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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday - Toba (Tillie) Dudelsack Oberman




Translation of Hebrew inscription: Here lies Toba Oberman, daughter of Reb Samuel Zvi, died 9th of Av, 5695. May her soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

She was the daughter of Gitel. It is her death certificate which provides the only documentary proof of the ancestral Dudelsack surname, as her "father's name" was recorded by a daughter (phonetically) as Samuel Harry Dudelzock. Her mother, and two brothers, changed their surname upon arriving in America. However, she married before coming to America, so I suspect in her mind her maiden name never changed.

As I've noted before: Zvi is the Hebrew word for 'Deer'. The Yiddish word is 'Hirsch'. When Americanizing their given names many Jews looked for common American names with as many matching consonants as possible, using either the Hebrew or the Yiddish variant, so Zvi/Hirsch often became Harry.

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