May 2012
22 posts
5 tags
1940 Eye-Opener
Like many other family genealogists, I anxiously awaited the arrival of the 1940 US Federal Census. It was going to answer so much about not only my family, but my husband’s family as well.
The Guam census was one of the first to be downloaded and as soon as all districts were in, I began combing through every last page beginning with district one, page one. I already knew that the...
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The Lost Months of 1940
In February of 1940, my father walked out on his wife and eight-month old son in California, never to be heard from again by them or anyone in his family. He re-surfaced six months later in New Jersey using a different last name, and shortly thereafter met my mother. They dated, married, and raised my brother and me. It wasn’t until 37 years after his death that I discovered this on...
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1940 Census brings a family stories to life...and...
Early in their marriage my grandparents lived in Washington, D.C., having moved there from Philadelphia as newlyweds. Growing up in nearby Maryland, I remember listening to stories of their time in the capital. They both had fond memories of going to the National Zoo, and poignant recollections of being at stadium watching the Redskins play the Eagles at Griffiths Stadium on Pearl Harbor Day.
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April 2012
33 posts
18 tags
Israel Arbeiter: Ready to Return to the United...
After 8 days that took him from Warsaw, Poland to his native city of Plock in Poland, to Krakow and finally into Germany, where he gained his freedom in 1945, Izzy is tired.
At 87 years old he has the right to be.
After seeing his parents and brother shipped off and murdered at Treblinka, his friends and other relatives also killed in the concentration camps, he has said his final goodbyes to...
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Prisoner A18651 Returns to Auschwitz
Contributed by Tim Gray, chairman of the non-profit WWII Foundation. For more information about the foundation, visit www.wwiifoundation.org
The majority of Holocaust survivors have not the desire nor the will to return to the place where they lived through the most disturbing moments of their life and watched others die in ways still not easy to describe more than 70 years later.
Today in...
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Life Advice…From the Grave
My great grandfather, Abramo Donato Cantelli was born in San Donato, Italy on February 4, 1903. He was only six years old when he boarded a ship headed to America called the Canopic Line with his mother and two brothers. After two seasick weeks they finally landed in Boston where Abramo’s father was waiting for their arrival.
Abramo attended school until he was 12 years old, leaving to work at...
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Izzy Arbeiter Waves Goodbye to Plock
Israel Arbeiter said his final goodbye today to his home city of Plock, Poland.
At 87, Arbeiter will most likely never again be healthy enough to return to the city that gave him life 87 years ago, but is now more remembered as the place where he last saw his mother, father and youngest brother alive. His father’s final words before the Nazis separated his family in the city square were both calm...
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Israel Arbeiter Returns To Plock
Contributed by Tim Gray, chairman of the non-profit WWII Foundation. For more information about the foundation, visit www.wwiifoundation.org
Israel Arbeiter was 14 when the Germans took over his city of Plock, Poland on September 3, 1939. There were an estimated 10,000 Jews living in Plock (pronounced Plotsk) in 1939. You would be hard pressed to find a handful in 2012, maybe 2 or 3? Where did...
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Israel Arbeiter Lands in Poland
Just prior to boarding our Lufthansa flight from Boston’s Logan airport to Munich, Germany and then on to Warsaw, Poland I gave Holocaust survivor Israel Arbeiter a copy of a book I just finished. It’s called “Auschwitz” by British historian Laurence Rees.
There is something very inadequate about handing an Auschwitz survivor a book on Auschwitz. What will it say that he didn’t already experience...
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WatchThis Mother’s Day, we celebrate moms. And the things they pass down to us.
What’s the most important thing your mom passed down to you? A few of us at Ancestry.com answered that question. Head to our Facebook page to enter our Mother’s Day Sweepstakes and get a chance to win a genealogy kit for mom. Enter here: ancstry.me/HXAmkg
You can also grab the best gift this Mother’s Day for...
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Israel Arbeiter Returns to Poland
How much inner strength must a man have to be able to revisit places where he experienced indescribable horrors?
Israel Arbeiter has spent the past seven decades keeping a promise. That promise was to tell as many people as possible what it was like to survive and witness, first-hand, the Holocaust.
As Arbeiter gets ready to board a plane and return to his native Poland today, Monday, April 23rd,...
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Page-by-Page 1940
Most of my relatives lived in San Francisco in 1940. While looking for a particular address in an ED I scan every name on every page hoping to find someone who’s address is unknown. So far I’ve found three maternal and two paternal families living near each other. Mine eyes have seen the glory!
Linda Galley
9 tags
Prisoner A18651: Israel Arbeiter
“Hitler tried to kill me. I’m still alive. He’s dead”.
Israel Arbeiter, the author of those words, turned 87 within the past week. If you had asked him in 1939 whether he would have lived this long he would have said “unlikely”.
When the Germans marched into his city of Plonsk, Poland 73 years ago Izzy Arbeiter’s life became more complicated. The middle of five boys, Arbeiter, like most Jews in...
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1940 Census Claims Another Victim
I confess, the 1940 census wasn’t that big a deal to me. I know, I know. It’s an unparalleled document, a single, enormous map of the entire United States population. And it will be a doorway for millions of folks just getting started on their family history, a 10-year head start over 1930.
But for me, what was there to find? True, it’s the first census that would include my parents, but I...
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The Family Neighborhood
My biggest discovery in the 1940 census was something I’d always known, but never understood until I saw it on paper—virtual paper that is.
My dad’s stories about his childhood always included his cousins, whether they were climbing trees (and breaking arms) or racing homemade boats in the irrigation canal.
My dad (the smallest boy in the front row) with his brothers and cousins ca. 1940
I...
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So Many Questions Waiting to be Answered
Anna and Joe Dansbury
William Dansbury’s first wife died in 1938, leaving him with three small children. By 1942 he married his first wife’s cousin, my grandmother, Anna Steffes, and had another baby boy. I’m not exactly sure how quickly he remarried but 1940 is a critical year. Were they married yet? Or was my grandmother still working as a teacher? By some standards she was a bit of an old...
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Finding My Family in the 1940 Census
In the 1940 census, I could not locate my relatives where I knew they had to be. I had their correct address from a 1940 city directory, so I knew they lived at 4444 River Rd. I had the correct ED and block number, so excitedly I find 4439 River Rd., then 4440, 4442, and then the enumerator went on to the next block, skipping 4444 and 4446! Agh! Disappointedly, I asked my mother (who used to...
11 tags
The Titanic: Last Port of Call
One of the best parts about my job is how often I come in contact with historic locations. Most of these places I never dreamed I’d be fortunate enough to see outside the pages of a history book. Twice, in the last five years, I have had the opportunity to work with artifacts and locations that were directly linked to the Titanic. My first experience with this infamous ship came when I was brought...
