Throughout my journey to make sense of my family history, I have found myself creating stories to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I have been fortunate to solve many of the mysteries, often discovering that the story I told myself was completely off base. That was the case with this newspaper article:

Helene’s husband Vitali was an unusual man with an unusual profession. See the section on Metaphysics & Mysticism to learn more.

When I first saw this article, I assumed it was from the early to mid-1940s. According to IMDB, there was no film with the title mentioned in the article but there was a short film made in 1941 called Hands of Destiny in which he discussed the handprints of Mussolini, Hitler, Churchill and Roosevelt. He also wrote the screenplay for and appeared in a documentary of the same name in 1954.

The reason I decided it must have been an article from the 1940s is that I found 2 copies of the article in my documents — one in my grandmother’s papers and another in the box of Paul Zerzawy’s papers. Paul died in 1948. I knew that Helene had sent Paul documents related to Vitali’s profession in Vienna in order to show that he had a way to make a living if he and Helene were given visas to come to the U.S. before 1941.

In June 2020, I realized that in addition to online genealogy resources available through the public library, it’s possible to look at many old newspapers. I spent several hours one day trying to find the dates for a number of newspaper clippings I have in my archive. It turns out that this article appeared the San Francisco Chronicle on January 19, 1955. Not in the 1940s, not while Paul Zerzawy was still alive.

One question I may never be able to answer is whether Vitali and Helene knew Ranald. He had spent time in Vienna. Perhaps he even gave the lecture on metaphysics that Vitali attended which inspired him in his future pursuits? I have found that my grandmother kept articles and papers for more than mere interest or a reminder of times she remembered. When I first saw this article, I thought it had been kept to show Vitali if and when he arrived in the U.S. that it might be possible for him to make a living reading palms. The fact that two people in the family kept the same article makes me think that it was saved not just because of his profession, but because they knew him.  

Ranald had quite a life and was an excellent storyteller. When I read How to Know People by Their Hands (published in 1938), in which he discusses and the hands of famous people including those listed above, I wondered how much of his autobiography was true and how much was made up to form a mythology as a showcase for his work. Decide for yourself by reading the introduction of his book, available on the Internet Archive.