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A SYNAGOGUE IN EHRSTADT:
Finding My Cahn Family Roots

“I had spent three years researching the Cahn family by conventional means, essential preparation for that one leap that in 20 minutes catapulted me from ignorance to a massive family tree....”

CLUES FROM A PHOTO ALBUM:
Cousins Reunited after Nearly 100 Years

“During all his life he thought that he didn’t have cousins, and suddenly he gained almost one hundred cousins in Brazil.”

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS:
Finding my Turmann Family

"Karl mentioned in this article that he was the sole survivor of his Lemberg clan.... I wrote to him immediately—and quickly heard back from him by phone. We both had the same reaction—we were in tears. We are second cousins, once removed!"

HEARD ON THE LISTS
Invaluable help from JewishGenners in Israel

"...all contact with the family in Europe was lost and we suspected they had all perished in WWII."

EDITORS' NOTE - May 2010

We’re pleased to bring you the latest issue of Success! Stories. These stories take us all over the world, with researchers from Brazil, Poland and the UK, Canada, and the US—and responses from Russia, Germany, Austria, and Israel.

Martin Cahn traced one line of his family back six generations, discovered the synagogue built in 1836 due to the efforts of his great-great-great-great-grandfather and, as a guest of honor, attended the ceremony celebrating the renovation of the synagogue building.

Eliana Aizim learned the identity of family members in an old photo by posting it on ViewMate, followed these leads through the JewishGen Family Finder to find the grandson of her great-aunt pictured in the photo, and then traveled to Israel for a joyful meeting with this newly discovered branch of the family.

Karen Sanders found the names of her maternal great-grandparents on the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry - Austria, received from an Austrian JewishGenner a photo of the tombstone that answered some questions and posed new mysteries, and followed the trail that ultimately revealed her family’s origins and a previously unknown living family member who had survived the war in a Siberian prison camp.

Debbie Rose posted her success story to the JewishGen Discussion Group just last month. With the help of many Israeli JewishGenners, she found a living cousin in Israel, 65 years after her family lost all contact with the part of the family that remained in Ukraine. We republish her account in Heard on the Lists.

We’re confident you’ll find inspiration in these stories and hope you’ll also take away a greater understanding of how to use the resources and community here at JewishGen – a community, as we see in these stories, that spans more than half the globe. We wish you success in your own family history journey – and look forward to hearing your story!

Meredith Hoffman                                                Nancy Siegel
Plymouth, Massachusetts                                  San Francisco, California

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Updated by MH on Monday, May 24, 2010.
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