Carnival of Genealogy 81: The day the geneablogs died

Tracing the Tribe is hosting its first Carnival of Genealogy, and sincerely thanks geneacolleagues for sending in such interesting posts.

A special shout-out to footnoteMaven for her theme badge (see right).

Please remember that this was a virtual exercise - no blog sustained injuries or died during this 81st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. Certified blog wranglers were present at all times to provide proper care.

Keeping in tune with the times, here's Tracing the Tribe's entry a la Twitter for the 81st Carnival of Genealogy:

ICYMI twitty cre8v fab 1st jugen blog TTT ded 2day @3+yo.b2006 w/2500 posts.#10 pop genblog + honors.J/K.L8R 4mor

In case you can't read it, ask any 10-year-old. If you don't have one handy, here's a translation:

In case you missed it, the witty, creative, fabulous first Jewish genealogy blog Tracing the Tribe died today at 3-plus years of age. Born in 2006 and with 2,500 posts, it was the #10 ranked most popular genealogy blog and had other honors. Just kidding. Later for more.

There was even room for nine more characters!

Okay, back to our geneablogger colleagues. Some carnivals list submissions in alpha order or in a very subjective best-first. Tracing the Tribe will list them as they arrived. Do read all of them!

Amir Dekel: R.I.P. Dream-of-Genea at I Dream of Genea(logy). Amir's work is always good for a giggle. I'm still grinning over this one.

The 'I Dream of Genea(logy)' blog died earlier this morning at about 5:30am in a private sector of underused disk space in the Blogger.com hosting facility. It was just a little over one year old at time of death and cause of death has not yet been determined although it is highly likely that the young blog died of boredom and neglect by its owner. Proper archiving and burial will take place later this evening and the final resting place will be at the owner's external backup HD device. ...

Sharon Klein: Thanks For The Memories at Genealogy. Sharon reported on how her deceased blog helped her connect with bloggers and family members and how two cousins found her while Googling for a mutual cousin. She's not going anywhere - she's hooked on geneablogging!

Earline Bradt: COG #81 - A Short But Full Life at Ancestral Notes. Earline covers the short life of her blog, ending with:

...Ancestral Notes can be viewed in the Google cache anytime, day or night. Private cremation of remains. Donations can be made to the Genealogy database of your choice in lieu of flowers.

Apple: What Is and What Could Be at Apple's Tree. Apple wrote a 2019 obit when her blog's circulation was 250 million, and a GeneaVillage Gazette editorial dated December 2009:

I have been unhappy with Apple's Tree for several months now and perhaps I've been a little hard on myself - but only a little. Writing about what could be will hopefully point me back in the right direction. This was a very interesting exercise and harder to write than I thought it would be.

Ken Spangler: COG #81 ? Blog Obituaries at Beyond Fiction. Hopefully, this won't happen soon but just in case, this is what would be on my blog!

...Arrangements have been made for the blog to continue to stay online for at least another year or so. No new posts will be added but those who would like to take one last look at Ken’s writings will have an opportunity to do so. After that, it will be left to the descendants of Ken Spangler to continue his quest.

Bill West: "WiNG-NUTS MOURN GENEABLOG'S PASSING" at West in New England. Although Bill claims this was a hard one to figure out, I'm still laughing:

... Rumor has it that a secret society of devotees known as WiNG-nuts are decrying the early demise of WiNG and some claim it's not dead but merely the victim of a vast conspiracy of town hall clerks.

But whatever the case, we bid farewell to "West in New England" with a softly murmured "Well done, o good and faithful geneablog..."

footnoteMaven: The Day footnoteMaven's Blog Died at footnoteMaven. fM's work is always evocative, as her piece on Big Blue Bird demonstrates:

... The blog struggled for time, eventually succumbing to a vociferous bird, by the name of Twitter;

Twitter fed on time. And thus, it consumed all fM had left, until the blog was no more.

And only the memories remained…

Jasia: Creative Gene's Obituary (COG #81) at Creative Gene. Jasia, the COG Queen, covered her blog's life and beginnings, her heritage and more.

... Creative Gene is survived by an extensive network of genealogy blogs written by friends ....

Jessica Oswalt: If Something Were To Happen ... at Jessica's Genejournal. Her piece detailed her back-up plan in case her blog were to disappear. Good advice!

John Newmark: Writing a Blog Obituary posted at TransylvanianDutch. Rumors are that the cause of death for TransDutch was beverage-related:

... The Coroner's Report is uncertain about cause of death. There are rumors that a programmer in Mountain View, California spilled a glass of orange juice on the servers and the bits and bytes containing two years worth of data were lost in a second. Author, John Newmark, hadn't backed up the posts. ...

Contributions should be sent to the Dead Blog Fund.

Leslie Mehana: RIP Genea-Rooter: You Made a Good Start at Rooting Around Genealogy.

... But buck up, old girl, you made your Wordless Wednesdays, you added some wisdom to the search. Better luck next time. ...

Randy Seaver: Genea-Musings dies - blogger goes... at Genea-Musings. Randy asks: When a blog dies, what happens to the blogger? Vacation? Funny Farm? Rest and recuperation? Back to real life? All of the above? Are there enough beds at the Farm for all of us?

...the writer of Genea-Musings was admitted today to the Geneaholic wing of the Geneabloggers Sunnybrook Farm in Salt Lake City, Utah for rest and rehabilitation. His lovely wife is there with him... trying to pry his fingers off the wornk eyboard thatk eeps makingt ypographic error sin everyp ost. He just keeps repeating "Control-C, Control-V, spell check, damn fingers, genealogical proof standard, it's not all on the internet, Ancestry is..., they're coming to take my blog away! it's Carnival time, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun rocks..."

What comes next? It's the call for submissions for the 82nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, of course. The deadline for entries is October 15. So sharpen your virtual pencils and get ready to write:

The guest host is Kathryn Doyle of the California Genealogical Society and Library blog, and the topic is:

What's your favorite genealogical society?
Do you belong to a society?
Tell us why! Or if not, why not?

Kathryn's COG will be the inaugural edition of the all-new GenSo Blog Carnival, which will focus strictly on genealogical societies and will begin in January 2010. She'll provide more details about the GenSo Carnival in her post, so stay tuned for more.

Carnival of Genealogy: An unusual topic, October 1

Some time ago, Tracing the Tribe wrote a post entitled "If your blog died today."

The idea came from ProBlogger Darren Rowse, who asked "If your blog died today, what would it be remembered for?"

Jasia of Creative Gene - our Carnival of Genealogy Queen - ran with the idea and Tracing the Tribe is hosting the 81st edition of the COG:

"Your Genealogy Blog's Obituary: If your blog ended or was lost/deleted today, how would you write its obituary?

What were the highlights of your blog?

What is its history?"

The deadline for submissions is October 1. Submit your blog article to the 81st Carnival of Genealogy using the carnival submission form.

