A Look Back to Older Times
or
Where The Rubenstein's Came From

Pictures and letters that my father found when going through his father's things after the latter's death;
Tables and charts from Poland concerning the Rubenstein name in all of its various spellings;
And things related to Rubenstein's, even though they may not be related to me.

Rubinsztejn Family Tree
In html - In List Form
With Many Branches
Ccan be found here

Picture Postcards and Translations		This is probably Marcus & Miriam and their children Gdalius and Rivkah		This seems to be some of Norman's brothers and one of his sisters
No information came with the next two pictures, however my grandfather is the person second from the front on the right side of the table in the first picture and the lady in the second picture might be one of Norman's sisters.
All the information I've found about these pictures is under the individual picture.	Mr. & Mrs. Koltun w/ children Billy & Jerri	Rose Rasky Koltun and her daughter Debbie Lynn
Pictures of David (Dawid) Rubenstein, Nocham (Norman)'s brother circa 1942 (He's the one delivering the paper by horse-cart)
More old pictures	This is believed to be a picture of Milaj Rubenstein when he was a young man.	Nochem Rubenstein	Believed to be one of Nochem Rubenstein's brothers.	Believed to be another one of Nochem Rubenstein's brothers.
		Another one of Nochem Rubenstein's brothers.	One of Nochem Rubenstein's sisters.
Pictures received from Rena Corey - (my father's mother's side of the family)	Zwart Family at Margaretha's Wedding approx 1911	Nathan Zwart approx 1920	Sara Zwart approx 1920	Louise Zwart approx 1920
		Nathan Zwart approx 1890	Sara Zwart approx 1890
Yad Vashem Museum listings of Shoah Victims from our Family Tree	Testimony about Milaj's wife Feighe	Testimony about Moishe. Although three 1st names are given, these are actually the names of 3 of the brothers.	Testimony about one of the Rubinsztejn brothers
Some old Census Reports & other Government-type records. My relatives are beside the arrow. (Thanks, cousin Alan!)	Nochem's arrival at Ellis Island, 1910	1910 Census, Bklyn	1920 Census, Manhatten	1930 Census, Staten Island
Some even older records of relatives. (Again, thanks, Alan!)	Marriage record for Gdal and Bajna Rubenstein	Birth record for Brajna Dukat	Marriage record for Moszk & Gutta Dukat	Death record for Moszk Dukat
And the translations of the above.
These are the letters my father found, written in Yiddish, (from Mexico and Poland) and their translations below them.
The following is a Birth & Death record (in Excel) that I received from another "Rubenstein" seeker: B&D Records 1826-1866 Ostralenka, Poland in XL	Listing of Rubenstein's killed in Buchenwald Death Camp	Listing of Rubenstein's killed in Krakow	Listing of Rubenstein's killed in Kelmhof	Listing of Schindler's Rubenstein's
Ostrolanka, Poland Yizkor Book circa pre-WWII	Translation to English & Hebrew began in Israel in 2009	Table of Contents With Hyperlinks to translated text
While going through some of her mother's things, Terri found three pages from a diary that her mom had uncovered from an ancester of theirs, when the ancester first came to America.  The three pages are transcribed and posted here:

A Family Tree, with many branches, that I created in html can be found here.

A Rubenstein Family Tree, created using Ancestry.com, can be found HERE

My ancestry, ever growing, looks a little like this:

My grandfather's family name was Rubinsztejn and his father owned a tire company. The town that his grandfather is from is called Lomza, which is considered a part of Ostralenka, or a suburb; and is very close, in Poland. Our surname was changed to Rubenstein by some Irish Immigration Officer on Ellis Island when my grandfather came to New York. It’s also assumed that his given name of Nachum was changed to Norman at that time. It is also believed that Nachum was known as Haim for some time, for unknown reasons; and he sometimes spelled his name Rubinstein.  Additionally, in 1910 when he boarded, and subsequently disembarked from the ship that took him from Europe to the U.S., he told ship officers and Ellis Island officers that he was 18, born in 1892.  However, in all other paperwork that has been associated with Norman Rubenstein, his year of birth is said to have been either 1896 or 1900, making him about 10 or 14 when he came to the United States.

The original Polish spelling of our name was Rubinsztejn or Rubinszteyn.  Variations of the original spelling include Rubinstein, Rubenstein, Rubinstejn, Rubenstejn and Rubinsteyn.  Others may also exist; these are the names associated with the Rubenstein relatives that I've uncovered.

I have 2 brothers, Mark and Neil. At this writing neither of them is married. My father's name is Ralph; he's married to Barbara (nee) Rosenberg; and my father had a sister named, Isabelle. 

I am also married. My wife’s name is Terri. We have three boys, Chris, Cody and Richard; and we recently had a daughter, Isabella, born December 21st, 2009.

Norman had a brother named David and a sister named, Braindl, who also went by the names Bronia and Sonia. Sonia moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico. She married a man name Iacov Miller, who changed it to Jacobo Miller. They had a son named Shimon. They owned a General Store named "El Surtidor".

Norman had at least two other brothers that died in the camps; he had a brother named Isaac that survived and went to Israel; a brother named Marcus who survived and went to Mexico (but his wife, Miriam, and his other son couldn't get out of Poland to go to Mexico, so they went to Russia); a brother named Laizer (who was also called Louiz), that also made it out of Nazi occupied Poland; and at least one other sister. Norman’s father’s name was Moishe (or Morris). Moishe died around 1939 in Poland.  Moishe's father's name was G'dal.  G'dal's father was Szlomo Rubenszteyn.

A Rubenstein Family Tree, created using Ancestry.com, can be found here.  (We also have one at MyHeritage.com, but it's no where near as in depth)

If you have additional information that you'd like to add, contact me here.  I'd love to hear from you.

A Family Tree, with many branches, that I created in html can be found here.