My trip to Suwalki, Lomza and Trakai shtetls - PHOTOGRAPHS

Thank you Hatte for sharing some of your wonderful experience with us. (Presumably you took hiking boots with you). Looking forward to spending time with your photographs. You are quite the artist!

You're welcome Pam. I just uploaded the Ratnycia ones. Unfortunately the comments are locked unless you're in my family group (which you are).

I forgot my camera in London, so I took these with my iPad which performed quite well.

Ratnycia (Rotnitsa) was a satellite farming settlement from Merkine (Meretch). It has since become part of the spa town of Druskininkiai, on the border with Belarus. The Jewish population at its height was perhaps 300 and my family (Frankel) counted as 70 people approximately at that time. That doesn't count Frankels who were married into other households or households descended from Frankels, so basically the photographs of the cemetery in Ratnycia will show you graves of ancestors or relatives of mine without a doubt! Ratnycia was part of the thriving and learning community of Merkine and apparently children would go to school in Merkine. They must have boarded with families in Merkine. I do not know how my great great grandparents' marriage was arranged, since she had family in Merkine, but not I don't think in Ratnycia.

Efroim or Meir Frankel is the earliest Frankel of Ratnycia that we can find documents pointing to.

Hatte Anne Blejer The Ratnycia photos pack a powerfully chilling punch, as if the very earth is pulsating locked energy.

Malka Mysels - Yes, I feel that too, just looking at them.

It would be great if we could match tombstones to people. At http://www.geni.com/photo/view?album_type=project&photo_id=6000... we obviously have a Shlomo on the left. Is it Toyva Elsas on the right? Could be his wife?

At http://www.geni.com/photo/view?album_type=project&photo_id=6000... as labelled Betzalel Frankel

At http://www.geni.com/photo/view?album_type=project&photo_id=6000... I think I am seeing the name Avraham Yaakov Kopel

I took shaving cream with me and a rag but in most cemeteries it was hopeless. You'll see when you see some of the other shtetls. But yes, both Bakalarzewo and Ratnycia and also Merkine and of course Kalwarija (new cemetery) could be restored and the headstones could be read in many instances. I could not even enter the enormous Przerosl cemetery where my gg grandfather and my ggg grandparents are buried, it was so overgrown.

Shlomo was the clearest stone I saw. There were a few very legible stones in Merkine as well. But I have seen other cemeteries that were better kept or have been restored where there are many legible stones.

The headstone that you think you see Avraham Yaakov Kopel on needed shaving cream or another trick to make the letters stand out. It was one of the ones that had I had time and more people with me, I could have cleaned it up. In many of these cemeteries there are days or weeks of work. There is an organization called Matzeva which restores cemeteries. They are going to work on Rokiskis, which I would like to assist with financially as one of my great uncles and his son were the rabbis there.

Hatte - you tell a heartfelt story. I am just wondering what we can achieve with what we have with the collaborative power of Geni.
The one where I think I saw the name Avraham Yaakov Kopel has a readable date of Erev Rosh Hashana - the eve of Jewish New Year and I think the year is 5656.

Betzalel's father could be Tuvyo. The date is I think 27 Tammuz. Year could be 5646.

etc

Amazing what you can do with Google. This is Shlomo

http://www.bagnowka.com/?m=cm&g=zoom&gal=38&img=54661

This is Toyve next to Shlomo

http://www.bagnowka.com/?m=cm&g=zoom&gal=38&img=54662

This is also Toyve
http://www.bagnowka.com/?m=cm&g=zoom&gal=38&img=54663

and this is also Shlomo
http://www.bagnowka.com/?m=cm&g=zoom&gal=38&img=54660

Thanks, good work David. I had looked for Ratnycia, Merkine, and Kalwarija where my X great grandparents would have been buried, but not for Bakalarzewo. Since I was looking for graves of the early 1800s to mid 1800s, I was not optimistic. In Kalwarija the old cemetery has only one grave.

I did think I would find graves in Przerosl where my great grandparents grew up, but that one was impassible. I suspect if it ever gets cleaned up, that there will be family graves. My cousin found his ancestor's grave there in 1999.

Hatte

Was this the only Jewish cemetery that you came across in Meretz or this was of direct interest to you? My family, (father's paternal grandparents-both sides) were from Meretz but I have very little information on family names. What I do have is also very confusing as the same last name appears on both sides of the family.

Scott

Private User - I haven't posted the cemetery photos from Meretz yet. I had a lot of family in Meretz also. I'll do that later today, so watch for them. They may be captioned Merkine. That cemetery is very close to the town. I have wonderful photos from the town - synagogue and Jewish school - as well as from the mass killing site. The cemetery is totally invaded by pine trees and while you can walk in it, it's in disarray and large and spread out among many trees.

email me separately on Geni and I'll try to help you with your Meretz family. I have lots of information on the families in Meretz.

The photos that I took in Merkine (Meretch) are now uploaded to the Margolis and Frankel Family Project here: http://www.geni.com/projects/Margolis-and-Frankel-Families/374