Darren's post was a two-part assignment which will provide more input. Here are some questions that might help:

- What do you want people to say about your blog?
- How do you hope it will have been perceived?
- What will people miss about it the most?
- What ground has it broken?
- What has it achieved?
- How has it helped people?
- Write an obituary for your blog as you think others see it now.
- What would they say about it?
- What would people miss about it?
- What has it achieved?
- How has it fulfilled a need or service in people’s lives?
- What ground has it broken?

Tracing the Tribe is rubbing its virtual hands in glee over the prospect of reading all your submissions.

Remember to please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and interest them in clicking on your link.

Thank you to footnoteMaven for creating the excellent 81st COG badge above.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts.

My mother, the genius!

"Of course, you can have a horse," said my mother. "It just has to sleep under your bed!"

My mother was a genius in more ways than one, although her real talent was in situations like the "horse issue." When I became horse-mad, as many girls do at some point, I wanted a horse.

Now, where was such a four-footed creature supposed to live in a Brooklyn brownstone? How would it get up the outside stairs or to the second floor bedrooms?Obviously, we hadn't thought it out carefully. But what was important was that Mom said we could have one. It wasn't her fault that the horse couldn't possibly fit under our bed. We even measured it!

It's a good thing we didn't know about today's lofted beds, which would have provided at least a miniature pony-friendly environment.

"Of course, you two can have a piece of cake. One of you cuts it and the other one gets first pick." We pulled out the rulers and slide rules on that one. If computers had been around then, we'd have found a computer program to calculate the angle of the cut and the volume of the cake. God forbid that the other person should get one crumb more than the other. It worked very well. One cuts, the other chooses. So simple. I keep waiting to hear this solution on the SuperNanny television show.

"Of course, you can try it," she said, as she smoked a very rare cigarette. I was about 5 and thought it looked interesting. It worked. One puff and I've never gone anywhere near cigarettes since. Instead of lecturing me on why it was bad and not for kids, she thought the experiment might work better. I don't think the word "dangerous" came into her decision - who knew back then that it really was dangerous? The tiny puff, horrible taste and ensuing coughing were enough for me for life.

When my mother was born, her parents were both working and my mother was cared for by her maternal grandmother, Little Grandma, in Newark, New Jersey. For five years, she "lived" Yiddish.

When it came time for her to go to school, they tried to register her. Of course, the principal and teachers only spoke English. After some unsuccessful conversations and some talk of this child being mentally-challenged because she couldn't understand the simplest of English sentences, they decided to try something. They brought in a Yiddish-speaking teacher for a very animated session with the child. The result was that not only wasn't she mentally-challenged, but that she knew enough to to skip a grade as she already knew how to read and write (albeit in Yiddish).

An excellent student throughout school, she attended Samuel J. Tilden High School in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where she received such grades as a 98 in Organic Chemistry - who gets grades like that? She had great hopes of becoming a doctor like her maternal uncle, Dr. Louis (Leib) Tollin. Cornell University accepted her for pre-med.

Unfortunately, times were different back then, and although her mother wanted her to do whatever she wanted, her father, perhaps harking back to his shtetl childhood in Suchastow (Galicia->Poland->Ukraine), refused to allow her to consider that future. I was told he insisted she become a teacher, a respected job for a Jewish girl.

Off she went on the bus and subway into the "city" to Greenwich Village and NYU, instead of to upstate Ithaca. However, throughout her life, she was interested in all things medical, read journals, and everything she could find.

As a child, she had a wonderful singing voice, inherited from her mother, and was the descendant and niece of several hazzanim (cantors). Mom auditioned for the Ted Mack Amateur Hour on the radio - the American Idol of its day - and was selected to perform. Always somewhat shy, her stage fright got the best of her and she just couldn't sing that day.

My grandparents had already bought a large piece of land in Kauneonga Lake, near White Lake, in the Catskills, which would become the future Kauneonga Park bungalow colony - the family spent summers and holidays there. My mother was an excellent swimmer. The story was that she used to regularly swim across the lake in summer and, in winter, would ice skate across it.

The women in my family were excellent cooks, and my mother continued the tradition. Although raised in a traditional kosher home, that wasn't part of her persona. So we went to the Italian butcher for the best veal cutlets that would become excellent veal parmigiana, and delicious tender roasts, but also to the Jewish butcher for the best brisket, freshest ground meat and kosher chickens.

A favorite treat was going to the kosher butcher for ground meat. We were little cannibals and loved to eat the fresh ground meat sprinkled with kosher salt. Who knew we were gourmets and were really eating steak tartare?

I'm sure people's eyes are rolling at this raw meat business, but we never got sick and it was the most delicious gastronomic experience at that time of my life. The butcher would place some beautiful fresh ground meat on a piece of brown butcher paper, sprinkle it with coarse kosher salt and we'd eat it up in a flash. I do remember horrified looks on the faces of customers.

We were never allowed to do this at the Italian butcher. And it could not be ready- ground meat in a tray, it could only be fresh-ground to her order.

That ground meat became the best-ever meat loaf - I still make it - or stuffed peppers or spaghetti sauce. In the summer, when we went to mountains, one of her specialities was Chinese-style spareribs (kosher short ribs from Mendelson's in the village). Those were superb, but I've never made them myself.

The only time I remember a really major culinary screw-up was when she decided to buy a new-fangled blender and tried to make tuna salad in it. What poured out was not tuna salad as this planet knew it. Guess what? When you put enough matzo meal or Italian bread crumbs in the "soup," you could form patties and fry them up.

Like my grandmother, she was an excellent sewer, knitter and crocheter. In particular, I remember a black silk dress with a ruffled collar, and also a black-and-white tweed winter skirt and jacket. When our daughter was an infant, she created amazing things - an entire trunkful of sweaters, buntings, hats and outfits. Most of it was from Italian-language magazines - she couldn't read the language but figured out the sophisticated designs from the patterns. When we moved from Los Angeles to Southern Nevada, the entire trunk disappeared and I was heartbroken over the loss.

When my husband and I lived in Teheran, Mom would visit us. It was a long trip in those days, with few non-stop flights from New York. She was never afraid of going off exploring on her own in a foreign country where she didn't speak the language. She'd call a taxi, go off to the museums and have a great day.

She believed in taking responsibility, and she generally found a good solution for problems. She was always calm - I wish I had inherited that - and I don't remember her ever yelling at me - I'm sure she must have, but I just don't remember it.

Of course, there was that time I was watching cartoons on our tiny television screen and I spilled a glass of milk while sitting on a tiny bench at the leather-topped coffee table. Something happened way back then, I knew she was angry, but it really was an accident ... honest.

My mother was the descendant of generations of women and men who lived through the 1391 pogroms in Spain; through the Inquisition; through disasters, epidemics and historic events in Eastern Europe, surmounted the trials of immigration and personal tragedy. They survived and flourished by being "lucky," which I think was merely another word for wisely utilizing innate intelligence and wit.

We have hopefully inherited some of these traits from our ancestors.

The next question: What will our descendants say about us?

