ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing the program for this site, contacting  known and "lost" relatives and probing the world-wide web for information, and entering data on the site is a  time-consuming and, at times, frustrating  task. But, it is an exciting, interesting, educating, stimulating, and challenging experience.  Deanna, my wife, has patiently put up with my obsession, with me disappearing into my computer room for days at a time, and with the project continuously on my mind and in my conversation.  It was her suggestion to expand my initial project, that  depicted a single family  tree, to embrace all our families - including those of our maternal and paternal grandparents - and creating sections in which all sorts of information can be shown. Her interest in our family backgrounds predated mine, fortunately, while our fathers were alive. She interviewed them both and recorded information that would, otherwise, never have been known. She has been my inspiration . I dedicate this work-in-progress to her.

Many family members have helped work on the Archives.  The initial data came from memory of our  parents' stories.  Unfortunately, our interest in genealogy came too late, for those who knew most are no longer with us. Selwyn Bleifer was the first Bleifer to help me with information. Gail Bleifer added more about her family segment.  Rita Greenstein and Candi Bleifer has added to the data base.  My sisters, Sarabel Blafer Wilks and Arlene Blafer Sheff, have been helpful.  Rita Blafer Berkovsky  and Edward Berkovsky, long lost relatives (Rita's father and mine were first cousins), provided information on a part of the tree that we thought had been completely wiped out by the Nazi's.  Edward's help and enthusiasm have been exceptionally helpful and invigorating. Dianne Parnes, gave me information on her family.  Her father was my brother's half brother.  Lisa Ann Bleifer, Robert Bleifer, and Ellen Rose Blafer helped supply family info, too.  When starting the populating of the Blafer, Chalek, and Groveman families, my mother, Fannie, gave me much of the information from her generation back in time.  Billy Weintraub, who has been doing a masterful genealogic project, offered a wealth of information for the Groveman Family. And, his mother, Beverly (Neckman) straightened out a lot of misplaced family members.  Morris Chalick helped with the Chalicks, the Pennsylvania family branch. Annette Raymon Smith and Jerry Raymon helped with the Sczupakevich Tree.  Thanks also to: Karen Bleifer, Joy Chalek, Rhonda Greenberg, Yehuda Kantor, Marcie Chalek, Charna Chalek Graber, Herb Chalek, Donna Lozow, Louise Chalek, and Marc Chalek..  Thanks to the many relatives who called me with additional information and corrections. Keep those letters coming! 

The task of programming the web has been a long, tedious, but pleasurable activity for me, Jerome.   Our son, Craig Blafer, a software engineer, has been the guru of the coding. He taught me how to plan a web site, helped me through many difficult programming tasks, giving me some of his own original scripts.   Further,  he's been my sounding board for figuring out the best way to make this website navigable for the rest of the family. Without him behind me, this project would never have gotten off the ground.

At the start, I was unable to find a software package that satisfied my idea of what a website family archive should be.  I looked at dozens of sites and software tree sites. Outstanding work on a family website has been done by a cousin, Jay Nitikman, of my mother's paternal, Chalek family.  Two other sources were John Victor Swinton (Blafer/Bleifer TFamily), an Australian, and Annette Smith (Goldstein/Sczupakewicz Family). The trees created by these relatives gave me ideas for my own project.  By studying their sites and by referring to the Legacy Family Tree SoftwareŠ and other software,  I  selected elementsto include in our Family Library.  Several freeware scripts, available on the web, have been incorporated in the coding. Freeware came from such websites as: www.dynamicdrive.com,  www.javascripts.com,  www.javaboutique.com, and  www.CodeLifter.com,  among others.

There is still much to be done. I need family members to edit and proof-read the information included in this site, especially concerning family member data.   I need biographical and commentary material,   photographs, documents,  voice recordings and film clips.  I need to be kept informed of the life events of the living, the newly-born and the dead.  Eventually, others will help continue the task of keeping the library up to date. By adding to our information base, we will create a wonderful legacy for future generations.  JLB