Four giant 747s all landed from
various points in the globe,
within minutes of each other on
April 19, 2001 at the Los
Angeles International Airlines
Terminal. Out of the 1500
plus passengers that departed
from the planes, one of the
passengers from Quantas Airlines
was greeted by five local
television station cameras and
reporters along with about a
dozen International and
Los
Angeles Red Cross workers ...
and me ... Ted Margulis!
The small statured man, and his
wife were immediately recognized
as the two pictured above --
Semion (Simon and Lana) (Svetlana)
Margoulis. They were arriving,
after a long flight from
Melbourne, Australia. They
had left Melbourne at
11:00 am on Friday, April 19th,
2001 and arrived in Los
Angeles on Friday, April
19th at exactly the same time!
They had crossed the
International Date Line ...
and they had crossed through 30
plus years of family genealogy
researching.
My father, Samuel Margulis was
born in Talnoye, Ukraine
and married, at a rather young
age, to Hadassah Rosen also of
Talnoye. They had three
children -- two boys and one
girl. Shortly after the birth of
their third child in 1912, Sam
left Talnoye in 1916 to make a
new home for his family in
Minneapolis, Minnesota,
where his younger brother had
already established a home
several years before. Sam said
goodbye to his father, mother,
sisters and his wife and
children and promised to bring
them 'over to the "Goldenah
land" as soon as he could
make enough money to pay for the
ship's passage.
Off he went, along with a few of
his boyhood friends, who also
felt they could do better for
themselves and their families in
'Amerika'!
Sam went to work immediately,
first as a railroad hand and
later as an upholster. Then WW I
came along and there was no way
he could bring his family over,
so he patiently waited the war
out and found himself being
drafted into the Army just
before the Armistices.
When he was able to again
communicate with his family in
Ukraine, he learned that
his wife Hadassah had passed
away and that his three children
had been sent to live with
relatives - and later to an
orphanage. He was able to obtain
permission to bring his daughter
Manya (Marion) to the
U.S., but the two boys could not
be brought over as they were
diagnosed with Glaucoma - a
common eye disease at that time.
Manya came to the U.S. at the
age of fourteen and lived with
our father and my mother, who my
father had met, in the meantime,
and married -- my mother Bessie
Soloski of Virginia,
Minnesota.
My mom knew of the previous
marriage and was instrumental in
helping Marion become adjusted
to life in the U.S. My mother
was born in Superior,
Wisconsin and had gone to a
business college in Duluth
Minnesota - a rarity in
those days for a woman, let
alone a Jewess. Once she met
Sam, they became husband and
wife and began raising a family
of three girls and two boys. I'm
the oldest son from their
marriage.
Since the two boys, from the
first marriage, could not be
brought to the U.S. in the
foreseeable future, nothing more
was discussed although their
names and circumstances were
brought to my family's attention
over the years ... but my
siblings (three sisters and
one brother) and I just
knew that there were some
close relatives still living in
Ukraine - and that was
it! No more -- no less.
And
then the bug hit me!
We have to fast-forward. I grew
up on the Northside of
Minneapolis, knowing my
half-sister Marion, and knowing
just a bit about two
half-brothers living in Ukraine,
but my life was focused on
finding the right girl for
myself and than on making a
living for my family and finally
moving to Los Angeles in 1957.
In 1964, my wife and I returned
to Minneapolis for my
mother's family (Soloski)
reunion in the 1970s ... the
first ever for the Soloski
family. Of course, I also saw my
Margolis side of the family,
including my favorite aunt Rose
and my uncle Abe, my father's
younger brother.
Interestingly, my uncle Abe had
first spelled his name MARGULIS
but later changed it to Margolis
which his side of the family is
known by in the Twin Cities.
My father, on the other hand,
originally spelled it MARGOLIS
and later changed it to
MARGULIS. This information was
obtained by researching early
Minneapolis phone directories.
At the Soloski family reunion, I
learned about, and met, over 100
of my mother's relatives and saw
a family tree that one of the
newly found cousins had created
by hand on a piece of paper. I
was hooked on genealogy! Plain
and simple. Now I wanted to know
more ... and of course ... about
my father's family, as well.
After spending several years
learning about the Soloski
extended family, and finding
over 1500 members, I turned my
attention to the Margulis
(Margolis) family history. I
turned up the fact that I had
two half-brothers believed to be
still living in Ukraine.