Carnivals of Genealogy past and future

Jasia at Creative Gene does an excellent job organizing our Carnival of Genealogy. She has just posted the index of COGs past and future through 2009.

This list is most helpful for readers who wish to understand how many geneabloggers address these different topics according to their own experiences, and also to learn what's coming up in the future.

In the past, each edition has elicited numerous entries. For geneabloggers, it provides an impetus to write on topics which we may not have previously addressed, while our many blog readers get to see varying opinions, origins, events and the styles of many gen writers.

For the click-ons for COGs already posted, view here.

2006

Edition 1 Technology 6/04/2006
Edition 2 Ethnic Genealogy 6/18/2006
Edition 3 Immigration 7/02/2006
Edition 4 Family Reunions 7/17/2006
Edition 5 Historical Fiction 8/03/2006
Edition 6 Genealogical Societies 8/18/2006
Edition 7 Writing a Family History 9/04/2006
Edition 8 Family Photos 9/17/2006
Edition 9 Genealogy Vacations 10/03/2006
Edition 10 Tombstones 10/17/2006
Edition 11 Family Get Togethers 11/05/2006
Edition 12 Solving Technical Problems 11/19/2006
Edition 13 Genealogy Bloopers 12/04/2006
Edition 14 Genealogy Gift Giving 12/17/2006

2007

Edition 15 Genealogy New Year's Resolutions 1/02/2007
Edition 16 Family Food & Recipes 0/16/2007
Edition 17 Thanks & Acknowledgement 2/04/2007
Edition 18 5 Best Tips for Specific Research Areas 2/18/2007
Edition 19 Family Homes 3/03/2007
Edition 20 A Tribute to Women 3/17/2007
Edition 21 Funny, Foolish, Family! 4/04/2007
Edition 22 Carousel Edition (mixed topic) 4/18/2007
Edition 23 School Days 5/04/2007
Edition 24 Mothers 5/18/2007
Edition 25 Who inherited the creative gene in your family? 6/04/2007
Edition 26 Dads 6/19/2007
Edition 27 What America/Independence Day means to my family 7/03/2007
Edition 28 Surnames 7/18/2007
Edition 29 Moral or legal dilemmas in genealogy or blogging 8/02/2007
Edition 30 Genealogical conferences and seminars 8/18/2007
Edition 31 Proving or debunking family myths 9/04/2007
Edition 32 Family war stories 9/18/2007
Edition 33 Weddings 10/04/2007
Edition 34 Halloween and the supernatural 10/18/2007
Edition 35 A family mystery that might be solved by DNA? 11/04/2007
Edition 36 Carousel Edition (mixed topic) 11/18/2007
Edition 37 Genealogy wish lists 12/03/2007
Edition 38 The New Millennium (2000) 12/18/2007

2008

Edition 39 New Year's Resolutions 1/04/2008
Edition 40 Living-relative connections 1/18/2008
Edition 41 Dinner with 4 ancestors 2/04/2008
Edition 42 Best of the est, iGene Awards edition 2/18/2008
Edition 43 Technology Tips for Genealogists 3/04/2008
Edition 44 A Tribute to Women 3/18/2008
Edition 45 Cars as Stars of Our Family History 4/04/2008
Edition 46 Inherited Traits 4/18/2008
Edition 47 A Place Called Home 5/04/2008
Edition 48 Mom, How'd You Get So Smart? 5/18/2008
Edition 49 Swim Suit Edition 6/04/2008
Edition 50 Family Pets 6/18/2009
Edition 51 Independent Spirit 7/04/2008
Edition 52 Age 7/18/2008
Edition 53 Carousel Edition 8/04/2008
Edition 54 The Family Language 8/18/2008
Edition 55 Show and Tell 9/04/2008
Edition 56 Essential Books in Your Genealogical Library 9/18/2008
Edition 57 I Read It In The News! 10/05/2008
Edition 58 Fact or Fiction, Haunting Stories 10/18/2008
Edition 59 Politics and Our Ancestors 11/04/2008
Edition 60 Alzheimer's Disease 11/18/2008
Edition 61 Traditions 12/04/2008
Edition 62 Wishes! 12/18/2009

2009

Edition 63 New Year's Resolutions 1/04/2009
Edition 64 Winter Photo Essay 1/18/2009
Edition 65 Genealogy Happy Dance 2/04/2009
Edition 66 Second Annual iGene Awards 2/18/2009
Edition 67 Nobody's Fool 3/04/2009
Edition 68 Women's History Month: One Woman 3/18/2009
Edition 69 What if: Rewriting History 4/04/2009
Edition 70 Uncle! Uncle! 4/18/2009
Edition 71 Local History 05/04/2009
Edition 72 Honoring Mothers 5/18/2009
Edition 73 The Good Earth: Family Ties to the Land 6/04/2009
Edition 74 Second Annual Swim Suit Edition 6/18/2009
Edition 75 Justice and Independence 7/04/2009
Edition 76 How I Spent My Summer Vacation 7/18/2009
Edition 77 Disasters Our Ancestors Lived Through 8/04/2009
Edition 78 Ride Em Cowboy: Let's See Your Pony Pictures! 8/18/2009
Edition 79 Family Reunions 9/04/2009
Edition 80 Research An Event Your Ancestor May Have Attended 9/18/2009
Edition 81 Blog Obituary 10/04/2009
Edition 82 Weddings! 10/18/2009
Edition 83 Musical Instruments 11/04/2009
Edition 84 "Harvest": What it meant to your family 11/18/2009
Edition 85 Orphans and Orphans 12/05/2009
Edition 86 Holiday Theme 12/18/2009

My recent post on Blog Obituaries - If your blog died today... - prompted Jasia to suggest it as the topic for the 81st COG in October 2009.

Happy reading! Thank you, Jasia, for your work!

Presenting the IGene Awards for 2008

Here we go again! Presenting the 66th Carnival of Genealogy's iGene Awards for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History, where we geneabloggers honor our best posts in five categories.

Tracing the Tribe is happy to present its 2008 winners:

BEST PICTURE 2008

Best old family photo that appeared in this blog.

Smiling faces: New Jersey, Moscow, Teheran (July 25) offers family photos from both the Talalay and Dardashti families. This was submitted for the 4th edition of Smile for the Camera!

BEST SCREEN PLAY 2008

The family story that would make the best movie.

Here's a Leib, There's a Leib (September 21) was submitted for the 11th Carnival of Eastern European Genealogy.

BEST DOCUMENTARY 2008

Best informational article about a place, thing, or event involving my family's history.

While holidays really bring out my foodie focus, these two documentaries detail the history, preparation and joyful scarfing down of these delicious dishes:

Ashkefard Chanukah (December 22) describes how my family's origins result in some very yummy dishes.
Fideos or Fidellos The Recipe (October 10) brings a Sephardic traditional dish to life again.

Honorable mention in this category must be Food: Goldenberg's Peanut Chews (October 22).

