Warm fuzzies: Heard from Nancy

Hello, dear readers,

Well, I've learned our anonymous reader is named Nancy and she lives on the West Coast. When I opened my email this morning, I learned much more about Uncle Lou.

Nancy, please write to me at tribeblog@jta.org so we can communicate directly. I'm sure you enjoyed seeing Uncle Lou's graduation photo today!

Nancy writes:

We live on the West Coast and my husband is standing here beside me in awe hearing about Dr. Tollin and seeing a childhood photo. He delivered my husband and all nine of his siblings. He delivered my sister, who was a preemie and almost died, but he saved her life. He came to my house when my mother was having anxiety attacks.

Everyone has a story about the great Dr. Tollin. He was like a part of everyone's family and has saved so many of us. I don't know when he ever got a second for himself. He had long office hours and you never needed an appt, just showed up. When he wasn't seeing patients in his office, he was out at our homes taking care of us.

I am here to tell you that his medications that he assembled in his room, were far superior than anything out there today. He made them himself and they were amazing.

Nancy, you have filled in a missing chapter for our family with your details. At least I know now why his summer visits were so brief - he couldn't stay away too long!

My great-grandmother Riva Bank Talalai/Tollin was a midwife before immigrating to Amerioca and was considered a "healer," with knowledge of medicinal herbs. I remember her daughter - my grandmother Bertha - talking with friends about the things Riva had seen in her years of helping people in the neighborhood. I am sure that Uncle Lou picked up a lot of practical knowledge from his mother.

"Little Grandma" Riva lived until 1963 and I remember her very well, although I don't think we ever had a conversation. She spoke Yiddish and Russian - neither of which I was fortunate to have learned - and very little English, but all her kids were told - so the story goes - that they must speak English as they were now Americans. She was too busy taking care of the family to learn English, and her life was in her community, so Yiddish and Russian were enough for her.

He had an incredible sense of humor. I used to talk his ear off as a child and he always told me that he thought he mistakenly vaccinated me with a phonograph needle :)

I remember bleeding profusely and going to have my head stitched up in his office late one Friday night. He froze the area with an ice cube so it didn't hurt me. To hear the story that he used to be scared of blood and how he overcame it was hilarious. Glad he did as he had lots of bloody situations with his patients over the years.

We had no specialists; he had be a jack of all trades in the medical world. And he was. He was an incredible man. The people of the community were his life. I have never seen any doctor, anywhere but Dr. Louis Tollin that was as dedicated as him. (and I have worked in a hospital most of my life)

We knew that he was from New York and that sounded exciting to us as kids. I heard from someone that Mrs. Tollin moved back to New York after her husband died. Just know that your great-uncle was a miracle to our community. He stuck with us all of those years when others chose a larger profitable town for their practice. It wasn't the money for Dr. Tollin, it was his calling.

Aunt Norma was the daughter of a pharmacist (Samuelson) in the Baltimore area. I have not researched her family and you might know about them. I don't remember meeting any of her own family, and only met their son Max and his family a few times. I know he had retired to Florida.

I do remember a conversation I overheard as a young child one summer. My grandmother was asking him to move to a different area, that it might not be safe where he lived - they were very close all their lives - and he said "I can't, they need me. I will never leave them." Funny, how we remember little snippets of conversations from decades ago! I certainly understand him after your details.

I have to smile when I think of him, as he was so funny that he could have easily been a comedian with his dry sense of humor and delivery of jokes. I cannot wait to send the picture of him to my sister back East, who I am sure will pass it on to many others.

I'm sure you also enjoyed his medical school graduation photo!

All the family were also musical, playing multiple instruments and singing. Zayde Aron had a voice that could crack wineglasses at Passover seders. Aron's maternal uncle Avraham Jassen was a famous hazan who had a synagogue in Brooklyn and also sang at the Metropolitan Opera with Enrico Caruso. So the musical genes were passed down. When my parents married in New York, there were several hazans and rabbis!

My grandmother always used to describe how she helped him through school, studying with him, quizzing him. She said that's how she got much of her education - by helping Lou study. That era was very different for girls.

Nancy, I wish all researchers could connect with someone like yourself who can provide special insight into the life of a relative.

Miami: Jewish Museum's mini-film festival, Jan. 18

Celebrate Florida Jewish History Month with a mini film festival at the Jewish Museum of Florida, beginning at 3pm, Sunday, January 18.

Three short films by native Aaron Davidson will be screened; all focus on Miami Beach Jewish history. A film student (who began taking classes at the Miami Children's Museum when he was just 14), his Rascal House, Abraham’s Bakery and A Slice of Life will be screened.

The Rascal House Restaurant was a Miami Beach fixture for more than 50 years, opening in 1954. When we visited my grandmother in Florida, and when we later lived in southern Florida we ate there. There was only one Rascal House. Davidson recorded the restaurant and its nostalgic customers on its last day.

