Ezra Brand
580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Remember the Days of Old: My Family History Research
2016
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Abstract
My passion for history and genealogy led me on a transformative journey of uncovering my family's past. Attending meetings of the Genealogy Club at Yeshiva University opened my eyes to new research techniques. Ancestry.com became my go-to resource, providing invaluable scanned documents like naturalization papers that revealed our Romanian lineage. Through interviews, cemetery visits, and online tools like MyHeritage.com and Facebook, I compiled a comprehensive family tree with over 275 relatives.
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Remember the Days of Old: My Family
History Research
12-May-23
Ezra Brand1
I've always been drawn to history and genealogy. As a kid, it fascinated me, but there wasn't
much guidance around. My dad and I made a few attempts at building our family tree, but we
were just scratching the surface.
A big change came during my time at Yeshiva University. I attended a meeting of the Genealogy
Club, and it completely shifted my approach to family research. Those meetings were
eye-opening, showing me new techniques for digging into our past. I'd like to share these
helpful techniques.
One of my go-to resources became Ancestry.com. This website has been a gold mine for my
genealogical research. It's where I found scanned documents, like naturalization papers, which
are so important for tracing family roots. These papers give you all sorts of information. In fact,
my great-grandfather's naturalization papers helped me discover our Romanian lineage.
Another helpful resource on Ancestry.com was the censuses. These documents tell you about
where our ancestors lived and who their children were. Some of the census records I found
even dated back to the 19th century! They become public seventy years after they're created,
and I was able to trace my family history back to 1940 through them. Sure, you'll occasionally
spot mistakes, like an ancestor listed as coming from Australia instead of Austria, but these
records are generally quite reliable.
After I'd mined Ancestry.com for all it was worth, I started interviewing relatives. You'd be
amazed at the information you can gather from family stories. For instance, I learned that my
maternal great-great-grandparents were wealthy Hasidim from Warsaw and had 11 children!
Based on my second speech at the Passaic-Clifton Community Toastmasters Club, on Sunday, April 12,
2016. On YouTube here: Remember the Days of Old: My Family History Research. Using transcription of
https://www.youtubedigest.app/, and rewritten by ChatGPT. I made revisions and corrections as needed.
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In addition, I made trips to cemeteries and took photos of headstones. Another tool that proved
useful was Myheritage.com, where I built a detailed family tree. I managed to input data for
over 275 relatives there! I could then share all this information with relatives.
Facebook was also handy for reaching out to family members. It saved me the trouble of finding
contact details, as I could message relatives directly.
In the end, I compiled all the documents I'd gathered into a Google Drive folder and shared it
with everyone I'd connected with. Sending out that email felt like wrapping up all the hard work
I'd put in, but it was also a new beginning. It was a way to keep the research going into the
future.
Reflecting on all of it, I realize the significant impact this research has had on my life and how it
will continue to shape the future.