Abraham Ratner

The founder of our Ratner family in America was born Abraham Bloch in Minsk. He came to Rostov,…

Isaak Wohlgemuth

Our Wohlgemuth family patriarch embraced the values and culture of assimilated German Jewry in…

Rose Tulbowitz

Pogrom victim as a girl in Russia became the Ratner family matriarch in Albany, New York

Isidor Topp

Associate of Sidney Kessler who managed distillery construction and operations in Puerto Rico.…

Bertha Yesersky

The mother of Joseph Rabinowitz may have been the daughter of Abram Yesersky of Vaukavysk, whose…

Knud Knudsen

Connecticut industrialist and inventor who purchased the rights to Walter Ruby's corkscrew…

Sidney Kessler

Walter Ruby's boss in the liquor business became an influential figure an Innovator in the…

Julius Wohlgemuth

The fourth child of Leopold and Friedereke Wohlgemuth, later the co-owner of the Danzig …

Rosalie Wohlgemuth

The unmarried daughter of Leopold and Friedreke Wohlgmuth became a Berlin art dealer who…

Hilda Wohlgemuth

The Wohlgemuth daughter who married well after the war and lived fabulously…

Isaak Paechter

The younger brother of Friedereke Paechter Wohlgemutgh

Joseph Liebman

The rough-cut Parisian jeweler who married our aunt Hilda

Emile Gissot

The Portuguese honorary consul in Toulouse, France, who issued life-saving visas to war refugees…

Schifra Tulbowitz

With her husband Scholom Aron Tulbowitz, Schifra (known as Sophie) migrated thousands of miles…

Leopold Wohlgemuth

One of the Wohlgemuth family from Stargardt, the son of Abraham, who fathered five children…

Harry Ruby

The noted American composer and screenwriter who may have inspired Walter…

Chien-Shiung Wu

Stan's graduate research advisor who was a prominent Chinese-American experimental physicist

Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor

The eminent rabbi from Kovno to whom our Rabinowitz branch may be distantly related

Gerhard Feidt

Later Gerald Fyte

Rosa Lewi

The mother of Gerald Fyte was the only Lewi sibling who survived the Nazi persecution

Gustav Lewi

German composer and pianist whose career was interrupted by the Nazi repressions. He was the…

Franziska Lewi

The Lewi sibling who married a Christian cousin. She perished with her husband at Teresienstadt…

Moritz Feidt

Descendant of Rothschild family who founded a Berlin department store chain. Husband of Rosa…

Schija Ringel

Settled in Berlin in the early 1880s

Moses Ringel

Patriarch of our Ringel branch. He fathered eight children with Rose Lea Reichmann in the…

Gerald Clerc

Gerald Clerc is the son of Arnoud Clerc who carried on the family brand in the luxury watch…

Regina Twiasschor

Daughter of Betty Ringel and Pinkas Twiasschor. Known as Gina. She escaped Berlin with her…

Theodor Kleemann

Purveyor of "colonial goods"—tea, coffee and spices—in Danzig during the times of the German…

Stanislaw Dygat

Polish author and screenwriter who served as the consul of the Polish government in Toulouse,…

Rosa Ringel

Sister of Hermann Ringel who perished in a Belgrade mobile killing van

Margot Shatner

Daughter of Rosa Ringel who perished in a mobile killing van in Belgrade in 1942. 

Betty Ringel

Sister of Hermann Ringel who married Pinkas Twiasschor and raised two daughters on her own after…

Ze'ev Sharon

Born Woif Schattner, Ze'ev went to Palestine as a young man, and therefore escaped the fate of…

Amalie Katz

Cousin of Betty Wohlgemuth who made her funeral arrangements in February 1942. Three months…

Joan Ruby

Daughter of Walter Ruby and Selma Ratner. Brother of Stanley. Mother of Wendy, Marsha and Robert…

Dina Twiasschor

The sister of Pinkas Twiasschor who perished in Kolomea with her husband and son. A daughter,…

Jean-Jacques Richard

Blogger on the history of the French jewelry industry who was instrumental in uncovering the…

Morris Spector

An early investigator and expert in the genealogy of Rabbi Yitzhak Elchanon Spektor who guided…

Shirley Portnoy

Genealogist whose path I kept crossing during my work.

Twyla Eilertsen Ruby

Twyla's graduate education in the history of science prepared her for a career in museum…

Judith Bennett Eilertsen

Little sister of the Montana Bennetts married Minnesota minister Ed Eilertsen and raised three…

Kathleen (Kate) Eilertsen

Minnesota minister's daughter who went east and then west to make her career as an artist…

Eilert Osmundsen

Father of Jacob Eilertsen

Herbert E. Stetson

Maine educator who went west and raised a family in Iowa. They later resettled in Montana, where…

Harriet E. Smith

Raised as Hattie Smith in North Bloomfield, Ohio, she married Herbert Stetson in Earlville, Iowa…

Hezekiah Stetson

From Pembroke in the Plymouth Colony, he resettled in the Maine District after serving in the…

Isetta Stetson

Montana society girl who raised five Bennett children

Josiah Tilson Stetson

Prominent in Sumner, Maine as deacon of the Congregational Church.

