The Olshanitsky Sisters - How many different mothers and maiden names can three sisters have?

Joseph and Annie Olshanitsky
 My GG-Grandparents and source of the census crumb trail... or is Annie  not actually my GG-Grandmother???

I mentioned in my first post that my family quest began with a tree that my cousin Denise RM provided.  It showed that our common family surname was Hushkie.  The tree was topped by Joseph and Anna Hushkie, my gg-grandparents, both from Bialystok, Russia who had two daughters, Sarah and Janie.  These are Denise's and my Great-Grandmothers on this line.

But that was just the beginning of an ardent effort to discover definitively their surname. Further checking by Denise in England turned up a marriage record for Sarah showing a maiden name of Olshanitsky.  She determined that Hushkie was some sort of nickname and so the tree was changed to reflect Olshanitsky as the surname.  You would think that that would be that, mission accomplished...but no....

Sarah married Gabriel, of that Denise is confident.  Something we have never quite explained is that the marriage certificate showed the given name of Sarah's husband's brother, Joe, as her groom.  Of course, your mind might wander... or at least mine did... did Sarah first marry Joe and then Gabriel?  Did Joe die young and Gabriel step in??  But no, Denise could trace Joe's life so that was not a probable explanation.  So sometimes as family genealogists, we just have to accept these discrepancies and move on.

Other related names that appear in the UK records include Oldstein and Oilstone.  Sometimes genealogical discoveries just take a little luck and a random act of kindness by someone else who enjoys the pursuit.  I was in contact with someone in the UK named David W who owned a tree regarding a paternal line and happened to mention the Olshanitsky name challenge we were trying to work through.  He worked wonders for us!!  He had access to the 1901 censuses in the UK and actually found the Olshanitsky family in the 1901 Census there!!  What was highly unusual he tells us, is that the name was hyphenated as "Olshanitsky-Oilstone".   And what a discovery that was - there were actually SIX children in the family... 3 sons and 3 daughters... Rachael 29 (D/S), Nathan 27 (M), Jane 25, Lewis 22 Sarah 19, Ephriam (later Philip) 15!!   Nathan appeared with Joseph's family and separately with his wife as a family unit in that census.  The third daughter, Rachael, was already married and probably living in the US at the time though she was reflected as Divorced and then as Single next to that.  It is almost as though Joseph Olshanitsky had left this trail of crumbs for us to find and enable us to piece our family together a century later!!  David also shared military records of one son which include more information we could follow.  His assistance has been INVALUABLE to our efforts and we thank him AGAIN!!  We can explain the name Oilstone.  Joseph's son, Nathan, changed his name to Oilstone when he was granted citizenship in the UK.  Other variations have followed both in the UK and the US.

I have recently obtained many birth, marriage and death records for Jennie and Rachael and the first generation of Olshanitsky offspring in the US.  At last check, we see all of these variations on the Olshanitsky and Oilstone names (not including what might be considered misspellings or transcription errors):

Olshanitsky - the census and Sarah's marriage cert

Oilstone - Jennie's daughter's marriage cert

Hulstein - Jennie's marriage cert 

Goldstein - Jennie's daughter's marriage cert

Oldstein - My Grandfather's marriage cert

Oldstone - Jennie's son's marriage cert

Olstome - My Grandfather's death cert

Alston - Rachael's son's marriage cert

Olster -  Jennie's young daughter's death cert

Altstein - Rachael's death cert

Ylsttein - My grandfather and his brother birth cert

I can only imagine how this occurs...  I visualize my Great-Grandmother, relatively new here with a heavy Russian accent, neither able to read nor write English, trying to tell people her name.  Bless all of those town clerks who tried their best during this rapid time of growth of our wonderful country!!

My Great-Grandmother, Jennie Olshanitsky Elkes, who I am named for, continues to baffle me.  Upon obtaining her marriage certificate I find that she was a divorcee when she married my Great-Grandfather.  No idea where to go with THAT new revelation!  On top of that, we find that Jennie listed Eva Vinesetsky as her mother on her marriage certificate and Rachael's mother is listed as Ida Cohen on her death certificate.... neither being an Anna or Annie... and Joseph's wife was noted as Seah in the 1901 census.  Nathan's wife was Leah so maybe there was some crossover there.  Not sure if these discrepancies will ever be resolved but is possible that Joseph had multiple wives in Russia.  We have found no matching records for the Olshanitsky family in Russia as yet.

Denise and I are quite puzzled with these latest findings.  The saga continues....  won't you accompany us on this journey???

It's a long, long road, with many a winding turn, that leads us to where... who knows where??... 

More blogs to follow on the Olshanitsky family - Seize the Day!!

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Genealogical research tips:

The Italian Genealogical Group website, www.italiangen.org is a wonderful research resource for indexes to New York City Vital Records, as well as other information.  I have obtained numerous records based on the certificate numbers they have provided, which also provide the year recorded and borough of the event.  http://www.italiangen.org/VRECLIST.stm

Stephen Morse has created a website with a number of tools that make it easier to research other databases, including Ellis Island records and Ancestry.com.  www.stephenmorse.com
Once I find the year, borough and certificate number, I use the tool on that website to find the LDS film number.
http://www.stephenmorse.com/vital/filmnotes.html

Then I send the details of what I'm looking for and the film number to the LDS History Center following these instructions:

familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Photoduplication_Services

Originally I had a very quick turnaround but I have seen postings where the turnaround has been very slow.  Obviously, such a wonderful service has resulted in many orders and they must have quite a backlog.  Still, if you are not in rush, you can follow this approach.  Otherwise, you can use the film number to order a film to your local Family History Center and find the record yourself.

As a final tip, do not hesitate to CONNECT CONNECT CONNECT... look for family and/or people interested in the same research you are.  I have found family, made friends and have obtained TONS of information through reaching out to people with trees on Ancestry.com and memorials and "flowers" on www.findagrave.com, and using the Family Finder tool on www.jewishgen.org, all of which are vital resources to anyone with this hobby.... more on those experiences in later blogs..