I knew that my on my father’s side my Grandfather came from Russia. I had donated his papers to the Jewish Historical Society in Baltimore when I inherited them from my father. In those papers was his Russian draft notice. I knew he came to Baltimore, was married to my grandmother who had passed away in the 20’s, had 5 children of which my father was the youngest, and I knew all the children of his children, although I didn’t know many of the next generation. I was born when my father was 43, so I was a late son of the youngest child so my first cousins that are left are now all in their 70’s and 80’s. I had no more information, and wasn’t looking for more.
My daughter Lilly was part of a Heritage Day program at her school, in which each child brought in some information and “stuff” pertaining to their heritage. Her heritage is German, English, Lithuanian and Russian, as far as we knew, so we chose Russian, and provided her with a Russian Doll, some Russian money a family picture or two from Russia (actually they were from my mothers family but very old and probably Russian).
So…one day, a few months ago, I was fooling around on my computer, something I have been paid to do for years, and I tried my Grandfathers name on Google, and began to read various dead ends for fun. I ran across a question of a web site devoted to Lithuanian Jews and Jewish settlements in Lithuania in the 19th century, which asked if anyone knew the whereabouts of my Grandfather and his family. They listed him by name and my grandmother and an Aunt or two. The question was dated 1993. I returned the email but the link was gone.
A few days later, I tried the woman’s name who asked the question on Google, and found her still actively involved in a Lithuanian search. I wrote to her and asked if she was still interested and she was. She had spoken with two of my cousins several years ago, but cut the conversation short as she was on her way to Salt Lake City for more research. I began to include many of my cousins and my sons in the email, and sent her an up to date history of my family, as far as I could, including numbers of kids but not always names. She began to correspond, and it seems that my grandfather was in fact from Lithuania, was on of six children, she had all the names and ages, I’d never heard of any of this. She gave us the ship info for when they arrived in New York. She gave us a new world!
My son said we began to see people in our minds, real flesh and blood persons with names and histories.
My daughter Lilly was part of a Heritage Day program at her school, in which each child brought in some information and “stuff” pertaining to their heritage. Her heritage is German, English, Lithuanian and Russian, as far as we knew, so we chose Russian, and provided her with a Russian Doll, some Russian money a family picture or two from Russia (actually they were from my mothers family but very old and probably Russian).
So…one day, a few months ago, I was fooling around on my computer, something I have been paid to do for years, and I tried my Grandfathers name on Google, and began to read various dead ends for fun. I ran across a question of a web site devoted to Lithuanian Jews and Jewish settlements in Lithuania in the 19th century, which asked if anyone knew the whereabouts of my Grandfather and his family. They listed him by name and my grandmother and an Aunt or two. The question was dated 1993. I returned the email but the link was gone.
A few days later, I tried the woman’s name who asked the question on Google, and found her still actively involved in a Lithuanian search. I wrote to her and asked if she was still interested and she was. She had spoken with two of my cousins several years ago, but cut the conversation short as she was on her way to Salt Lake City for more research. I began to include many of my cousins and my sons in the email, and sent her an up to date history of my family, as far as I could, including numbers of kids but not always names. She began to correspond, and it seems that my grandfather was in fact from Lithuania, was on of six children, she had all the names and ages, I’d never heard of any of this. She gave us the ship info for when they arrived in New York. She gave us a new world!
My son said we began to see people in our minds, real flesh and blood persons with names and histories.
The sky had opened!
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