I am interested in speaking with anyone whose ancestors were buried in the Gottzolowai section of Mount Zion Cemetery, Maspeth NY, Queens.

Mt Zion is a very large Jewish cemetery with thousands of graves, organized according to beneficial or burial societies.

People who chose to be buried by a beneficial society paid dues, may have known one another, may have socialized or worked with one another, may have gone to the same synagogue in New York, and/or come from the same community, shtetl, or region in Europe.

One possibility is the Gottzolowai Benevolent Association may have had roots near Odessa Ukraine, and possibly Yevpatoriya, on the Crimea peninsula (near Odessa). Yevpatoriya used to be called "Kezlev" or "Gottleve" which "sounds like" Gottzolowai.

Another shtetl could have been Hotzila (also spelled Hotsila or Hotsia), and also known as Gotsulovo, or Valehotzulovo, or Dolyns'ke. This shtetl of about 1500 people was in the Odessa district, Kherson province. A larger shtetl nearby was called Ananiev (Ananyev).

My husband's great grandparents were from "the Odessa area" (that's all we know), and they paid dues to be buried in the Gottzolowai section.

Little is known about the history of this benevolent association, started around 1897. About 200 people chose to be buried in this section of Mt Zion Cemetery. They had to have had something in common.

If you know anything about it, have any documents related to it, or ancestors buried there, please post a reply or link here.

By the way, online look-ups can be done today for Mount Zion Cemetery by going to: www.mountzioncemetery.com, clicking on "interment search" and then "name". You can also search by benevolent society.