Across the Street in Vienna—Across the Town in Connecticut

July 20, 2025.Reading time 7 minutes.

I’ve always believed that things happen for a reason—even if we don’t always see it right away. Some connections are too powerful, too precise, to be chalked up to coincidence. In January, a man walked into the Woodbury Public Library and stopped at the small display about my family’s Holocaust-era history. He paused. Looked at […]

Unusual Name: “Hochwohlgeboren Frau Spiegel”

January 14, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

I often felt my mother, Doris Lichtenthal Falcone, was prone to exaggeration. She told me her paternal grandfather, Sigmund Lichtenthal, listed Expert on his business card. He did – I found the card. She told me there was a buzzing noise in her walls. There was – the bees actually drilled through the drywall! So, […]

52 Ancestors – #28 – Planning a Heritage Travel Trip

July 30, 2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

Still trying to catch up from our European river cruise! The topic for Week 28 of Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blog challenge was TRAVEL! How perfect is that? Of course, I couldn’t blog about our trip in real time due to poor internet connectivity. I did post every day to my […]