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NEVER GIVE UP!
Finding Freida Halpern

By Angela Strohschein

“She was just as excited as I was! We spoke for nearly an hour that evening, exchanged information, and promised to be in touch soon. It wasn't even a day later that her children started sending me photos of these relatives who had been just names in my family tree.”

ARTWORK AS WITNESS TO HISTORY:
Destruction of a Drohobycz Family

By Marla Raucher Osborn

“Looking back, I now better appreciate that this request would turn out to be not just a genealogy research project about a specific man from Drohobycz who once owned a Bruno Schulz drawing, but a much bigger lesson in history, hatred, and war, that violently swept away a prominent and extensive Jewish family from Drohobycz.”

THE GOLDSTEIN CHRONICLES - IMMIGRATION TO CANADA BY ORDERS-IN-COUNCIL:
The Documents That Saved My Family

By Morton Rappaport

“After 20 years of searching, I recently found the life-saving legal documents which officially admitted eight of my relatives, all members of the Gluck and Goldstein families, to Canada in the 1930s.”

EDITORS' NOTE - February 2016

We hope you are inspired by the three accounts of perseverance and success included in this issue of Success! Stories.

Angela Strohschein never stopped wondering about her great-grandmother Frieda who had tragically died at the age of 28. Through census records, passenger manifests, vital records, and clues found in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR), Angela learns about Frieda’s family history and connects with newly found family members.

Marla Raucher Osborn received an intriguing request from the Director of the Lviv National Gallery of Art to discover the background and history of Dr. Michał Chajes, whose name is stamped on the back of a Bruno Schulz drawing. In researching this Jewish lawyer and his family from Drohobycz, the Schulz drawing also serves to re-join two surviving Chajes family branches separated 70 years ago, today living in different hemispheres.

Morton Rappaport wanted to know how eight members of his Goldstein and Gluck families gained entry into Canada in the 1930s—after Canada had instituted a law which banned the immigration of Asians, Jews, and any other group deemed undesirable by Canadian authorities. After 1930, the only way an immigrant could gain entry to Canada was through a law issued by Parliament called an “Order-In-Council.” After 20 years of searching, Morton finds these life-saving documents.

JewishGen provides many resources to support you in your efforts to learn about your family history and connect with living relatives. We wish you success and encourage you to send us your stories.

Nancy Siegel, Editor                                                            Anna Blanchard, Webmaster
San Francisco, California                                                  Saint Louis, Missouri



 


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Updated by AB on March 5, 2016.

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