Abraham's Kosher Bakery has been open for more than 30 years and is one of the last "old fashioned" bakeries. Davidson shows making challah, hamentaschen and other yummies. We missed this piece of Miami life as we had moved to Los Angeles before Abraham's opened!

A Slice of Life records Miami Beach's kosher butchers. When we returned from Teheran to Miami Beach in 1978, there were only a few still open out of dozens in the old days. Joe Goldstein, his customers, sons and grandchildren share their recollections about a nearly vanished way of life.

The film festival is free if you purchase museum entrance tickets, so come early, enjoy the museum and see the films.

You didn't know there was a Jewish Museum of Florida or what it does?


The museum collects, preserves and interprets material evidence of the Florida Jewish experience from 1763, when Jews were first allowed to settle, to the present and to interpret this history in the context of the American Jewish experience.

It explores Florida's richness and diversity of Jewish life, the part that Florida Jews play in the historic and cultural dynamics of Florida, the nation, and the world; and discrimination issues against all peoples in Florida over history.

The museum is active in collecting and preserving, interpreting, research, restoring and maintaining two National Register synagogues and providing a location for these activities and other programs, which include exhibitions, collections and research, education, publications, outreach, a store and a cafe. In the planning stages are a magazine featuring Florida Jewish history, family diaries, oral histories, a Florida Jewish History book and a scholarly journal.

Here they come! Geneabloggers 'invade' TGN

Living on the other side of the world from the majority of my geneablogging colleagues sometimes presents problems. One great event that I missed was the recent invasion of The Generations Network by a group of geneabloggers visiting the Salt Lake City area.

Thanks to Leland Meitzler of the GenealogyBlog - it's great to see him back online after a few months' hiatus - view a round-up of relevant posts on the event by this prolific group of bloggers. He writes that this is "to be continued," so check out his blog for updates.

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings offered multiple posts:
Day 2 in Salt Lake City - Visit to TGN - Part 1
Day 2 in Salt Lake City - A Visit to TGN - Part 2
Saturday Night Fun - Who Went to A.com?
Day 2 in SLC - A Visit to TGN - Part 3
Day 3 in SLC - the TGN Dinner and FTM 2009
Leland is keeping score about the TGN visit

Diane Haddad of the Genealogy Insider posted:
New and Next at Ancestry.com
From Paper (or Film) to the Web
Secret Genealogy Blogger Revealed! (Partially)
Online Searching: It’s Complicated
Inside Ancestry.com’s Top Secret Data Center
Wrapping Up Our Look Inside Ancestry.com (this wasn't on Leland's list, so I added it)

DearMyrtle provided:
Touring TGN/Ancestry
Day 2 in Salt Lake City - A Visit to TGN - Part 2
TNG & TGN - Was that a Trekie reference
More Reports of the TGN/Ancestry Tour

The Ancestry Insider posted I'm in heaven and Content is King.

Information provided covered new and improved content, technology, customer input, marketing efforts, consumer education and FTM software features. It was an excellent idea to gather a group who are able to disseminate the details.

A few years ago, when the IAJGS conference was held in Salt Lake City, I was treated to my very own private tour of the Ancestry facility in Provo (and a very good Chinese dinner in a nearby restaurant!). It was a great day, thanks to Susanne Russo Adams and others.

Twitter: Learning yet another language!

Twitter is all the rage these days. A bunch of geneabloggers are now listed in the #Genealogy category. I've been reading email alerts from people who are following me on Twitter and decided to check it out.

I don't exactly understand it yet - being a complete non-techie. However, Tracing the Tribe is now signed on, so others with more understanding can follow the blog.

While looking around for a simple Twitter badge (see my "follow me" badge at right), I found this neat site with a range of colorful yet simple graphics. If you'd like to see the others and generate your own, click TwitterMySite.com.

The next thing I need to do is learn how to get new posts added onto Tracing the Tribe's Twitter page.

Look for an upcoming post (being prepared right now) providing articles and resources to help newbies understand this new media. If I can understand these sources, hints and tips, anyone can!

Tracing the Tribe readers are invited to chime in with their own Twitter experiences and tips.

Warm fuzzies: Uncle Lou's graduation photo

Following the very kind comment of an anonymous reader concerning my great-uncle, Dr. Louis Tollin, detailed here, I set out to find his yearbook photo. I used to have a copy here somewhere, but believed it had been lost in our last move.

I emailed the University of Maryland Medical School Alumni Association yesterday. Today, I had a nice email from them with Uncle Lou's 1927 yearbook entry attached (above).

Thank you, University of Maryland!

I was also successful - about 12 years ago - in contacting what was South Side High School - now Shabazz High School - attended by Uncle Lou, my grandmother and their siblings. When I called them, a very nice young woman went into a back room and found the dusty records.

