Story Portfolio
Your family story collection
Motives for mercy—the consuls of Toulouse
In July 1940, consular officials from three nations conspired to open an escape route for Jews…
The North American Ringel branch
When his siblings went to Berlin in the 1880s, Jakob Schia Ringel went to Hamburg, then Glasgow…
Young man on the make in the Roaring Twenties
Walter Ruby hustled his way as a traveling silver salesman, with some career side trips into…
Sidney Kessler and American Spirits
Walter Ruby's boss in the liquor business became an influential figure in Puerto Rico and…
Long Beach—taking in the Klein family
During the Depression, families helped each other out. The Kleins moved in with the Rubys in…
Walter's first draft of family history
Cherry picking the best content from our founding document written in 2006: "The Ruby…
Betty Wohlgemuth's last years
Following Isaak's death in 1929, Betty lived comfortably in the cosmopolitan Bavarian Quarter—…
Stan at Brant Lake
Stan summered at a Jewish summer camp in the Adirondacks.
The Paechters in West Pomerania
The family formed and thrived in the Jewish community of Märkisch Friedland before another…
Yichus and our relation to the famous rabbi
Walter thought he had proved the family legend of descent from the celebrated Kovno Rav, Rabbi…
Bilingual blogging—my French collaborator
Historical blogging makes strange bedfellows. A French jewelry critic and I were both interested…
A milliner's daughter in Long Beach
Elly worked hard to earn a living as a hat maker while Helga adapted easily at Julia Richmond…
Tulbowitz in the USSR—an alternative history
If Sholom Tulbowitz had gone to Dvinsk instead of Rostov, as his cousin did, his Ratner…
Fourth Generation Rubys
Just a bit about Twyla, Gene, Zach and Lani.
Abe Ratner in the seltzer business
The Ratner family became established in the Fifth Ward of Albany, N.Y. Abe bottled soda water…
Split decision on restored German citizenship
Both Dan and Joanne applied for reclaimed citizenship under Article 116 of the German…
Green Valley Drive—our exurban childhood
Our years in Pittsburgh were spent in a tract house in a natural wonderland—backed up against a…
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Rose Ratner's scar—the 1881 pogrom in Rostov
The Tulbowitz tavern in Novocherkassk was overrun by Cossacks during the Rostov pogrom of 1881…
Rabinowitz family in the Bronx
Before and after Joseph Rabinowitz’s death in 1917, family members resettled in the Bronx
The Felensteins of Long Island
Joan Ruby married Milton Felenstein. Their life and family in Rockville Centre.
Just so—how the Rubys got their name
When and why did Walter Rabinowitz take on our abbreviated last name? He may have gotten the…
The physics experiment that went wrong
How and why did Stan Ruby's important post-graduate research go wrong, and what impact did…
Two Ringel sisters manage on their own
The Ringel sisters, Betty Twiasschor and Rosa Schattner, lived with their children in adjacent…
Arnaud Clerc
Joe Liebman’s son made his own name in the Parisian jewelry trade—and carried on the Rue de…
Bob Felenstein's last fight
Bob struggled in his last year, supported by his loving Jane. A crew of his cousins rallied to…
Joan and Ruby
Joan’s second marriage to Rueben Meyers brought her great happiness.
Hermann Ringel's German citizenship
When Hermann turned 21 in 1906, he presented documentation to secure legal German citizenship.…
Our family during the Nazi years in Berlin
During the first five years of Hitler's reign of terror, Jewish families of Berlin faced…
Lisbon to New York—with a detour to Havana
The Ringel family crossed from Lisbon on the SS Guine—but their entry to the U.S. was…
The Zimkin line—David, Arthur and Mark
Following the descendants of the eldest Rabinowitz daughter, without a happy ending.
Paechter diaspora
Paechter descendants ended up on every continent after World War II.
