gross-steinberg:NYC Orphan Records

The Gross-Steinberg Family Tree presents:

NYC Orphan Records


shared by James Gross




Date:    Thu, 28 Aug 1997 14:33:11 -0400
From:    Marge Soloff 
Subject: resource info - Orphanage records - Burial soc.

A few months ago, I was searching for information on my husband's father
and siblings who were placed in some of the Jewish Orphanages in the New
York City area.  After many weeks of letters, FAXes and emails, and with
the help of a wonderful gentleman in the state of Oregon , I met through
the JewishGen Postings,who kept my faith up, I finally succeeded and found
the resource I was looking for.

In the past couple of months, I have helped a few others with this
fantastic resource and since I believe there are many others that might be
searching for family members that were placed in these orphanages, I would
like to give this info to the JewishGen list.

The JEWISH CHILD CARE ASSOCIATION also known as JCCA has been serving
children and families since 1822, so states their letterhead.  The
following are the places that they are the successor to and still might
hold records for:

Hebrew Orphan Asylum
Hebrew Benevolent & Orphan Asylum Society
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society
Hartman-Homecrest (Opened abt. 1919 in Yonkers, NY)
Home for Hebrew Infants
Fellowship House
Jewish Children's Clearing Bureau
Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum
Girls Club of Brooklyn
Children's Day & Night Shelter
Wayside Day Nursery
Childville
Children's Service Bureau
Jewish Youth Services of Brooklyn
Hebrew National Orphan Home
Israel Orphan Asylum
Gustave Hartman Home
Daughters of Zion Hebrew Day Nursery

They are affiliated with UJA-Federation of NY, United Way of New York City,
Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies, Council on Accreditation of
Services for Families and Children and are located at:

Jewish Child Care Association of New York
575 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212)371-1313
FAX: (212)371-1275
Contact: Ms. Leona M. Ferrer, Coordinator, Quality Assurance

They were very cooperative in searching information for me and after a few
weeks were able to send me a small file of what they found in their
records. We did find information that we never knew before, ie.  (names and
addresses of people who placed the children there and name and maiden name
of parents and address of last place of residence and the exact location of
the town and country they came from) so in a way it was successful, even
though it left us with many new unanswered questions.

If you have a FAX machine, I might suggest you FAX them all the information
that you can gather on the individual you are searching, names, dates,
etc., and your relationship to the individual.

However, their first letter back to me stated:  ("It is against agency
policy to provide the kind of information you are asking for to anyone but
the former client himself: or, if the client is deceased, certain basic
facts may be given to the client's children or grandchildren.")

We then sent a second FAX with my husband's signature, as he was the son of
"their client".  In other words, they would not honor my request, being the
daughter-in-law.  After we received the information, we did call Ms. Ferrer
on the phone to ask her some additional information that was not clear to
us and she was most helpful.

There is also a wonderful alumni association of "Brothers" from the Hebrew
National Orphan Home also known as HNOH, that is still going strong, and
have been very supportive in my search.

Also another helpful resource if anyone cannot find where a relative might
be buried if they died in the New York City area is:

their address is:

Hebrew Free Burial Association
224 West 35th Street Room 300
New York, NY 10001
http://www.hebrewfreeburial.org 
Phone:    (212) 239-1662
Fax:      (212) 239-1981




They hold records going back many years of any Jewish Person whose families
might not have had monies for burial with chronological records and
alphabetical files.  They helped to bury all the victims who died in the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 that are buried in Mt. Richmond
Cemetery in Staten Island, NY.
I found my husband's grandmother's burial place and quite a bit of other
personal information about her from their records.

If I can answer any further questions, I would be glad to help and would
also be able to get you in contact with the Alumni of HNOH.

Hope this helps someone!

Marge Spears-Soloff
Orlando, FL
[email protected]

---------------------
Date:    Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:47:41 -0600
From:    Irene Newhouse 
Subject: Hebrew Orphan Asylum Soc. & other Jewish Organizations

The Jewish organizations of almost all major cities prublished annual
reports that listed donors & described their activities.  Major
collections of SOME of these reports can be found at Jewish institutions
of higher learning; for example, Hebrew Union College's Klau Library
[Cincinnati, OH] contains many of them.  I've gotten the impression that
the collections reflect donations, so aren't complete or systematic, but
they do contain lots of information.  I know that HUC is very good about
interlibrary loan & replying to mail requests.  Unfortunately, their
catalog is still on cards, so you have to ask them about the organization
you're interested in.  I'm sure other libraries have similar collections.

Irene Newhouse Springfield OH

--------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 14:25:37 -0500 From: EricM18047 Subject: Re: Hebrew Orphan Asylum Soc. & other Jewish Organizations A valuable bibliography for information about organizations for public health, the care of children, and the history of Jewish welfare organizations is vailable in a history of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of NY "The Luckiest Orphans" (C) 1992 by Hyman Bogen University of Illinois Press ISBN 0-252-01887-7(cl) I've read this book and found it most helpful in my research. Both my parents were in the HOA in New York during the early to mid-1930s. Eric Marks [email protected] New Jersey

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