INCREDULOUS!
When I started my genealogy research in 1988, the hopes of ever going back farther in our family’s roots beyond great-grandparents born in the 1800s was unthinkable. This summer, however, I went back to the mid-1700s in two branches of my children’s ancestry, one on my husband’s side and one on mine. With this information, I feel so much more complete.
When you go back in your ancestry, you know from whence you came. On my husband’s maternal grandfather’s side, I recently secured the documents three generations back, which show the records of his great-great-grandfather. (See Never Say Never, dated July 20, 2021).
The key to discovering the names of my husband’s great-great-grandparents came years earlier when I requested his great-grandfather’s death records in America. Listed were the parents of my husband’s great-grandfather. With all those names jumping off the pages, I had proof we were in the correct family tree.
On my paternal side, I found that my grandmother Sarah Jennie Temnogorod has the Hebrew name for her paternal grandmother Sura Sheyndlya. And, my name Sharon, is for my grandma Sarah, which means that I’m also carrying the given first name of my great-great-grandmother.
My grandma Sarah’s cousin Jennie, whom we refer to by her middle name as Sheindl, had the same two given names as my grandmother. Those were the names, in Hebrew, of their mutual grandmother, Sura Sheyndlya. That is all so fascinating. I have Igor Lekhtman, a fellow researcher and landsman, to thank for these records.
Igor, originally from Ukraine, who now lives in New Jersey, got in touch with me when I posted on a genealogy Facebook group seeking my paternal ancestry from Chudnov, Ukraine. He recently found that he had ancestors from Chudnov. I suggested he join the Chudnov Children Facebook group started by my friend and fellow landsman Marvin Kaleky.
Soon after joining the group, Igor posted that the 1850 census from Chudnov was available. Immediately, I responded that my family would be on it. He checked and found the names Kaya and Reshko. Those were the married names of two of my grandfather’s sisters. Then, after asking him to recheck my grandmother’s maiden name, Temnogorod, he excitingly found names of my ancestors three generations farther back than I had recorded.
Plus, the newly digitized records allowed me to add details to the minimal records on file for my great-grandfather. More blanks are filled in, such as his year of birth in 1850. He was an infant when the revision list was composed on October 22, 1850. Included were also the names of his parents, grandparents, and great-grandfather, plus his two sisters. One of his sisters was my other great-grandmother, the mother of my paternal grandfather.
It gets confusing, but before marriage, my paternal grandparents were first cousins. My grandmother’s father, my great-grandfather, had a sister who was my grandfather’s mother, my great-grandmother.
To explain, my great-grandmother was my grandmother’s aunt before marriage. After marriage, she became her mother-in-law. Likewise, my grandfather’s uncle, my great-grandfather, became his father-in-law. Here, I can’t help but sing a round of “I’m My Own Grandpa.”
One person who understands this all is my cousin Alexey Portnoy. (See my August 10, 2021, blog post: Uncovering the Hidden History of Chudnov). He so kindly wrote in response to me sending the information from Igor to him, “Through your activity and great ability to make connections and to communicate you [were] able to find the records from the other country, other historical times and the other language. Respect!!!”
While we’ve never met in person and live an ocean apart, my love for Alexey knows no bounds. Now living in Germany, he grew up in Ukraine and translated all the letters during my years of correspondence with his grandmother. We are very closely related because many cousins in the family married other cousins, as was common in the Pale of Settlement.
Alexey’s paternal grandparents were each first cousins of my grandparents. When we volley notes on WhatsApp and work together to tackle the minutest details of our mutual ancestry, the vibes make me feel connected to my ancestors, especially my grandparents, whom I was never blessed to know.
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Shortly after our first child was born, I started my genealogy research. My intent was for our children to know everything I could offer them about their ancestry and place in the world. Their reactions to my latest findings made me feel it was all worthwhile. When our youngest, Moss, responded to this latest breakthrough, “incredible,” I countered with the first thought that came to my mind, thus the title of this blog post, “Incredulous!”
Birth records of Sarah Sheindl Temnogorod showing her father as Alter Temnogorod - he was also known as Yehuda Hersh Temnogorod - such details mattered in matching records