The Wohlgemuths in Danzig
Before moving his family to Berlin in 1912, Isaak Wohlgemuth prospered as a mover in Danzig. His…
Shtetl life in Russian Rezhitsa
Today it is Rezekne in Latvia. In the 19th century, it was the village in Vitebsk Province where…
The Rabinowitz family in Jewish Harlem
Joseph and Lena Rabinowitz were Russian immigrants who ran a corner grocery in Jewish Harlem.…
Janis Brenner—a Ratner in motion
An innovator in modern dance and choreography since breaking in with the Murray Lewis Dance…
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…
Ratner family in Albany
Rearing eight children in Albany’s Third Ward
The Rabinowitz girls
Meta, Blossom and Sadie
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An afternoon at Lake Merrit
In July 2003, Stan and Helga came to the East Bay for a golden summer outing.
The peculiar case of Pinkas Twiasschor
The estranged husband of Betty Ringel was one of the 1000 war evacuees who found safe haven in…
The Ringel family roots in old Rzeszów
Moses Ringel and Rose Lea Reichman raised a large family in Rzeszów in the Galizianer tradition…
The corkscrew on eBay—sourcing family artifacts
Out of the files of the U.S. Patent Office and into the peculiar subculture of corkscrew…
Our Ruby name—sullied in Dallas
Lee Harvey Oswald's killer Jack Ruby was not related to our family. He tarnished our family…
Ghosts of Weißensee—the cemetery played on
How did Betty Katz meet her end in February 1942?
Ratner family reunion
In 2016. we organized a reunion weekend with Brenners, Rubys and Felensteins in East Quogue,…
A surprising double marriage in London
Rosa Ringel married Pinkas Twiasschor in a borough of London in January 1911, at the same time…
The Clerc jewelry aryanization files
The Clerc jewelry assets were seized and resold to an Aryan buyer. The Nazis kept perfect…
The Klein family in the 1940s
Leon Klein continued to work for American Spirits as its upstate New York sales representative…
The Paechters in Berlin
Most of the family from Tiegenhof found their way to Berlin by the early years of the twentieth…
Twiasschor family in Berlin
The Twiasschors settled in Berlin in several waves from Kolomiya, Ukraine
Meeting Harriet Berkowitz
Harriet Berkowitz was doubly distanced from her Rabinowitz roots, first by her father’s partial…
The Rubys in Israel—1961 sabbatical
Our family’s amazing year of discovery and connection
Hilda's fabulous lifestyle with Joe Liebman
After the war, Joe Liebman came back to Paris with a glamorous new wife. Oh, what a life they…
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Adventures in Israel—Walter and Joanne
Two of the Ruby offspring went back to Israel for significant periods.
Sandy Klein
A precocious Ratner girl takes on life in midcentury America.
Fallacy and family lore—in search of the Kovno Rav
body is different
Mössbauer man—Stan makes his mark in physics
Stan's innovations in Mossbauer spectroscopy.
Twyla's childhood
Outlooks of a pre-millennial
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…
The early history of the Wohlgemuth family
In 1812 in Preußisch Stargardt, an elderly Jew Moses and his sons Salomon and Herz took the…
Margot Dränger's survival story
Helga's second cousin suffered unimaginable traumas in and around Krakow from 1939 to 1945. She…
Rabbi Spektor's true genealogy
Most of what we discovered about Rabbi Spektor's genealogy was entirely true. All but the myth…
1968 Democratic convention
It was a signature moment of the turbulent 1960s. Walter, 18, and Dan, 15, were there in…
Ringel vs. Ruby in World War I
Herman Ringel and Walter Ruby wore opposing uniforms in the Great War
Our Israeli cousins
Ze’evs progency: a new generation of vibrant, contemporary Israelis.
In the Signal Corps in New Guinea
Stan strung transmission wires in the South Pacific during World War II.
Seymour Rabinowitz and Harriet Berkowitz
Seymour, also called Samuel, was partly estranged from the family. He worked as a truant officer…
The family secret behind grandfather's desk calendar
A surprising artifact discovered after a parent's death leads to a series of discoveries…
Mel Brenner
Mel accomplished many things in life, but his life’s greatest moments happened during the Battle…
Ratner family passage to America
Abe Blokh became Abe Ratner to avoid conscription and get out of Russia. With his young wife and…
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Sputnik in the backyard
Watching Sputnik at night from our back yard in a suburb of Pittsburgh is one of my earliest…
Arson! The Paechter family store is targeted
In 1898, Paechter’s Kaufhaus in Tiegenhof came under repeated anti-Semitic arson attacks.
