A surprising artifact discovered after a parent's death leads to a series of discoveries and an ongoing interest in genealogy.
The Tulbowitz/Ratner family originated in the Vitebsk region, lived for decades near Rostov-on-Don, and finally settled in Albany, New York.
How and why did Stan Ruby's important post-graduate research go wrong, and what impact did it have on his career in physics?
Before moving his family to Berlin in 1912, Isaak Wohlgemuth prospered as a mover in Danzig. His family roots were in nearby West Prussia.
Joseph and Lena Rabinowitz were Russian immigrants who ran a corner grocery in Jewish Harlem. Their nine children were native Americans.
Home from the war, Stan Ruby is a graduate student at Columbia. His bride, Helga Ringel, is a smart, pretty war refugee from Berlin.
During the first five years of Hitler's reign of terror, Jewish families of Berlin faced one repression after another.
The Ratner family became established in the Fifth Ward of Albany, N.Y. Abe bottled soda water and Rose nurtured a brood of children.
The U.S. liquor industry took off after the repeal of Prohibition. Walter Ruby was the marketing manager for American Spirits.
Walter Ruby hustled his way as a traveling silver salesman, with some career side trips into boxing promotion and medicinal alcohol.
Stan's innovations in Mossbauer spectroscopy.
Out of the files of the U.S. Patent Office and into the peculiar subculture of corkscrew collectors.
Stan maintained correspondence with his closest high school and Army buddies, several of whom went on to prominent careers.
Herman Ringel and Walter Ruby wore opposing uniforms in the Great War.
Rosa Shatner, née Ringel, and her lovely daughter Margot perished in a Serbian death camp. In 1957, Rosa's son Ze'ev Sharon gave testimony.
A newspaper clipping placed Walter Ruby on the scene of an automobile wreck in Hudson County, N.J. Not every lead pans out.
Walter Ruby's boss in the liquor business became an influential figure in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
When and why did Walter Rabinowitz take on our abbreviated last name? It was 1917, months after the death of his father Joseph..
Lee Harvey Oswald-killer Jack Ruby was not related to our family. He tarnished our name in the history books.