Moral: Contact your ancestors' high schools, colleges or universities and see what they might have. You may be pleasantly surprised! Don't forget to contribute your own family yearbooks to online resources to make it easier for others to find information for their own families.

Get ready to do the genealogy happy dance!

Warm fuzzies: One reason for this blog!

There are many reasons for Tracing the Tribe. While its primary reason for existence is to inform readers about Jewish genealogy innovations, resources, books, events and more, there is also a a personal motive. As a researcher, I am always hoping that long-lost and far-flung relatives will chime in as well - and some have.

Today, I received this comment from a former patient of my great-uncle Dr. Louis Tollin, in response to a post titled Maryland: Jewish Museum and genealogy.

Oh my; you are a relative of our beloved Dr. Louis Tollin of Edgemere, Maryland? There are thousands of us from coast to coast that he delivered and took care of our whole lives out of his office in the front of his home on North Pt Rd.

He would come to our houses in the 1950's in what I remember to be a Nash Rambler. I was a child then, but remember him pulling up. He was so funny, always telling jokes to keep us from being scared as he stitched us up in his office or gave us a shot, examined us for eyeglasses or made our medications himself in the little back room.

His son Max I believe worked at "Four Roses" distillery in Dundalk. Mrs. Tollin was his nurse and had red hair.

When I go back home and drive past the home that used to also be his office, it is sad. He was and is a legend in our town. Dr. Louis Tollin will always live on in the Sparrows Point/Edgemere/Fort Howard area of Maryland through the hearts of generations of patients.

What a great way to start a blogging day! Thank you, dear writer, for what is now my favorite comment!

I knew Uncle Lou from his brief summer visits to my grandparents' (his sister Bertha was my maternal grandmother) large bungalow colony in Kauneonga Lake, New York. The only tidbit I had ever heard about his professional life was that he was devoted to Sparrows Point and would never consider moving, despite family suggestions.

It really made my day to hear from this former patient (there was no name, email or location to identify the person or I would have written personally and thanked the writer).

I will expand on this at a later date and add snippets of documents as befits a genealogy blog! But for now, here's a photo of Lou (bottom left), younger brother Samuel, my maternal grandmother Bertha, and their parents Aron Peretz ben Menachem Mendl Talalai (Tollin) and Riva bat Tzalel Bank (c1910; Newark, New Jersey).

The story in the family was that Uncle Lou was afraid of blood. When he was accepted to medical school - the ultimate achievement for every immigrant family - everyone was worried. A relative found him a summer job in a slaughterhouse, which apparently cured him of his fear.

Uncle Lou/Leib was named for his father's illustrious ancestor, Rabbi Leib ben haRav Mikhel Talalai of Mogilev. Lou's father, Aron Peretz ben Menahem Mendl, lived in the Vorotinschtina agricultural colony (adjacent to the hamlet of Zaverezhye) , very close to Mogilev, Belarus, where the main Talalai family lived; Talalai were among the colony's founders. There were other early Talalai branches in Novgorod Severskiy (Chernigov gub., Ukraine), St. Petersburg, Moscow, and elsewhere.

Aron Peretz' wife was Riva bat Tzalel Bank - whom we called Little Grandma for her diminutive stature - was from Petrinisky near Kovno, while Tzalel's brother Gedalia and family lived in Keidan.

Louis was 2, Bertha 5 months old, when they arrived at Ellis Island and settled in Newark, New Jersey. Aron and Riva's family grew with the additions of Samuel (Shmuel), Abe (Avraham) and Harry (Hirsch). Zayde Aron's brother David and his family (his wife was a Visotsky from Bobruisk) also lived in Newark. Extended family had emigrated to New York, Philadelphia, Springfield/Boston, and elsewhere.

Are there any more of Uncle Lou's former patients out there?

Forensic genealogy: Finding the fakers

Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sharon Sargeant exposed the Holocaust frauds concerning Misha DeFonseca and Herman Rosenblat, has just shared a new article in Publisher's Weekly (PW)concerning their forensic work.

Additionally, Colleen and Sharon have launched a website for their new company, Identifinders. The homepage features an explanation of how they uncovered Herman's fraud.

Writes Colleen:

It was an important revelation to Judith Rosen, the reporter, that DNA could be useful to the publishing industry in determining whether to go forward with a book, and then how to position it. Working with the publishing industry to evaluate potential book projects is breaking new ground for forensic genealogy.

I certainly agree with Colleen and Sharon. Publishers shouldn't rush into deals for manuscripts purporting to be true - such as Holocaust "true" stories - without first utilizing the skills of experts to determine the truthfulness of the stories and, depending on the outcome of the investigations, then clearly label the stories as what they are (novels or fables). It would save publishers from PR nightmares, from book cancellations, recalls and legal entanglements.

