how do i narrow down which phillips i'm looking for?

Question

i'm having trouble getting very far with my research on my paternal grandmother's family. i have her maiden name (phillips), and all her sisters' names, and all her sisters' married names (assuming data i was given is correct), and her parents' names, and her mother's maiden name.

most of my research has been performed with familysearch. i have found some data on ancestry (at LDS family research center), but i only have saved copies of the data since i do not have a paid ancestry account.

the trouble begins when i try to follow my grandmother's parents further back - apparently jacob phillips is a VERY popular name for the time period. the one i am researching lived in philadelphia (d 1963). according to census data, he was born in either austria or russia (or both?) in 1875 and came to the US between 1894-1899 (varies by census). married in 1901, have marriage license number but not copy of license data. 1910 census (first one i know for sure is the right person) has him & wife with 4 daughters & in-laws in house (my grandma was baby of family, not born until late 1920). in various census it is spelled philip or phillip or phillips or philips. as of 2008 all 6 daughters are deceased. i have his DOB thanks to draft registration of 1917.

his wife was lena eppstein (or epstein), born nov 1881 in russia. immigration year 1890. she is found in the 1900 census living with her parents (samuel & hannah) & older brother (louis) in philadelphia.

they were jewish, so i'm not as sure that jacob/lena/hannah/samuel were necessarily their birth names. i assume lena arrived with her parents, but the family is not registered through ellis island (earliest i can find there is 1892). i am still learning how to sort through jewishgen, though it is difficult without an accurate location of origin and potentially different given names.

if anyone has suggestions for researching russian/eastern european data prior to 1900, or how to determine if there was any 1900 census data for jacob, i would appreciate it. and i also acknowledge that phillips might not have been jacob's birth surname, but this is the data i have to work with and a starting place.

Comments

 All Results

Jacob H Phillips

 in the Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1964

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Name:	Jacob H Phillips
Gender:	Male
Race:	White
Age:	89
Birth Date:	30 Jan 1875
Birth Place:	Russia
Death Date:	8 Jun 1964
Death Place:	Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Father:	Aurum Phillips
Spouse:	Lena Phillips
Certificate Number:	060453-64
	Search for Jacob H Phillips in Pennsylvania Wills & Probates collection

Source Citation

Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Death Certificates; Box Number: 2393; Certificate Number Range: 057851-060550

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1964 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

 

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 All Results

Jacob Phillips

 in the New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

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• View image(s) of the ship

Name:	Jacob Phillips
Arrival Date:	27 May 1908
Birth Date:	abt 1875
Birth Location:	Russia
Birth Location Other:	brest lymisky
Age:	33
Gender:	Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality:	Hebrew
Port of Departure:	Southampton
Port of Arrival:	New York, New York
Ship Name:	Oceanic
Search Ship Database:	Search for the Oceanic in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database

Source Citation

Year: 1908; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 1107; Line: 12; Page Number: 32

Source Information

Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

 

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re: death cert: i'd actually found that on ancestry! i appreciate that you found the same data, but this did not give me any new information that i did not have setting out, except that the father's name was POSSIBLY avrum. (that side of the family didn't/doesn't share information, the informant on this certificate being the primary source of the lack of [or dis]information.) i was looking for prior information, though thank you for sharing.

regarding the ship series, while it's vaguely possible to be the same person, i was able to look it up on the ellis island website. i find it unlikely since the family section says the wife's name begins with a D, and the place of residence begins with a B, much unlike "philadelphia, PA"

again, thanks for looking it up =)

Answer 1

Hi S,

Your story is so exactly the same as mine that I just had to answer, even though I don't have any answers for you.  My family is also Jewish and from eastern Europe, which I believe adds a specific complication to genealogy research - records were often not kept and those that did exist were mostly destroyed in the first half of the 20^th​ century.

The name changes during someone's life, further complicated by all the different nicknames, misspellings, and transcription errors, make it impossible to establish a clean trail in records.  If that's not enough of a mess, the mixture of different renditions of names in Hebrew, Yiddish, and the language of the country, plus either Russian, German, and Polish (depending on which of these was occupying the original country on the day the record was made) really is the last straw.

