This brief history of one family, from their immigration to the United States in 1881 to the fifth and sixth generation of descendants, is in many ways a typical American narrative, full of deaths and births, hard work and shiftlessness, loyalty and desertion, anger and forgiveness. The figure of Michla Relkin dominates: coming to this continent as a young wife she never learned English nor felt really at home, although she raised her children here and lived to see many grandchildren. Her granddaughter Sylvia Weinstein Silverman has preserved the family stories as she heard them from Michla or lived them, and Sylvia's daugher Martha Roth has added some pages to bring the family into the twenty-first century.

Sylvia Weinstein Silverman retired in 1968 from a career as social servie administrator at Scholarship & Guidance Association in Chicago. She co-authored the textbook, Social Casework with Adolescents (Free Press, 1963) and in 1980 co-wrote Family Feelings: Daily Readings for Healthy Realationship (Bantam Books) with Martha Roth. She wrote this history for her granchildren and great-nieces and -nephews.

To order email: martha@martharoth.com