The sweep of family history across the generations
It was a signature moment of the turbulent 1960s. Walter, 18, and Dan, 15, were there in Chicago, working as messengers for the Eugene McCarthy campaign.
Elly worked hard to earn a living as a hat maker while Helga adapted easily at Julia Richmond High School. In the summer, they took a room in a beach town on Long Island.
Rosa Ringel married Pinkas Twiasschor in a borough of London in January 1911, at the same time that Twiasschor's sister wed another Berlin businessman. What was that all about?
Two of the Ruby offspring went back to Israel for significant periods.
Dan supplemented his attendance at a Warsaw genealogy conference with a tour of family locations. Read his blog postings and view the post-trip video coverage.
Five siblings who stayed true to German ideals until the bitter end
Betty Ringel's two daughters were able to leave Germany before 1938. They were in the twenties and they settled in London.
Members of a farming family took to the sea both as an occupational calling and a means of emigration
Machinist Dan Ruby and his team members envision a new future for Family History Machine
How did Betty Katz meet her end in February 1942?
She made each of her six grandchildren feel special
Our years in Pittsburgh were spent in a tract house in a natural wonderland—backed up against a family farm and an equestrian estate.
When Hermann turned 21 in 1906, he presented documentation to secure legal German citizenship.
After the war, Joe Liebman came back to Paris with a glamorous new wife. Oh, what a life they led
Insider dealings in the French jewelry trade. Swank cocktail parties for the Nazi elite. A rough-cut Jewish jeweler and his ebullient new wife. Where Henry Kissinger met Le Duc Tho.
An innovator in modern dance and choreography since breaking in with the Murray Lewis Dance Company in the 1980s. The Ratners moved geographically. Janis moves artistically.
When and why did Walter Rabinowitz take on our abbreviated last name? He may have gotten the idea during intermission at a Bronx nickelodeon
Remembering our Ringel and Wohlgemuth/Paechter family members who perished in the Shoah.
From civil rights to war resistance to arms control, Ruby family members embraced liberal social causes
The Ringel family crossed from Lisbon on the SS Guine—but their entry to the U.S. was anything but routine
Three brothers of the Kleemann family from the Weinberg district of 19th century Danzig operated a coffee and tea import business. Hugo Lewi married into the family and was a dealer in military effects.
In July 1940, consular officials from three nations conspired to open an escape route for Jews out of occupied France. Why did they do it?
Janis, Leslie and Amy grew up—each a star in her own way.
During the first five years of Hitler's reign of terror, Jewish families of Berlin faced one repression after another.
Rosa Feidt was the only Lewi sibling who got out, to her everlasting remorse
The Clerc jewelry assets were seized and resold to an Aryan buyer. The Nazis kept perfect records of the transactions.
Out of the files of the U.S. Patent Office and into the peculiar subculture of corkscrew collectors
A surprising artifact discovered after a parent's death leads to a series of discoveries and a new pastime in genealogy
In 1907, Moritz Feidt built a department store in Berlin Stieglitz. It still stands today
Most of the family from Tiegenhof found their way to Berlin by the early years of the twentieth century. At first they prospered—until the coming devastation
The estranged husband of Betty Ringel was one of the 1000 war evacuees who found safe haven in the only U.S refugee camp
From 1880s to the 1930s, the Ringel family prospered in the garment trade in the German capital. Herman made men's outerwear.
Before moving his family to Berlin in 1912, Isaak Wohlgemuth prospered as a mover in Danzig. His family roots were in nearby West Prussia.
The Ringel sisters, Betty Twiasschor and Rosa Schattner, lived with their children in adjacent apartments on Lothringerstraße.
The U.S. liquor industry took off after the repeal of Prohibition. Walter Ruby was the marketing manager for the American Spirits company
Cherry picking the best content from our founding document written in 2006: "The Ruby Family Histories — The Early Lives of Stanley and Helga Ruby"
Walter thought he had proved the family legend of descent from the celebrated Kovno Rav, Rabbi Yitchak Elchanon Spektor. Later facts emerged that suggested a more tenuous connection.
Walter Ruby hustled his way as a traveling silver salesman, with some career side trips into boxing promotion and medicinal alcohol.