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

Love conquers all as Gerhard marries Ilse
  • 1931 - 1939

Two young Berliners make a modern marriage—with lasting consequences

Shtetl life in Russian Rezhitsa
  • 1790 - 1875

Today it is Rezekne in Latvia. In the 19th century, it was the village in Vitebsk Province where our Tulbowitz clan lived in the old Yiddish way

The Kauflers of Krakow
  • -

Our best documented family line is Feige Kaufler's ancestry among the Jewish families of Krakow.

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?

The Rabinowitz family in Jewish Harlem
  • 1875 - 1917

Joseph and Lena Rabinowitz were Russian immigrants who ran a corner grocery in Jewish Harlem. Their nine children were native Americans

The Yeserskys of Volkovysk
  • -

Joseph Rabinowitz’s mother was Bertha Yesersky. Was she related to Sora Yesersky, the wife of Rabbi Elchanon Spektor?

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

When Ed Eilertsen "crossed the bridge"
  • -

In a dramatic moment while crossing the Mississippi River, he broke with his parents' austere Lutheranism for a more ecumenical approach