Typically one finds the origin of a family by finding them on immigration forms, or naturalization application documents. I don't believe that Hebrew names (first, last?) have a geographical component, but you might find on sites like Jewishgen.org (registration required) people who are searching the same surname and see if that narrows down the area of origin.
I have been using Jewishgen with questions giving them the Hebrew name, the four variations from ships' manifests of the spelling of their last name, the places listed on different papers where they left from according to the ship's manifests, and nationalization papers all showing me nothing.
I reached a brick wall with them. Listening and watching their talks on genealogical subjects has not helped. This is the reason I am reaching out to your site as it has helped me in the past.
Have you looked at Alexander Beider's "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire"? He also has "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia", "A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciations, and Migrations", "Handbook of Ashkenazic Given Names and Their Variants". Amazon books has a number of such books by a variety of authors.
I have 4 different spellings for their last name which i submitted to Jewishgen with no help. I would like to find out where the family originated in Europe. Anything I need to provide to get the help I am looking for now?
If you have reached a brick wall why don't let us give it a try. But don't make it a guessing game for us and focus on only one person or a married couple at a time as this could give you better results.
What we need from you (if available) are: First and last names (incl variants)., birth date+location or approx birth year, Immigration dates, residence locations (Europe and USA), spouses, parents, children, siblings, occupations etc.. Any direct links to e.g. census years in Family Search would be appreciated as well..
Over a year ago you were researching the Dumont family, who were from Tauroggen, Kovno, Russia (now Taurage, Kaunas, Lithuania). Is this a different family or the same family?
It's the same family. I have my grandfather's Hebrew name Yehoshua ben Tzvi Hersch which will help locate them from the town they left. Would this help to find any information about the family before they came to the States?
I am not certain how much the Hebrew name will help, except in religious records. Civil records would have either the German/Russian/Lithuanian name or the Yiddish name. Lithuanian State Historical Archives: www.archyvai.lt/.../skaitmeninimas_1286.html
from their index to holdings in the archives: "Common Jewish Community Register & Jewish Civil Status Books" Tauragė (Atstatymai) Births 1880-1939 record #1817/1/282 There are also birth, marriage, & death records for various years in the 1920s from Taurage. I found a price list on the website, but since it was several pages long & I do not read Lithuanian, I do not know what they charge to do research.
