Learn more, know more

Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse, The rich tapestry of history. (Courtesy of morguefile.com, photo by cohdra) The theme of history has been running through much of what I’ve been doing lately, and it is kind of nice to see how the different threads feel intertwined. When I pursue a genealogical lead I am transported to different times and places and want to learn more about the experience. In tracking the family that did not come to the United States in the early 1900s, I alternative between looking for records in Russia, searching Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names and scouring records in the United States. I’ve traced relatives on my father’s side who were evacuated from Odessa to the interior of the Soviet Union during World War II. While some elderly men were among them, of the younger generation, I only saw married women’s names. How many of their husbands were called to fight? How many of them did not return home? I do know a number of widows later made their way to the United States. On my mother’s side, I’ve also learned from family members and from a horrific book of interviews with survivors of the concentration camp Pechora (