The Memory of His Fathers
A Brief Sampler

"All my British and European ancestors were small tradesmen and among them were butcher, cigar maker, clothes dealer, furrier, hat & cap manufacturer, jeweler, tailors, and upholsterer. They weren't in the habit of leaving spoors. Most likely they were far too busy just trying to survive. They certainly didn't consider that a descendant in America a sesquicentury down the road would be trying to track them down!...

"My methodology evolved with increased understanding of genealogical tools and techniques, but a lot of it was just plain common sense. On that early visit to the Municipal Archives, I learned that there were New York City directories dating back to the 1790's. In the one from 1890, I found a Leopold Myers, cutter, and used the listed address as a cross-reference to the New York 'Police Census' of that year... Once the reel was at hand, the proper district had to be found, and then the address. Now, on the screen in front of me, suddenly appeared: Leopold, Rosa, Bernard, Gertrude, and Lillian Myers. Imagine the exhilaration at coming - at last - face-to-face with my elusive great-grandpa! I remember crying out, 'Gotcha!'...

"A word about Famous People is in order. Or is it? The private side of my nature feels there is no place for this sort of thing in a work of this kind because of the tendency to sensationalize it and diffuse the family focus. But the marketing side understands very well that it adds cachet and general interest to the product. This is a moot point, anyway, when it comes to blood relations. Relatives by marriage - however distant - are another matter, for counted among them are Milton Berle, Edward Bernays, the 'father of public relations,' the Booth family of actors, both famous and infamous, Paul Desmond, the jazzman, Sigmund Freud (through Edward Bernays), and James Joyce. One of the more lurid ones was Junius Brutus Booth III, who in 1912 in a hotel room at Brightlingsea on the coast of Essex willfully murdered his wife, my second cousin (thrice removed) Florence Noah, and then himself."