Family Story Finder

The sweep of family history across the generations

Ed Eilertsen tribute puzzle
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Ed loved crosswords, so Dan Ruby created a tribute puzzle for his memorial. Kate and Twyla were the clue crew.

Eilertsen roots in Farsund, Norway
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Farmers and seafarers from the south Norway coast

Eilertsens at sea
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Members of a farming family took to the sea both as an occupational calling and a means of emigration

Eilertsens by the lake
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Ed was the rector at Saint Martin's By the Lake in Minnetonka Beach, Minn. The family was raised in towns around the lake region west of Minneapolis, including in the church rectory

Filming of "The Heartbreak Kid"
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Ed officiates at a movie wedding

First grandchild
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Twyla Ariel Eilertsen Ruby was born on August 7, 1985

Fourth Generation Rubys
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Just a bit about Twyla, Gene, Zach and Lani.

Internment on the Isle of Man
  • February 1940 - October 1940

German refugees in the UK, even Jews like Gerhart Feidt, were deemed potential enemy aliens

Janis Brenner—a Ratner in motion
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An innovator in modern dance and choreography since breaking in with the Murray Lewis Dance Company in the 1980s. The Ratners moved geographically. Janis moves artistically.

Last Christmas in Berlin
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In December 1937, the Feidt and Lewi family members share a last holiday together

Mel Brenner
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Mel accomplished many things in life, but his life’s greatest moments happened during the Battle of the Bulge

Our Brenner cousins
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Janis, Leslie and Amy grew up—each a star in her own way.

Rosa’s fateful choice
  • 1936 - 1940

Rosa Feidt was the only Lewi sibling who got out, to her everlasting remorse

Sandy Klein
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A precocious Ratner girl takes on life in midcentury America.

The Eilertsens in Brooklyn
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From Red Hook to Gerritsen Beach to Bay Ridge, Jack and Camilla Eilertsen lived the Norwegian immigrant experience in Brooklyn

Third Generation Rubys
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First came Walter, then Danny and Joanne. They would carry on the Ruby-Ringel genes.

Twyla's childhood
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Outlooks of a pre-millennial