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gENEaLOgY vacaTIONS OPEN DOORS TO THE PaST
We've heard ROMaNTIC TaLES of the 'old country' from our grandparents and have studied the black-and-white photos of DISTaNT RELaTIVES in hopes of trying to find a family resemblance. The stories tug at our hearts, beckoning us to VISIT the FOREIgN LaNDS where our families lived for generations.
In the past, getting to the Old country' was not always possible, paticularly in Eastern Europe, due to political and social barriers. Today, friendlier relations between the United States and other nations, along with easier transportation modes, make planning a trip to trace your family's past as easy as the click of the mouse.
In May 2007, two Phoenix couples, Larry and Fran Frazin, and Dolph and Sharron Evnin, enjoyed an 18-day trip to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belarus, to trace their families' roots.
"In searching the Internet, I found a company called Lithuanian Tours," says Larry Frazin. "I discovered that not only did they do tours of Lithuania, they also had a group of tours from a Judaic standpoint. We negotiated a customized itinerary, which took almost a year to plan. We were on the move in a car every day. It's not for the faint of heart, because the sites are very difficult for the heart. It's very emotional to see the graves and the camps."
The foursome embarked on the trip with basic knowledge of their families' histories.
"I did some research before the trip, but I had a lot of difficulty because I was spelling things wrong," says Dolph Evnin. "But I found out you had to use your imagination and change spellings of a lot of words to get what you wanted. It took me four years to find Zabelminkas in northern Lithuania because my mother was pronouncing it Vabolnik."
Though he says the shtetl doesn't exist anymore, the group visited the Jewish cemetery in the area. "I didn't find anything because there are too many graves, all the headstones are in Yiddish and they're worn and pretty old. If I had stayed four or five days I might have found something."
One of the trip highlights for Fran Frazin was visiting a new synagogue in Tallin, Estonia. "We happened to be...