cherlin.org
if you run into difficulties, or if you have information to contribute.
We aim eventually to cover all lineages which have used the name "Cherlin" or a close variant at some point.
Most lines are connected to Russian lineages originally of one of the forms Tsirlin (or Tsyrlin), Cherlin, or Tserlin. Some are independent.
Coverage is international though the site is in English and uses the Latin alphabet, with imprecise transliteration from other alphabets. Hebrew forms tend to resemble Tzirlin. Polish forms tend to resemble Cirlin. Under German influence forms like Zirlin are common.
One line prominently represented here began as Chervin in Russia (Vilna gubernia) and adopted the name Cherlin in the U.S. This site is managed by family members from that line. However there is a separate site for Chervin genealogy. While our goal is to develop the Cherlin site as a general reference for Cherlin genealogy, traces of its origins as a single family site are sometimes visible (in particular, the photo gallery is very lopsided).
You can always contact the webmaster at
webmastercherlin.org
if you run into difficulties, or if you have information to contribute.
If you know precisely what you are looking for, try the search engine on the Front Page. Bear in mind that spellings of surnames and place names vary widely and we do only exact pattern matching.
A good alternative is to go directly to the table of contents where the various currently known lines are sorted by name and place of origin.
Some of the main lines are also listed on the Front Page, which links to overview pages.
We also have a lot of data which has not been analyzed. Fuller links are provided in the link "All Variants" and also via a complete table of all known forms (more or less).
There are a few things that don't link in conveniently link in anywhere which can be dug out using the search engine.
This page originated in the work of David and Estelle Cherlin the genealogy of the Cherlin line listed as "Vilna/Svir", very numerous in the U.S. Their records were converted to graphic and HTML form by Gregory in Fall 1996. See David's biographical entry for more on this.
Research by Stewart Cherlin eventually showed this line was originally a Chervin (or Czerwin) line and led to the development of the Chervin genealogy page. Meanwhile this page has developed through the work of many researchers in other lines.
Early lines to be identified were the Lutsk Cherlin line and other lines prominently represented in the U.S., as well as an Australian line (represented by Malcolm Cherlin) which came via England from an unidentified location in the Pale of Settlement.
Later through Carlton Brooks we received the research of Rabbi Gorr (Israel) who had made a detailed investigation of this surname.
The most common form of the name in Russia was Tsirlin. The forms Cirlin and Zirlin are two very natural versions of this name. We are just beginning to get information on these lines, and on the Tsirlins of Russia. See for example Aaron Ginsburg's Cirlin-Ginzburg site. We also have some survey pages showing modern U.S. family members with related names, but in many cases we have not yet received family histories.
Family members in any of these lines are invited to contribute
The first set of data was organized by David Cherlin in 1993, and converted to HTML form in November 1996. Most of the information on the site in its present form has since been contributed by others. Some of us (notably Stew Cherlin) have mined U.S. Census data and the Ellis Island database, and continue to do research by mail and on-line. Searches at JewishGen and Yad Vashem have also turned up a considerable amount of information.
The names used vary for many reasons. One is the use of three alphabets Yiddish (Hebrew), Russian (Cyrillic), English (Latin) and more than three spelling conventions. Another is the randomization effect of immigration through Ellis Island and subsequent name changes. For more on this see the surname reference page.
2004-2006