Steve Leichner, Travel Consultant, PSL Travel, [email protected]
Three of our grandparents died before we were born. Our only living grandparent was our grandmother, who did not talk a lot about her family. Our parents never talked about their parents. They both passed away very young. When I was 17, our mother gave me a suitcase full of photos, letters and documents. She had no idea what they were. I would occasionally look at them over the years with my brothers and sisters, but no one had any idea what to do with them. Four years ago, my brother in Israel asked me for the suitcase. He was about to embark on a journey which would bring me to a hotel room in Toronto, Canada waiting for him to arrive!
Dave started with our mother’s side of the family. He went through the documents with a fine tooth comb, and found our grandfather’s death certificate. With that, he went to the Ellis Island archives, and found our grandfather’s immigration information. He also found our grandmother’s immigration information. Now he had someplace concrete to start. He traveled all over Eastern Europe, visiting cemeteries and synagogues in small towns with no hotels or transportation. He managed to find family dating back to the 17th century. He also was able to identify a number of the pictures in the suitcase. He found relatives living all over the world. In fact, 20 minutes from him in Israel was a cousin that we grew up with but lost touch with almost 40 years ago. His sister, who I knew very well as a kid, lives five minutes from us in the Villages.
Two years ago, he compiled the information into a video showing the family tree from our mother’s side, along with a very moving tribute to our parents. He also had the family commission the writing of a Torah in memory of our parents and we went to Israel to celebrate its completion and to watch the video.
He then shifted his focus to our father’s side of the family. All he had to work with was that our grandfather had spent time in prison and our grandmother’s last name. He made his way to Erie, Pennsylvania where our father was born and was able to start piecing things together. It turns out that our grandmother had five brothers and sisters. He was able to track them all down. Our second cousin Fiana, who is a holocaust survivor, lives in Toronto. He called me and told me to meet him in Toronto, so that’s where I am writing this story from. We will meet Fiana tonight, and tomorrow we will meet Rose, our father’s first cousin. Then we will drive to Rochester, New York to meet our mother’s first cousin, Zigi. Afterwards, we will travel to Erie to see our father’s birthplace and visit the family cemetery. Then we will travel to Pittsburg to visit our second cousin Anita, and afterwards we will travel to New Jersey to visit my sister. From there we will travel to Maryland to meet our second cousin Marvin before returning then home to The Villages.
This is a new type of travel for me, and I must confess, I am excited and a little in awe of what Dave has accomplished. I am really looking forward to the next few days!
Steve Leichner is a Travel Consultant for PSL Travel. Questions about travel? Call him at 877-387-4660 or email him at [email protected]!