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PAGE 20 THE SOI THERN ISRAELITE April 23, 1982
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In search
by Lloyd A. Mendrkon, Ph.D.
God love them, you always seem
to have more relatives than you
think you can handle, especially at
bar mitzva or wedding time At
each Passover season for the last
12 years I have watched my mama
diligently try to lake a dinner table
that once comfortably accommodated
me and her and my father, and try
to seat first my wife, then each of
our three children as they came
along and then this year a
mother-in-law Relatives do add
up fast. You will discover this as
you get into Jewish genealogy
research. By the time you begin
collecting information on each of
four branches of your family, you
will very soon have a sizable
number of relatives and a huge pile
of material. It is, therefore,
essential that you approach the
search for your personal history
with some organized research
plan.
One of the basic principles of
genealogy research is to work from
that which you know backward in
time toward what is unknown. The
first step, then, is to begin
compiling information on your
CERTIFIED MOHEL
Cantor Akiva Ostrovsky
approved by leading
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CALL 636-7303
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living relatives Obtain four manila
folders and label one for each
branch of your family. These
folders will hold the correspondence
and materials you collect on each
family branch. Preserve these
folders in a metal file cabinet or in
a cardboard filing box which can
be inexpensively purchased from
any office supply store. It is very
important that you respect the
proper care and storage of the
records you collect because you
will come to cherish the valuable
and often irreplaceable family
pictures and documents that you
discover in your research. 1 am
preserving in my own records such
emotionally rewarding documents
as my great-aunt Minnie
Feldman’s marriage license dated
1892 and the photograph of the
steamship Brandenberg which
brought my Grandpa David
Isenberg to this country. You, too,
will find these pieces of personal
history waiting somewhere to be dis
covered and reclaimed from oblivion.
The next step in your
preparation is to purchase what is
known as pedigree or ancestor
charts. 1 suggest that you call these
charts "ancestor” rather than
“pedigree,” for its is rare that a
Jewish genealogist discovers
pedigree. In my early noble
endeavors, I had hoped to find
some genealogical link to the
musician Felix Mendelssohn with
whom 1 have the pleasure of sharing
the same surname, but 1 soon
discovered that while he was
composing, my mishpacha were
eking out a meager existence in the
Russian Pale of Settlement several
hundred miles east of his music.
Now, if you want to talk pedipte,
my wife is the first cousin of Sorya
Esfandiari, the second wife of the
recently deceased Shah of Iran.
However, my wife is claiming these
days that she is not from Iran but
from Puerto Rico.
My second brush with the harsh
reality of "no pedigree” came when
1 took a course in genealogy
offered by the Smithsonian
Institution. While on a guided tour
of the huge DAR Library, many
DAR hopefuls were uncovering
one pedigree after another while 1
came up bare I had no family at
General Washington’s side, nor were
any of my Jewish ancestors invited
to the Boston Tea Party. As you
probably make this same
discovery, don’t be discouraged.
Your personal story and historical
roots will be just as beautiful and
satisfying.
I think that the best selection of
ancestor charts is at the
Genealogical Center Library
located at 2815 Clearview Place,
#400, in Doraville at Perimeter 285
and Buford Highway The phone
number is 457-7801. Library
hours are from 9 a m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thursday and Friday, and from 9
a m. to noon on Saturday, but, of
course, that is when you should be
in shul.
Incidentally, the library director
is Diane Dieterle, who knows as
much about genealogy as anybody
I've met. If you have questions, she
will provide the answers with
patience and interest. While this
library is open to the public, you
mignt consider becoming a
member Membership is a bargain,
and you will meet other
genealogists who could be helpful
in your research. In a future
column, I will describe the
procedures for filling out these
charts and for interviewing
relatives.
Nations have come and nations
have gone, but the Jewish family
endures. Your genealogical
inquiry will be the link between
your Jewish ancestors and your
Jewish descendants.
At this Passover season, 1 raise
my cup of wine to my own
ancestors and descendants—“I
wish I could have known you all.”
(Dr. Mendelson is a psycho
therapist in private practice.)
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When first lady Nancy Reagan
was in Atlanta recently to deliver a
speech on drug abuse, she
borrowed some words from a letter
written by two fourth grade
students.
It all started when Melissa Katz,
granddaughter of Diane and Eddie
Silverboard of Atlanta, and her
schoolmate, Kim Cole, spent the
night together and were watching a
television detective show in which
a man was selling drugs to
children. The two girls decided
that the drug problem was getting
out of hand.
The next morning Melissa and
Kim decided to write a letter to
President Reagan, “because he’s
the president, he’s the best one who
could do something about it.”
They waited for an answer. Three
months later. When they still had
not gotten an answer, they wrote
another letter. This time they
signed the letter, “Determined,
Melissa Katz and Kim Cole.”
This time they heard from the
White House; but it wasn't a letter,
it was a telephone call. And not
from the president, but from a
member of Nancy Reagan's staff.
She told them that their letter said
exactly what needed to be said at
the drug education conference
Mrs. Reagan would be attending,
and could she quote them. Could
she! Of course.
Quoting from the letter, Mrs.
Reagan said, “Why can’t they do
something about the drug
problem? If rockets can fly to the
moon, and science can cure
diseases, then why can’t we cure the
drug problem? America, we can do
it!”
Melissa, the daughter of Sandra
and Roy Katz, could some day
follow in the footsteps of her
grandfather, Eddie, who at one
time wrote a column for The
Southern kraelite.
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