SHE'S OUR SECOND COUSIN, ONCE REMOVED

While sitting through the three-hour film Oppenheimer, we thought of the brilliant physicists in our family (See my blog post, Still Making Connections, dated May 25, 2021, at sharonmarkcohen.com). Aside from my husband’s brother Jeffrey, who was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1969-1971, my mother-in-law’s cousin, David Gurinsky, worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. [Defined on the internet: “The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during World War II.”]

A simple online search shows paragraphs from a 1987 memoir, written by Cousin David: “Page 1: Recollections of the Manhattan Project, by David H. Gurinsky. December 1987. My appointment as a research associate the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago was the result of a series of fortunate circumstances. In August of 1942, I defended my PhD thesis- ie took my orals and passed. My presentation of the results of my research on the iron tin system was so lengthy that the examiners were more anxious to leave at the end of that afternoon than to question me at length. I do recall stumbling through a question on the dielectric constant put to me by Professor Mouquin..."

”Page 47, Los Alamos: ‘At the house with the number 1663 we were told that box 1663 was to be our mailing address for our stay in Los Alamos; that our mail incoming and outgoing would be censored. We were asked to avoid revealing any information about the work we were involved in. Also I seem to recall that we were to keep our contact with the local populace to a minimum. Since there was little opportunity to meet with the Santa Fe residents except at the bar at the La Fonda Hotel which we did not frequent, we had little difficulty in heeding the advice. We learned that the locals referred to us as the Hill people and appeared to avoid us when we visited Santa Fe. Our only people contact in Santa Fe was with the sales people in the local stores and the Indian women who crouched against a shaded wall in the village square selling jewelry they made...’"

Family lore tells us that Cousin David walked around with a briefcase filled with uranium while his wife carried their firstborn son. The child was born in February 1945 in Los Alamos and eventually became a college professor. David’s firstborn son, the father of four, however, died prematurely at age 54, after enduring lifelong disabilities, which his family suggests may have been from his mother’s uranium exposure.

The knowledge of that information made the award-winning movie more fascinating for us. That’s why the morning after Oppenheimer was awarded the Oscar for Best Movie of 2023, I posted about the physicists in our family on Facebook. I wrote:

“Did you see Oppenheimer? We had such interest in the film. I purchased this book on eBay. David H. Gurinsky, a physicist at Brookhaven Labs was my mother-in-law's cousin-their mothers were sisters. David worked on the Manhattan Project. My husband's brother Jeffrey M. Cohen was also a renowned physicist who worked at the Institute for Advanced Study where we visited him in Princeton during our early dating years. Quite a family history. While in California last week, we had lunch with David's granddaughter Elissa, after first meeting her in June. I was able to fill her in on the complete family history, which I have been researching for 36 years. You may be interested in reading my May 25, 2021 Tuesday blog post, Still Making Memories at sharonmarkcohen.com.”

After posting that, the recurring response I received was, “You should write a book.” The reality is that I wrote the book, Kitchen Talk, and I’m actively trying to find the right publisher.

On June 17, 2023, we met Cousin David’s granddaughter Elissa with her husband and their young daughter in Los Angeles. Elissa’s great-grandmother and my husband Arnee’s maternal grandmother were siblings, making Elissa’s father and Arnee second cousins.

Elissa is a second cousin once removed, more easily explained as a child of a second cousin. Her glowing response to my explanation was that the relationship was much closer than she realized.

Pleasingly, she asked to videotape our discussion of the family tree. Learning that she was so interested in our ancestry impressed me. With her sincerely vested in the family history, upon our arrival home, I searched my family tree papers from her family branch where I found pertinent correspondence filed away long ago.

In my files were letters from Elissa’s grandaunt Rose, her grandfather David’s sister, including one dated February 21, 1993, five years before Rose died in 1998, but I didn’t have David’s picture. Now, thanks to Elissa, I have more than one picture of David.

Throughout the years, Elissa’s siblings, cousins, and other close relatives from her family branch and I have enjoyed sporadic communication. (See my blog post at sharonmarkcohen.com, David, I Can Give You Information About Your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather David, Who Was born About 1809, dated September 1, 2020).

There are letters and emails from cousins Cat and Saralee, enough to fill another post. Now that Saralee is sadly gone, I’m Facebook friends with her loving family. The connections are woven into our conversations.

