This is Day 7 of the Family History Writing Challenge. One week down, three to go, lord help me. As I continue my search for information on my great aunt and uncle, Bertha and Adolf Schweitzer, here's a wrap up of what I've discovered so far. Marriage No. 1 Bertha Kornmehl became Bertha Singer on March 18, 1894; she was divorced from Samuel Singer on December
Genealogy
Samuel Singer’s Military Service
This is Day 6 in the Family History Writing Challenge. I tend to be irreverent in my family history discussions -- both because I tend to be irreverent about everything and if I didn't laugh about certain topics, I would cry. This last was the case with the discussion of Samuel Singer's military service (or potential therefore) in the last post. Other Members of My Family
Bertha Kornmehl Gets Married, Part 1
This is Day Five of the Family History Writing Challenge, 2018. I mentioned in my first post of this challenge that I found a clue associated with trying to learn about Bertha Kornmehl and Adolf Schweizer: A listing for my great aunt in Geni.com that showed her with a hyphenated name, Bertha Singer-Schweizer. That puzzle was very easily resolved, as it turned out. I noted
A Great Family Research Tool for Viennese Jews: The IKG Archive
This is Day 4 of the Family History Writing Challenge, 2018 While spending time behind the scenes trying to interpret the documents about Adolf and Bertha Schweitzer that I recently received, I'd like celebrate the remarkable source of those documents: the archive of the Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde (IKG) Wien. Getting Excited Over Old Documents I worked for several years
Poland’s New “Don’t Blame Us for the Holocaust” Law
This is Day Three of the 2018 Family History Writing Challenge. I have said from the onset that this blog is intended to focus on how members of my family lived in Vienna, not on how they died. But for a long time, all I knew about my great aunt and uncle Bertha and Adolph Schweizer was that they perished at Treblinka: A Bit About Treblinka Death
When Genealogical Search Leads You Back to…Your Blog
This is Day 2 of the Family History Writing Challenge, 2018. As I noted in my last post, I have been out of the genealogy blogging game for a while. As a result, I'm not as tuned in to family history resources as I might be. Then again, I didn't rely on traditional sites like Ancestry.com or MyHeritage.com early on because my mother's branch of the family tree was not yet
It’s the Quinquennial Family History Writing Challenge!
Like many writers, I thrive on deadlines. That's not to say I don't rail against them and say many bad words when they close in, but without a strict time frame I tend to dither my time away. When I am paid to write, the incentive for meeting my deadlines is clear. When I am not...well, I have to come up with an artificial construct. Like the guilt or public shame that follows
A Grave Concern: Help Restore the Tarnow Jewish Cemetery
Fanning out. Contracting back. In my last post, I explored the story of a family member who fled halfway across the world from Vienna to escape Hitler--only to have to escape another dangerous dictator in his adopted home. Here I look back to my ancestral roots in a town I'd never heard of until I started this blog, and certainly never knew most of my mother's family came from:
A Tale of Three Dictators: The Farber Family, Revisited
Since I first started exploring the roots of my mother's family here, lo these many years ago, my sense of who I am and where I came from has shifted. So too has my view of the Jewish diaspora. Forced from Europe by the Nazis, members of the Kornmehl family fled to Curaçao, Singapore, Australia, and Brazil, as well as to more common destinations like Palestine/Israel and the
Why a Historically Oriented Genealogist Took a DNA Test
Those who pursue genealogy do so for a variety of reasons. To find a particular relative. To determine whether they're descended from royalty. To occupy time that might otherwise be devoted to earning a living. Me, I was interested in learning about my mother's family, the sixteen men and women in the picture topping this blog. I wanted to know how they lived,
The Jewish Museum Vienna: A Personal Look
I know, you can’t go home again, especially if home is a country your family was forced to flee. I was under no illusion that a lilting Strauss waltz would be the soundtrack to my visit to Vienna, where both my parents were born. Still, I’d traveled to the city earlier this summer to see how my relatives had lived, not to dwell on their victimization. Which is why I was looking
Return to Vienna
There's so much to report about my recent trip to Vienna, hosted by the Jewish Welcome Service, and so little time to do it right now as I prepare to leave for a book tour. But I won't bury the lede. I'm thinking very seriously of returning to Vienna next year for a much longer time -- a minimum of three months, the length of a tourist visa. If I can get a work or study
Opening Up to Elijah: A Passover Story
Call me a seder skeptic. I'm fond of the Passover story, its message of exile and redemption. I especially like the ritual of saving a place at the table and a glass of wine for the prophet Elijah. Like Santa Claus, he is required to visit millions of homes in a single night. Opening the door for him to come in after the seder meal is a simple act of faith that often gives
Of Genealogies and Possibilities: A New Year’s Musing
Happy 2015. It's that time of year when all the possibilities seem to open up. January 1 is an arbitrary date, of course, but who doesn't want to believe in fresh starts, in learning from our experiences, even if those experiences sometimes seem arbitrary too? I ended last year on a sad note, with the accidental death of a friend, Jean, who had become very important to me
And the Memoir Contest Winner Is…
First of all, thanks to all of you who participated in the win-a-great-memoir contest. Short and long, the family stories posted in the comments were great. I urge you to read all the them if you didn't when you posted your own story or if you're just checking in now. And the winner, chosen by Random.org, is... #11, a story of a family journey from small town