Family History by Sid

       The month of December is schizophrenic. There are holidays that foster family gatherings. We assemble for good times and eat a lot and drink a lot and hugs are plentiful. Then, depending on what part of the country you live in, you exit to nasty weather with snow and blowing winds. Nighttime arrives early and all you want to do is get under the covers. Of course, if you live in Florida like I do you have sunny days and temps close to 80 degrees but in order to jubilate with family and friends we must travel 1000 miles.  Louis at age 19 or 20 Al Boxinbaum Isaac Koff at age 3      Some people have other things to celebrate in December. Birthdays and anniversaries. I printed a report from my Rootsmagic software program of all of these blessed events in the month of December. 68 people in my tree had birthdays this month an8d of course that is only for people that I actually have documented birth dates for. The oldest is my paternal gra...

  The Gang of Four      My paternal grandparents, Louis and Tillie Levine had 13 grandchildren. We all got along famously and when we got together we had a lot of fun. We treated each other like we were siblings. Between January of 1957 and January of 1958, four cousins were born. Since that time they have been affectionately known as the gang of four.         Melissa Gail Levine was born in January of 1957 in Ohio. She was the third child of Herman and Shirley Levine but grew up in Albuquerque, NM as her family moved there shortly after she was born. Missy, which is what we always called her, graduated from high school in Albuquerque and went on to college at the University of New Mexico where she studied nursing. She never finished due to her mom’s illness but did work as a medical secretary In 1981 she married Kevin Peters and in 1990 they moved to Memphis, TN where Kevin worked for Fedex. They have two children, Denise and Josh....

       Family research is an ongoing evolving process. We continually try to find new facts and new information about people in our tree. Those genealogical brick walls sometimes fall after finding one small smidgen of data and then the facts and the stories bring light to a whole new branch to our family tree. I continually look over all of my research notes and sources and see if I can enhance the record of somebody who is just a name on my tree to a narrative of a compelling character.       In September I posted a story about Arlene’s grandfather, Philip Snyder and his brother, Morris. In that story I said that I couldn’t find Philip in the 1910 census but I have since found him living with Ben Gellerman. This was the person who paid for Philip’s fare to the USA and met Philip at Ellis Island. The ship manifest said he was an uncle but the census report lists him as a brother in law. Maybe I’ll clear that up and let you know about i...

  Matt and Mae Arkin     ( Some time ago I had found pictures of Mat Arkin and his auto parts business on the internet.  I could not find them and so i have none of those pictures available.  My apologies)      Matthew Arkin and Mae Levine got married on November 13, 1916 in Pennsylvania. Mae was the daughter of Morris Levine and Rebecca Lieberman and was a first cousin of my grandfather, Louis Levine. May was born in Pennsylvania and Matt was born in the town of Lunna in what is now Belarus. Matt entered the USA in 1912.        I don’t know what enticed Matt to move to southwestern Pennsylvania but he ended up there and Married Mae Levine in 1916. Matt and May had two children. Sam was born in 1918 and Rosalind was born in 1923. I spoke to Matt and Mae’s grandson, Richard. Richard has fond memories of his grandparents. Matt died in 1956 and Richard was just a young boy but he remembers Matt having a beard and wou...

       The genealogy club in my community is presenting a program on Monday about how to find female ancestors. It seems that through the centuries the focus was always on men. They were the ones that could own land, vote, serve in the military and so on and so on. Women were generally only referred to as wives or mothers or daughters. That makes it difficult to search for the women who preceded us. Convention says that women in a family tree should be listed by their maiden name but many trees only have their married name because that might be the only record we have of them. In the early 20th century women automatically became citizens when their husbands were naturalized. The amount of documents referring to the women in our lives is substantially lower than that of our fathers and brothers. If you look at a headstone in a Jewish cemetery it will give the name of the person and their father’s name. Lately, however, some people are adding the mother’s name...

       I’ve been struggling with my genealogical research for the past several months. I seem to have lost focus and can’t decide which direction I want to go in. Should I search out new cousins via DNA matching or should I research people in my tree to confirm the facts and find new items to add to their stories? Or, should I just organize my data? A simple bike ride indicated what would be my next project.  Philip and Bessie Snyder gravestone       We were in Philadelphia for just over three weeks, spending time with our kids and visiting other family and friends. We wanted to visit the gravesite of Philip and Bessie Snyder (Arlene’s maternal grandparents) but we always seemed to be in a bit of a time crunch and just didn’t get there. The day before we left I decided to take a ride down to Montefiore cemetery in Elkins Park to place a stone on their metzivah but to also find out what Philip’s father’s name was. We knew his mother’s n...