Family Story Finder
The sweep of family history across the generations
Bilingual blogging—my French collaborator
Historical blogging makes strange bedfellows. A French jewelry critic and I were both interested in the history of the Clerc jewelry business during the Nazi era
Demise of the cultured Lewi family
Five siblings who stayed true to German ideals until the bitter end
Eilertsen roots in Farsund, Norway
Farmers and seafarers from the south Norway coast
Love conquers all as Gerhard marries Ilse
Two young Berliners make a modern marriage—with lasting consequences
Rosa’s fateful choice
Rosa Feidt was the only Lewi sibling who got out, to her everlasting remorse
Sputnik in the backyard
Watching Sputnik at night from our back yard in a suburb of Pittsburgh is one of my earliest memories.
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 Ringel was a smart, pretty war refugee from Berlin
Yichus and our relation to the famous rabbi
Walter thought he had proved the family legend of descent from the celebrated Kovno Rav, Rabbi Yitchak Elchanon Spektor. Later facts emerged that suggested a more tenuous connection.
Your first family story
Family stories may be sweeping or specific. They capture some essential aspect of the family's generational journey.