About the Author

Andrea Massion embraced genealogy as a hobby and as a tribute to her Massion family.

A native of Los Angeles, she is a member of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Los Angeles, and  Conejo Valley/ Ventura and has attended seminars around the world in her quest for answers to the Massion family before they entered the Pale of Settlement. She discovered  missing branches of the family who had immigrated to Argentina, Israel and Canada and has visited them in New York, Israel, and Kiev.   In 2005, Ms Massion travelled to Ananiev, Ukraine, the shtetl of her grandfather, along with her cousin, Christine Tausheck Crawley. In October 2010, Andrea was contacted by the son of one of the Canadian sisters of Massion legend who found this website on Jewishgen.org. They live in Ottawa, Montreal, Washington state, and Israel. Now, with the advent of DNA, Andrea is looking to find the Sephardic origins of the Massion / Mosion family. In Paris, Italy and other Sephard locations, they are there.

     Andrea is an actor in both stage & television, and managed a public elementary school library. She holds a B.A. in Child Mental Health and worked with children in Jewish education via the performing arts for more than 30 years in Los Angeles county.

    This website is largely a record of the 2005 journey and is dedicated to all the Massions, past and present, who had the courage to cross the seas and forge a new life. Thanks to Peter & Kira Massion in New York for specific translations. Thanks to other researchers with families from Ananiev who have allowed me to share with you their Ananiev family photos and documents on this site. Thanks to Alex Dunai who took good care of us.

To contribute your Ananiev stories and photos, please contact us at almassion@mac.com.

Let’s rebuild this shtetl together.