High School Collage

I once spent a lot of time and love on this. Old style cutting and pasting. Enjoy

From Mindfull Meandering

Homes of My Ancestors

Homes of My Ancestors

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I saw a link to a BigHugeLabs tool for embedding maps. So, I'd play around by putting in the countries my kid's ancestors came from. Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. I think it tells a clear story about where we're from. Solidly Eastern European Jewry. I wish it went to the town level - I'll have to find a tool that does that quickly.

Triangle Shirtwaist Anniversary

The Triangle Shirtwaist disaster--the largest accident in New York's history before 9/11--occurred 100 years ago this year. HBO has a documentary and all of the networks are commemorating the tragedy, especially in light of the recent labor controversies in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere.

I don't believe that I had any family in the fire, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did. My ancestors, like many Jewish immigrants, worked in the garment industry in NYC. They were involved in the labor movements - one of my grandmother's brothers was involved in the leadership in one union, and was not a non-violent time. Going through the census records exposes the occupations: cutter, finisher, presser, etc. My maternal great-grandfather was a furrier and my paternal grandmother's family had a haberdashery!

I can't imagine the conditions that they worked in, and I can't imagine working in those conditions today. I hope the centennial of the tragedy leads to continued fair treatment of labor of all sorts.

Food + Genealogy = Love

I loved Top Chef this week. The contestants were taken to Ellis Island and asked to create a dish that exemplified their ancestry. I was in my element! I read a bit more about the genealogical investigation here, but not nearly enough for my taste.

The winner remarked, as she was planing with her mother, that she would focus on her Italian heritage and put her Jewish heritage aside. It was probably a good strategic move, but made me wonder what I would have made if I had been in her shoes (and if I could cook a whit). The world's best briscuit and noodle kugel? Sweet and savory rugeluch?

And what about Iron Chef: Battle Kosher? That I'd love to watch!

Always proud of Grandma Rose!

I'm always proud of my Grandmother, pictured above courtesy of the NJ Jewish News. At 92 years old she has good days and bad - but she retains her spark! She was quoted in a recent article about high school students coming to learn about history from those who have lived it. The article even gives her a quote:

The Daughters of Israel residents were all smiles, full of stories about their lives. Rose Shoshana Telles described to her interviewers how she moved from Russia to Canada and eventually to Brooklyn.

“I was a teacher,” she told a reporter, “and these students are very bright. They’re brighter than I was.”

Now you see where I got my love of history! You can read the entire article here.

Iasi Pogrom - 1941

My paternal grandmother's family immigrated from Bivolari, Romania - a little village north of Iasi, Romania, on the eastern border with Moldova. My great-grandfather left around 1911, but his parents and several of his brother's families remained. Those left behind eventually moved to Iasi itself, and many remained there through WWII.

Lazar Leibovic wrote an account of the Iasi Pogrom of June 29, 1941 that captures the horror of those days. It is all the more powerful given that my cousins were there experiencing the mindless terror themselves. An English translation has been generously provided by Anca Dumitru-Sapuna of Bucharest, Romania.

How many ancestors do you have?

The Eastman newsletter had an interesting post on the numbers of ancestors we each have. You can find it here. Ten generations back and you have over 1000 direct genetic ancestors (e.g., parents, grandparents, great-grandparents). Twenty generations back and you have over 1 million. Thirty generations and you have over 1 billion. Of course it doubles at each generation.

It made me wonder a few things:

• These numbers assume that each ancestor is unique. In any one generation, the same direct ancestor might appear multiple times. The larger the size of the generation, the more prevalent it is going to be.
• How do these numbers compare to the total population size at the time? Clearly, these number cross, with world population rising (exponentially?) as time goes forward and the size of the generation getting smaller by half. According to one account, the world's population in 1800 was one billion. That was approximately ten generations back (where there would have been about 1000 ancestors). But if you go farther back, you'll have more ancestors than people?
• If your ancestry comes from one cultural group or geographic area to the exclusion of others, how much more prevalent is amount of duplication of ancestors?
• Can genetic testing give us any insights into the numbers of ancestors that are duplicated? At which generation those duplications exist?
• Are there more sophisticated ways to measure or estimate these things mathematically? What other information do you need?

I'd love any insights or pointers to existing scholarly work.