The story, as I remember it, was that Mom bought "the ancestors" at an antique store on 2nd Avenue, for $25. They hung above the fireplace in the house in Bayside for many years. They seem like nice people and we all became very fond of them. When the Bayside house was sold they moved to Mom's apartment in Florida, and now preside at Chet and Debbie's house, back in Manhattan. We don't know much about their provenance, and nothing about the people, though Mom thought the portraits came from Vienna.
Our actual ancestors were a little less posh (or perhaps they just never had their portraits painted).
These are my grandparents on my father's side, Chaim Hirsch Hochbaum and Feigel Laufer Hochbaum. I was named for my grandmother. Charlie, Chet, and Charles Hochbaum I believe were all named for my grandfather. (Chuck, on the other hand, was named after my mother's father, Hyman Brauner.)
They were born in 1876 and 1880, respectively, in Chrzanow and, according to my father, both died in Chrzanow in 1928.
We don't know a lot about these grandparents. Everything I do know came from Gina. I have an undated, somewhat illegible set of handwritten notes that I took after questioning Gina about her history one day. Between Gina's recollections and my handwriting, these should all be taken with a large grain of salt, but I'll get them into this blog one of these days.
And below are my mother's grandparents: Zanvel or Samvel Schorr and his (second) wife, Miriam Leah Hochbaum. He lived from 1848-1914. She lived from 1868-1916. She married him after his first wife died, leaving two daughters, the younger about 3 months old. My guess is that Aunt Margie (Margaret Lydia), who was born the year after Miriam Leah died, was named for her.
My parents were, much to Lexi's continuing dismay, first cousins once removed, by a step-sister/step-brother relationship. Here is the connection: Miriam Leah Hochbaum, Mom's grandmother, and Chaim Hirsch Hochbaum, Daddy's father, had the same father, Moshe Lieb Hochbaum, but different mothers. Yes, you do need a family tree to sort this all out.
And just to finish off this post, my mother's cousin Sally Crown sent her this photocopy of Zanvel's passport.
So two things. I just calculated this with Noah. It would be like if my grandmother (let's say Ruth, here) and Noah's father, Steve shared a father but had different mothers. Still, pretty damn gross.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do we know what happened to Zanvel's two little girls? I could see that being an interesting story.
Lexi
Oh sorry, Noah doesn't think my calculation is accurate. It is. Goodnight and thank you Aunt Franny!
ReplyDeleteLecky --
ReplyDeleteInteresting question on the two little girls. I assumed that one of the reasons Zanvel got married so quickly is that he needed someone to take care of them, but they do seem to have followed different paths in life from the children who came after, who all managed to make it to America. I'll do some research and see what I can find out....
And, on your other comment, I don't see why your calculation is wrong. Noah?
I'm impressed that you are all trying to figure this out. In around 1970 I decided that I could either study topological dynamics or the Hochbaum family tree. I didn't have time for both and the topology seemed easier.
ReplyDelete