Roots
I think it's important to know where you come from. After getting all the family treasures that I scored from my Utonain grandparents and learning so much (just the tip of the iceberg actually), I decided to ask my dad about his side of the family... again... and I get a different story every time. He couldn't get past naming my great grandparents. Actually, he didn't even know the name of either of his grandmothers (both died young)! It's almost like my family was ashamed of where they came from and who they were (dirt poor, not very well educated, eastern European Jews). For some reason, the belief wasn't to preserve any kind of cultural identity, but to integrate with new cultures and go as unnoticed as possible (which was also done for protection against persecution). Sad. I wish I knew more. I pressed him pretty hard for as much information as possible and got a decent amount of names and counties of origin (Russia, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Clair, Frida, Morris, Jaccob, Eli). Good stuff. I'll have to press my uncle and cousins back east for more details. I can see why so many descendants of Jewish immigrants try to identify with one another, since I doubt my family's experience is unique (and also why being Jewish is often considered being part of a culture rather than a religion).
When I went to clean out my grandma's place a couple weekends ago (on my mom's side of the fam), I found all sorts of documents, pictures, books and and other great stuff carried over from generation to generation from Germany, Hungary and England. It was amazing.
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