In a 1942 US Draft registration, John Leks lists his birth place as Robtbach, Romania. Any guess as to where that is? His wife is born in Großjetscha. Robert Evensen

I thought I'd mention 3 sites which are helpful finding village names.  Sadly in Robert's case, I found no Robtbach.  There is a family name similar .. Rohrbach.  Perhaps it is something like that.  Transcribing from old handwriting can be very tough.  While searching Ellis Island for my grandparents, there was no one on the list with the village I knew they came from in the sites initial search results.  But when I actually looked at the real transcript, I could see the Ellis Island transcriber had mistaken the 2 first letters for something totally different.  Another thing I learned is if something "sounds" the same it often is the same, despite their spelling variation.  I've found at least 10 different speilings for Deschu.  So give yourself a little flexibility when searching. Here are the links for the 3 sites that might help others .. and even Robert. There is an online resource for finding villages.  It identifies itself as being for Jewish researchers, but most villages were not only Jewish.  It will find villages with similar spellings or sound throughout eastern Europe.  I found my grandmothers Ukrainian village on it, when no other resource had.  It's worth a try, so I thought I'd mention it.       http://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/Search.asp This is also a handy village name resource.        http://www.feefhs.org/links/banat/townban.html One other resource is       http://www.dvhh.org/banat/village/index.htm Cathy Deschu in dark, windy 27º Pennsylvania (we're having a heat wave) --- On Tue, 1/12/10, Robert Evensen <revensen@comcast.net> wrote: From: Robert Evensen <revensen@comcast.net> Subject: [BANAT-L] John Leks To: "'Banat List'" <BANAT-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 5:02 PM In a 1942 US Draft registration, John Leks lists his birth place as Robtbach, Romania.  Any guess as to where that is?  His wife is born in Großjetscha. Robert Evensen ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BANAT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Cathy, Thanks for all the sites and help. The name Robtbach is very clear on the registration record. In fact it is printed in block letters, so there is no mistaking a European or Gothic script. I went to Dave's site on Banaters to the US and found no one with the name Leks. Now this is very strange. Even in Ancestry.com it is a rather unusual name as spelled. There are several families with the name from Poland, but his record says Romania and he is married to a woman from Großjetscha. I can only assume the spelling is some variant of the original German. To make the problem more interesting. John Leks's wife is Elisabetha Ott, daughter of Michael Ott and Barbara Lambing of Großjetscha. In the FB Großjetscha, Hans Wikete does not know what happened to Elisabetha, so there is only a birth date. I found her emigration record from Hamburg on 14 Sep 1906. I don't believe she is listed yet on Dave's list. As soon as I find her American landing, I will report it to him. So I am feeling comfortable that John Leks is from Romania. What village is still the question! Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cathy Deschu" <cjdeschu@yahoo.com> To: "Banat List" <banat@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 6:31 PM Subject: Re: [BANAT-L] John Leks I thought I'd mention 3 sites which are helpful finding village names. Sadly in Robert's case, I found no Robtbach. There is a family name similar .. Rohrbach. Perhaps it is something like that. Transcribing from old handwriting can be very tough. While searching Ellis Island for my grandparents, there was no one on the list with the village I knew they came from in the sites initial search results. But when I actually looked at the real transcript, I could see the Ellis Island transcriber had mistaken the 2 first letters for something totally different. Another thing I learned is if something "sounds" the same it often is the same, despite their spelling variation. I've found at least 10 different speilings for Deschu. So give yourself a little flexibility when searching. Here are the links for the 3 sites that might help others .. and even Robert. There is an online resource for finding villages. It identifies itself as being for Jewish researchers, but most villages were not only Jewish. It will find villages with similar spellings or sound throughout eastern Europe. I found my grandmothers Ukrainian village on it, when no other resource had. It's worth a try, so I thought I'd mention it. http://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/Search.asp This is also a handy village name resource. http://www.feefhs.org/links/banat/townban.html One other resource is http://www.dvhh.org/banat/village/index.htm Cathy Deschu in dark, windy 27º Pennsylvania (we're having a heat wave) --- On Tue, 1/12/10, Robert Evensen <revensen@comcast.net> wrote: From: Robert Evensen <revensen@comcast.net> Subject: [BANAT-L] John Leks To: "'Banat List'" <BANAT-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 5:02 PM In a 1942 US Draft registration, John Leks lists his birth place as Robtbach, Romania. Any guess as to where that is? His wife is born in Großjetscha. Robert Evensen

