Hi Bob
This is a good idea. How many of us who are not Jewish, I wonder, have Jewish ancestors from Eastern Europe whose given names are a mystery to us and frequently bear no relation to the names they were known by in England? They are also impossible to interpret as male or female.
On his naturalisation papers, my paternal grandfather (Israel Klein) states that his parents were Abraham Isaac Klein and Joyce Berliner Klein (Russians) from Plotzk in Poland. I have searched and searched without success.
But, just recently I came across an old photograph of a headstone in Hebrew which was amongst my late father's papers (died 1986) and wondered why he would keep such a photo. Translated it emerged that it was the grave of one Simcha, daughter of Benjamin, and the epitaph read "deeply mourned by her son, daughter-in-law and grand-sons". As my grandparents only had two boys I immediately assumed this was them - therefore the grave would belong to my great-grandmother, Joyce Berliner Klein.
I contacted a friend who speaks Hebrew and who is an archivist, who established the location of this grave and that the burial records show that the lady buried in it was a Sophia Fasser who died in early September 1925. Armed with this information I ordered the death certificate. This shows that she was the widow of Abraham Fasser and that the informant was her son, Cyril Keene - this is the name my grandfather took on naturalisation - so it is definitely my great-grandmother.
Wonderful, I thought, now I might be able to get somewhere. Not so. I have searched Jewishgen for Fassers with the right given names - nothing. I have, though, found an Abram Icek Fiszer and am wondering.
I had also previously noticed that my great grandmother's middle name, Berliner, had come up on my grandparent's marriage certificate - a Harry Berliner - as a witness. So I tried Benjamin Berliner - and found one (of only two) with a daughter called Sima Boruch Berliner - but I have no way of knowing whether this IS the right person. Could Sima have been "shortened" to Simcha?
I don't suppose I will ever know for sure - and, of course, there's absolutely no one left alive to ask.
Kismet