Family Story Finder
The sweep of family history across the generations
Action at a distance
Stan's Mathematica notebooks document his later work and speculations
Green Valley Drive—our exurban childhood
Our years in Pittsburgh were spent in a tract house in a natural wonderland—backed up against a family farm and an equestrian estate.
Helga at the Theodor Herzl School
Amid the chaos of the Nazi period, the Zionist school in Charlottenburg taught skills and values that lasted a lifetime
Mössbauer man—Stan makes his mark in physics
Stan's innovations in Mossbauer spectroscopy.
Seymour Rabinowitz and Harriet Berkowitz
Seymour, also called Samuel, was partly estranged from the family. He worked as a truant officer in the New York City schools. His daughter Harriet Berkowitz discovered our blog and contributed a trove of precious documents.
Sputnik in the backyard
Watching Sputnik at night from our back yard in a suburb of Pittsburgh is one of my earliest memories.
Stan at Brant Lake
Stan summered at a Jewish summer camp in the Adirondacks.
The family secret behind grandfather's desk calendar
A surprising artifact discovered after a parent's death leads to a series of discoveries and a new pastime in genealogy
The physics experiment that went wrong
How and why did Stan Ruby's important post-graduate research go wrong, and what impact did it have on his career in physics?
The problem with anti-ballistic missiles
Stanley Ruby entered the public debate over nuclear missile technology in 1968-69.
The Rabinowitz girls
Meta, Blossom and Sadie
The Rubys in Israel—1961 sabbatical
Our family’s amazing year of discovery and connection
Turning over rocks to find long-lost relatives
During the course of my genealogy work, I have discovered and connected with cousins from all my family branches. Here are some lessons learned.