BEST BIOGRAPHY 2008

The best biographical article

Here's a Leib, There's a Leib (September 21) was submitted for the 11th Carnival of Eastern European Genealogy.

BEST COMEDY 2008

Best funny story, poem, joke, photo or video shared in 2008

Year of the Pickle (January 22 ) suggested that Jewish genealogists add a new custom field to their family tree software program.

Happy Dance: Put on your dancing shoes!

Fifty geneabloggers have each described the excitement and joy of a first Happy Dance, "be it a rousing rumba or a restrained, elegant waltz," followed by complete and utter addiction to genealogical passion.

Becky at Kinnexions just posted the newest Carnival of Genealogy, focusing on The Happy Dance: The Joy of Genealogy.

This was a great event and I sincerely regret my non-participation describing the first time I saw TALALAY written anywhere, as well as the discovery of an archival document from Spain dated 1353. Oh well. Next time. I had this written in all my calendars, on a Post-It on the corner of my monitor and I still missed participating.

Read Becky's post at the link above, but remember to wear your dancing shoes!

The choreography includes dances based on ship births, immigration, a board message that broke down a brick wall, surname variants, college projects, travel, genealogy conferences, Montreal, genealogy with children, ancestors without names, memes, female ancestors, connecting stories, DNA, hitting the proverbial jackpot, genea-gasms, new cousins, court cases, photos, Germany, phone calls, Indiana and much more.

Make yourself a cup of hot chocolate (if it's snowing) or a tall glass of iced tea (if you can see palm trees), sit back and read.

Tracing the Tribe wants to know what prompted your first genealogy happy dance. Write a comment so we can all share in the toe-tapping!

Here's a Leib, there's a Leib!

The newest Carnival of Eastern European Genealogy is focusing on family first names, hosted by gen-blogger Steve Danko.

Here's a bit of history, humor, naming traditions and patterns to peruse.

Anyone named Leib Talalay is sure to be a cousin, no matter where he is today.

The main branch of our Talalay family was from Mogilev, Belarus from the 1700s and, from 1832, from a newly established agricultural colony down the road apiece (Vorotinschtina, adjacent to Zavarezhye, about 12 miles south-southwest from Mogilev).

Rabbi Leib Talalay was a Talmudic scholar, and the son of a rabbi, Mikhl Talalay, and likely many generations of rabbis before that. Leib was rather famous and this, combined with the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition of naming children after a deceased relative, meant that each of Leib's children named a son after him. And so on and so forth, down to the present day.

Leib's claim to fame - at least the one I've heard the most about - is that he studied the Talmud through three times. There is a Yiddish term for that, but I've forgotten it. Because of this achievement, he was awarded all the stale bread in the bakery every day. Considering the number of mouths Leib had to feed, this was a rather good deal for his family.

Whether I find an olden-days Leib Talalay in Chaussy or Gorki (near Mogilev), or more contemporary days in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Moscow or St. Petersburg - he's more than likely one of ours.

In the New World, of course, Leib's namesakes became generally known as Louis and in more contemporary terms, some Laurences as well. In some Jewish families, keeping only the same beginning letter is considered enough to maintain the tradition.

His father was Mikhl (Michael) and so - again according to naming traditions - there are a lot of Mikhl and Michael and a large number of Moshe (Moses) - this name back to a 1353 document discovered in the Lerida, Catalunya archives (kosher winemaker Mosse Talalya). From London to St. Petersburg to Napoli, we have Michael Talalays.

This Ashkenazi naming practice can be confusing as women are also named for deceased grandmothers or other female relatives. Thus nearly every Leib had a sister named Gita (for her grandmother).

However, it is not as confusing as a family tree I received for the Ben Tolila family who left Spain in 1492 and settled in North Africa, also a rabbinical family in Meknes, Fez and elsewhere. We believe that this family is possible related to our Talalay before the Expulsion.

In any case, naming traditions in Sephardic families are different from Ashkenazi. The highest form of honor is to name a newborn after its living grandmother or grandfather. I received numerous pages in which nearly every generation was named Samuel (Shemuel) for the men and Mercedes for the women. It was impossible to fathom, and I got a headache trying to separate the generations.

My great-grandfather Aron Peretz Talalay, who would become Aron Tollin soon after he landed in New York and then Newark, was also honored with children named after him. One cousin's middle name became Paris instead of Peretz, although the first name remained the same. Great-grandmother's brother Hatzkel and their father Tsalel had a large number of Charles named after them.

And what were we going to do with a name for our daughter when we had a Leah and a Chana to name after? We racked our brains and came up with an Italian version, Liana, combining Lia (Leah) and Ana (Chana). It was a great success and she never met another girl with her same name until many years later. It also worked for the Persian family who could pronounce this "new" and strange name. Of course, many called her Diana, but we worked through that one also.

In Miami, a nurse told us we couldn't take the baby home without a middle name and we hadn't thought of one. We did ask about the hospital sending her to college if we left her there without a middle name; they said no. We finally settled on Shayne (for Shaine/Sheine, Yiddish for beautiful). We figured Liana Shayne would look great on a theater marquee if she wanted to become an actress, a doctor or lawyer. We did realize that with the last name of Dardashti, her initials would be interesting - you figure it out. We said to ourselves, "Oh, that's just a passing fancy. No one will recognize those initials when she grows up." Yeah, right.

Throughout her school years, her classmates delighted in her name and initials and thought her parents were soooo cool and that we must have been hippies living in a commune. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Can you spell "square," boys and girls?

How many readers hate their own names or have children who hate their names for a variety of reasons? We were lucky; she loves her first name and her initials!

My grandmother's names evolved as well. Born in Mogilev as Chayeh Feige (Chaya for life, Feige for small bird), she became known as Bertie in her Newark school, and later more elegantly as Bertha. Her mother-in-law from Suchostow (Austro-Hungary, Galicia, Poland, Ukraine) was Rebeka Halpern Fink, known variously on the Bronx's Grand Concourse as Rebeki and rarely Becky. But her headstone in the Suchostower Benevolent Society plot reads Regina Fink.

The other side of the family is Persian, and this is where the strange names to Western ears really come into play. Standard Hebrew and Persian literary names of the old generations include Yaqub (Jacob), Israel, Moshi (Moses), Ebrahim (Abraham)Parviz, Atollah and Faramarz are connected to wives and daughters named Khorshid (sun), Tavuus (peacock), Nane-jan, Sabh-jan, Paridokht, Farangis, Heshmat and Azam.

French names began to take hold when the Alliance Israelite Francais school opened its doors. Boys took on typical French names as a sign of education. In some families, two children might have French names, the others Persian names. Today, in Los Angeles (Tehrangeles), the younger generations are more likely to be named Tiffany, Ashley and the like, while boys have the same names as their non-Persian classmates.

The entire time we lived in Teheran, I was called Shirley instead of Schelly. I gave up trying to correct everyone; it was just easier to accept it. Just this summer, I visited a Los Angeles cousin who learned for the first time that it was really Schelly. She was shocked when her kids said she'd been saying it wrong (forever!).

