Family Story Finder
The sweep of family history across the generations
Helga in the League of Women Voters
Helga expressed a commitment to liberal values in her lifelong work for the League of Women Voters.
Kindergarten campaigner
In 1955, Helga led a committee of parents to open a preschool in Vestal.
Mel Brenner
Mel accomplished many things in life, but his life’s greatest moments happened during the Battle of the Bulge
Rabbi Spektor's true genealogy
Most of what we discovered about Rabbi Spektor's genealogy was entirely true. All but the myth of our family's connection to it
Stan finds love outside of a 20-block radius
Home from the war, Stan Ruby was a graduate student in physics at Columbia University. Helga Ringel was a smart, pretty war refugee from Berlin
The problem with anti-ballistic missiles
Stanley Ruby entered the public debate over nuclear missile technology in 1968-69.
Yichus and our relation to the famous rabbi
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.