WELCOME TO MY GENEALOGY WEBSITE

INTRODUCTION

Here follows a recorded history of our family lines as far as I've been able to trace. Our roots remain a mystery. It is extremely difficult to trace older records since the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators appear to have wiped them out entirely and destroyed all the Jewish cemetries in Lithuania and Latvia. If anyone reading this history has knowledge of our family lines or thinks they may be related, I would very much appreciate hearing from them.

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Between 1880 and 1930 tens of thousands of Lithuanian Jews landed in South Africa. 85% of South African Jews trace their ancestors back to those "Litvak" immigrants.

Amongst those immigrants was my Family:
* Catzel * Skop * Awerbuch * Rom *

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my cousin Sigi Catzel, who supplied information about the Danish cousins, Keith Blumgart who supplied the Yankel Katzel, David Catzel and Rochel Catzel-Blacher family trees, my aunts Anne Rabie and Eileen Egert who supplied information about the Awerbach and Rom lines, my cousin Lorna Rabie-Hansen who supplied information about the American Rom-line in Philadelphia, Tom Grafston and William (Bill) Katzel for information on the Katzenellenbogan line and how they descend from it, and the following cousins who each supplied information about their direct line: Anne and Ryno Greenwall, Brian Rom, Robyn Maor, Derek Berold, Bete Turok and Karina Turok-Shapiro. If I missed anyone out, please let me know!