In her letter dated February 2023, Rose Gard wrote: “My grandparents of my mother were Goldie and Zeidie. They had the following children: Shepsal David Nathan Itka Sheina Esther Sara 2 sons 2 sons 4 sons 3 sons 4 daughters 2 sons 4 daughters 1 daughter 1 daughter 2 daughters 3 daughters 2 daughters 1 son”

Rose was correct in most of her calculations, however, there were additional members of Goldie and Zeidie’s progeny not on Rose’s list. Notably, Sheina (Jennie), my husband’s maternal grandmother, had five daughters with my mother-in-law’s father after they married in America, and an older daughter from a prior relationship, who was born in Slonim, Belarus. Jennie and my husband’s grandfather also had a son who died at a year of age.

More family information copied here was sent to me by Rose. Some details in the correspondence about family members are covered for privacy issues.

1927 Plainfield High School, Plainfield, New Jersey yearbook photo

When asking for Family Tree Updates, I received this email from Cousin Rebekah

Other letters in the file cabinet were from Cousin Nini, whose mother, Eva, aka Eve, was the eldest sister of David. In a letter dated December 28, 2003, Nini corroborated what was written in the letters from David’s sister, Nini’s Aunt Rose, divulging David’s brilliance and his involvement in the Manhattan Project.

Nini further spoke of cousins marrying cousins, as did her parents. Admittedly, it gets very confusing and difficult for outsiders to follow.

Nini’s mother Eve Gurinsky, daughter of Sarah, married her first cousin David Sweet, son of her mother’s sister Itka, (not to be confused with his cousin, Eve's brother David Gurinsky). They all were first cousins of my mother-in-law.

Also, Nini’s Aunt Rose Gurinsky (her mother’s sister) and Uncle Morris Gard were first cousins on their paternal side, where his family name was changed from Gurinsky to Gard. (Any family members reading this may want to chart that out or wait for my completed family tree).

Marriage records of my mother-in-law’s aunt, Sarah, mother of physicist David H. Gurinsky

Signature page of 1904 marriage records of my mother-in-law’s aunt, Sarah Blum, mother of physicist David H. Gurinsky

December 28, 2003 letter from Cousin Nini

Note from Nini with corrections to her father’s ancestry on the family tree

One of my crowning moments was hearing from Shep Bloom, grandson of Shepsal, that after I gave him Nini’s contact information, he reacquainted himself with his cousin, whom he knew from their school days sitting in class together in Brooklyn.

Excitedly, I gathered the letters to bring to California to share with Elissa when we met her for the second time on March 1, 2024, in Tarzana. I could hardly wait. Showing Elissa the proof that her grandfather was well-respected in the family made my efforts throughout the years 100% worthwhile.

In our first meeting, I developed a strong bond with Elissa. Meeting a second time has sealed that bond. She even shared her grandmother’s recipe for Beef Stroganoff, crediting cousin Cat for obtaining and distributing the handprinted ingredients and instructions.

Elissa offered to work on creating a movie with the family tree stories. I’m in!

Flossie Gurinsky’s Beef Stroganoff Recipe

On March 25, 2024, I received a thrilling email from Cat. She wrote: “Hi Sharon! I found my grandfather's memoirs about the Manhattan Project when I was visiting my dad during Christmas break. I used OCR to scan the whole thing in and then copied all the text over to this google document. If you'd like to read it and let me know if you see any transfer issues etc, I plan to eventually try and get it available on Kindle at some point later :) Given all the family tree history you're doing thought you'd like to read this!”

The 45-page memoir by Cat’s paternal grandfather David was enthralling. I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to read his words. It completed the background information of the two-paragraph excerpts from Cousin David's memoir found on the internet that I posted above.

Seeing that David met with Oppenheimer at Los Alamos and gave speeches with Oppenheimer in the audience caused me to gasp. His honesty was comforting, yet his fear was palpable, when he admitted, “I presented a classified seminar in the evening to the scientific staff. I literally trembled when I stood up in front of that assemblage of brainpower.” I responded to Cat, “What a legacy!”

It’s been a banner year’s worth of learning about cousins on several sides of our family, as close as second cousins and their descendants and discussing our ancestry. Meeting several of our extended family members with plans to get together with others gives my years of research tremendous meaning.

We agree it’s strange that that said, we have spoken with, but have yet to meet some of my first cousins who, born and bred in Louisiana, have never been to New Jersey. Maybe someday.