Who Knew?

Did I mention that I was chasing the wrong family tree when I wrote about Shades of Grey?  I surely bent puzzle pieces as a kid.

Not that this makes much difference to anyone else, but still and all it was an interesting trip through history.  If your ancestors immigrated via Ellis Island, then their free website is an attractive choice because of the oddball information it reveals, such as height, hair and eye color.  Mormons are currently transcribing records for other ports of entry, and many early 20^th century immigrants, faced with increasingly limited quotas, slipped into the U.S. via Cuba.  At the time, Cuba offered citizenship after one year’s residence, so it’s quite possible many of us have distant relations on the island but just don’t know it.  Opening up Cuba may open up surprises for some of us, so I recommend Spanish for Dummies.

I managed to find the right immigrants with the help of cousins who supplied names and info, along with, “You’ve got quite an imagination”; to which I was pleased. The massacre of Leonowka (as reported) was true, and I discovered a second cousin who fled the family farm during the initial slaughter but wound up in concentration camps for the duration of the war.  Bernice, as she is called by her American relations, co-wrote a book, Children of Terror, along with a Jewish holocaust survivor, and they have been lecturing in schools and various venues to help keep the story alive.  Bravo.

When I wrote and identified myself, she declared my sister was the flower girl at her wedding in the 1950s.  Well butter my bun and call me a biscuit!