GENETIC page 7
weren't here," Mrs. Starkman
said. "And then I got hooked."
Down the road in Oak Park,
genealogist Phillip Applebaum
tells a similar story of curiosity
turned to lifelong pursuit.
He was a teen-ager, boning up
on the history of the British roy-
al family, when he began to won-
der about his own family.
"I began asking my father
about our own family history,"
Mr. Applebaum recalled. His
Polish-born parents survived the
Holocaust in Soviet prison
camps. The rest of the family
perished.
"At that point, I relied on my
father as my sole source of in-
formation. There were no other
relatives," said Mr. Applebaum,
whose mother died when he was
a teen.
These days, Mr. Applebaum,
44, has turned his childhood fas-
cination into business and book
deals, including one with former
oil executive and Republican
Party activist Max Fisher on his
family history.
"Basically, most people want
to know where they come from,"
Mr. Applebaum said. "You look
at your ancestors and what they
did and a little bit of them
is in you."
For Jews, genealogy has
become a way to put the
pieces of their heritage
back together.
"Jews have really taken
genealogy and run with it
because so many Jews,
have a break in that fam-
ily history; they have the
Holocaust and that conti-
nuity has been broken,"
Mr. Applebaum said.
Genealogists say know-
ing about your how your
ancestors lived helps you
better understand
your own life.
"Everyone wants
to know why he is
good at what he is
good at and why he does
the things he does,"' said
James Grey, a Farmington
Hills genealogist and
treasurer of the Jewish
Genealogical Society of
Michigan.
An accountant by pro-
fession, Mr. Grey also
runs a help-service for am-
ateur genealogists called
Genetrex. It's the only
listing under genealogy
in the North Woodward
phone book. Most who
call want to know how to
conduct their own ances-
tral hunt. But then Above: Genealogist systematically collect-
there's the occasional Jim Grey preserved ed records for the past
oddball, Mr. Grey said, his grandparents'
century — including
ketubah.
like the woman who
those of Eastern Euro-
sought to have her
pean Jewry.
genes mapped so she
Mr. Grey also uses
Left: Betty Provizer
could identify the father Starkman: Detective the Internet to search
of her unborn child. Mr.
and share information.
and historian.
Grey told her he was a
"I liken genealogy to
genealogist, not a ge-
a jigsaw puzzle with no
neticist.
boundaries," Mr. Grey said.
Mr. Grey, 52, has about 3,300 "And that's what makes the hob-
ancestors dangling from his by so challenging, because it nev-
own family tree. Many of them er has an end." ❑
he found on microfilm at the
Family History Library of the
Mormon Church, which has
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