Welcome!

A long time ago, in far away places, lived brave and loving men and women. They lived a hard life, and after much thought, decided to move their families to unknown and different lands, far across the oceans.

They were my great-grandparents, and they lived in Romania, the Ukraine and Belarus. The "far away lands" they moved to were Canada and the United States. Their brothers and sisters settled in England, France, and much later, Israel.

Meyer and Yetta (nee Avrutin) Lapidos / Lapidus		Joseph and Ida (nee Pesachinsky) Katz
Joseph and Shifra (nee Wiesenthal) Rincover		Nachum and Hilda (nee Berlin) Henkin

When they lived, they focused on providing good lives for themselves and their children, rather than with leaving a documented trail for future historians. But records were created anyway, and saved. They did indeed leave a trail of their stories and their lives. I have been researching those histories, and connecting with cousins long-known, and newly found.

I hope you enjoy learning about these wonderful people. If you're part of my family, I look forward to corresponding with you.

If I've posted information you think is incorrect, or you have stories, details or photos to add, please do contact me via the link at the top of this page. There's SO much to tell, and you all have stories and photos to share with your cousins!

And please revisit this website from time to time, as I bring our ancestors and relatives off the dry pages and dark channels of history into our fresh and vibrant memories.

Hilary

NOTE: Gathering information on my ancestors and relatives is my hobby and avocation.  While the facts and data are not copyrightable, my creative prose may be.  My research, and this website, is a work in progress, and will be revised and corrected frequently.  

So, if you copy any of the data on this website to your own site, please ask my permission. In addition, I and your readers would appreciate a citation/link back to this site, so they may learn of any updates.

Mt. Carmel Cemetery

Several of my ancestors (David Lapidus, Hilda Henkin, Morris Henkin) are buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, City of Commerce, California . My good friend Stephanie Weiner has begun photographing the matzevot (gravestones), and is willing to share photos with fellow researchers.

You can read more about this project, and view a list of the gravestones photographed, here.