What's in a name?

In Jewish tradition, it represents generations of family history. Think about who that person was named after, and the person who carried it before? Go back generations and generations and you'll see the same names repeated. These patterns are very useful clues in researching old documents including the days before surnames were required.

However, there are always exceptions in families: my mother was named after a cigar and an actress (Muriel, although the Yiddish version was Mirrel) while a Canadian cousin was named after the family's beloved dog. Really.

Looking forward to hearing your "name" stories in comments.

Ashkenazi, Sephardi: Essential Jewish genealogy books

The 56th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy challenged us to choose 10 essential books for our personal genealogical research.

Tracing the Tribe is tweaking the challenge a bit to reflect both its readership and my personal interests in both Ashkenazi and Sephardi genealogy.

-Jewish communities considered Ashkenazi include individuals whose ancestors generally spoke Yiddish and lived in Eastern Europe, although they may actually have emigrated from Western Europe and the Mediterranean and vice versa. Ashkenazim are found around the world today.

-Jewish communities considered Sephardic in the broadest sense of the word, including Jewish communities whose roots are not in Eastern Europe - although individuals, families and communities did migrate there - but rather in Iberia and places beyond (immigration from Iberia from 1391 and after the 1492 Expulsion to many Mediterranean countries, Amsterdam, the Caribbean and elsewhere), as well as those communities called Mizrahi - the Jewish communities of the Middle East and Asia, such as Iraq, Syria, Iran, India, Afghanistan and others. Sephardim are also found around the world today.

These books - and many others in each category - are always near my desk. The rules for this challenge indicated only 10 should be mentioned. Tracing the Tribe readers are invited to post additional books in both categories.

10 Essential Ashkenazi Research Books

1. Where Once We Walked: Revised Edition: Gary Mokotoff, Sallyann Amdur Sack with Alexander Sharon. It identifies more than 23,500 towns where Jews lived before the Holocaust. Includes 17,500 alternate names, soundex index and "nearby town" index.

2. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian
Empire: Alexander Beider. 74,000 surnames from the Czarist Empire including etymologies and where names appeared, origins and evolution of Jewish surnames in Eastern Europe. (Two vols.)

3. Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Alexander Beider. A huge, detailed resource providing the origin and evolution of 15,000 given names.

4. Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland: Alexander Beider. Award-winning compilation of 32,000 surnames.

5. Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia: Alexander Beider. Identifies 35,000 surnames from the region.

6. Jewish Personal Names: Shmuel Gorr. Roots of more than 1,200 Jewish given names showing Yiddish/Hebrew variants with English transliteration.

7. Surnames: Lars Menk. More than 13,000 surnames from pre-World War I Germany.

8. Russian-Jewish Given Names: Their Origins and Variants: Boris Feldblyum. Comprehensive collection of Jewish given names from czarist Russia.

9. Encyclopedia of Jewish Life: ed. Shmuel Spector. 6,500 towns in Europe where Jews lived before the Holocaust.

10. Sourcebook for Jewish Genealogies and Family Histories: David Zubatsky, Irwin Berent. Reference to family trees with more than 10,000 Jewish surnames.

10 Essential Sephardi Research Books
(Languages include Spanish/Catalan/French, with documents in Latin and Hebrew in original and in translation. The bibliographies provide many more resources. Sephardic research requires different resources and languages.)

1. Sangre Judia: Pere Bonnin. Thousands of Jewish names taken from pre-Inquisition, Inquisition courts and other documents, with year of document and city.

2. Sephardic Genealogy: Dr. Jeffrey S. Malka. Award-winning and pioneering comprehensive guide to Sephardic research.

3. Dictionary of Sephardic Surnames (2nd ed.): Guilherme Faiguenboim, et al. 17,000 surnames from more than 24 countries where Sephardim lived.

4. Per A Una Historia de la Girona Jueva (2 vols): ed., David Romano. History of the Jews of Girona, with archival documents, encyclopedia articles, photographs, bibliography.

5. La Catalunya Jueva: Maps, photographs, history, documents; excellent bibliography.

6. Els Jueus de Valls (The Jews of Valls): Gabriel Secall i Guell. History, archival documents, names, bibliography. The same author compiled a book on the Jews of Tarragona.

7. Perpignan: L'histoire des Juifs dans la ville (XII-XX siecles): Perpignan Archives Histoire (Perpignan Historical Archives). Jewish History, archival documents, names, bibliography.

8. La Via Judia en Sefarad: Ministry of Culture. History, archival documents, names, photographs, bibliography.

9. El Libro Verde de Aragon: ed., Monique Combescure Thiry, Miguel Angel Motis Dolader. History, Conversos and the Inquisition in Aragon, genealogical charts; three editions of the Green Book compared, bibliography.

10. Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews: David M. Gitlitz. Religious customs of Iberian Jews who converted by force to Catholicism, 14th-15th centuries. Details crypto-Jewish culture in Spain, Portugal, the Americas. Records include Inquisition documents, history, rabbinical rulings, eyewitness accounts and more.

As with my Ashkenazi book list, I could have added many more books collected in the US, in Barcelona (Catalunya, Spain) and Perpignan, France. Additional topics include Sephardim in the Caribbean, Turkey, food customs, and much more.

Welcome to the Picnic!

Carnivals of Genealogy are great reading for everyone.

Bill West has just posted the results of his Geneabloggers' Picnic.
Many of came along for the good company and delicious food.

Spread a nice blanket on the grass, if you've got it, and sit down to read.
We've made it easy on you - no ants, flying stingy things or other creepy crawlies to worry about.

Enjoy the great collection! Thanks, Bill, for letting me share memories.

Memories: Picnics in New York, Teheran

Bill West at West in New England is hosting the Genea-Bloggers' Picnic, and inviting us to remember family cookouts and picnics, traditional foods or family recipes.

Growing up in Brooklyn, I don't remember any city picnics. However, my grandparents' Kauneonga Lake bungalow colony, about 10 miles from Monticello, was the scene of great 4th of July and Labor Day weekend picnics, the summer season's official opening and closing holidays.

My grandmother made her own cole slaw and potato salad - enough to feed an army - cooked and sliced corn beef, turkey and roast beef for deli sandwiches - the meat purchased from Mendelson's kosher butcher in Kauneonga.


There were perfectly ripe fragrant tomatoes and delicious just-picked sweet corn from Grandpa's friend up the road (whose farm would become the future site of Woodstock). Crisp sour pickles and cans of Charles' potato chips rounded out the menu, along with sliced cold watermelon.

The grills, manned by relatives, produced prodigious numbers of kosher hot dogs tucked into lightly toasted buns, slathered with relish, mustard and ketchup.

No one requested chicken or tofu hot dogs back then - we had never heard of a vegetarian, cholesterol or trans-fat. If we had, we would have thought they were strange - not eat Grandma's corn beef or those juicy hot dogs? Blasphemy!

