Yesterday I brought Ezriel Kornmehl, the first subject of this challenge, back to Poland from medical school in Vienna and pondered his war service. I alluded to the fact that he would have met a distressing death had he not fled Jaslo. Today I start filling in the story of Jaslo, including the question of what brought Ezriel there in the first place, when most of the
Genealogy
Pondering Jewish European Patriotism
I learned the other day that my current family history subject, Ezriel Kornmehl, had volunteered to serve in the Polish-Bolshevik War in 1921, and that he is listed in the Polish Officer's Year Book (as Esriel Kornmehl) for 1923 and 1924. I dutifully set out this morning to look into the details of his military service and to find out what exactly the Polish-Bolshevik war
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 5: Ezriel’s Not-So-Lazy School Days
Thanks to the excellent student files kept by the Medical University of Vienna, Ezriel Kornmehl's academic life comes into far clearer focus than most other parts of his life -- at least so far. As a result of information that Jill Kornmehl gleaned, we know that Ezriel (I'm summarizing a bit from the original here): ...studied [at the University of Vienna] from March 1914
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 4: Researcher Bait
If you're at all familiar with genealogy, you've heard the term "cousin bait": information posted expressly to attract relatives. This blog seems to attract relatives without my having had to deliberately create a particular type of post -- Jessica Klein Levenbrown was only the most recent -- and that's a wonderful thing. But I had a feeling in the back of my mind that if I
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 3: Finding Ezriel, Part 1
I decided I would start with a profile of Ezriel for this challenge because he is the older of the two Kornmehls I plan to focus on -- and also because I am waiting for permission to reproduce a document relating to Viktor. But I realized that my information about Ezriel is far sketchier than what I have about Viktor, requiring more blanks to be filled in. I also realized --
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 2: Why’d You Choose Those Relatives?
I explained on the first day of this challenge that I was going to look into the lives of Ezriel Kornmehl and Viktor Kornmehl. But neither Ezriel or Viktor is closely related to me -- or to each other. Why chose them as my subjects? Because of Sigmund Freud. As I've often mentioned, my maternal great uncle, Siegmund Kornmehl, sold meat to the father of psychoanalysis.
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 1: The Plan
Here it is, February. By putting the snazzy Family History Writing Challenge badge in my sidebar, I committed to taking part in the genealogy marathon that the Armchair Genealogist is hosting, starting today. Damn you, Armchair Genealogist for making that badge so snazzy that I coveted it! The Preemptive Kvetch What was I thinking? February is my busiest month, with a
The Mormon Church, the Holocaust & Me
On Saturday, I made my first visit to Tucson's Family History Center to take advantage of a slate of free genealogy courses. I learned more in three hours about my research options -- including, at the center, free access to Ancestry.com -- than I had in the last six months. Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes studying genealogy knows that most of these centers offer
Meet Our Newest Cousin, Jessica Klein Levenbrown
This has been quite a week in the world of Kornmehl kin and blogging. First, I wrote a post in memory of a twice-lost cousin, Gigi Michaels. It drew a lovely response from Gigi's daughter, Jodi Warshauer, who hadn't known about this blog before, as well as responses from previously discovered new cousins, who had. Then yesterday a comment appeared on an earlier post, The
In Memory of a Twice-Lost Cousin, Gigi Michaels
Once upon a time -- a little more than a year ago -- I believed I had far more friends than I had family members. My parents are both long gone, and I thought my sister and my nieces were my only blood relatives. No paternal or maternal cousins were on my radar. I regretted that a bit, but never thought much about it. I figured that's how it is when you're from a family that
In Praise of Meandering
I spent yesterday morning in a research haze. It often happens when I work on posts about my family. I start with one bit of information that needs clarification and follow it as my interests take me until I realize I've gone far from my original search and that I'd better get back to work, either on the blog post or on the writing that pays the bills. Usually I just close
2013 Goals for Family History Writing, Pt. II
In Part 1 of my 2013 Goals series -- can a series have only two parts? even a mini-series? or is this just a sequel? -- I discussed how I would like to approach researching and writing my family history. Goal #5 was "Write shorter posts" so I stopped there. But it's a good segue into topics that are, for me, more difficult to tackle: The technical aspects of writing and
2013 Goals for Writing My Family History, I
New Year's resolutions can set you up to fail if they're too numerous and too vague. I've learned to go for simple and specific. One year my only resolution was to floss every day. I could -- and did -- stick to that. This year, I'm working on a large, unwieldy project that doesn't have any structure except the one I decide to impose on it: writing my family history. Since
Seeking Dating & Fashion Advice
No, not that kind. At least not here. It's genealogy I'm cozying up to. One of my research goals in 2013 is to learn when, where, and on what occasion the formal portrait of my grandparents and great aunts and uncles featured in the header of this blog was taken. My mother identified all the participants on the back of the picture and, on a separate family tree, noted their
The Great Gefilte Fish Divide: Unearthing My Jewish Roots, 3
At the end of this first year of exploring the history of my mother's family, I've been looking into its geographical origins. My mother was proud of her sophisticated Viennese heritage, so I was surprised to learn that her roots were in Tarnow, Poland, considered a shtetl. I was also confused about how our family eluded the linguistic and religious preferences that might have