My dad had died before my
interest in genealogy began, and
my mother didn't know much more
than I did. My uncle and aunt
also had passed away and my
Margolis cousins knew very
little about family history.
I had my half-brother's names
... and that they probably had
been born in Talnoye,
which is located in Southeastern
part of the country. That's all
I had to work with at the time.
Here then is where the internet
came into play and here is where
I met my Ukrainian friend,
Sasha Litveniko, a retired
Professor of English at the
Kharkov University of
Kharkov, Ukraine
through the internet. Sasha and
I had been E-mailing each other
about our different life styles
and our wants and thoughts over
a few years, as I was active on
the AOL Jewish Genealogy site.
Although not Jewish, he too had
an interest in genealogy.
From an email from Sasha, I
learned that he was planning a
visit to the US and so I
invited him to visit my wife and
I in Los Angeles.
Sasha was a retired English
Professor. He had been
associated with the University
of Kharkov and so I felt that
this was not a peasant type, but
rather an intelligent man. My
instincts proved to be true
although my wife almost had a
heart attack when I first told
her about extending an
invitation to a man from
Kharkov to visit our home --
and that I had never met him
personally. My instincts
proved to be o.k. and we became
as close as brothers but from
different worlds ... but
brothers under the skin and in
the mind.
We met Sasha at the airport and
we spent four days with him
showing him the sites of 'Hollywood'.
He was impressed and we truly
enjoyed his company and
solidified our friendship. We
later entertained his daughter
at our home when she too came to
the US to study.
I told him about my desire to
learn about my two half brothers
and he promised he would help me
find them when he returned to
Ukraine. And he was a man of
his word!
Sasha ran ads in various
Ukrainian newspapers and
interviewed quite a number of
people who thought they might be
related to my father's family.
Out of the sixty or so replies
he received, one lady seemed the
most promising and he sent his
nephew, Valentine, to interview
her. Her name was Bronislava
Margulis and she lived in
Berdichev.
Berdichev is just north and
a bit west of Kiev and
about a three to four hour rail
trip for Valentine, but he went
there at the request of Sasha.
Upon arriving in Berdichev,
Valentine went straight to
Bronislava's apartment and
knocked on her door. Now you
must understand that the
Russian people, in
particular the Jews of Russia,
after 70 years of being under
communist rule, are very
suspicious of any stranger.
Valentine, though a charming
young man who I met later in
Kharkov, tried to be his
charming self. Bronislava didn't
like the idea of his being there
and told him to leave in no
uncertain terms. She went so far
as to tell him that if he didn't
go away, she would call the
police.
Valentine is also a stubborn
young man and wouldn't leave her
door until she spoke with him
about possible American
relatives of her husband
inquiring about Moshe Margulis,
my half brother. Through the
door Valentine learned that he
had passed away just four years
before and that she really
feared having this young man at
her door, so she did call the
police who promptly hauled
Valentine to the city jail where
he stayed overnight.
The next morning the police
Chief interviewed Valentine,
learned about why he had tried
to get Bronislava's attention, but though he stated
he was sympathetic to the
situation, he thought that
Valentine must leave her alone.
The Chief offered him a ride to
the train station, but Valentine
asked, instead, if he could get
a ride back to Bronislava's
apartment house.
The police Chief recognized
Valentine's 'chutzpah'
and complied. There, Valentine
again got Bronislava's attention
and this time she listened and
all of a sudden when she
learned that an American
relative of her husband (they
had never been married as it
turns out) wanted to help
them, she became 'all ears'.
This was all reported by
Valentine to Sasha who in turn,
passed it on to me. Right then
and there, we knew that we had
to meet her ourselves.
So Shirley and I
planned our trip - first to
Denmark, then on to Lithuania,
Sweden, Russia and to end in
Ukraine.
Shirley and I traveled to
Berdichev (which is
another story in itself) and
met Bronislava, but she claimed
she had no idea where my
half-brother's sons from his
first marriage were now living.
She had no contact with them,
since my half-brother Moshe had
left their mother for her, many
years ago, when they (the two
sons) were young boys and
really had no further contact
with the family.
My brother's tombstone, we found
on our visit to this town, in the
Berdichev cemetery. The day we
were there, it was pouring rain,
but Valentine, our guide,
insisted that he would find the
tombstone, and he did! We
were all soaked ... but who
cared. There was the
tombstone and the date of birth
and death. My brother Moishe was
born on the same date as my
daughter and died on the same
date as one of my sons. To
add even more to this date
business, my father died on my
brother's birth date and my
mother on mine.