Robert, Do you have the marriage information for John & Elisabeth (29 May 1913 in Lake County, Indiana)? If not, do a search for John Lekz on ancestry.com, and it will come up. I don't know whether the original record would have a birth place for John. Jane Moore At 05:37 PM 1/12/2010, Robert Evensen wrote: >Hi Cathy, > >Thanks for all the sites and help. The name Robtbach is very clear on the >registration record. In fact it is printed in block letters, so there is no >mistaking a European or Gothic script. I went to Dave's site on Banaters to >the US and found no one with the name Leks. Now this is very strange. Even >in Ancestry.com it is a rather unusual name as spelled. There are several >families with the name from Poland, but his record says Romania and he is >married to a woman from Großjetscha. I can only assume the spelling is some >variant of the original German. > >To make the problem more interesting. John Leks's wife is Elisabetha Ott, >daughter of Michael Ott and Barbara Lambing of Großjetscha. In the FB >Großjetscha, Hans Wikete does not know what happened to Elisabetha, so there >is only a birth date. I found her emigration record from Hamburg on 14 Sep >1906. I don't believe she is listed yet on Dave's list. As soon as I find >her American landing, I will report it to him. So I am feeling comfortable >that John Leks is from Romania. What village is still the question! > >Robert > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Cathy Deschu" <cjdeschu@yahoo.com> >To: "Banat List" <banat@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 6:31 PM >Subject: Re: [BANAT-L] John Leks > > >I thought I'd mention 3 sites which are helpful finding village names. Sadly >in Robert's case, I found no Robtbach. There is a family name similar .. >Rohrbach. Perhaps it is something like that. Transcribing from old >handwriting can be very tough. While searching Ellis Island for my >grandparents, there was no one on the list with the village I knew they came >from in the sites initial search results. But when I actually looked at the >real transcript, I could see the Ellis Island transcriber had mistaken the 2 >first letters for something totally different. Another thing I learned is if >something "sounds" the same it often is the same, despite their spelling >variation. I've found at least 10 different speilings for Deschu. So give >yourself a little flexibility when searching. > >Here are the links for the 3 sites that might help others .. and even >Robert. > > >There is an online resource for finding villages. It identifies itself as >being for Jewish researchers, but most villages were not only Jewish. It >will find villages with similar spellings or sound throughout eastern >Europe. I found my grandmothers Ukrainian village on it, when no other >resource had. It's worth a try, so I thought I'd mention it. > >http://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/Search.asp > >This is also a handy village name resource. > >http://www.feefhs.org/links/banat/townban.html > >One other resource is > >http://www.dvhh.org/banat/village/index.htm > > >Cathy Deschu in dark, windy 27º Pennsylvania (we're having a heat wave) > >--- On Tue, 1/12/10, Robert Evensen <revensen@comcast.net> wrote: > >From: Robert Evensen <revensen@comcast.net> >Subject: [BANAT-L] John Leks >To: "'Banat List'" <BANAT-L@rootsweb.com> >Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 5:02 PM > >In a 1942 US Draft registration, John Leks lists his birth place as >Robtbach, Romania. Any guess as to where that is? His wife is born in >Großjetscha. > >Robert Evensen > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an >email to BANAT-request@rootsweb.com with the >word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the >subject and the body of the message

Robert, Where were they living in the USA ? Harold ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Evensen<mailto:revensen@comcast.net> To: 'Banat List'<mailto:BANAT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3:02 PM Subject: [BANAT-L] John Leks In a 1942 US Draft registration, John Leks lists his birth place as Robtbach, Romania. Any guess as to where that is? His wife is born in Großjetscha. Robert Evensen ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BANAT-request@rootsweb.com<mailto:BANAT-request@rootsweb.com> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message