Michael Stern was born in Dallas, Texas and began tracing his family roots at the age of 13. He initially focused on his father's side of the family so he could figure out how all his cousin's who met him at the "Hamilton House" in Brooklyn for dinner were actually related.

After his Grandmother mailed him a short article regarding the publication of "Finding Our Fathers" by Dan Rottenberg, which was the first book published on Jewish Genealogy, Michael embarked on a serious teenage hobby of family research.

Michael would drag his Grandmother to the Brooklyn Public Library (on Summer visits to New York) where he would copy by hand some of the genealogies in Neil Rosenstein's "The Unbroken Chain." If only Michael had just asked his parents to buy the book! Sorry Grandma-- we could have done so many more interesting things!

He later became interested in tracing his mother's family, which included the Gabrilowitz family. Traveling to New London, CT at the age of 16 to meet his "long lost" Shafner relatives, Michael stayed at the home of Raphael Shafner who spun the stories of the Gabrilowitz family, including the connection to Ossip Gabrilowitsch the pianist.

He has collected numerous letters, family trees and stories from Gabrilowitzs all over the world. Please contact Michael at the email address below:

info@gabrilowitz.com