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I am an 89 year old retired pediatrician living in Surfside Florida, a town contiguous with Miami Beach. I started my family search in envy of my late wife’s family tree which went back seven generations. I wish I had started my search fifty years ago since I am the only survivor in my generation of either my paternal or maternal families. Missed a lot of family stories.

My paternal family name is Ginsburg (I changed to Grayson on entering the service in 1943), and my maternal surname is Mesnick, I have been able to create very complete descendant charts of both families in Reunion from 1896 on, the date of immigration to NYC by my Ginsburg grandmother. I have hit a tone wall in tracing the families back to their shtetl days in Belarus.

The Ginsburg family from Kublichi.
Jennie, the widow ,Fannie on her right and Frederick (my father) on her left,
and standing from left to right, Abraham, Bella, Sadie and Samuel.
Photo made in Passaic, NJ between 1900 and 1910.

My paternal grandfather was Rabbi Moses Rafael Ginzburg, who lived in Kublichi Belarus until about 1892, He married Jennie Slaff and had six children as listed below. His last child of the six, Fannie, ,born in 1891, has listed Russia as her birth place on 1910 census records from Passaic NJ. This indicates that the family was still in Kublichi at that time, My grandfather contracted tuberculosis in Belarus and moved to Cairo Egypt in about 1892 or1893? I have is calling card which lists him as the Ashkenazi rabbi of part of the Jewish community in Cairo. He died in Jerusalem between 1893 and 1896 and is buried there, On our visit to Jerusalem in 1983 we were not able to get any information about his grave site. It is one of those destroyed in the wars in Israel. The only records I have from him consist of two handwritten journals, and a certificate recognizing him as a founder of the MISGAB LADACH Hospital in Jerusalem , dated Hebrew year 5656.(1895?) He must have been alive then or the certificate would have said "in blessed memory of" Also a greeting card from Rabbi Rafael Bensimon the Grand Rabbii of Cairo is from this time.

The two journals were passed to me by the family of Samuel Ginsburg, but unfortunately one has been lost when I sought translation. I hav e been told by local Jewish scholars that the handwriting is in Aremaic, Rashi and Hebrew. So far no one has been able to translate much of the script, but the text seems to be Torah or Talmud commentary.

Jennie Ginsburg, his widow, whose family is traced to Avraham Slaff, one of whose six sons was her father, immigrated to US via Port Said, Egypt on the SS EMS arriving on August 16 1896 according to several naturalization papers of the six children who came with Jennie. My father Fred was one of the three boys of Rabbi and Jennie Ginsburg.

My frustrations have been – Not able find some one who can translate a few pages of the journals, Second, not able to find out anything of the family in Kublichi. His wife Jennie Slaff is said to be part of a big Slaff family in that area. I would like to learn more of the Rabbis's background. Was he a son of a Rabbi? Who were his parents? Any help would be appreciated.

The children of Rafael and Fannie Ginzburg are as follows, along with their birthdates. Their given names are English translations. Samuel (Zolman)1884. Abraham 1886, Frederick (Feival)1889, Bella (Baylkeh)1888, Sadie (Zeldah)1885, Fannie (Feigel) 1891 All were born in Kublichi.

I have viewed the very interesting histories your organization has collected and would welcome an further information about the Ginzburg or Slaff families.

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