Hello all: I'd like to share a fantastic story with all of you. This
story goes back 25 years ago when I first became involved with Jewish
genealogy.

I knew I had two half brothers (Moishe and Aaron Margoulis) who lived
in Ukraine, and later learned that one of the half brothers (Aaron),
along with his wife and daughter were killed when the Germans invaded
Kerch in the Crimea in 1941. But that's a story in itself. The other
brother (Moishe) and his family (wife Hadassah and sons Yuri and
Semen) left Kerch before the Germans got there and fled to Siberia
where he enlisted (or was drafted) into the Red Army and made hero
status at Stalingrad. I have some of his medals now on display in our
home which I am very proud to have them hanging for all to see.

Some of you readers may remember my story that I wrote on the old aol
Jewish genealogy forum in December, 1995, where I discussed the story
of how my wife and I went to Ukraine on our own in August, 1995 and
found that the half brother who had lived through the war, Moishe,
died just four years before we found his second wife living in
Berdechev, Ukraine. She told us about the nephews, but since she was
the step-mother, she had no contact with them.

Through my own research, I found that the two sons of my half brother
Moishe were Russian Military officers, but the trail grew cold and I
couldn't go any further as Russian Military records weren't available
up until recently. So I turned to the International Red Cross and
asked for their help. Six years later, and after a number of calls

from their various offices, all advising me that they hadn't found any

further information about the nephews, I received a fax last week that
blew me away! It advised me that they had made contact with Semen
Margoulis who currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, of all places.

The fax gave me his name and address and phone number and advised me
that he had been living in Australia for 8 years which explains why I
didn't or couldn't find him. He never even knew that I, or my brother
and sisters existed which made it even more interesting for all of us.

I phoned Simon (his English name now) and he was all prepared for my
call as the Australian red Cross had previously made contact for his
permission to release his phone number to us.

We spoke by phone and we were both crying with joy! The emotions
cannot be written using just words. You have to experience the
feeling of that first "hello" to know what we both experienced. In
just a matter of a week, we spoke five times and have sent many emails
between us. Yes he is computer literate which makes it a lot easier
to communicate and he has also learned English. He was planning a
trip to New York for his grandson's Bar Mitzvah in March, but now he
is also planning to visit us in California before going on to New
York!

The American Red Cross has since contacted me and told me that I was
only the second person that they have been able to make a connection,
which I believe they meant a connection with someone now living in
Australia. They want to participate when the reunion between the two
of us happens in March, so you may see some publicity about our
reunion produced by the Red Cross at that time. It will be an
exciting day for all concerned, believe me!

So patience be ... is the important message for all. It may take time
to solve the mystery of family, but it is certainly worth the effort
and the time. It is also quite appropriate for me, to announce at
this time of this unique family reunion, my new Jewish genealogical
web site http://jewishwebindex.com This is a web site where I have
gathered all of the thousands of bits and pieces of information from
various genealogical forums and the thousands of web sites that in
some way relate to Jewish genealogy and have put them under one
umbrella, my unique website. All of the information and sites
available have been the result of my gleaning and surfing the web ten
hours a day, for many years, for my own edification as well as now
making it easier for all Jewish genealogist to do their own research
easier and faster than ever before. It has been a labor of love and I
am proud of the effort ... and the final results.

Because the subject matter is constantly being updated, so will my
website be constantly under construction. My web site's URL (or
address) is http://jewishwebindex.com and I hope you will visit it
soon. It is not a resource as such, but rather a compendium of
thousands of sites and bits of information that are of probably
interest to a Jewish genealogist searching for his/her roots ... and
growing daily. I hope that my effort in building my jewishwebindex
site will make it a rewarding experience for someone else, for that is
my only intent. And by the way, there is no charge for viewing and
using my web site. Geb a keek!

Warm Regards,

Ted Margulis
Palm Desert, CA
http://jewishwebindex.com