It Came From Eastern Europe
Apr. 7th, 2012 11:51 amThis will be brief, as X-chan is here and in any case I don't want to spend Easter weekend on the Int0rbuttz, but we were talking about my father's people. X-chan has been doing the genealogy on that side, which so far has eluded me, and I asked if she'd been able to find out anything about Great-Grandpa's parents, which is where the line ends.
Turns out, it was quite a lot. They came through New York (just as I suspected), where my great-grandfather himself was born (not in Philadelphia, as I'd always believed); X-chan was able to get census records for the 1920s and 1930s, and it turns out that quite a lot is different to what I previously thought I knew. Great-Grandpa had a sister named Violet (whom I didn't know about) who worked as a newspaper clerk for one of the Philly rags along with Louise F*******, Great-Grandma's sister, which seems to have been how my great-grandparents met. Great-Grandpa himself worked for the WPA as a timekeeper from about 1937-1940 when Grandpa was a kid.
And then there was this capper:
X-chan: Great-Grandpa's parents came through New York. His father was Russian and his mother was Hungarian. I think they married in the United States, since Great-Grandpa's father was married once before. Either it didn't take or he was a widower.
l33: I always heard it was the father who was Hungarian and the mother was a Romanian.
X-chan: Nope, Russian. Says so on the census. They might have misheard him, I guess, but...[shrugs]
l33: Huh. We are Russian. How 'bout that.
Furthering the Russian connection, Great-Grandma had another sister, Stephanie, whose husband Julian fought for the Tsarist army during the Great War, although he was an American citizen. (You could do that in those days. Why is the world so small now.) After the Revolution, he joined up with the White Russian army (the loyalist forces who battled the Red Army and ultimately lost). Then he came home and was a lawyer for 45 years, which seems rather pale next to the epic struggle of good and evil. I thought this was interesting even if I am a little embarrassed that anyone in my family fought Communism.
Bonus points if we subsequently find out that someone in my family lived in Ukraine in the 1890s and knew the family Bronshtein (and their rabble-rousing kid). I'd be surprised - the H*****es prefer colder climes - but one can fantasize.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Turns out, it was quite a lot. They came through New York (just as I suspected), where my great-grandfather himself was born (not in Philadelphia, as I'd always believed); X-chan was able to get census records for the 1920s and 1930s, and it turns out that quite a lot is different to what I previously thought I knew. Great-Grandpa had a sister named Violet (whom I didn't know about) who worked as a newspaper clerk for one of the Philly rags along with Louise F*******, Great-Grandma's sister, which seems to have been how my great-grandparents met. Great-Grandpa himself worked for the WPA as a timekeeper from about 1937-1940 when Grandpa was a kid.
And then there was this capper:
X-chan: Great-Grandpa's parents came through New York. His father was Russian and his mother was Hungarian. I think they married in the United States, since Great-Grandpa's father was married once before. Either it didn't take or he was a widower.
l33: I always heard it was the father who was Hungarian and the mother was a Romanian.
X-chan: Nope, Russian. Says so on the census. They might have misheard him, I guess, but...[shrugs]
l33: Huh. We are Russian. How 'bout that.
Furthering the Russian connection, Great-Grandma had another sister, Stephanie, whose husband Julian fought for the Tsarist army during the Great War, although he was an American citizen. (You could do that in those days. Why is the world so small now.) After the Revolution, he joined up with the White Russian army (the loyalist forces who battled the Red Army and ultimately lost). Then he came home and was a lawyer for 45 years, which seems rather pale next to the epic struggle of good and evil. I thought this was interesting even if I am a little embarrassed that anyone in my family fought Communism.
Bonus points if we subsequently find out that someone in my family lived in Ukraine in the 1890s and knew the family Bronshtein (and their rabble-rousing kid). I'd be surprised - the H*****es prefer colder climes - but one can fantasize.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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