My quest for information started 28 years ago with a high school science project. For some unknown reason I was drawn to Sephardi foods, music and customs. It so happens that one branch of my maternal grandfather's family named their children after living relatives, as a lot of the Sephardim - definitely not like the Ashkenazim. I know his family was from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but where did they come from before the 1800's? I'm still adding branches and new leaves.

A few years ago I found out that my maternal great-great-grandfather's family was originally from Spain. They left Spain and went to Lithuania via Germany. I'm still searching for more information. Yakel and Risha Cantor and their family lived in Meretz, Lithuania. Yakel gave his sons different last names to keep them from being conscripted into the Red Army. I'm not sure if he had 3 or 4 sons, there seems to be some confusion about the family names. I also don't know if he had any daughters.

Do you have similar problems? Use what you know to lead you to what you don't know. If names have been changed, try tracing your ancestors by their professions. Yakel (Yaakov) Cantor was a chazan (cantor), as one of his grandsons and namesake. He gave one of his son's (my great-great-grandfather) the last name of Kaufman. The name Kaufman emerges when Yakovman, then Yakofman was shortened to Kofman. Kaufman is derived from Yaakov!

The Lithuanian Jews, for example, are known to have moved to South Africa, Argentina, Palestine and the USA. Although, they could have gone to other locations as did my great-great-grandfather's name sake. He moved to Sweden and another grandson of his went to England. The known places are just a place to start your search.

With family members who have perished and all those who weren't directly related to us, the unnecessary tragedy is too great for us to ignore. Those who no longer are with us can derive immortality through their memories when we share them. Our children should know their cousins, whom they were named for and where they came.

You should start collecting the basics (English, Hebrew and/or Yiddish names, as well as the given name in their home country, nicknames and whom they were named after), dates of birth, marriages, divorces and deaths. Where did your ancestors live, are living,moved to or from? Find out about their synagogues, family traditions, occupations, family traits and family stories. Try to collect photographs, old letters and documents (ketubot, marriage licenses, citizenship & naturalization papers, military records, birth & death certificates, etc).

The next natural step is to find census reports for you family members. You can also look old phone books (major libraries have many copies of old phone books from all over the world) and phone directories (these not only list the head of the family, but the names of everyone living in the house at that time and their occupations.