Among the difficulties we encounter when transcribing old community records written in cursive Hebrew, is the appearance of words that have no apparent English equivalent and which usually, but not exclusively, relate to places of origin or occupations. The script in this burial record dated 24 Dec 1804 http://www.synagoguescribes.com/persondetails.php?value=17451 for a child of Joseph b. Abraham was relatively ease to decipher as the Secretary of the day wrote in good clear script and the page was not disfigured with blots, smudges and scratchings out. However, we were rather fazed by the letters following the father’s name Ayin-bet-yod-resh-shin-tet-resh-vav-yod-aleph for which we could find no apparent translation. A SynagogueScribes advanced search based on Hebrew Name = Joseph plus Father’s Hebrew name = Abraham produced some 35 – 40 results, from which it quickly became apparent that the family name was ABRAHAMS and the letters completing the patronymic had previously been transliterated to read Ebarstrow or Ebarstrova. A further search, entering variations on Family name = Abrahams and Father’s Hebrew name = Joseph, or spouse = Joseph etc. produced four Great Synagogue Burials where Dr. Susser had variously transliterated the Hebrew characters as ABERSTRAU\ABIR STREUE\ EBBIRSTOWE and ABE RESTROY The online Jewishgen Shtetl-Seeker [...]
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