Long lost relatives
When browsing the Internet for our regular “Links to the world” posting, we came across a fascinating story about a UK government minister who discovered a long lost Jewish relative - via an interview he was holding in Russia.
Ed Miliband, Britain’s minister for energy and climate change, was conducting a phone-in interview on a popular Moscow station when a most unexpected phone call came in. “I am Sofia Davidovna Miliband. I am your relative. I am the only one left.” After confirming that the call was not a prank, the Milibands reunited.
One positive to the burgeoning online world is the explosion of genealogy websites. This can include sites such as JewishGen or Ancestry.com, which host databanks of genealogical information, provided for a fee. In addition to these useful tools, more and more local governments - cities and counties - are making their archives available online.
Here at the IJN we have our own story about long lost relatives. Several years back we received a letter from an individuals searching for relatives. This particular letter inquired after a Miriam Harris. Little did the writer know that this Miriam Harris was now Miriam Goldberg, editor and publisher of the very newspaper to which the letter had been sent!
Read the IJN’s column Ancestral Discovery for more information on genealogy.