If these two authors had merely presented their works as novels, the books would have been runaway hits, and films would still have been made. The problem is that the authors swore that the stories were true and the publishers believed them without checking things out.

I can understand the publishers, of course, for believing that no one in his or her right mind would actually lie about this tragic period of history. As we know now, at least Defonseca and Rosenblat presented fabrications.

The PW story will certainly reach industry movers and shakers - some consider it the "bible" of the publishing world. In print for 136 years, it purports to reach (according to a 2004 study) 6,000 publishers; 5,500 public libraries and public library systems; 3,800 booksellers; 1,600 authors and writers; 1500 college and university libraries; 950 print, film and broad media; and 750 literary and rights agents.

Perhaps the right people will take Judith Rosen's article to heart in the future. Here's an excerpt:

Genealogist is not a typical publishing title, yet forensic genealogy, best known for tracking down heirs, played a key role in unmasking two of 2008's biggest publishing hoaxes: Misha Defonseca's Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust and Herman Rosenblat's Angel at the Fence.

Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sharon Sargeant worked on both cases pro bono, largely because when they learned about them—the Defonseca story came from former U.S. publisher Jane Daniels's blog, Rosenblat from Holocaust expert Deborah Lipstadt's blog—they knew they could bring resolution to the controversy that surrounded each story.

Their research uncovered baptismal and school records proving that Defonseca didn't escape the Holocaust by running with wolves. She didn't need to; her father was a Nazi collaborator. And if Defonseca had denied the evidence, Fitzpatrick and Sargeant were prepared to use DNA, which, along with photographs and archival records, are a forensic genealogist's stock in trade. “I almost feel disappointed that Misha confessed,” wrote Fitzpatrick on her IdentiFinders.com Web site. “I was looking forward to identifying her through DNA.”

Although there is no question that Herman Rosenblat was a concentration camp survivor, his memoir also turned out to be a work of fiction. According to Michigan State University professor Ken Waltzer, figuring out the real Rosenblat story was “truly a team effort. Sharon and Colleen found crucial information about the two families, discovered additional people we could interview and additional evidence that pointed to serious contextual issues in the case. We wedded the methods of forensic genealogy and social history to discover a publishing fraud.” ...

Read the complete article at the PW link above. Learn more about issues of context, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, why checking out hints and rumors is important, and how publishers can avoid getting entangled in big problems. According to the story, Colleen and Sharon are already working on another bestseller with a Holocaust angle.

There's a selection of other articles on this issue at the end of the PW story, so do click on those for additional viewpoints and information.

Also, Sharon has just posted (she works as late as I do!) "From Bunk to Bunko Squad: The Sleuthing News peg you can use," click here if you are already logged into Facebook.

DNA: Tracing medieval manuscripts

DNA testing may unlock secrets of medieval manuscripts according to an article at ScienceNews.com. This interesting article may result in advances in various research areas including the Jewish world and genealogy.

Thousands of painstakingly handwritten books produced in medieval Europe still exist today, but scholars have long struggled with questions about when and where the majority of these works originated. Now a researcher from North Carolina State University is using modern advances in genetics to develop techniques that will shed light on the origins of these important cultural artifacts.

Many medieval manuscripts were written on parchment made from animal skin, and NC State Assistant Professor of English Timothy Stinson is working to perfect techniques for extracting and analyzing the DNA contained in these skins with the long-term goal of creating a genetic database that can be used to determine when and where a manuscript was written.

"Dating and localizing manuscripts have historically presented persistent problems," Stinson says, "because they have largely been based on the handwriting and dialect of the scribes who created the manuscripts – techniques that have proven unreliable for a number of reasons."

The researcher believes genetic testing could resolve such issues by creating a baseline using the parchment DNA of a relatively small number of manuscripts that can be reliably dated and localized. Each may provide rich genetic data as a typical medieval parchment book includes more than 100 animal skins.


He intends to create a baseline DNA database of known dates and localities and can then take samples from unknown manuscripts and compare them to determine the relationship degree between them. He hopes this comparison will make it possible to identify genetic similarities indicating the general time and locale where a book was written.

On a larger scale, Stinson says, this research "will also allow us to trace the trade route of parchments" throughout the medieval world – a scholarly achievement that would provide a wealth of data on the evolution of the book industry during the Middle Ages.

On January 23 in New York City, Stinson will present early research findings at the annual meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America, as one of three researchers asked to participate in the society's New Scholars Program for 2009. Research funding came from the Digital Research and Curation Center at Johns Hopkins University and the Council on Library and Information Resources.


Read the complete article at the link above. On the surface, I think this new technique may prove valuable in uncovering valuable data concerning Jewish manuscripts held in archives, libraries and private family collections around the world.