Family Story Finder

The sweep of family history across the generations

Dan's 2018 research trip to Berlin and Gdansk
  • July 2018 - August 2018

Dan supplemented his attendance at a Warsaw genealogy conference with a tour of family locations. Read his blog postings and view the post-trip video coverage.

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

Lest we forget—family Holocaust testimony
  • 1941 - 1942

Remembering our Ringel and Wohlgemuth/Paechter family members who perished in the Shoah.

Lisbon to New York—with a detour to Havana
  • August 1940 - May 1941

The Ringel family crossed from Lisbon on the SS Guine—but their entry to the U.S. was anything but routine

Motives for mercy—the consuls of Toulouse
  • October 24 1968 - December 8 1940

In July 1940, consular officials from three nations conspired to open an escape route for Jews out of occupied France. Why did they do it?

Our family during the Nazi years in Berlin
  • February 1933 - September 1942

During the first five years of Hitler's reign of terror, Jewish families of Berlin faced one repression after another.

Sidney Kessler and American Spirits
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Walter Ruby's boss in the liquor business became an influential figure in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Wild goose chase—an accident in Jersey City
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A newspaper clipping placed Walter Ruby on the scene of an automobile wreck in Hudson County, N.J. Not every lead pans out.

Yichus and our relation to the famous rabbi
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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.