Now we had to find our missing
Margulis family - Moshe's two
sons, so I turned to the
International Red Cross and
filled out the forms to the best
of my knowledge. It took six
years to make the date of April
19, 2001 happen, but there was
Semion stepping out of customs
and into the arms of his
American uncle and five TV and
newspaper reporter's ... all
asking questions about our
reunion. I can't describe
the feeling!
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How do you describe the feeling
of finding a person ...
your nephew ... from out of over
200 million people?
One person from the masses! Only
because of the perseverance of
some wonderful people at the
International Red Cross did they
find Simon who was now living in
Melbourne, Australia for the
past eight years. His brother
Yuri had passed away in
Israel a few years before,
and sadly, Bronislava has also
passed away recently since we
had met her in Berdichev. We
also found out that Moshe's
brother, Aaron, along with his
wife and daughter Ida, were murdered
by the Nazis in Kerch.
Simon did not know that he had
an uncle Ted until the
Australian Red Cross told
him about my inquiry. He did
know about his Aunt Manya (my
half sister) and knew she
lived somewhere in the US, but
that was all he had ever
learned. And he did not know how
to even start the process of
finding his 'lost'
relatives.
Fortunately, I did and with a
big, (no, make that a huge
hug), some tears and a few
loving words we both uttered to
each other, we embraced each other, thankful to be once
again reunited as a family. The
American and the Ukrainian
Jews now once again together
as a
family!
Former Army Major Semion
Margoulis (that's how they
spell the name in Ukraine)
retired about 10 years ago and
waited several more years before
applying for a passport to leave
Ukraine. He became a
citizen of Australia two
years later and has lived a
quiet life with his wife Lana
and one son and a sister-in-law
and her family until we met. Now
he (as I) have found each
other, as has my children and my
wife. Not only is Simon and Lana
now part of our family, but he
has turned out to be a
wonderfully delightfully,
knowledgeable and charming
person ... one that I can easily
call a 'mensch' and a
friend besides proudly stating
that he is my nephew!
He had mentioned
in our first telephone
conversation, that as a Major in
the Soviet Army, he had the
responsibility to fire missiles
at the US if commanded to do so.
He said "...but you were my
enemy!" when he first
answered my phone call to
Australia. How happy we both
were that we were not enemies
now.
He told me that Frank Sinatra
was his singing idol while we
were driving him around Los
Angeles and believe it or
not, while we had our first
lunch together at Nate and Al's
deli in Beverly Hills
that Friday that we had first
met, who should be sitting in
the booth next to us, but Frank
Sinatra, Jr. Simon was besides
himself. This was America - the
land of his dreams, he
exclaimed! We had to hold him
back as he wanted so desperately
to meet his idol's son.
Once we found each other that
Friday morning, we spent the
next ten days driving around
Los Angeles, Palm Desert and San
Diego to the delight
of both of our wives and for
Simon ... and for the benefit of
learning about each other's past
lives. While touring Universal
Studios, several people came up
to us and asked if we were the
ones who were shown on the TV
news the previous day. That
tickled Simon and Lana as they
felt they were now "stars in
Hollywood" - at least for
the day.
Mine is a fairly common
entrepreneurial life style that
most Americans enjoy, but
try to imagine his when he lived with
16 others in one room in
Siberia. Where the toilet
was an outhouse 300 meters from
his one room home. Imagine not
having the pleasure and the warm
feeling of being Jewish if you
wanted to be Jewish and imagine
having the word Jew used as a
derogatory term on your
passport.
You can't imagine it, I'm sure,
as I can't either! All I can do
is listen and thank God that we
were now able to meet each other
and all of the horrors are now
in his past. And as we left each
other, ten days later, we both
said "next year in
Australia!' Alivah!
We correspond almost every month
and speak via Skype whenever we feel the
need to see or hear each other's voice.
Simon and Lana are now part of
our family (and we of theirs)
and all of my sons and daughter,
as well as some nieces and
nephews also keep in touch with
our Australian "Mates".
I sincerely hope that my success
story inspires you to continue
with your research and that you
too "find" your lost
family.
Warm Regards,
Palm Desert, CA
http://jewishwebindex.com
Help is available for your
research at my
Genealogy
Page. There is never a charge to
use it. Please feel free to
circulate this story to other
genealogy enthusiasts.
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