Keidaner Cemeteries: A database and guide

Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of genealogist Ada Greenblatt, researchers now have access to a comprehensive database of names and other inscriptions from the tombstones in Keidaner cemeteries both in Keidan itself (Kedainiai, Lithuania) and elsewhere.

What data is included:

This database contains about 1,500 tombstone inscriptions from seven cemeteries: one in Keidan, five in greater New York, and one in Chicago.

• The one Jewish Cemetery that is still in existence in Kedainiai, Lithuania, containing 582 gravestones. On September 4, 1997, Ada Greenblatt, with her Lithuanian Jewish guide, the wonderful Regina Kopilevich, spent 9 hours in the cemetery going from tombstone to tombstone, which Ada transcribed as Regina read from the Hebrew. They were able to do all but about 120 of them. Those 120 or so require more time and/or rubbing material in order to decipher, or are otherwise illegible. Some of the other tombstones have sunk into the ground and a shovel is needed in order to determine the date and in several cases, even the name. The hours of daylight in Lithuania are 2-1/2 hours shorter in September than they are in June, so at 7:30pm they had to quit. But they covered all the tombstones that have surnames, plus all the others that are easily readable to the naked eye. Also Regina gave each tombstone a number in order of row and grave number (A-1, A-2, etc.) so that they can be located and identified by whomever visits the cemetery.

The burial data in the following Kedainer landsmannschaft plots in New York and Chicago were personally recorded solely and exclusively by Ada Greenblatt.  Ada went to each cemetery with a tape recorder and dictated all the information that was on the tombstone (including the Hebrew name) into that recorder.  Then she went home and transcribed it (not in the same day).  Ada has also submitted the burial data for these particular American Kedainer plots to the IAJGS Cemetery Project database, c/o Arline and Sidney Sachs, where it will be available on CD-ROM for purchase at the LA Seminar.

• The landsmannschaft plot for the Kedainer Association, located in Block 76, Gate 379/S in Montefiore Cemetery, 121-83 Springfield Blvd., St. Albans, Queens County, NY 11412. Tel. 718-528-1700. The plot contains 446 burials dating from 1911 through 1993. This plot is still being used and now contains some new burials that have occurred since Ada recorded the burial data in November 1995.

• The landsmannschaft plot for the Kedainer Association, located in Section 5, Post 509 in Washington Cemetery, 5400 Bay Parkway at MacDonald Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY 11230. Tel. 718-377-8690. This plot contains 160 burials from 1902-1995. The most recent burials in the plot are those of Russian immigrants from the post-war Soviet period and their tombstones have Cyrillic inscriptions. They may not necessarily have roots in Keidan. Ada recorded this plot in October 1997.

• The landsmannschaft plot for Congregation Bnei Israel Anshe Kadan, located in Section 1, Post 144 of Washington Cemetery (same location and phone as above). This plot contains 86 burials from 1888-1997, almost a 100 year period, representing some of the earliest immigrants from Kedain to have come to America. Ada recorded this plot in October 1997.

• Another landsmannschaft plot for Congregation Bnei Israel Anshe Kadan, located in Section 3, Post 287 of Washington Cemetery (same location and phone as above). This plot contains 72 burials from 1903-1978. For some unknown reason, there are several people who were born in Yassy (Iasi) Roumania who are buried in this plot. It says so on their tombstones. Some of them, notably Haimowitz and Usherson, even served as officers of Anshe Kadan, as listed on the gates. In fact, the parents of several of the people who are buried in this plot are buried in a Roumanian landsmannschaft plot that is directly adjacent to Anshe Kadan. Ada recorded this plot in October 1997.

• The landsmannschaft plot for Chevra Bnei Israel Anshe Keidan, located in Block 57, Path 2 of Mt. Hebron Cemetery, 13-04 Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing, Queens County, NY. Tel. 718-939-9405. This is the same society as Congregation Bnei Israel Anshe Kadan at Washington Cemetery. This plot contains 49 burials from 1914-1991. For some unknown reason, the spouses to some of the people buried in this plot are buried in the Kovner Unt. Verein plot which is directly adjacent to Anshe Keidan. Perhaps the plot was subdivided at one point into two separate plots, but Ada has no way of knowing. For genealogical purposes, where known, Ada has included in the database the spouse who is buried in the adjacent Kovner plot and has noted it accordingly. There may be other spouses and/or offspring in the Kovner plot for those buried in Anshe Keidan that Ada is unaware of. Ada recorded this plot in November 1997.

• The landsmannschaft plot for the Kadaner Unt. Verein at Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. This society was affiliated with Congregation/Chevra Bnei Israel Anshe Keidan in New York. The plot contains 94 burials from 1937 through 1996 and is still being used today. The Sexton for this particular plot is Woodlawn Cemetery Association, 1800 South Harlem Avenue, Forest Park, Cook County, Illinois. Tel. 708-366-4100. Ada recorded this plot in November 1997.

