The Briss Family, originally of northern Lithuania, is comprised of the descendants of Yisrael and Sheine Esther Briss. It is not known when Yisrael Briss was born, but Sheine Esther bat Menasha lived from 1829-1904. They had at least three sons and one daughter. The children were raised in Skapiskis, and they settled in Birzai (in Yiddish: Birzh), Vabalninkas (Vabolnik), Kvetkai (Kvetki), Skuodas (Skud), and Ukmerge (Vilkomir).
Most of Yisrael's and Sheine's grandchildren migrated from Lithuania to countries that promised opportunity and bright futures. Of the twenty-three grandchildren, eight settled in South Africa, eleven immigrated to the United States, and three perished in Lithuania in 1941. (For those of you who are counting on your fingers and know there's one short, Sara Dvorah Briss died of illness before reaching adulthood.)
All contact between the scattered family branches would have been lost if not for Philip Briss' correspondence with Annie Posvoletzky, Solly Josset, and Jack Miller, all members of the first generation born outside Lithuania. At the time, it took a month for a letter to travel by ship from the United States to South Africa. As Phil Briss received news from his cousins overseas, he kept notes on the growth of the family tree. If he had not done so, we would not have this remarkable record of our family's history today.
My name is Joyce Rowland. I'm Ilene Norma's daughter, the granddaughter of Florence and Mannie Rubenstein, and the grand-niece of Philip Briss, my grandmother's brother. I live in New Jersey with my husband Christopher and my best friend Jenny, and we have two sons: Jen, born March 1996, and Kels, born June 1998. I am an archivist and genealogist for the Briss family.
When I was a teenager, I became interested in my family tree, and my mother suggested I write to Uncle Phil for information. He was delighted to have someone express interest in the family project. He gave me a copy of the entire family tree as it had stood ten years earlier, a list of addresses also ten years out of date, and a large cardboard box full of loose photographs, which it was my delight to sort through and categorize by family branch and generation.
I keep track of Briss relatives with Reunion genealogical software for Macintosh. I record changes in the family, and I conduct research to find records of ancestors and relatives in archives around the world. I also write and publish a monthly e-newsletter to keep everyone connected and informed.
Today, more than 370 descendants of Yisrael Briss live in the United States, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Great Britain. The information on this website is the fruit of years of examining old photographs and odd scraps of paper, corresponding with patient and diligent archivists, running amok in cemeteries, and chatting with relatives about their lives and memories. It is my most fervent hope that all the Briss cousins will discover, in my aunt's words, "a great sense of pleasure and invincibility to see all those names and faces, and to know that I'm connected to each one."