The only feeble help I can offer is that the biographies I write use the words "probably", "maybe", "possibly", "perhaps", and "likely" when I quote these records and I add a notes section header between the biography and sources, in which I explain the record discrepancies and my reasons for thinking whatever I do about the whole thing.

There is one tool that has helped sort out first name differences.  It is at jewishgen -

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/GivenNames/search.htm

​Try not to be overwhelmed by the challenges, although I admit that's a "do as I say, not as I do" and best of luck!

 

Comments

i'm trying to suss out jewishgen in spurts - much information and it's like lots of background noise to sort through. in a lot of cases, all i have to work with is the known family names - which in some cases, isn't even a legal name. (how many things could 'abe' be short for?) i'm not sure if the data on the death certs is accurate, etc. esp the way some things are transcribed!

i'm going to do an ancestrydna kit. we'll see if that gets me anywhere! thanks for your suggestions =)

Answer 2

I saw your post and I thought I could help; but I did some checking and thru FamilySearch,org and I found this:

1900 Kingston Borough Ward 3-4, Luzerne, Pa.

William L. Miles -Head Male age 52 Wales; Mary Miles - wife- age 51 Pa; William J. Miles son, white age 27 -Pa;  John W. Miles -son-age 24 -PA;  Anna L Miles dau-age 22 PA;- Irene L Miles- dau age 13- Pa                    Jacob Philip Boarder age 25 Born Jan. 1875- immigration year 1899 -both mother and father born in Aistria;  Catherine Hughes - servant age 32 Wales;Martin Sedol- age 37; Ellen Sedol -age 27;  Annie Sedol - age 14;  Stanly Sedol- age 6; Rachael Sedol -age 5-PA; John Sedol-age- 2; Mary Sedol - age 0; Thomas Sabak- boarder- age 30 Austria; John Sudo -age 33-boarder-Austria;  Apolion Bedna - boarder -Chester Byack- Boarder - age 35 -boarder. Austria.

1940 Census - Ward 8 New Castle, New Castle City, Lawrence, Pa.

Jacob Philips - Head, male age 61 white, married birth place Austria Birth year 1879 Est.

Dora Philips- wife, female, age 72 Austria.

I also found the 1920 census but let me know if you need it.I think you said you already had it.

Esther Phillips -Birth 15 Dec, 1901 Philadelphia, Phil. PA Parents Jacob Phillips -Lena.

Fanny Phillip Birth -02 April 1903 Philadelphia, Phila. Pensylvania. parents- Jacob -Lena

Jacob Phillip - Census 1890 Williamsport, Lycoming, Pa,  

Jacob Phillips born 30 Jan 1875

This is all I have and I managed to get this from Family Search.org. Let me know if you need more information. I will be glad to help. Thanks, Nancy

Comments

thanks, i appreciate the research! they ended up with 6 daughters (bella, beatrice, rose, frances/fanny, esther, evelyn), all born in philadelphia. dora was not part of this family, the correct 1940 census has the family in Ward 46, Philadelphia, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia, Pa (evelyn still living with them). i have his death cert (DOB 30 jan 1875) stating he is buried at mt jacob in PA, but that's not listed on findagrave - i might have to take a road trip!

i think i came across the 'boarder' census as well. i have to put together a list of all the dates of immigration to see what i can correlate. i have the 1900 thru 1940 censuses for jacob/lena, but i need to find more info. maybe i'll focus on her parents next?

Answer 3

https://phillipsdnaproject.com/

Nancy Kiser is a great source to assist you.

Comments

i know i'm almost 3 years later in replying to this, i fell off my research for a while. in looking through this project, while i appreciate it, it will be of no help to me - it appears they are following the Y chromosome. this is great for folks with the surname phillips, but my phillips relative had all female offspring. i appreciate the suggestion, though!