Family Story Finder

The sweep of family history across the generations

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

Kindergarten campaigner
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In 1955, Helga led a committee of parents to open a preschool in Vestal.

Rabbi Spektor's true genealogy
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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
  • 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

The Felensteins of Long Island
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Joan Ruby married Milton Felenstein. Their life and family in Rockville Centre.

The physics experiment that went wrong
  • 1951 - 1958

How and why did Stan Ruby's important post-graduate research go wrong, and what impact did it have on his career in physics?

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

Walter Ruby and the Carioca Cooler
  • 1933 - 1938

The U.S. liquor industry took off after the repeal of Prohibition. Walter Ruby was the marketing manager for the American Spirits company

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.