Pointers about keyword search
Yiddish words in society names were often transliterated inconsistently by different societies and different cemeteries. Some examples of letters that were interchanged: c and tz; c and z; c and k; v and f; v and b; sh and sch; a and o; z and s; g and h; y, i, and j; v and w; o and u; h and ch. To cut down on missing some entries, use the first four or five letters only. For instance, a search for Chech will bring up all societies for the towns of Ciechanow and Ciechanowiec, Poland.
Yiddish or Hebrew words are not used as keywords because there were too may variations in spelling amongst the societies. Examples: Shearith, Sheares, Sheiris, Sheras, Sheris; Tifereth, Tiferas, Tiferes; and Ahavath, Ahawath, Ahaves, Ahawas.
Only the most unique word in a society's name is used as the keyword. The following words are not used as keywords, unless in a rare instance they are the sole word that can be used as the keyword:
Academy, Achim, Agudas, Aid, American, Anshei, Association, Avenue, Beach, Beit, Beneficiary, Benefit, Benevolent, Beth, Biker Cholim, Bnei/Bnai, Brethern, Brotherhood, Brotherly, Brothers, Brueder, Bruederlicher, Burial, Camp, Cemetery, Center, Charitable, Chesed, Chevra, Children, Circle, City, Club, Committee, Community, Congregation, County, Cousins, Daughters of, Descendants, Erste, Family, Father, First, Foundation, Fraternal, Frauen, Free, Friends, Fund, Garden, Grounds, Group, Guild, Har, Hebrew, Heights, Hills, House, Inc, Independent, Institute, IOBA, Island, Jewish, King, Kinsfolk, Kinsmen, Kranken, Ladies, Lodge, Memorial, Mother, Mount, Mutual, New, Old, Organization, Park, Plot, Podolier, Progressive, Rabbi, Relative, Relief, Reserve, School, Sfard, Shul, Sick, Side, Sisterhood, Sisters, Society, Sons of, Street, Synagogue, Temple, Tifereth, Tree, United, Unt., Unter, Verein, Welfare, Widow & Orphan, Young Men's
As an example, for Mount Eden Center, the keyword would be Eden. Sometimes it was a judgment call: for Temple Anshe Chesed, where all three words are not generally used as keywords, the keyword here would necessarily be Chesed. If one word doesn't work for you, try another.
When a society is named for a person, a surname search takes precedence over the first name, unless only the first name is given.
Many societies have "er" at the end of the word, which means a person from the town. For instance, a Bialystoker is a person from Bialystok. Eliminate all endings such as er, ier, aer, ower, over, auer, aver, ewer, ever, nik, nick, oner, aner from your search because they are not consistent for any given society. Likewise do not end your keyword in a, e, i, o or u. Example: a search of just Kovn yields Kovno, Kovner, Kovna.
After you do a keyword search and find the correct name of the town, then do a search by town name to make sure that you locate all the societies for that town.
The website New York Landsmanshaftn and Other Jewish Organizations complements our database nicely. It may contain the names of landsmanshaftn that don't have cemetery plots (not all of them did). More importantly, in case you don't have any idea how to spell the name of the society you are looking for, it will provide that spelling so that you can use it as a guide for your keyword search (this assumes that you don't know the current name of your town where you could just do a town name search).