James Vincent Bennett

An Irish-American on the prairie

Ruth P. Haskell

Exemplar of the Haskell family's westward migration was twice married and widowed and bore three…

Captain George Henry Haskell

From the Massachusetts Haskell family who settled successively in Vermont, New York and Ohio.…

Thomas Nelson Haskell

Youngest son of Captain Haskell was a man of letters, Congregationalist minister and a founder…

Martha Haskell

Daughter of Captain Haskell born in Chautauqua who married Josiah T. Smith in Trumbull County,…

Levi Smith

Early settler in Bloomfield Township, Trumbull County, in the Ohio Western Reserve

Patty Smith

The twice-widowed Ohioan set off for a new adventure in Iowa

Arvilla Delight Smith

Held hostage with her daughter Josephine after husband Nathan Meeker was killed in a Colorado…

Roger Haskell Jr.

The younger Haskell remained with his family in Mina, N.Y. after George Haskell moved on to Ohio…

Josiah Smith

Revolutionary War veteran whose descendants settled Ohio, Iowa and points west

Nathan Cook Meeker

Social reformer sent to Colorado by Horace Greeley was the victim of an Indian uprising. He was…

Josephine Meeker

Daughter of Nathan Meeker who wrote and lectured about her experiences in the Meeker massacre.…

Ralph Lovejoy Meeker

Journalist for the New York Herald who exposed corruption in the Ulysses Grant…

Celestia Bradley

Daughter of Patty Smith Bradley Sweat. Wife of Mansel Wicks.

George (Piser) Ratner

First son of Abe and Rose Ratner whose intermarriage to Emma Paeglow caused a family rift…

Julius Paechter

Progenitor of the Paechter family branch in Tiegenhof

Jakob Schia Ringel

The Ringel brother who came to North America

Juda Leib Ringel

Brother of Schija Ringel who was a slaughterer in Berlin

Kevin Jenkins

Technical visionary responsible for Family History Machine's technical development

Mark Zimkin

Long-lost Rabinowitz family descendant was the key to understanding the Zimkin branch

Rebe Eisenstein

A Zimkin family in-law who provided important memories of the Rabinowitz family

Brice Rustad

Brookhaven physicist who collaborated with Stanley Ruby on the He6 recoil experiment…

Your male ancestor

An ancestor or other person who played an important role in the family story.

Your female ancestor

A principle participant in family story events

Julius Rabinowitz

First-born child of Joseph and Lena Rabinowitz. He worked as a bookkeeper in a dry-goods store.…

Judith N. Robbins

Daughter of Julius Rabinowitz

Joseph Rabinowitz

The progenitor of the Rabinowitz/Ruby/Robbins family in America descended from a branch of the…

Elly Wohlgemuth

A cultured and affluent Berlin Jewish widow who escaped from Europe with her teenage daughter,…

Jean-Jacques Richard

French jewelry blogger who opened doors to discovery of the Clerc-Liebman history

Dan Ruby

Editorial technologist who created Family History Machine

Walter Ruby

The youngest son of the immigrant Rabinowitz family, Walter Ruby reinvented himself…

Walter Ruby (the younger)

The eldest child of Stanley and Helga Ruby turned his youthful zeal for the Jewish state into a…

Selma Ratner

Daughter of Abe and Rose Ratner of Albany. Married Walter Ruby. Mother of Joan and Stanley.…

Betty Katz

Isaak Wohlgemuth's widow lived comfortably in Berlin's Bavarian Quarter. She chose to remain in…

Edith Twiasschor

Ringel-Twiasschor family member who, along with her sister, escaped from Germany to London in…

Helga Ringel

Born into a German Jewish family, she escaped with her mother at age 14 and built a new life as…

Stanley Ruby

Golden boy from the "greatest generation" inhabited his Jewish-American identity and values. He…

Hirsch Zvi Ringel

Brother of Schija Ringel who was a rabbi in Berlin. Married to Perl Jacobi. Father of eight.…

Louis Darquier de Pellapoix

French aryanization official 

Dr. Kurt Blanke

Chief lawyer in the Nazi aryanization process in Paris

Ezra H. Stetson

Prominent shoe manufacturer from South Weymouth, Massachusetts. His brother Herbert Stetson died…

Hermann Ringel

Jewish Berliner who prospered as a wholesaler and later manufacturer of outerwear for…