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JOIN THE BRISS/SKAIST GENETIC PROJECT!

Discover the ancient origins of your ancestry!

Avram Notte Briss was one of Yisrael and Sheine Esther Briss' four children. He owned a wool-cleaning machine and was also a cattle dealer. His wife's name was Feige bat Zundel. Of their seven children, some were born in Skapiskis and some were born in Ukmerge.

At some point, Avram Notte changed his surname and his children's surnames from Briss to Skaist. One of the sons became a rabbinical student. Another became a professional photographer. Two sons and a daughter, along with their own families, were killed in the 1941 Nazi occupation of Lithuania.

We don't know when or why the family name was changed, or why he chose the name Skaist. We don't know when or where he and his wife died and were buried.

When I corresponded with Galina Baranova at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in 1994, she told me the record books for Pandelys and Skapiskis had not been received by the archives, and, in all probability, had been destroyed. However, she did locate and send me some Skaist records from Birzai and Kaunas. On examination, they did not fit into the Briss family tree as I knew it. I saved them with our own family records, hoping someday to discover the genealogical link.

As I corresponded with other Skaists around the world, I received tantalizing clues which only spawned more questions. The elders of the other Skaist family say their original family name, many generations ago, was BRIN!

"Skaist" is a Lithuanian root word meaning "light" or "bright," as in the words "skaistybe," "skaistumas," and "skaistus," all of which have to do with brightness and lucidity. "Skaists" is a Lettish (Latvian) word meaning "lovely," "beautiful," and "angelic." There is also a town named Skaistkalne, just over the Latvian border from Lithuania, and it lies on a route which connects Birzai to Riga.

In June 2008, it was determined through the Briss/Skaist Genetic Project that the two families are not genealogically related, but it is certain that we were at least neighbors. Rabbi Mordche Semer presided over the bris ceremonies of both Yisrael Hirsh (Harry) Bris and Yankel Skaist in the town of Birzai.

The patriarch of the SKAIST family was MORDECHAI IZREL BRIN, who was contemporary with our patriarch Yisrael Bris. They could have been brothers or cousins.

Mordechai Izrel Brin had a daughter, whose name and family we don't know, and two sons:
Eliyahu Schneur Zalman Skaist, who married twice, and Israel Skeist (spelled differently, pronounced the same).

ELIYAHU SCHNEUR ZALMAN SKAIST and his first wife had three children:

YEHUDAH

YISRAEL LEIB

MENDEL (Max Jacob) m. Tessie

ELIYAHU SCHNEUR ZALMAN SKAIST and BEDANAH LEAH (LEONORA) SEGAL had five children:

DAUGHTER, name unknown

SHMUEL MICHEL (Samuel Michel) m. Roche (Rachel) Kreinde Pelovicz

MOSHE (Moses) m. Tzvia (Secilia) Epstein

MORDECHAI (Morris) m. Fannie

CHAIM (Herman) m. Sylvia

ISRAEL SKEIST and HINDA KOTON had seven children:

HENNAH m. Getzel Esrock

ZALMAN m. Hennie Cotton

MENDEL m. Devorah Gittel

SAMUEL m. Bertha Glazer

RUCHEL m. Schmuel Grace

LEYBE

DEVEYRA m. Iankel-Berko Gersh