I’ve been interested in my family history as far back as I can remember.  I was always close with my 
Aunts, Uncles, and 1st Cousins. My paternal grandparents lived just five blocks from us and I spent
 countless hours with them. As I got older I started to become more aware of 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins,
 great Aunts and great Uncles.  Thirty years ago I purchased a simple family tree program on a 
3.5” floppy disc and started indexing our family tree. I’ve upgraded my software twice and have dived
 headfirst into the world of on line genealogy with accounts on Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, My Heritage,
 and Gedmatch Genesis. My tree has expanded to 1463 names.  Much of it was handed to me by 
different relatives from different branches of my family and I continue to add new “leafs” on a regular
 basis. 

Every family tree has a focus person and I decided to have my two children be that focal points.  
They are two of the reasons I decided to spend the time to create a family history. I want them to know
 their roots and to be proud to be associated with some of the fabulous people that they share genetic
 material.  Their great grandparents are Louis and Tillie Levine, Morris and Rachel Boxinbaum,
 Louis and Rachel Cohen, and Philip and Bessie Snyder. There are verbal histories of all of these
 people, some documentation, and a few pictures.  And in the case of Bessie Snyder there was a
 personal relationship between great grandparent and her great grandkids.

The challenge for me is to bring the stories of these ancestors and their extended families to those
 family members that I am closest to in an interesting and provocative manner.  I want to open their 
eyes to the struggles of those who were here (or there) before us and to show how they sculpted our
 personalities to make us what we are today.

My search will have many obstacles or “brick walls” as we genealogists call them.  There are 
missing documents, name changes, poor transcriptions, and secrets that were never intended to 
be revealed.  As I succeed in breaking through a wall, this blog will be the venue for you to share in my
 victory. I will be posting a story twice a month.  Once at the beginning and one around the middle.  

I enjoy researching my family almost as much as I enjoy riding my bike.  I just hope I can keep up with
 both of those activities for the next 32 years.  I will probably to quit them both on my 100th birthday.

Comments

  1. Sid LevineMarch 31, 2020 at 6:47 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sid LevineApril 5, 2020 at 7:14 AM

    test again

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sid LevineApril 5, 2020 at 7:22 AM

    retest

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sid LevineApril 5, 2020 at 7:23 AM

    another test

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cheryl Faye Schwartz-GrenetzOctober 1, 2020 at 4:22 PM

    I would love to know how you and I are are related. Your wife and I are are not biological cousins but we all grew up thinking we were. Arlene's great grandmother (Rosa Kipness Rodman married my great grandfather, David Schwartz. Everyone called her Bubba Schwartz. They were married before my father was born so she's the only paternal grandmother he knew. I didn't know that the Rodman side of the family weren't biological relatives until I was an adult. As far as I'm concerned, we are family!

    ReplyDelete
  6. רונית כהןOctober 17, 2020 at 12:35 AM

    Dear Sid
    It is very easy for me to identify with things you write in the context of genealogical research. Beyond values there is something very addictive and challenging in this.
    I suggest you join the Israeli Association for Genealogical Research. Most of the discourse there is in English so you are not likely to have a problem.
    https://genealogy.org.il/
    we can share links to online research sources.
    שבת שלום
    Shabbat Shalom
    Ronit

    ReplyDelete
  7. DebJanuary 10, 2021 at 2:22 PM

    I am so glad that you started this. I look forward to following along. Cousin Deb.

    ReplyDelete

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