In the mid-1990s I became very interested in genealogy, and in particular with the Deckelbaum name. My mother, who is really the historian in our family, related to me the genealogy of my father's family. Apparently we were able to trace the Deckelbaum name as far back as my great-great-grandfather Joseph, who came from a shtetl called Rafalovka, in modern-day Ukraine. There were Deckelbaums in the Washington DC area who were also descendants of Joseph, and therefore relatives of mine. My interest was heightened when I learned that there were other Deckelbaums in the USA who were not descendants of Joseph, and their relationship to us was unknown. I decided it would be interesting to research the immigration of Deckelbaums, using passenger records of immigrants arriving at various ports in the USA from 1880-1930. This research ended up consuming an entire year of my life, and for me it was a fascinating experience. I discovered that there were many other Deckelbaum families who emigrated from the same small shtetl where my great-great-grandfather lived. Yet still, I am unable to tie any of these families to mine. This website is my attempt to compile the data I researched, in a manner that hopefully will be meaningful for the descendants of all the Deckelbaum families from Rafalovka.

The site is organized in the following manner:

• Passenger Lists: Lists all of the Deckelbaums that I found in passenger records, and details their manifest entries.
• Deckelbaum Families: Identifies each of the Deckelbaum familes that I was able to piece together.
• Rafalovka Web: Gives a brief history and geography of the shtetl called Rafalovka.
• Memoirs: Contains memoirs of Rafalovka from various members of my Deckelbaum family.
• Surnames: Lists surnames found in all of the Deckelbaum families on this website.
• Shtetls: Identifies the names of towns given as birthplace or last residence on the passenger records.