Shifra KIER ²

   Other names for Shifra were Feyga Shifra GEFFEN, Schifre GEFFEN, Shifrah GEFFEN, Sopha A. GEFFEN and Sarah GIFFIN.

  General Notes:

Shifra is the source of my W Haplogroup. This mutation entered India from Arabia sometime around 35,000 BC and then spread to Anatolia before the last ice age, after which it entered the Balkans and spread to southern and northeastern Europe, including Italy, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. My specific variation on the W Haplogroup having the mutations

16223T
16292T
16519C
73G
194T
195C
199C
204C
207A
263G
309.1C
315.1C

appears to be a specifically Jewish variation but only makes up a small percentage of Jewish mtDNA Haplogroups. The implication is that Shifra's direct female ancestors lived in northeastern Europe before the major Jewish immigration of the late 15th and early 16th Centuries. Whether the surname Kier (Lithuanian Kir) has anything to do with this is unknown at present. ⁸

  Research Notes:

Shifra's tombstone gives her age as 73 at her death on March 23, 1910. The Hamburg.de site has Shifra's birth date as 1846/1847, apparently incorrectly, since her daughter Anne was born in 1858.

Shifra's death certificate has her father as "John Kier." This is contradicted by her tombstone, which has him as "Elazar Geffen." Marjorie Goldberg thinks that "John Kier" is somehow the Midwestern equivalent of "John Doe." However, other unknown entries on the death certificate are clearly filled in with "unknown." This would tend to indicate that there is some relevance in the name. Her fourth son is "John," implying that there was someone named Jonah or Jacob (Jacob>Jack>John) or similar after whom he was named. The informant for the death certificate was "M Levich," who appears in the Sioux City census as an immigrant from Russia, implying that they knew each other as co-religionists. M. Levich was one of the trustees of the Adas Yeshurun Orthodox Congregation at their incorporation in 1901.

Alexander Beider finds Kirs living in Vilkomir (Ukmerge), the hometown of the earliest Geffens. These may be the same as the Girs listed in the All Lithuania Database as residents of Vilkomir. "Kir" is a Slavic form of the Persian name "Cyrus."
^{2 3 5 6 9 10}

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Residence, May 26, 1858, Ukmerge, Ukmerge, Kaunas, [Lithuania], Russian Empire. ³

2. Embarkation, Jul 21, 1892, Hamburg. ^{6 11} Shifre sailed on the SS Warrington to Liverpool, then to New York on the SS City of Berlin.

3. Immigration, Aug 5, 1892, Ellis Island, New York. ¹¹ "Schiffre" is listed as 45 years old.

4. Residence, Jun 19, 1900, 311 W. 7th Street, Sioux City, Iowa. ¹

Shifra married Aria Tsvi GEFEN, son of Iovnash GEFEN and Dreza, in 1855 in Russia.¹ (Aria Tsvi GEFEN was born in 1830 in Ukmerge, Kaunas, [Lithuania], Russian Empire,^{1 12} died on Aug 18, 1903 in Sioux City, Iowa ^{5 7} and was buried in Mount Sinai Cemetery, Sioux City, Iowa ⁷.)