Soore's VirtualTourist Home Page

My first twenty years on earth were spent in Toronto Ontario in Canada until the borders of my world shifted to include New York City where I met the man I married. He was an historian with a passion for history and travel. For twenty-four years we lived in the New York boroughs of Manhatten, Brooklyn and Queens where we were blessed with a family of six children.

"Go west" came the call in 1976 and out went out we went settling in Chicago in a place called Skokie in Illinois. There I was invited to become a travel in the travel agency of a friend who had just opened his own business. I learned to plan trips some for myself and my husband and some for company clients. it was exciting to be sent to Texas for computer training for United Airlines. The travel business and the required computer course opened up the world giving me skills that enriched my life not only for travel but more importantly for a roots research that had become a lifetime calling. The computer enables me to reach out to resources around the world without leaving my desk and my home study. I am able to connect with family and friends and to my children and grandchildren who have left the family nest.

It was in Chicago in 1980 during a visit home to Toronto Canada that I found information about my grandfather and his roots from a hand written letter from his family town of Busk in Galica. A hunger to know more about my family became a passionate driving force in my life. The scope of my reseach grew with each new tidbit of information. I started to reach out by write-ing letters , by phoning and visiting relatives and family friends in their homes

During the ten years we lived in Skokie Illinois, "Where the Nazies marched", that roots and travel became important in my life. At a genealogical society meeting in Skokie I learned about local and distant archives whose genealogical holdings could enlarge the scope and depth of my research. My husband gladly joined me in on trips to research my roots as we enjoyed traveling across Canada, the USA and Europe where to visit family and where there were none left we visited archives and graveyards for their hidden secrets.

Our youngest daughter Rena once asked, 'Mother why do you visit graveyards on vacation instead of having fun on the beaches?" She could not fathom that there was excitement in searching for family roots especially in graveyards.

My passion to recover lost family roots motivated a trip to Jassi in Romania, and one to Budapest and Israel, to Warsaw and Bratislava, to Vienna and Salt Lake city and more. On one trip we interviewed famiy in Los Angeles and another in Cleveland,as well as in Miami and Toronto, New York's Brighton Beach, Flatbush, Coney Island, Brookiyn, Manhattin, and Long Island .

We travelled for a release a change of routine for relief from the tensions of the everyday. We were driven by a desire to learn more about our family roots since reaching out by phone and mail were not always as rewarding as a personal face to face interviews.

I was sent to Texas for computer training as a United Airlines travel agent Never thinking to use the opportunity and explore the sites never suspecting that one day I would belong to a group like this one geared to reporting the sites and places we enjoyed. My genealogy and travel interests grew during ten years in Skokie Illinois and continue to excite and enrich my life.

Ten years of life in Illinois ended with the offer of a new exciting job for my husband. We moved from Illinois to Brookline Massachusetts. I soon found work at a travel agency across from our rented apartment with its' indoor swimming pool. I joined the Boston Genealogical Society to share my interests in research along with the job at the travel job.
Alas my wonderful husband sickened and died after three delightful years in Boston. My genealogical research and work in the travel office across from our apartment somehow filled the void giving purpose and direction to the loneliness of my widowhood.