Family Story Finder

The sweep of family history across the generations

Demise of the cultured Lewi family
  • 1902 - 1942

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
  • 1931 - 1939

Two young Berliners make a modern marriage—with lasting consequences

Rosa’s fateful choice
  • 1936 - 1940

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
  • April 1946 - June 1947

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.