About Us: Jeff and Pete Dreifuss

 

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

 

Sir Isaac Newton

 

We became interested in Genealogy in the nineteen seventies when our father Leonard began to explore his  (and our own) "great ocean of truth" about his family. Dad, without a computer began unearthing old birth certificates, death certificates, military records, photographs and distant relatives from around the world. His tools were paper and pen, postage stamps, library cards, an analytical mind, great communication skills and a wife and partner Ruth who was with him every step of the way, including her own enthusiasm for genealogy.

 

Dad did not know his own paternal grandfather's origin and inspired by questions such as if he was directly related to Captain Alfred Dreyfus (no) or Barney Dreyfuss (yes).

 

During the seventies and the early eighties, my brother Jeff was an attorney specializing in Real Estate title settlements and I was a chemist and also pursuing an advanced degree in Organic Chemistry. Both of us were busy raising young families and pursuing our careers and we kept mostly to the genealogy sidelines. But dad kept mom and us closely in the loop and sometimes asked for our help, support and feedback. We were all truly amazed at what he was able to find. I became valuable to dad's efforts first by dad's interest in  recording and printing information on a personal computer.

 

After the Internet became available but before many websites were available, I joined Usenet genealogy groups to share and learn genealogical information unavailable at other sources with genealogists around the world and later developed a computerized platform to keep track and organize information that dad had obtained. The Usenet group allowed us to unearth Polish Jewish records previously unavailable outside Poland. I uploaded our first website under the name Leonard and Sons Dreifuss Genealogy using tools avaible with America Online (aol.com) sometime in the mid-nineteen nineties. We learned how much more we could learn about our family by the number of unknown relatives who reached out to us because they had found that they shared the same ancestors.

 

Threats to Genealogy Accuracy

 

Our genealogical skills and the data obtained were acquired over many years of work. But we learned soon enough how some newly encountered family information can be so deceiving so that it appears to be very certain. We have encountered occasions where we had to remove names and families because certain records (names, dates and locations) were later proven incorrect.

 

About 50 years ago dad recorded accepted certain 19th century census records as consistent with the family of his grandmothers brother. Over the years he, my brother and I built upon this data. Many years later, conflicting reliable information arose from wonderful collaboration that developed with another genealogist. The newer information required us to eliminate all records built on that census data.  However there are individuals and organizations who distribute information especially on the Internet without source information. A good example are family trees. Internet genealogy and genetic genealogy companies (such as Ancestry.com, Geni.com, 23andme.com and many other companies) actually are encouraging the viral spread of inaccurate information by publishing private contributions without warnings.

 

We have greatly benefited from sharing information with other genealogists and organizations but we have always been plagued by inaccurate information and information provided without supporting documents behind reliable genealogy.

 

Rationale for Our Privacy Policy and Password Protection

 

We conduct genealogy as professionals pursuing historical accuracy using scientific methods of gathering facts, developing and testing theories. We use expert genealogical software which allows us to reference painstakingly virtually every data entry so that it can always be retested. We do not accept or share information without some basis to believe the information. The source provides us and you with its certainty and some measure of reliability.

 

Please understand that to gain access to our information you are required to agree to our Privacy Agreement. We are happy to exchange information with serious individuals who wish to explore connections between our respective families, but not on living people or on certain individuals who have asked us not to divulge information on them.

Password Access

 

User names and passwords to our Genealogies link will be provided to all family members and serious collaborators agreed to by either Pete or Jeff Dreifuss. If you are a serious researcher but not family or an established collaborator but still wish to collaborate or browse the family please contact us to explain why you would like access. We can and have in many cases provided researchers with information in another suitable format. It is our expectation that those with an interest in our records are willing to share information.

 

Contact Us

 

For a password read the Privacy Policy Agreement below and if you agree, contact us here. If you have any other comments about the site, its content, a privacy issue, an interest in collaborating or just want to say hi, please do contact us.

 

Privacy Policy Agreement

 

All users of genealogical information in Dreifussbros.com agree not to publicly distribute in any manner any information on living people and any deceased person born on Jan 1,1941 and later. Users further agree not to distribute any documents or photographs regardless of the date without our express permission. We also hope that you would be willing to exchange genealogical information and sources of information.

 By requesting a password you agree to abide by this policy. Whether you request a password or not, you have the right to have us remove any data on immediate family you wish for your own privacy concerns.