Genealogy
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I have just read Mary Antin's autobiography, The Promised Land, first published in 1911. It is a book that I should have known much earlier in my life but only discovered a week or so ago. The larger part The Promised Land is the familiar story of immigrant life in a new country — the…
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This is a picture of my maternal grandparents, my mother's parents, Sonia and Joseph Green. I imagine that it was the work of a professional photographer. I guess that the image dates from when he was about thirty years old and she twenty-five — so 1910 or thereabouts. I have no idea why the photograph…
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Ukraine has been invaded and whole cities have been obliterated by the Putin dictatorship. It's tragic. Once again, I'm overwhelmingly grateful that my grandparents chose to pack up and leave the blighted Ukraine. It's a decision that has looked better and better with each passing year. My father's family came from a Ukrainian "shtetl" called…
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When I was a boy in the 1940s and '50s, I was — yearly or semi-yearly — hauled off to gatherings of the E & L Chafetz Family Circle. "Chafetz" was the maiden name of my maternal grandmother, Sonia Green. "E" and "L" were Sonia's parents, but the names that the initials abbreviated are gone…
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This entry is written at the specific instruction of my daughter, who says, "your grandchildren will want to know about your birth. It's their history too." The following paragraphs are for them and for their descendants. My older sister, Susan, died of pneumonia at the age of nine months on March 15, 1938. If she…
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My father had many admirable traits. He was absolutely honest — "honest to a fault" even. He had a fine sense of humor. He was compassionate and though he affected stoicism, he was deeply romantic and emotional — tears came easy to him. He was a self-effacing but diligent worker. He was a fine, graceful…
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My mother, your great-grandmother, Lillian Green, was born in New York City, probably in Harlem, on June 9, 1905. Her parents, Sonia Chafetz and Joseph Usilewski, were part of the great migration to America of Eastern European speakers of Yiddish. According to my mother, Sonia and Joseph were both engaged to other people when they…
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Dear Talia, Oliver, Ella, Lola, Luke, Caleb, and Asher: Here's a picture of your great grandmother, Anne Krull Goss (1912-2009) with her siblings. Anne is the pretty young blonde woman, second from the left. She's the oldest. The picture was taken during the World War II years, '42 or '43. On great grandma's right is…
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Hey there, internet pilgrims, searchers, wanderers who might be googling their own name or a relative's. All of the following people are cousins of each other, cousins of mine. If you find yourself here, identify yourself on the comments page, and I'll tell you how I think you are related. Hint: you're all descended from…