In 2009 Joan Abramson, living in San Francisco, and Roman Weinfeld, living in Warsaw, discovered they had ancestors in common. Joan is the granddaughter of Nisla Mirla Frajlich, nee Halborn. Roman is the great grandson of Nisla’s older brother, Chaskiel Halborn. The two began working together to explore their past through an exchange of email, photographs and documents. Both were descendants of four of the 348 Jews living in the little Silesian village of Żarki at the close of the 18th century. The villagers were counted when the Polish government conducted a census of the town’s Jewish population in 1791.

In 2010, the authors traveled together to Łódź, Częstochowa, and Żarki. Visiting ancestral towns was a moving experience. The trip helped to uncover new information, but it also made clear how much family history had been silenced by the Holocaust. It was after their travel that the coauthors decided to write a book about their family. The result was called The Halborns: Ancestors Immigrants Survivors.

After the book was published, the authors knew the story would continue to grow as more records became available online and more people became aware of their connection to the family. The book had been built on family participation — on the stories, photographs, memoirs and letters of family members living and dead. And the authors wanted to find a way to increase that participation. This web site was built to help achieve that goal.

The book is now only available online as a used item. But we still have about 15 new copies left in the office, so if you’re interested in getting one, use our contact form to get in touch. You may also download a PDF copy of the book by clicking the button below.