metro »

A Genealogy
Treasure Hunt

Robbie Terman’s
great-grandmother,
Bessie Plotnik

John Hardwick

The International Undertaking
that Rescued 1.5 Million Jews

Searching through history on the
Michigan Jewish Cemetery Index.

Robbie Terman | Special to the Jewish News

G

MISSION POSSIBLE

Jewish Family Service
Annual Meeting

An unforgettable evening with

Natan Sharansky

along with Marvin Lender and Chair Joel Tauber to
commemorate Operation Exodus and Jewish Detroit’s
role in building new lives for 7,000 refugees from
the former Soviet Union.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
6:30 p.m.
Register at jfsannualmeeting.org

Reservations required due to limited seating

For more information about sponsorships, pre glow,
and Ad Book contact:
Amy Singer
  
70&+$"/'#0!"1/,&1,/$

Sponsorships received by
March 10th will be listed
on the invitation.

2073680

12 February 25 • 2016

enealogy enthusiasts rejoice!
The Irwin I. Cohn Michigan
Jewish Cemetery Index is
online at jewishdetroit.org/community-
guide/jewish-cemetery-index.
Anyone who has embarked on a gene-
alogy search knows it is a frustrating
pastime. One can spend hours searching
for a small nugget of information. But if
you know the right places to look, you can
avoid a long search. Many years before
I became the director of the Leonard N.
Simons Jewish Community Archives, I
had no idea a Michigan Jewish cemetery
index existed.
And I was about to chase a genealogical
mystery.
Imagine this: A 3-year-old boy runs
on to Hastings Street in Detroit, straight
in the path of an oncoming streetcar. His
mother pushes him out of the way, only
to be struck and killed herself. Grief-
stricken, the child’s father gives him away
to a neighbor.
The year was 1918 . . . The mother was
my great-grandmother Bessie. And the
boy, my grandfather Isadore.
My mother and I had heard the story
many times, but it was not until after my
grandparents passed away that we began
to wonder where Bessie was buried. Each
year, we received a yahrzeit reminder
from Hebrew Memorial, but a call to
them revealed she was not buried there. A
search through my grandparents’ records
came up empty.
For the next five years, my mother
and I combed every genealogy website
and resource we could find, but we still
had not located Bessie. By this time, my
grandfather’s story came into doubt. He
had been 3 at the time of her death. Did
he correctly remember the story? Or had
it been passed down and told so many
times it was mired in inaccuracy? Could
Bessie be a nickname and we were search-
ing under the wrong name? The questions
were as endless as our search.
The break finally came in 2009.
A friend suggested requesting my
grandfather’s Social Security application
from the state of Michigan vital records

department. His mother’s name would be
included on the application. At that time,
you sent a check to the state for $35, along
with the person’s Social Security number
and crossed your fingers that someone
would respond.
A couple months later, when we had
given up hope, the Social Security applica-
tion arrived in the mail. So did the dis-
covery that my grandfather had changed
the spelling of his last name, and all these
years we had been searching incorrectly.
With that new information, we found
Bessie’s death certificate online within five
minutes and, on it, the place of her burial
(as well as her cause of death, which con-
firmed the legend).
Her burial location was listed as Beth
David (now B’nai David) Cemetery,
and we quickly jumped into the car and
headed to Detroit to pay our respects. But
we did not make it into the cemetery that
day. Instead, we discovered the cemetery,
begun by a now-defunct synagogue,
only opened twice a year. It took several
months for us to get inside.
Finally, on Mother’s Day, 91 years after
her death, Bessie’s granddaughter and
great-granddaughter visited her grave.
If you are searching for a long-lost
loved one, consider starting your journey
with the Irwin I. Cohn Michigan Jewish
Cemetery Index.
This resource was initiated in 1993 with
the goal of constructing a master database
with a record for every burial in Metro
Detroit’s Jewish cemeteries. At this time,
the database includes burials from the
earliest recorded information to 1999. We
currently are working to bring the data-
base to the present.
The index has several exciting new
features, including the ability to upload
photographs, as well as to add records
that currently are not on the index. The
cemetery index is easy to use and, best of
all, free.
Happy searching!

*

Robbie Terman is director of the Leonard N.
Simons Jewish Community Archives. This story first
appeared on Federation’s myjewishdetroit.org.