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Documenting Our Family History
While to my knowledge, the first attempt at writing a comprehensive family history was made by Pauline Shernicoff, perhaps 25 years ago, after my use of her manuscript to begin this project others have contributed their accounts, including Pauline who in 1994 re-wrote her account at age 80 which seems richer and somewhat more detailed than the original.
An independent account was also submitted by Yvette Levine and by Jules Chayt and also (posthumously) by Uncle Dave (David Chayt) via son Maurice Chayt (Murray) who thoughtfully brought a tape recorder with him on one of his visits to his folks in Florida. As Murray recalled - I got him to tell me all these things one afternoon while relaxing by the pool (with the tape recorder) running. Unfortunately (as I - Leslie well know) uncle Dave was such a compelling story teller, that Murray forgot about the tape and didn't notice when it ran out! Oh well, but we thankfully have some of the precious words directly from him. Certainly some of the most colorful - as was the man himself.
These accounts are excerpted in context and used in various sections where they fit are appropriate. Complete transcriptions can be found in the appendices at the end of the book thanks to the transcribing of both Lorraine Flaer and Janet Shernicoff.
Introduction
The entire Chayt Family History Book (CFHB) project was started in 1994 as an upgrade to the first version written by (my aunt) Pauline Shernicoff. A preliminary draft of the book was presented to Pauline on the occasion of her 80th birthday (April 16, 1994). It was subsequently published in a very limited edition in 1997 and presented at a party celebrating the birthdays of Pauline, Yvette, (April 19, 1912) and Jules, April 4 1910. Since that very limited release in 1997 and the subsequent publishing of a draft on the World Wide Web, I have moved several times, and at one point discontinued maintaining the Chayt website altogether.
Now, with your help, through your contributions, the website and this document are back online.
The CFHB Online
Since 1997 my capabilities and objectives have changed and I no longer expect to produce any further paper versions of this document. Instead, I will try to duplicate, as closely as possible, what is in the original paperbound 1997 release. This includes the text of the 1997 book, and (increasingly) the photos.
Some of you know that including photographs of any quality in an online document means long download times (e.g. waits). So, instead of placing the full size photos right where they were in the paperbound book, there is a small thumbnail (i.e. miniature) version of the picture that you click on to see the bigger picture. (This is explained earlier in Considerations When Viewing Photos.) That way the document will load in a fairly reasonable time and you can decide which photos you want to take the extra time to see in detail. You will have to wait for each photo to download if you select it.
Adding the photos and illustrations is being done very slowly and painstakingly as each photo has to be properly processed for web viewing.
When the book is complete, as some of you are probably aware, new communications technologies may give you internet access speeds 5, 10 or even 100 times as fast (for reasonable prices). As I write this many locations are getting internet services through their cable, at speeds of 115,000 Baud.(115 Kb) about 3 times the actual speed you get if you have a 56,000 (56Kb) dialup modem. So it is clear that in the long run this online version will become more and more practical to read and view.
So check out what is new every once in a while. Slowly the book will grow to include all of the original photos, and perhaps more.
For now enjoy.
Leslie - June 21, 1999 / amended Sept. 25th, 2000
If you would like you can also read the Preface to The Special 1997 Release.
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