My interest in genealogy was ignited during the late 1980s when I was asked to help my son with his primary school homework, and I managed to make a considerable family tree for his father's side, but I never expected to discover my own ancestors who were all from central Europe.
It was the Jerry Springer WDYTYA episode in 2008 which alerted me to places I might start gathering information. Of course by now, vast quantities of records are available on-line.
Having made a DNA test, early this year I was contacted by a distant link, who asked if I could help solve the mystery of a mutual link's parentage. The person's mother, (now deceased,) spoke several languages fairly fluently, but had no genuine recollection of her parents; only confused memories of places she thought she had lived.
We struggle on with the research, which has led me to Ukraine, and the massacre of thousands of Jews at the Babi-Yar ravine on 29th September in 1941. [Estimated 33,000 to 100,000]
My instinct tells me, the person's mother was a survivor of that dreadful event, but I am doubting the Nazi's made extensive lists of the people they slaughtered there!
And now the people of Ukraine suffer at the hands of the Russians.
These appalling genocides happen all around the globe to minority groups, over and over again.
Will we never learn?
