Joseph Liebman
The rough-cut Parisian jeweler who married our aunt Hilda
Elly Wohlgemuth
A cultured and affluent Berlin Jewish widow who escaped from Europe with her teenage daughter, Helga. Elly remade a life as an emigre New Yorker—but it could never replace what had been left behind.
Isaak Paechter
The younger brother of Friedereke Paechter Wohlgemutgh
The Ringels also went to Australia
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the discovery of another Ringel sibling originally from Rzeszow, Hirsch Zvi Ringel, who also settled in Berlin and was a rabbi there. Now I find that he was the ancestor of an Ancestry user, Tami Beck, who has long claimed to be associated with our family. Until now, I didn't see the connection.
We are starting an alpha user program
Start your private or public blog on Family History Machine. Or migrate over your existing blog from Blogger or another platform.
We are accepting a small number of aleph users to test out our blogging and story development system at Family History Machine.
There are still a lot of rough edges. There will be limited handholding. But we would love to see what other users can create using the same tools we designed for our own needs.
This is a blogging platform. Don't sign up if you don't think you will blog regularly, a least during the time of your trial.
Our story development process
Compelling stories well told don't spring from your imagination fully formed. They are crafted in a process that moves through stages of discovery, synthesis and presentation.
A core principal of scientific investigation, such as when conducting genealogy research, is that you must always document your results. You need a laboratory notebook or investigator's case file.
StorySpace example: Ruby Family History Project
We built Family History Machine to tell our own Ruby family stories. Click over to the Blog page to explore scores of stories about our family that we investigated and shaped into discrete narratives.
Navigate the family stories and blog posts according to family branch, story theme and investigative technique.
Follow the arc of one Jewish-American family's life over the span of generations and continents. Understand the challenges they faced. Experience their occasional small triumphs.
Our manifesto—It is all about storytelling
Genealogy is not about the names and dates of your ancestors. It is about bringing those people to life in the context of their place and time.
At Family History Machine, we think the way to do that is by telling stories about our ancestors. True stories, based on factual evidence, but woven into short, memorable narratives.
A family story can be about a particular event or span generations. The storyteller picks the story and the best way to tell it.
We contend that it is more interesting to tell a bunch of short stories instead of one long one.
Hilda Wohlgemuth
The Wohlgemuth daughter who married well after the war and lived fabulously in Paris and Monte Carlo
Rosalie Wohlgemuth
The unmarried daughter of Leopold and Friedreke Wohlgmuth became a Berlin art dealer who travelled to America.