What fields are in the database:

1. Full English name (as listed on tombstone).
2. Full Hebrew name (as listed on tombstone). This contains the deceased's father's name as well. Examples: "Avraham ben Yitzchak" or "Chana bat Yosef". There are several cases where for unknown reasons a deceased's Hebrew name is not on their tombstone.
3. The dates field. This contains in almost all cases, the date of death and age. In many cases, particular in cases of those who died from the 1960s onwards, the date of birth is listed in lieu of the age. In some cases in the Kedainer landsmannschaft plots, where only a year was listed on the tombstone, Ada was able to get the full date from either the cemetery office, or the New York City death index, or the Social Security death index. When only the Hebrew date of death was listed, Ada converted it using the Zmanin Hebrew calendar conversion software. In the case of the tombstones in the Kedainiai Cemetery itself, mostly only the Hebrew date is given, consisting of mostly the month and the year (there wasn't the time to get the specific day).
4. The notes field. This field contains the English inscription on the tombstone, mostly things like "beloved husband, father and grandfather" or "beloved wife, mother and grandmother". Ada recorded this particular information because she thought that it was important for genealogical purposes as to whether or not the deceased had descendants. Ada has also included in this field the relationship of the deceased to other people in the plot with the same surname. In many cases the spouse was easy to determine because husband and wife shared a joint tombstone or if buried separately, they shared an identical looking tombstone, or one was directly next to or in back of the other. There were some cases where Ada thought that some people were related, but she wasn't sure, so she mentioned it with a question mark. In the case of the Kedainer Association plot at Montefiore Cemetery, Ada was able to look up the death records of all those who died in New York City prior to 1949 and she used that data to determine family relationships that were not easily determined by the tombstone alone. Ada has submitted a more detailed listing of this particular plot, including maiden names of spouses and the deceased's mother, to the AJGS Cemetery Project. Ada has also noted descrepancies, where known, between the age listed on the tombstone and the age listed on the death certificate. This was a frequent occurrence.

Additional Considerations:

Please be aware of the following:

• As we can see by the example of those born in Roumania who are buried in Bnei Israel Anshe Kadan at Washington Cemetery, not everyone that is buried in these Kedainer plots was from Keidan. The deceased may have been married to someone from Keidan or he or she may have just had friends from Keidan and thus chose to associate with a Kedainer society.

• Contrary to that, not everyone from Keidan is buried in a Kedainer landsmannschaft plot. Someone born in Kedain may be buried in a plot affiliated with a synagogue, a lodge or fraternal organization, an occupational plot, or in the same landsmannschaft plot as his or her non-Kedainer spouse. So if your bubbe or zayde, whom you always thought to be from Keidan, is not buried in a Kedainer society plot, it doesn't necessarily mean that they weren't from Keidan after all.

• Note that husband and wife and/or offpsring may be in two different Kedainer plots. For instance, Wolf Greenblatt, who died in 1939, is buried in the Kedainer Association plot at Montefiore Cemetery. His wife, Esther, who predeceased him, is buried in the older plot of the same landsmannschaft at Washington Cemetery.

• The database contains burials of people who do not have tombstones, people whose tombstones are too old and faded to read, or those of babies and children whose tombstones are sinking into the ground and cannot be read. Ada was able to get this information in the cemetery office by looking at the particular ledger books for the Kedainer society, arranged in chronological order of death. This was particularly true in the case of Washington Cemetery, which contains the oldest Kedainer burials and thus those which were the hardest to decipher. Because some of these burials were just a name and a date in a book, and no tombstone, Ada was able to look up the deceased's New York death cert. and get additional information which she included in the database. As opposed to Montefiore Cemetery, mentioned earlier, for Washington Cemetery, Ada looked up the New York City death certificates only for those burials who did not have tombstones or in cases where the tombstones were illegible. Not all of the deceased had a death certificate on file in New York City.

• Please note that Ada Greenblatt is unable and unwilling to do the following on your behalf:

  1. go out to the various cemeteries and take pictures of these tombstones
  2. make personal or telephone inquires to the cemetery office about any of these burials
  3. look up death certificates or any other documentation on any of the deceased
  4. provide anyone with any genealogical information about any of the deceased (other than Ada's own particular surnames of research as listed in the JewishGen Family Finder).

For more information about Keidan, see the Kedainiai (Keidan) Page.

To search this Keidan cemetery database, just type a surname into the space indicated below.  You can search for a precisely-spelled surname (e.g. "Cassel"); or look up surnames that sound the same using the "Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex" system — This will return all variant spellings of a particular name, such as Cassel / Kessel, Cohen / Kahn / Kohen / Kaan, Horowitz / Horowicz / Gurvitch, etc.   You can also do a Global Text search of the entire database for a text string (good for looking up first names or patronymics).