It is a truism of family tree research that you can visit libraries and archives any time you like, but you must not delay interviewing elderly relatives as they will not be around forever. The greatest regret of many genealogists is that they didn’t ask the right questions of the right people at the right…
More genealogical adventures (Jassem, McCartney)
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Peter Jassem’s surname was always a puzzle to him as he grew up in a Polish home in Krakow. Jassem certainly wasn’t a Polish name; neither was it Belarussian, Latvian or Ukrainian. His father said it may have come from the town of Jassy (Iasi) Romania but Peter wasn’t convinced and suspected the truth even…
Ontario Jewish Archives: treasure trove on Bathurst Street
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Ask Dr. Stephen Speisman about the 80-year-old minute books of Toronto’s Kielcer Society and a gleam appears in his eyes. Director of the Ontario Jewish Archives, Speisman has long been seeking early records of landsmanschaft, mutual benefit and like societies in Toronto and other Jewish communities in Ontario. But too often such records get stashed…
It’s worth the trip to Salt Lake City
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As of this writing, more than 600 people have registered for the 20th International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, scheduled for Salt Lake City, July 9 to 14. Most are American but some will be coming from as far away as South America, Europe, Israel and Australia. Why are so many Jews shlepping to Utah? Along…
Klavir family ‘together again for the first time’
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Toronto legal secretary Debbie Klavir-Donda and her aunt, Shelagh Klavir, a travel agent, are preparing to welcome about 100 relatives to a family reunion next month at a resort in Huntsville, Ont. With the exception of their own small family circle in Toronto, all of the various Klavir relatives are flying in for the “reunion”…
In genealogy, it ain’t necessarily so
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A little more than a decade ago, I invested $4 at a local Mormon Family History Library for a microfilmed reel of Jewish records (1846-1853) from my paternal ancestral town of Konin, Poland. It turned out to be one of the most rewarding investments I ever made. It took a few years but eventually I…
Kerry family comes full circle
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About a century ago, Fritz Kohn, a 29-year-old Czech-born Jew living in Austria, visited a government office in Vienna and officially changed his name to Frederick Kerry, for all intents and purposes abandoning his Jewish heritage at the same time. When Kerry and family arrived at Ellis Island in 1905, they were listed as Germans…
Profile: Gail Carson Levine
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For New York-area author Gail Carson Levine, fairy tales sometimes do come true. The highly successful children’s author, who gave a reading recently (2004) at Toronto’s Bialik Day School, is the creator of Ella Enchanted, a young person’s novel that has been turned into a movie by Miramax Films. The film stars Anne Hathaway and…
Blurb on ‘Crossing the Distance’
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Toronto Life had less than great expectations last winter when it published a short but blistering diatribe about newscaster Evan Solomon’s not-yet-published first novel, Crossing the Distance. The manuscript needed massive editorial work, sneered the magazine, and its intended publisher, McClelland & Stewart, had taken it on merely because of its author’s high media profile.…
Obit: Sylva Gelber (1910-2003)
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Sylva Gelber, who gained national prominence in the late ‘60s as director of the Women’s Bureau in the federal department of labour, was an outspoken advocate of women’s rights who helped to introduce equal pay legislation, maternity leave and women’s pension benefits into Canadian society. Known for her wit, humour and a love of music,…