Fast forward a few years to our time in Teheran 1970-78, when Fridays were picnic days at the family's huge garden in Karaj.

At that time, Karaj was a separate village with its main claim to fame the Karaj Dam, where one could boat or visit a trout farm (pick out a fish and grill it) on the river. Today, Karaj is a city and a bedroom community for the much-expanded city of Teheran.

In the old days, the whole family would spend the day at the very large garden - named Kazemabad - which featured a pool (mainly for irrigation, but we also swam in it), a pomegranate orchard, greenhouses, mulberry trees, sweet miniature grapes called yaghouti (ruby) a house where we could retreat if it rained or snowed (as once happened in April).

The garden's owners included my late father-in-law, his brothers and another family, so Fridays could be rather busy with groups ranging from great-grandparents to great-grandchildren, but it was large enough to accommodate everyone.

Stored in the garden house was my mother-in-law's huge copper samovar, fired by charcoal, which held enough water for 100 cups of tea. At least we didn't have to bring that back and forth.

Family cars were filled with Persian carpets (even the "garden" ones were beautiful), huge pots of rice and stews, fruit, dishes (no paper plates!), silverware, glasses, sheets and pillows for after-lunch naps, bikes and toys, radios, soft drinks, sweaters for the evening chill. It was a real expedition to a then-rural location, even though the drive was only about 30 minutes long.

We would arrive about 11am to arrange the carpets under the trees, get the fire started for the samovar, arrange the pots wrapped in blankets to keep warm (the food had been cooked early that morning).

The menu may have included rice with carrots and red kidney beans with chicken (polo-havij), rice with tomatoes and small pieces of beef or lamb or even tiny meatballs (polo-estamboli), rice with dill and baby lima beans (polo-cheved-e-baghala).

An aunt would bring fried white fish, someone else the chicken. Another cousin would have brought the watermelons and other fruit, stored in the pool to keep cool.

Sometimes we brought saffron-and-lime-juice marinated chicken (jujeh-kabab) or seasoned ground meat (kubideh) to grill.

Baking was my contribution, and I often made a huge tray of fudgy brownies (a la famous cookbook author Maida Heater) - What's a picnic without fudgy brownies?

After lunch, elders would play cards or backgammon, smoke gheilyun (water pipe), then nap under sheets on the carpets, shaded by trees. Younger kids climbed the mountain to the pomegranate orchard or, if the mulberries were ripe, they would climb the trees to eat the sweet berries and come down completely covered in purple juice that never quite washed out.

In the afternoon, preparing for a quick dinner before heading back, we'd drive into Karaj to buy fresh-baked breads right from the oven and delicious village yoghurt in green-glazed bowls; we ate half the warm bread on the ride back. The women would make mast-e-khiar - cucumber-yoghurt salad - with the fresh tangy yoghurt, nothing like today's supermarket variety.

Leftovers devoured, belongings and supplies gathered and packed, we headed back to the city at dusk.

Thanks, Bill, for suggesting this topic. That's the beauty of these Carnivals of Genealogy - they help us remember and share these important memories.


Now I'm hungry after this posting ... time for lunch!

Smiling faces: New Jersey, Moscow, Teheran

When I heard about the 4th edition of Smile for the Camera! event hosted by FootNote Maven, I began searching for suitable items on my travel laptop.

Jasia on Creative Gene mentioned it here .

The 4th Edition of Smile For The Camera takes its word prompt from the Ace of Hearts. What photograph do you consider "My Favorite Photograph," the one that has won your heart. Choose a photograph of an ancestor, relative, yourself, or an orphan photograph that is your favorite family photo or that photograph you've collected and wouldn't give up for a King's ransom.

While I thought there would be many images on my flashdrives, there were none - curious! However, as I use Yahoo for my main email connection - and it saves everything - I was able to locate images sent for other purposes from my home PC.

Here are three family photos, although the only smiling face is that of my great-uncle Lou in the first photo.

It is also a nice juxtaposition in that my branch was one of the several American branches arriving 1898-1914, and the second image is of a branch that remained in Moscow, until the past few decades when some individuals and their descendants immigrated to Israel and the US.


NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, USA

This is the only photo I have of my maternal great-grandparents and their first three children.

Aaron Peretz Talalay (Tollin), (born in 1875, Vorotinshtina, Belarus) son of Ber, son of Menahem Mendl, son of Rabbi Leib, son of Rabbi Michel Talalay; his wife Riva, daughter of Tzalel Bank, (born Kovno, Lithuania); and their three eldest children, from left, Leib (Dr. Louis Tollin), Sam and Chaya Feige (Bertha Fink, author's grandmother);
c1910, Newark NJ.
(Author's collection)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA

This is of a "lost" Moscow branch - well, they knew where they were although we didn't. What a handsome family from the 1920s!

Boris (Ber), son of David haMelamed (the teacher), son of Rabbi Leib, son of Rabbi Michel Talalay. Born in Vorotinshtina, Belarus, with his daughters and daughters-in-law; c1920s, Moscow.
(Author's collection)

TEHERAN, IRAN

 

To give equal attention to our non-Ashkenazi family, here's my late mother-in-law and three of her four children.

Farangis, daughter of Aghajan Penhas Kashi and Heshmat Dardashti; her three eldest children (from left) Houshang, Paridokht and Albert (author's husband). c1950, Teheran, Iran. (Author's collection).

So many photos have been lost over the years in all of our families.
Each image we have today is priceless.

If you have inherited boxes of photos, do something about them today.
At the very least, scan and copy them to various media - to preserve them - so you can work on them later.

51st Carnival of Genealogy: Independent Spirit

Destination: Austin Family by blogger Thomas MacEntee is the home for  this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, affectionately called COG.

I participated in earlier COGs and really need to get back into doing this again. This is a great way to write about special individuals, times, activities and other topics that we bloggers might not think about addressing on our own.

The 51st edition is here with some 21 entries.

Some extraordinary people are listed and topics include those who went West, were wise women, shipbuilders and brothel madams, writers and lawyers, grandmothers, immigrants and soldiers, and many other interesting individuals.

The next COG topic is age - something we can all relate to - I'm hoping to get back to COG posting for this one.

Carnival of Genealogy - iGene Awards posted

There are now 23 official founding members of the Academy of Genealogy and Family History, following the opening of the envelopes for the 2007 iGENE Awards.

Each blogger submitted their best blog posts in the following five categories: Best Picture, Best Screen Play, Best Documentary, Best Biography and Best Comedy.

Here is the round-up of the best of the best by Creative Gene's Jasia.

The entries cover diverse topics of time and place. Enjoy reading them!

The next topic, due March 1, is technology, and Jasia is asking us to write on what we most rely on for genealogy and family history research.

We are to select one piece of hardware (besides our computer), one piece of software (besides our internet browser), and one web site/blog (besides our own) that we find indispensable. Hmmmmmmmmm ...

Best of the Best - iGENE awards for 2007

Jasia of Creative Gene has set the topic for the next Carnival of Genealogy.

