Remember the Days of Old: My Family History Research

A few years ago, my passion for history and genealogy led me on a journey of uncovering my family's past

Transcription of a speech given at the Passaic-Clifton Community Toastmasters Club, on Sunday, April 12, 2016, with edits for clarity. On YouTube here:

"Remember the days of old; consider the generations past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you."

So says Moshe at the end of the Book of Devarim, guiding the Jews. Some commentators say that this is an imperative to explore Jewish history by asking our fathers, our parents, and our elders, and having them explain to us what went on in the past.

For many years, ever since I was a child in elementary school, I was interested in history and in researching my own family history and Jewish history in general. However, when I was younger, it didn't really go anywhere. I wasn't sure how to go about it. The furthest I went was asking my parents, both my mother and father, to help me build the family tree and figure out all the connections. But that was the extent of it.

However, a few years ago, while I was in Yeshiva University, I saw a notice on the wall about the YU Genealogy Club. They mentioned a meeting that would explain how to go about researching your family history. So, I went to a couple of meetings, and it was a tremendous eye-opener for me. They shared several methods that I found immensely helpful. In this speech, I'm going to go over some of those methods and give examples of how they were beneficial for me.

The most helpful resource for me was a website called Ancestry.com. It has millions of scanned documents that are valuable for anyone looking to research their family. The most important documents for me found on Ancestry.com were naturalization papers and immigration papers. These contain a wealth of data, such as a person's name, their parent's names, birthplace, children, residence, and occupation. For instance, my paternal great-grandfather's naturalization papers revealed that his city of origin was Botosani, Romania. This was fascinating as we never knew this.

Another set of important documents on Ancestry.com are censuses. Fortunately, since my grandparents and great-grandparents, on both my mother's and father's side, came to the United States around the turn of the century, I had access to these censuses. They documented where they lived, who their children were, and other details going back to the 19th century, up to 1940. However, sometimes there are errors, like one ancestor listed as coming from Australia when it clearly meant Austria.

After exhausting Ancestry.com, I began interviewing relatives. Armed with names and data, I approached family members for more insights. For instance, one relative told me that my maternal great-great-grandparents were Hasidim from Warsaw with 11 children. Despite their strong religious beliefs, none of their children remained religious.

Another method I used was visiting cemeteries. Headstones are rich sources of information. To organize and build my family tree, I used a website called MyHeritage.com. It's one of the most popular sites for this purpose. To date, I've added 275 names of relatives, both living and deceased. Another invaluable resource was Facebook, which made connecting with distant relatives much easier.

Ultimately, I compiled all the relevant documents into a folder on Google Drive and shared it with all the relatives I had communicated with during this research journey. This email served as a culmination of all my research, but it also paved the way for continued exploration into our shared history and its impact on the present and future.