Every so often I check the JRI database for family names. In my last
search, I was looking for the name BUDNE and found the 1883 marriage licence
for my wifes great grand mother Haja to Joszk Offman. In the same search I
found the Joszk's birth certicate and the birth certicate for his daughter
(my wife's grand mother). Even more important was that I found the town
name... Ostrow Maz! I began looking around in the info available for this
town and discovered that Stanley Diamond was researching the same surname.

As quick as I could type I sent Stanley an email, asking if my names sounded
familiar. Stanley quickly responded that he was researching the OFFMAN
family, but that his cousin Judie Ostroff-Goldstein knew more about the
family than he did. I emailed Judie and withing a few hours of emailing and
telephoning, had a GEDCOM file on my PC with about 700 relatives I never
knew about. Not only did I find whole branches of the OFFMAN family, but I
was introduced to two wonderful people (Judie and Stanley), without whom
this discovery would not have been possible.

Edward Rosenbaum
Bergenfield, NJ