Family History by Sid

       Earlier this month we ventured north to Philadelphia to visit our kids and some friends. It was close to a year since we moved to Florida and Covid-19 made it impossible to get together any earlier. In addition to spending time with family and friends we also attended to some important family business. We had an unveiling for Arlene’s mother, Gertrude Carlton. We helped my cousin Judy clean out our Aunt Ruth’s apartment. It was the first opportunity to get into her apartment since her death in March. Memories were triggered while dealing with these affairs and I realized that whenever I search through the names on my family tree I often remember charming and humorous stories of those who have passed on. Here are some of my favorites.        My Aunt Rose Kremer nee Boxinbaum was my mother’s sister and a devout Cokaholic. She probably drank 4 cans of Coca Cola a day. In 1985 the Coca Cola Company changed the 90 year old formula f...

        There is a sad truth to the family histories of most Ashkenazi Jews. One or more ancestors perished in the Holocaust. Any family tree that has multiple people dying in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s in countries like Poland, Germany, Lithuania, and Hungary reflects the tragedy of man’s inhumanity to man. My family tree is no exception.        My father’s mother came from Eishoshok, a town in Lithuania about 45 miles south of Vilna. Eishoshok was a center of Jewish learning and many yeshivot were located there. In September of 1941 the Nazis arrived and massacred 4000 Jews and among them, several of my relatives. Some people escaped. Leon Kahn, my grandmother’s first cousin was a witness to the murders and stole away from Eishoshok with members of his family. He was the only one who survived. His experiences are chronicled in the book “No Time to Mourn.” There are pictures of some of my family members that wer...

       Schwartz is a very common Jewish surname. It means black in German and Yiddish. There are not a lot of famous Schwartzes out there. Stephan Schwartz is an American lyricist and composer. Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked are among his most famous works. Jim Schwartz is the defensive coordinator for my Philadelphia Eagles. Allison Schwartz is a former congresswoman from my district in Pennsylvania. Mel Brooks used the line “May the Schwartz be with you” in his classic Star Wars parody, Spaceballs. None of these people are related to me or appear in my family tree. There are however, 20 people with the last name Schwartz that do make an appearance.                                                   Arlene’s great grandmother, Rose Rodman nee K...

     Between 1919 and 1929 my grandfather, Louis Levine bought and sold over 50 pieces of property in Jeanette, PA. This is not news to me. Our family lore stated that Louis was a contractor and built a street of houses in Jeannette and it was called Levine Street. It is more likely that during those 10 years he bought land and either sold it to someone or perhaps had houses built on some parcels and then sold those. He had three different partners during that time period. There were parcels of land labeled from the Levine Penn plan and others from the Levine Leiberman plan.      I attended a genealogy seminar about using land records to aid in my family history research. Jeannette was in Westmoreland County so I googled the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds, searched his name and got 55 hits about transactions he was involved in. I’m not going to bore you with the details of every transaction but I will highlight the significant ones. The fi...

          I retired completely in November of 2018 and then started my family history research in earnest. I’ve searched through documents, interviewed relatives, connected with many people around the world and through it all I have not discovered any people of world wide acclaim. There are no blockbusting superstars or rock and roll legends. No Pulitzer Prize novelists nor fearless explorers who discovered previously unknown lands. We are however, not boring. There are a number of individuals throughout our family tree that have enjoyed some notoriety in the public eye.                Arlene’s Uncle, Louis Rubin was an optometrist by day but his love of theater and acting prompted him to invest in the Swift Mill Creek Dinner Theater in Petersburg, VA. He helped produce the musicals and plays that were presented there and he performed in many of them. He was also seen on the air in local commercials an...

           I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall. That is the term genealogists use to say they can’t find any documentation to connect one person to another in a family tree. I’m searching for the siblings of my great grandfather Beryl Levine and have progressed nicely for a while but my efforts have seemed to stall.             Here is what I know. My great grandfather Beryl Levine was the son of Eli Lazar Levine. Beryl had 5 siblings. Moishe, Meyer, Leibe, Eli Lazar, and Genashna. This information comes to me via my Uncle, Murray Ringold who had interviewed my grandfather, Louis Levine. Those of you who knew Louis know that he was very astute and mentally sharp up until the end of his life.              Beryl died in 1889 on or about the day his daughter, Bertha was born. This was in 1889 and has been corroborated by interviews with both Louis ...

        Fathers are very important in genealogical research. First of all they generally have the same name throughout their lives. This makes it much easier to research their ancestral line. The father’s name is very often used as a reference in documents. The mother’’s name is used as well but many times only the father’s name appears. Jewish gravestones seldom include the mother’s name.         Many of us have good memories of their Dad. Some were with us a long time and some were tragically removed from our lives at an early age. To some of us our fathers were a source of inspiration, to others he was a good buddy. He taught us the simple skills we needed to navigate life. Balancing a checkbook or changing a tire. They may have seen a particular skill or talent we had and he guided us to our calling. Some people were not that lucky. Their father might have been mean, cold, or just uninterested in the...