It is time for The Best of The Best! It's Academy awards time - time for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History (AGFH). All genea-historian bloggers who participate in this event will become AGFH founding members.

We are asked to nominate our best blog posts of 2007 in the following categories:

BEST PICTURE

Unfortunately, I have not made the leap into utilizing images on Tracing the Tribe. I hope to do that in the near future.

BEST SCREEN PLAY

Two family stories share equal honors for this: The Story of Little Grandma and Nane-jan covering two countries, two historical periods, and two strong women who lived in interesting times. For best action screen play, here's the run-away winner: A shtetl fashion statement.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

These two certainly sum up memories of a time and place, backed by records. Combining both would cover many angles of a good documentary: Remembering the Mountains and Hooked on Maps

BEST BIOGRAPHY

Tracing information on Uncle Hatzkell: Ancestry's Passport Database

BEST COMEDY

Since there's no category this year for animated (read animals!) entries - and it isn't often animals figure in our genealogical quests - here are two:
For full-length animated comedy, here's a real turkey:
Thanksgiving, Persian-style. In the theoretical animated wolves category, this overcomes the rest of the pack: Uphill in the snow - both ways.

30th Carnival of Genealogy posted

The latest edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted by Jasia of Creative Gene., with a total of 11 entries, including Tracing the Tribe's entry.
The topic this time was genealogical conferences/seminars.

Some very funny, such as Janice Brown's (Genealogy Seminars I'd Like to See) and others with interesting views.

Enjoy!

Carnival of Genealogy: Gathering the clans

This month, Jasia of Creative Gene asks gen bloggers about fantasy and favorite genealogy conferences for the 30th Carnival of Genealogy.

My top fantasy conference wish is for time machine access. How much would you pay to ask your G-G-G-Grandmother the names of her siblings, their spouses, her parents and grandparents, where they were born and more? I'm hoping for an included automatic translator, but - just in case - we should start studying Russian, Polish, Yiddish and a host of other languages. What could be worse than traveling back and being unable to ask questions or understand the answers?

Increasing numbers of Sephardic genealogy researchers have origins in Spain and Portugal, North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Central/South America, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East, as well as those with Converso roots around the world. Archivists from Spain, Netherlands, Turkey could present pertinent information and personal consultations on research possibilities.

Event syllabi should be in looseleaf format so daily session handouts can be removed, leaving the heavy book back in one's room. Although younger genealogists are increasingly present, many more are still in a certain demographic and bound syllabi are heavy.

Offer a fully-searchable syllabus CD. In this technology age, it shouldn't be difficult to provide this at-your-fingertips information with additional space (maps, photos, etc.) for speakers. Those who live far from the event site find it easier to pocket a CD, than to ship or squeeze a heavy book into an already-overstuffed suitcase.

One wish has been granted with the genealogy film festivals at the 2006 and 2007 Jewish genealogy conferences. Offerings include full-length award-winning features to short amateur clips of ancestral village roots trips. Producers and directors should be invited to discuss their work. Perhaps some premiere screenings and/or an award for the best?

And, finally, when one annual event offers an excellent syllabus or daily planner, why re-invent the wheel the next time and switch to a hard-to-read format? Hint on conference bags: Top-zip bags are more useful than unwieldy fold-over messenger styles (especially for laptop-toters!).

THE MAIN EVENT

For genealogists and family history researchers delving into Jewish roots, there is one comprehensive event, the annual IAJGS international conference on Jewish genealogy. International researchers organize their summers around the event. This is where researchers meet genealogical household "names" in person, hear about new resources and network, network, network.

I've attended many over the years, but New York 2006, hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society (New York), raised the bar of excellence. Some 1,400 people attended a frankly amazing program - exhibiting vision and wide-ranging creativity - covering 23 categories, including geography, technology and even music.

The only downside - a perennial problem - was attempting to choose one session in each slot - one memorable hour required a choice from among nine fascinating sessions. Evening programs included concerts and films, while days also included trips to repositories and cemeteries.

In 2008, the 28th event will be in Chicago (August 17-22). Many international researchers have links to the Midwest's largest Jewish community and environs, while mini-themes may include Canada, Midwest/Upper Midwest and Latin America, in addition to the regular line-up. Sephardic researchers are hoping for a substantial program as well.

OTHER CONFERENCES

The Catskills Institute promotes research and education on the Catskill Mountains and the American Jewish experience, with resources detailing so much about the region. New Yorkers hungry for mountain air, good food and the American way of leisure came to the mountains to escape the hot city. By the 1950s, more than a million people inhabited the "summer world" of bungalow colonies, summer camps, small hotels and famous resorts. Conference highlights include historians, authors, current/past residents and tours. For information on this year's event (August 24-26) click here.

The Society for Crypto-Jewish Studies conference is high on my wish list, but my schedule hasn't allowed me to attend. Next year in New Mexico … maybe! In particular, see University of New Mexico author/researcher Dr. Stanley M. Hordes' presentation: "Problems in Studying Hidden People: Historical Challenges."

More than 20 million Hispanics, according to experts in the field, have Jewish roots. Some know, some suspect, some maintain distinctive customs, while some have no knowledge of roots among the Conversos - those forced to convert to Catholicism in the face of Spanish persecution in 1391 and 1492.

My thanks to Jasia for asking challenging questions. Tracing the Tribe readers are invited to comment on their own wishes for a fantasy conference. I'm looking forward to reading your ideas.

Carnival of Genealogy's 24th edition

Jasia at Creative Gene has posted the results of the 24th Carnival of Genealogy. This month's entries focused on our mothers.

Many gen bloggers submitted entries, including my postings on my great-grandmother, born in Lithuania, and my husband's eldest aunt in Teheran. Read all the entries here.

The entries cover a variety of origins, religions, ethnicities and history, from photographs to transcribed letters, from lists of maternal ancestors to a calendar of memories of a mother recently lost.

Thanks, Jasia, for this opportunity to recall stories and fond memories.

Raising the bar: Nane-jan in Tehran

I wrote about my maternal great-grandmother Riva Bank recently, but I shouldn't stop there. Equal time is due my husband's eldest aunt, Nane-jan.

Nane-jan was born in the 1890s to Yaqub ben Israel Dardashti and Khorshid Penhas-Kashi in the mahalleh (Jewish ghetto) in Tehran. Yaqub, a butcher, and Khorshid had six daughters and then three sons - one was my husband's father. In those days, girls were expected to stay home, help their mothers and wait to get married. Only boys went to school.

Fortunately, the Paris-based Alliance Israélite Universelle opened two schools in the Jewish neighborhood. The boys' school opened first, and then the girls' school in 1902. As soon as the second school opened, the enlightened Yaqub enrolled Nane-jan and then the other girls as they came of age.

Nane-jan was the first Jewish girl to go to school in Tehran, and the community just wasn't ready for this modern idea. "Why," some in the community asked Yaqub, "was he setting such a bad example for the other families?" It was simple, he told them. With many daughters to feed and dowries to provide, the girls needed to be educated.

