Dumes.Net
A website dedicated to the family of Chaim and Sadie Silk Dumes from Viski, Latvia
Dumes.Net
I've redesigned the website with new code from top to bottom!
Let me know what you think! As usual, there is more stuff to see if you login!
My grandfather gave me these words of wisdom when I was about 7, I think. He also introduced me to Hebrew, taught me to bowl (not very well) and he trained me to use his beloved movie projector and film editor. I became the "in-house" projectionist whenever we had movie time over at his house, which was a tradition at family gatherings. My Aunt Mildred had an amazing memory and would narrate the films, identifying people and places.
For a time, I would ride my bike to his shop every Saturday when he closed at noon. We would go across the street to The White Kitchen, where he would always order the rib-eye steak with dry toast. After lunch, he would throw my bike in his car and we would go bowling. After that, he often had projects for me back at his house. One time, he asked me to make a label for his hard hat using one of those handheld machines that you squeeze to make labels. He didn't tell me it was for his hard hat, he just asked me to make a label with his name on it, so I typed out "GRANDPA". He laughed when he saw it, and I realized my error and asked him if I could do it again, and he said, "No" and put the "GRANDPA" sticker on his hard hat.
But often he had film projects for me: film that needed to be spliced or edited or otherwise maintained. So when he died, my Dad asked me to figure out a way to distribute the family movies to the various family branches. Over the years, we tried different methods, like Beta and VHS, but they were clearly not ideal. It was just a little over 30 years later that I was able to digitize the movies, which I did myself. I tried several of the companies that do it, but the samples they gave me were not up to snuff. My grandfather chopped off enough heads as it was, I had to make sure that I got as much of the picture as possible with the best color and lighting I could muster.
So his movies are collected here, along with family photos from various contributors and a whole lot of genealogical research that I started doing around 2001.
-- Bruce Dumes 2023
We consider Sadie Silk Dumes to be the matriarch of the Dumes family in America. Sadie had eight children. The youngest, Moshe, died at age 3 in 1907 from Scarlet Fever. Between the years 1903 and 1912, Sadie and her children emigrated to America from their home in Viski, Latvia.
The Sadie Dumes family of Viski, Vitebsk Gubernia, Russia traveled to America over a span of about nine years. According to the archival documents, Sadie’s husband Chaim Yehoshua died from Typhoid on Jan 30, 1905.
Beth Holst Tockman
Beth passed away on June 19, 2022
Cyril-Ann Zoll Rosenberg
Cyril-Ann passed away on August 15, 2021
Harry Stanley Lieberman
Harry Stanley Lieberman passed away peacefully on March 31, 2021.
Ruth Fishman Zimbler
Ruth passed away on May 15, 2020.
Al Zimbler
Al died on March 19, 2020.
Karen Finkelstein
Karen Sue Finkelstein passed away on April 30, 2019.
Shout out to Cousin ArtOne of the joys of this project was to reconnect with cousin Art Lieberman when he noticed Dumes.Net, not too long after it was launched. My only other notable interaction with Art was decades earlier when I had asked to borrow some of his Mad Magazine paperback books. I'm sorry to say that not only did I never return them, but I lost track of them. However, he seems to have forgiven me.
Within a short time after us getting reaquainted, Art proposed the idea of a Dumes family reunion, which he made happen in 2006. It was the first such reunion in 26 years! Art continues to be the driving force in keeping all you Dumes and Dumes-related folks together.
Thanks Art!
~Bruce Dumes 2023
