hello shalom!!!! I am glad to be here!! I love this site and all it has to offer.
about my self alittle....
On my mother's father's side I am related to Vilna Gaon. My grandfather and his brothers began Columbia Pictures in the 1920's. My great grandfather, Joe Cohn, from before the turn of the century, his fathers name was yankel cohn and his fathers name was Zalman Cohn. If you know anyone with the surname of bayuk, farber, Palefsky, mintz,pomerantz, brown, friedman or glass, they are most likely related to one of the 25,000 descendents of the Gaon. Some went to Canada from the family. Zalman Palefsky with his brother Elimelech had participated in the failed polish insurrection of 1883 and were forced to flee the russian domination of poland. They were the first of the family roots to leave the home land in kobryn which is today white russia ( byelorussia) others left left forthe usa and Canada around 1880's. Zalman changed his surname name to cohn to elude the czarist authorities and elimelech changed his name to glass and was the grandfather of the composer sammy fain and the vaudeville comedians eugene and willie howard. My family is descended from Vilna Gaon and other important rabbinic scholars.