People stopped buying from her father and she was harassed every day on her way to school. An Armenian friend finally gave her some clothes to wear - it was acceptable for Christian girls to attend school - and she was then able to walk to school unmolested. All her sisters went to school; several became French teachers there. Her brothers attended the boys' school.

Nane-jan sold jewelry to the women in the Shah's harem. Men couldn't enter; women were the go-betweens. There was also a family connection to the harem. The beautiful daughter of Moshe, Yaqub's brother, had been kidnapped into the harem much earlier - a not-uncommon occurrence - and it is likely that Nane-jan knew the woman or her daughters, but we have no proof.

I met Nane-jan in 1970 when we moved to Tehran. This tiny woman, already quite ancient with snow-white hair and blue eyes, was delightful. She would sit and talk to me in French - after all, the only foreigners she knew were French, so it stood to reason that all foreigners spoke French. I learned Farsi faster than French and it confused her that I never spoke French and insisted on speaking Farsi. She knew the family history, the juicy scandals and more.

Nane-jan told me about some family branches that had become Muslim long ago for various reasons (second wives who were Muslim and their children, or those who took advantage of the law allowing Muslims to take possession of their Jewish relatives' assets, and thus they converted for financial reasons).

She recalled childhood holiday celebrations where the Muslim cousins would visit her parents' home. She always exhorted me to find them, to tell them that they had aunts, uncles and cousins who remembered them and loved them.

For some reason, she thought this quest would appeal to me. She knew me better than I knew myself. Decades later, long after her death in Israel at over 100 years of age, I was able to find some of them.

How much of my genealogy interest is due to Nane-jan? I'm not sure, but I credit her with lighting the spark of imagination. I never forgot her stories and, of course, I regret I didn't ask the questions I now have - she knew all the answers.

The legend of Little Grandma

Congratulations to Jasia of Creative Genes, whose Carnival of Genealogy challenges gen bloggers to think and write about what we might not ordinarily cover. This month's challenge is, naturally, mothers.

Little Grandma - my mother's maternal grandmother - was a legend.

She lived in Newark, New Jersey, from 1905 until her 1963 death. She barely learned English, but raised educated children, including that American dream, a doctor.

Riva was a daughter of Tzalel Bank, "the famous one-eyed blacksmith." She was born around 1878 in a village near Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania; her sisters were Sanke and Mere and her brother was Hatzkel. The family also lived in the big city of Dnieperpetrovsk for some time.

The girls were tutored and received a good education for that era. One became an excellent dressmaker, another a caterer and businesswoman. Little Grandma was always well-dressed, coiffed and lipsticked, and encouraged us to do likewise.

She ran away from home because her father wanted to marry her to an older man, and we have been told she then lived with Gypsies, from whom she learned healing, midwifery and the arts of reading palms and telling fortunes.

We don't know exactly where she met great-grandfather (known as Zayde) Aron Peretz Talalay, but they married and returned to Vorotinschtina, an agricultural colony near Mogilev, Belarus. The colony, established in 1830 by several Jewish families (including our Talalay), was home to only 300 souls at its most populous. It had a synagogue and cemetery shared with Zaverezhye, the adjacent hamlet, which also had a post office and store. In October of 1941, all of the remaining occupants of the colony were murdered by the Nazis.

We can imagine the more sophisticated Riva's dismay when she walked into her rural home in Vorotinschtina. In a bold move, she hammered rows of nails into the wall, hung clothing on them and put up a blanket around the clothes. This was the first, but not the last, village "closet."

When Zayde, a master carpenter who could carve toys with moving parts out of a single block of wood, escaped to America to avoid conscription in 1904 - a time of anti-Jewish pogroms - Riva was heavily pregnant, and had a toddler. We were told that Grandma was born in an area where Russia, Iran and Turkey meet, and Riva crossed the border "to buy eggs on a string," as she used to say. When I lived in Iran, I began to think that she might have meant eggs in a string bag, which was common for shopping in Tehran, but we'll never know. If readers have any ideas about what else she might have meant, please comment.

Times were dangerous. Riva ran from place to place with infant Chaya Feige (Bertha) and toddler Leib (the future Dr. Louis), wearing a cross for safety and hiding in churches with fellow Jewish refugees, always carrying her samovar, Shabbat candlesticks, feather quilts and six silver spoons. The men threatened to smother her children if they cried; if the mob had discovered the refugees, everyone could have been killed.

They eventually reached Hamburg, Germany, and embarked for New York, where Leib was sick for a few days in the Ellis Island hospital. The doctor prescribed bananas, which Riva had never seen. Another mother demonstrated with gestures how to peel the tough yellow fruit.

She was always the family's mover and shaker - literally. Once she decided on something, that was it. Riva decided she needed a house with a basement (so she could make pickles) and a yard to grow vegetables in, and found one.

Zayde didn't exactly agree to this move, so while he was at work (making decorative patterns for black cast-iron stoves), she simply packed up and moved the entire household. She sent a child - by now, they had several more sons - to the empty apartment with a note, "Here's our new address, supper's at 7."

Riva had it all figured out: a basement, a yard, a room or two to rent and a top floor for them, with plenty of light. The only thing she didn't have was an upstairs bathroom and Zayde didn't understand the fuss.

Finally, she took an ax - about as big as she was - and chopped a hole in the floor for the bathtub and another in the wall for a window. She kept the kids from falling into one and out of the other.

That winter evening, Zayde came home, saw the holes and was frightened for the small children. "Nu? [Yiddish: So?] So put in a bathtub," she replied. "And don't forget the window." She got both.

Riva was summoned when mothers suspected an "evil eye" on a child, and was requested as a healer and midwife. She would often tell stories about unusual births she had seen.

Little Grandma often visited her daughter's family in Brooklyn. The family went out one day; she was left alone at their house. They returned to a delicious roast chicken dinner, but were a bit confused as Grandma hadn't been left a chicken to cook. My uncle enjoyed his dinner and then went to the backyard to feed the fowl he had been raising for a Boy Scout project ... You guessed it!

Also, she didn't understand why Grampa's liquor cabinet had so many half-bottles. She helped by filling up the nicest bottles and throwing out the others. I'm not sure if Grampa ever recovered.

I often think of her life: running away from home, living with strangers, escaping from pogroms, saving her children's lives, hanging onto family treasures - and designing closets and bathrooms. Could I have coped as well?

We must continue telling these stories, reminding our daughters to be goal-oriented. Should ax lessons be required? Should we tell the men they marry?

Carnival of Genealogy

Happy to report that "Making a fashion statement" was listed in the latest Carnival of Genealogy. There are 18 entries.

Each month, Jasia of Creative Gene picks a topic and the gen bloggers write a relevant posting.

We have until May 15 for the next round: Mothers are the focus in honor of - of course - Mother's Day.

I'm working on a story about my great-grandmother.