Blog/March 2024/Mar 8th

March 8th

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Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K!

The three-decade search for my paternal great-grandfather is (most likely) at an end! Jeremy spoke with my cousin this week, who mentioned in passing that her grandfather (who we thought might be my ggf) said that the family name had been something like “Swartzenborg” rather than “Swartz”. After some poking around he uncovered a “Feivel Shvarztburd” who matched in terms of birth-date, residence, and parent’s names, to the long-sought “missing brother” of the Swartz clan.

To clarify: we know for certain that one of these “Swartz brothers” is my ggf, but the ones we had details on were either too young or weren’t in the country at the same time as my great-grandmother. The aforementioned cousin’s grandfather was our best bet, but the DNA evidence was lacking.

So upon further poking around, Jeremy uncovered proof that indeed, “Shvartzburd” was the original name of the clan, and he also had the town. From there it was a matter of lots more detectivising to find birth records, death records, etc. and so on. Feivel is almost certainly my ggf, and there are a whole lot of Shvartzburds to sift through for close-ish relatives.

Talk about serendipity!

Various and sundry:

• Michael Malice interviews Abigail Shrier.
• On antisemitism at Columbia U.
• The “Day After”: can local Gazan clans fill the void left by Hamas? The same author in a thread on the question “how did we not get a list?”
• And scientists warn of AI “collapse”.

I made another release of “8th”, because next week we’re off to Argentina to visit familia and I won’t be able to make releases while there (nor will I want to spend my time doing that). Esther’s been wrapping up things as well, so we can have a nice visit. I’m looking forward to reading my mother-in-law’s autobiography!

However, I am fighting a cold, and Esther’s coming down with it as well. So it’s going to be an unpleasant flight if we don’t get over the congestion before then.

Anyway: the weather’s been lovely, and it looks to be nice for shabbat as well. We’ll miss the heat-wave next week, though it will be nice and warm in BsAs. Can’t escape one’s destiny!

We’re invited out for one meal; for the rest our shabbat includes:
homemade pita, chicken and rice, various salatim, and fruit.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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