Jessica and Genealogy
_rotated_crop.jpg)
Jessica's deep interest in genealogy did not began with research at all, but in getting to know Michael's extended family. Due to the cost and expense, Michael's family had been unable to attend their July 1958 wedding, but the following year, Jessica and Michael travelled to Cape Town.
Michael's father was one of 9 siblings, and his mother was one of 5 siblings. Thus, there were a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins for Jessica to meet and keep straight how they were all related. (She had already started corresponding with numerous of them, even prior to meeting them.)
Over many decades, she was remarkable in keeping in touch with family members on her side and Michael's side, with cards, letters, and well-chosen birthday gifts for young cousins all over the world.
She also came to the realization that while the family history was fairly complete on the Friedlander and Lewin sides (Michael's parents), there was much she did not know about her own family's history.
The first discovery of new cousins
Around 1982 she was sent a history of the Grabieh family, written (in Hebrew) by one Hillel Grabieh (sometimes spelled "Grabié") in Israel. She was completely unfamiliar with either Hillel or that branch of the family.
From this she was able to discover the connection to the Grabieh family being Devorah Kramer Grabieh, the sister of her grandfather. About two years later the monograph was translated to English, and she was sent a copy of that, too.
In 1983 Jessica met Mickey Scheinbaum Silbergeld, a relative enumerated in the Grabieh history who lived in St. Louis. Mickey was Devorah's granddaughter so the connection was not distant! Later Jessica met Mickey's mother Sarah Grabieh Scheinbaum, who lived in Cincinnati (and was Hillel Grabieh's sister). The following year, Hillel came to the United States for a visit, and came through St. Louis. Jessica had an enjoyable day going through family photos with him.
Jessica was completely captivated and intrigued by all of this, but it was more than 20 years (and several years into her retirement) before she had the time to launch her own research.
Jessica's monograph
Starting circa 2006, Jessica spent a decade researching her grandparents, Benjamin and Rebecca Kramer. She received initial guidance from professional genealogist Alex Friedlander (also a relative, as it turns out) and dove into online research and discussion groups such as JewishGen and JRI-Poland. She also took several online classes related to genealogical research techniques and skill. She sent out questionnaires to cousins all over, asking for their recollections, and she used numerous web resources such as ship manifests and small town records in Europe to verify information.
Her work was one of breadth and depth. She discovered and met numerous new-to-her cousins, who lived across the U.S., and she was also was able to learn more about her grandparents and their ancestors.
From Myszyniec and Ostrów Mazowiecka... to America
Rebecca and Benjamin Kramer and their families
THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE COMPLETE DOCUMENT
© 2016 Jessica Kramer Friedlander
Towards the end of the process, her daughter-in-law Sheryl (David's wife) did a professional layout of her work. The resulting monograph was a 150 page document comprising more than 80 pages of documentation plus another 40 pages of family tree charts. In 2016, This was all printed by a commercial printer and shipped to all relatives across the country who had assisted with questionnaires and more.
In 2026, the question is how best to post this electronically. The main issue is one of the risk of identity theft and misappropriation of what is known as PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Even in the originally printed version, special care was made for the family tree to omit month and day of birth (and only print the year) for living people. Easy determination of the mother's maiden name for any individual from the family trees was another risk.
To make a best effort to solve these issues, shown on this page is a long excerpt of the monograph (chapter one plus a bit more) but just the first page of the family trees, as a sample.