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.

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.