Friday, September 7, 2012

Bashert in Genealogy

It is as though our ancestors want to be found. Uncanny coincidence. Olympian luck. Phenomenal fate. Tremendous intuition. Remarkable miracle. We call It, “Serendipity in Genealogy.”

“Serendipity” is not the right word to describe experiences researching the horrendous events of the Holocaust. Judy Wilkenfeld uses the Yiddish word “bashert” (destiny or fate) to describe the “coincidences” she experiences in her research. Several of these occurred in her search for the fate of her grandmother during the Shoah.

Please read her account in her own words, titled “Evidence” on her Provenance blog. Contrast the fortunate “coincidences” of April 14th with the terrible non-coincidences of July 23rd. Finally read about the discovery and awful reality of the photograph.

Thank you, Judy, for sharing this moving and very personal experience.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for reading and recommending my blog post. The Bashert continues in many more incidences relating to my genealogical work. I must be on the right path at this moment.
    Thanks also for your informative blog. I have been reading it for some time now. Keep up the great work.

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  2. That certainly doesn't mean all libraries are that way. We have a wonderful city library with Ancestry and Heritage Quest as well as a lot of reference books. It is clean and update and we have wonderful librarian helpers. Besides, I live across the street from it, who could ask for more.

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