Greetings
It's been a year since the last mailing of The Family Descendant and a lot has happened. On the positive side, I retired in February of this year and Sue and I have been enjoying this new life-style. We have been traveling and getting to spend some time with members of our extended family. A visit to St. Louis and Branson, MO allowed us to spend a wonderful vacation with Zina Gindina (Bun) and the Elperin's - Mila, Sasha, Ann, Eugene and Voucher. On another trip we stopped in and visited Manny and Arleen Bernstein (Abr). Then there was our trip to celebrate Mayoff Day with our gracious hosts Bernie and Denise Mayoff (Abr) and children Rob, Cheryl and Beth (Jeff was studying) and about fifty honorary Mayoffs from around the world. I must say "June 1st in Dallas Texas ­ a great time and place to a place to hold a family reunion." Intermingled among those trips has been a trip to Montreal and visits to our favorite home away from home - visiting Sue's folks, the Suval's in Las Vegas.

On a more solemn note we have lost four very special people this past year. In November of 1998 we lost Marty Nickow, (Hen) everybody's favorite cousin in Chicago. I first met Marty in the early 90's and could always rely on him for updates and news reports of the goings on in the windy city. He was a most enjoyable person. November also saw the passing of Meyer (Mike) Mayoff (Abr), husband of Ada, father of Bernie and Elaine. I had not met Meyer but if his children are even remotely like him, he must have been one heck of a Dad. August of 1999 hit me very hard. The man that sponsored my immigration to the US, Ben Mayoff (Sam) passed away. This very successful businessman was always ready with suggestions and advice as I created my own company. And the most difficult news to write is the passing of my brother, Teddy (Sam). At the age of eight he saved my life and obviously words could never express my feelings. Teddy contracted a very rare form of cancer six years ago and had valiantly fought it. It was in remission when Teddy entertained us at the family reunion in 1995. It is to all four of these wonderful giving gentlemen, that I dedicate this issue of The Family Descendant. They will all be missed. Their obituaries appear on pages 8 & 9.

Research and the future of The Family Descendant.
As you all know, the publishing of the newsletter has been a hobby for me and it has been very rewarding. It has also been quite costly and even though some of you have made contributions to help offset expenses, it has gotten to the point where I can no longer afford to print and mail out up to 175 copies of the newsletter while also conducting research on an on-going basis. I will do the following to keep the flow of information moving. Firstly I am going to enthusiastically continue the family web site, mayoff.com. It will be upgraded with new graphics and a new server (see page 11). I have added a utility to the web site that will allow you to automatically receive an e-mail notice whenever anything changes on the web page. If you would like such notification, you must first enter your e-mail address in the proper spot on the website. There are some additional ideas I'd like to put on-line... Favorite recipe pages, Kids or grandkids pages, Refrigerator Artwork page and/or favorite photos page, Pets page and anything else that on-line cousins have an interest in. Many of you have your own free web pages and we can provide links so our cousins can share in your proud presentations. Please e-mail me the site addresses. In the interest of reducing expenses, it seems that I will have to eliminate hardcopy mailings on a free basis. Future newsletters will always be posted on-line and can be printed out by the reader to put in their album and share with others. This is an obviously distinct advantage for owners of color printers. For those who aren't on-line I have a couple of solutions. The first one is to ask an on-line family member or friend to print you out a copy. You can also view the web site from a library and print out your own copy. For those who still prefer a printed copy mailed to them, I ask for a donation of your choice (in US funds) and I will print you out a color copy and mail it to you. If you would also like to sponsor a mailed copy to one of our overseas cousins, please do so. A message to our benefactors... Thank you! You have helped keep this important gift of "family ties" alive and I beg that you continue. To those who have made memorial contributions, thank you, too! Your kindness helps propagate our family's news worldwide. To everyone... please send your comments and suggestions. Art

Abr=Abraham; Bun=Bunya; Hen=Henya; Isr=Israel; Lei=Leizer; Sam=Sam; Sch=Schloima; Soc=Soche/Socha/Sonia; Ush=Usher.