Family Story Finder
The sweep of family history across the generations
Escape from Berlin—last good chance to get out
Our reconstructed timeline: How Elly and Helga Ringel were smuggled with SS escort out of Germany and across the Belgian border in October 1938
First grandchild
Twyla Ariel Eilertsen Ruby was born on August 7, 1985
Kindergarten campaigner
In 1955, Helga led a committee of parents to open a preschool in Vestal.
Motives for mercy—the consuls of Toulouse
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?
Rabbi Spektor's true genealogy
Most of what we discovered about Rabbi Spektor's genealogy was entirely true. All but the myth of our family's connection to it
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
The Felensteins of Long Island
Joan Ruby married Milton Felenstein. Their life and family in Rockville Centre.
The peculiar case of Pinkas Twiasschor
The estranged husband of Betty Ringel was one of the 1000 war evacuees who found safe haven in the only U.S refugee camp
Third Generation Rubys
First came Walter, then Danny and Joanne. They would carry on the Ruby-Ringel genes.
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.