I prefer to think of us all as just addicts to this wonderful hobby which has helped me
find many relatives and unrelated friends.
I was even able to tell my parents things they
never knew about their extended families, to
correct or corroborate stories, and for me to to continue my research during this pandemic
and to be happy while confined at home. This has led to major brick walls brought down during this past year with the help of one person who showed me a different way of thinking about my great grandfather’s original
surname and the wonderful All Lithuanian
Database that for 20 years hadn’t revealed
its secrets to me until now.
I too was told very little of my family here and in Russia but with the little I knew I have been
able to amass a huge family tree for myself,
my husband and my 2 daughter in laws.
I am the only one in my family doing this work
and I am happy every day for it.
Diane Jacobs
Somerset NJ and Delray Beach Fl
On Mar 7, 2021, at 2:29 AM, micheleshari@... wrote:
We are just fine in our "weirdness". I am blessed to have made wonderful friends via trees and DNA, friends that I have become close to and we talk and even visit.
When I was young my grandmother and grandfather (Hungarian/Romanian) showed me pictures, told me names of my extended family, and told me stores about them. Just enough to keep me interested but didn't tell me about then Holocaust and its impact on our family until I was older.
My great uncle lost his young wife and 2 children, came here with his youngest brother, after surviving and they were "married off" by my grandmother (his older sister) and their brother in law (my grandfather) who were like parents to them. I knew about him losing his young children but his biological sons from his second marriage didn't and I had to tell them. I have spent many hours trying to find what happened to these 2 children.
My grandparents always asked me to find their family. As the oldest grandchild (and the only weird one interested in genealogy) I have done this to honor them and to add the names of those that died and were killed to my yizkor list.
I have also met many people along the way to have helped me in my records search and piecing together my family tree (Thanks Beth Long, Adam Cherson and Iva) who gave me insight into things that were beyond what I could find and could know.
Aren't we an amazing group!
Thank you to all my fellow weird ones out there. Without you all we wouldn't be so normal!
I made my close friend down the block so crazy with my genealogy quest and nudging her to get tested bc her father was from the same area as my family...yup, 3rd cousins but we just don't know how!
Michele Farkas
Boynton Beach, FL (formerly NY like so many others!)
Researching Stauber, Shtauber, Stober, Stojber, Stouber, Davidovici, Fischman (all Viseu and surrounding towns in Romania) Teszler, Hershtik, Farkas (Marghita, Carei, Tasnad, Cluj in Transylvania), Ptashnik, Potashnik, Kaufman, Reznick, Rosen (Belarus and Russia).
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Diane Jacobs, Somerset, New Jersey
