point to, and Ruchel had died in 1914, so the four boys stayed "children of Ruchel". For anyone searching these books, this is a class of spelling worth knowing: a child of a religious-only marriage is filed under the mother's surname, and the father may appear only in the text of the entry, or not at all. If a name is missing, search the mother's maiden name as well, and read the entry rather than the index line. On Schmiel, born 1894: the entry (no. 33 of 1925, page 266v–267) really does say that "Ruchel Wijnitzer gave birth in 1894, month and day cannot be established, in Vășcăuți pe Ceremuș, to a boy who received the name Schmiel at circumcision". The index reads the page as written; what the family declared in 1925 is another question. The frame is linked from the record page, so you can read it yourself. With warm regards, Leonid Katz This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021, archived messages can be found at: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To send mail to the list, address it to <[email protected]>. To remove your address from this e-list follow these directions. https://it.cornell.edu/simplelists/manage-subscriptions To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to: [email protected]
