Family History by Sid

         When our ancestors immigrated to America they needed to find jobs in their new country. Many of them relied on their job skills from the old country. I’ve perused many passenger lists and manifests and occupations like dressmaker, tailor, and shoemaker were prevalent. Merchant and laborer were also commonly listed. There wasn’t much diversity in the types of work people did. Political and economic conditions in Europe forced the Jews to become laborers or artisans. America provided a much broader scope of opportunities and the immigrants filled those positions.         My grandfather, Louis Levine listed shoemaker as his occupation in Europe. Here is his ship manifest He is on line 28 as Leiser Lewin .       All of the subsequent census reports list him as a merchant or proprietor of a business. I know that he had owned hardware stores and used clothing stores but he also dabbled in real estate develop...

       Last Wednesday was Veteran’s Day in the United States. It is a day when we honor all of those who served in the military, remember those who have died, and show our support to those who still wear the uniform. I have over 1500 names on my family tree and several people served their respective countries during peacetime and wartime.       Not all served in the armed forces. My father’s brother, Bernie was an Aeronautical Engineer at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. He worked there through WWII and afterwards contributing to the development of the automatic pilot and involvement in several projects for NASA. My father in law, Jack Carlton was an engineer and worked in the Philadelphia Naval Yards. He was on the team that produced the New Jersey class battleships.        My cousins, Devra and Shira grew up in Israel and both of them served their time in the Israeli Army. Shira was a lieutenant in military i...

       I have been very fortunate to have grown up in a wonderful loving family. My aunts and uncles were surrogate parents and I treated my first cousins like siblings. However, there have been and still are many people in my life that were not at all genetically related but remain as close to me as my own blood relatives.   Arlene and I moved to Florida just over a year ago. The first two weeks of October 2019 were crazy with all of the packing, showing the house, and making arrangements to move. The Jewish High Holidays presented themselves during that fortnight and even though we had no time and all of our dishes were packed we still managed to have a Rosh Hoshanah dinner for what we like to call our Orphan family. The participants were as follows;  Aaron and his son Ari. Aaron is our Godson and his parents are very close friends of ours.   Rachel and her father, Sam. Rachel went to high school with Arlene and they reconnected...