Family Story Finder

The sweep of family history across the generations

Family History Machine is reborn in 2020
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Machinist Dan Ruby and his team members envision a new future for Family History Machine

Grad-student life in a packet of letters
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Stan maintained correspondence with his closest high school and Army buddies, several of whom went on to prominent careers.

Helga at the Theodor Herzl School
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Amid the chaos of the Nazi period, the Zionist school in Charlottenburg taught skills and values that lasted a lifetime

In the Signal Corps in New Guinea
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Stan strung transmission wires in the South Pacific during World War II.

Just so—how the Rubys got their name
  • 1912 - 1939

When and why did Walter Rabinowitz take on our abbreviated last name? He may have gotten the idea during intermission at a Bronx nickelodeon

Mel Brenner
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Mel accomplished many things in life, but his life’s greatest moments happened during the Battle of the Bulge

Ratner family passage to America
  • July 1890 -

Abe Blokh became Abe Ratner to avoid conscription and get out of Russia. With his young wife and her mother, they voyaged from Bremen to Leeds to New York

Ringel vs. Ruby in World War I
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Herman Ringel and Walter Ruby wore opposing uniforms in the Great War

The Rabinowitz girls
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Meta, Blossom and Sadie