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On Hill Avenue
The Ruby family comes of age in a bedroom suburb west of Chicago
The Yeserskys of Volkovysk
Joseph Rabinowitz’s mother was Bertha Yesersky. Was she related to Sora Yesersky, the wife of…
Lest we forget—family Holocaust testimony
Remembering our Ringel and Wohlgemuth/Paechter family members who perished in the Shoah.
Walter Ruby and the Carioca Cooler
The U.S. liquor industry took off after the repeal of Prohibition. Walter Ruby was the marketing…
Family History Machine is reborn in 2020
Machinist Dan Ruby and his team members envision a new future for Family History Machine
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Third Generation Rubys
First came Walter, then Danny and Joanne. They would carry on the Ruby-Ringel genes.
The problem with anti-ballistic missiles
Stanley Ruby entered the public debate over nuclear missile technology in 1968-69.
Memories of young Stan
Stan was smart and fresh, with something to say about almost anything
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Abraham Blokh came from Minsk
Before he became Abe Ratner, he was Abraham Blokh from Minsk.
Action at a distance
Stan's Mathematica notebooks document his later work and speculations
Wild goose chase—an accident in Jersey City
A newspaper clipping placed Walter Ruby on the scene of an automobile wreck in Hudson County, N.…
The Wohlgemuths on the Woelckpromenade
In 1912, Isaak and Betty Wohlgemuth moved to the German capital and settled in Weißensee, where…
Liberal values in the 1960s
From civil rights to war resistance to arms control, Ruby family members embraced liberal social…
If walls could talk—75 years in a Parisian villa
Insider dealings in the French jewelry trade. Swank cocktail parties for the Nazi elite. A rough…
Jews in jazz—the big band era
Stan's musical idol was Benny Goodman, the King of Swing.
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Elly’s European travels
Elly lived out her senior years in a studio apartment on the Upper West Side. But she lived for…
The Kauflers of Krakow
Our best documented family line is Feige Kaufler's ancestry among the Jewish families of…
The Ringels in Berlin—time of prosperity
From 1880s to the 1930s, the Ringel family prospered in the garment trade in the German capital…
Grad-student life in a packet of letters
Stan maintained correspondence with his closest high school and Army buddies, several of whom…
Helga at the Theodor Herzl School
Amid the chaos of the Nazi period, the Zionist school in Charlottenburg taught skills and values…
Musical appreciation in the Ruby household
From Mozart to swing to the Grateful Dead.
Paechter roots in West Prussia
Our Paechter family prospered in the Vistula delta town of Tiegenhof. But their roots probably…
Dan's 2018 research trip to Berlin and Gdansk
Dan supplemented his attendance at a Warsaw genealogy conference with a tour of family locations…
Ze'ev and Penina Sharon of Kibbutz Afeq
A pioneer to Palestine in 1936, Ze’ev married Penina and they did their part to build the state…
Helga in the League of Women Voters
Helga expressed a commitment to liberal values in her lifelong work for the League of Women…
From Rezitsa to Rostov
Sholom and Sophie Tulbowitz left their ancestral town in the 1870s to settle for 20 years in…
Grammy — everyone’s favorite grandmother
She made each of her six grandchildren feel special
Louis Katz of Kolberg
Betty’s father was a prosperous merchant who came to Pomerania from East Prussia.
Our Brenner cousins
Janis, Leslie and Amy grew up—each a star in her own way.
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Final days in Kovno
The amazing story of the unrelated Rabinowitz family in the days before the liquidation of Kovno…
Escape from Berlin—last good chance to get out
Our reconstructed timeline: How Elly and Helga Ringel were smuggled with SS escort out of…
The Scheunenviertal in the 1880s
Schija Ringel came from Poland to seek his fortune in Berlin’s old Jewish district.