Family Card
Family Card
Joel Levy
Introduction
This is a work in progress that started when my Bubbe Becky (my father Leonard’s mother) died in 1985 and a group of Aunts and great Aunts gathered at the dining room table to celebrate her life by remembering their common past. I began to write furiously.
I have tried to be inclusive of mispachah (people marrying into the family and their families).
Judi Wilensky aided tremendously as did my father, Leonard Levy, who always told me that all he wanted is for his family to be together. My Bubbe Tillie took great pride in her family, so the project has been aided by my cousin Jay Berman’s research at the National Archives. He has continued his research on his mother’s side bringing a family tree that reaches to 1778 from Israel. Cousin Ron Roseman brought me fascinating stories about his aunt and uncle. My friend and mother in law, Anita Evers, provided essential assistance. Also from Marcia's side of the family, Ceil Kessler reached out to me connecting Iver Kessler and his family to us. Iver’s wife, Lexie, is of Greek heritage and she has traced her roots to the 1600s. Ceil’s first cousin, Gary Bank, has done a wonderful job on Ancestry, which he has shared with me. Recently, my third cousin Nancy Goldberg, a superb genealogist who is a descendant of Tibel Rudovitzky, helped fill gaps as well as document lots of information. Many others are participating in this project. These include Stacy Mapstone and Robin Zimmerman Mizerak, who provided invaluable information about the descendants of Harold (Harry) and Ida Weinstock Zimmerman and Lazer and Harry Zimmerman’s siblings with her DNA. Dennis Horton has shared his family tree with his father’s African roots in the pre-Civil War South. And even as you look at 1,200+ souls that make up our tree, some who I have not even met face to face, people continue to assist.
My genealogy team and I have done a tremendous job by assembling our Family to date. We have lawyers, bakers and no candlestick makers (as the nursery rhyme goes) to date not that we can document. However we have top selling authors; a collegiate president; scientists; policemen and an FBI analyst; and doctors even a husband and wife duo who stole a painting worth $165 million; unfortunately, we all know, too well, we have family killed in the Holocaust, but did you know we also have family that fought in the forests with the resistance and had a book written about them? And we have survivors. We fought for gay equality in Lawrence, Kansas before it was fashionable (there is a documentary call Shades of Gray included on the tree).We are made of hearty stock.
We have relatives who made millions in the .com generation. We have teachers and slaves and American Indian in our tree. We are business persons and public servants. We are gay and straight. We have relatives that have reached Harvard law school and we are descendants of egg farmers and traveling salesmen. Look at the sources, that's where the juicy stuff will be.
Our forefathers escaped Vilna with nothing and some of us were on the US St. Louis.
And we are only scratching the surface.
Please send me corrections and additions like pictures and email addresses to make the tree grow. My contact information is below.
3/6/2022
I have tried to be inclusive of mispachah (people marrying into the family and their families).
Judi Wilensky aided tremendously as did my father, Leonard Levy, who always told me that all he wanted is for his family to be together. My Bubbe Tillie took great pride in her family, so the project has been aided by my cousin Jay Berman’s research at the National Archives. He has continued his research on his mother’s side bringing a family tree that reaches to 1778 from Israel. Cousin Ron Roseman brought me fascinating stories about his aunt and uncle. My friend and mother in law, Anita Evers, provided essential assistance. Also from Marcia's side of the family, Ceil Kessler reached out to me connecting Iver Kessler and his family to us. Iver’s wife, Lexie, is of Greek heritage and she has traced her roots to the 1600s. Ceil’s first cousin, Gary Bank, has done a wonderful job on Ancestry, which he has shared with me. Recently, my third cousin Nancy Goldberg, a superb genealogist who is a descendant of Tibel Rudovitzky, helped fill gaps as well as document lots of information. Many others are participating in this project. These include Stacy Mapstone and Robin Zimmerman Mizerak, who provided invaluable information about the descendants of Harold (Harry) and Ida Weinstock Zimmerman and Lazer and Harry Zimmerman’s siblings with her DNA. Dennis Horton has shared his family tree with his father’s African roots in the pre-Civil War South. And even as you look at 1,200+ souls that make up our tree, some who I have not even met face to face, people continue to assist.
My genealogy team and I have done a tremendous job by assembling our Family to date. We have lawyers, bakers and no candlestick makers (as the nursery rhyme goes) to date not that we can document. However we have top selling authors; a collegiate president; scientists; policemen and an FBI analyst; and doctors even a husband and wife duo who stole a painting worth $165 million; unfortunately, we all know, too well, we have family killed in the Holocaust, but did you know we also have family that fought in the forests with the resistance and had a book written about them? And we have survivors. We fought for gay equality in Lawrence, Kansas before it was fashionable (there is a documentary call Shades of Gray included on the tree).We are made of hearty stock.
We have relatives who made millions in the .com generation. We have teachers and slaves and American Indian in our tree. We are business persons and public servants. We are gay and straight. We have relatives that have reached Harvard law school and we are descendants of egg farmers and traveling salesmen. Look at the sources, that's where the juicy stuff will be.
Our forefathers escaped Vilna with nothing and some of us were on the US St. Louis.
And we are only scratching the surface.
Please send me corrections and additions like pictures and email addresses to make the tree grow. My contact information is below.
3/6/2022
Contents
Contact
JoelMLevy
(314) 913-9339
Same, but call ahead
1100 Dautel LaneSt Louis, MO 63146-5559