The Professions of David Orel Kruvand (1805-?)

Below are some index records I found on Ancestry pertaining to my third great grandfather, David Orel Kruvand. I do not believe the original records are accessible anywhere online, yet. 

The first record is from 1840, and the second 1852. In those 12 years he went from being a Miller to being a Butcher. What caused this change of occupation? What happened to the mill? Nothing certain, but one can certainly imagine several hypotheses.  In the first record - a census - he was 35 years old, and the second 47. It seems rather late in life, in that era, for a career change. But it is possible the mill belonged to his father, and he was not successful in keeping it up.  Or one of a multitude of other possibilities.

I recently found both records in a search, but it is interesting to speculate what I, or another genealogist, might conclude if only one record had turned up. If one only knew about his job as a Miller, one might conclude the family was, if not wealthy, successful. The physical requirements of a mill probably limited the number of millers in a town, and limited competition. This is not necessarily the case for butchers. So his success as a butcher might have depended upon the amount of competition he had as well as his skills. 

Butcher is a slightly humorous occupation for him to have gone into. Why? I learned a few years ago that the Lithuanian word, "Kruvinas," means 'bloody," and the town Kruvandai was named after a particularly bloody war. Kruvandai is near Cekiske, and everyone in town would have known from where the family got their surname. But there would likely have been a slight chuckle among residents that someone with that surname was a butcher. Under Kosher dietary laws blood has to be drained from meat, so "Kruvand meat" might have had negative connotations, even if everyone understood the origin of the surname.

I don't know yet when David Orel Kruvand passed away. The next generation started immigrating to America in the 1870s and 1880s.

Do I Have Cousins in Burlington, Vermont?

 In the 1880s a group of immigrants to Burlington, Vermont founded Chai Adam Synagogue. These immigrants came from Čekiškė, Lithuania - the same shtetl my Cruvant ancestors came from. Do I have kin in Burlington?

Chai Adam founders included: 

• Morris Levin
• Abraham Mowsowitz
• Max Samuelson
• Joseph Trotchky
• Hyman D. Segel
• M.L. Levin
• Abram Kaplan
• Isaac Levin
• Sam Trotchky
• Lewis Greenstein

Surname Kaplan

• Hannah Kaplan married a second great granduncle, Girsha Abram Kruvond.  
• Hannah's brother, Louis, went by Louis Cohen, and he married a first cousin three times removed, Sarah Cruvand.
• Julius Kaplan married second cousin twice removed, Fannie Cruvand. (I only know he came from Lithuania. I believe they married in the U.S. His father's name was Max.)

While Hannah and Louis definitely came from Čekiškė, Cohen/Kaplan is an extremely common Jewish surname. Further research was required to see if Chai Adam founder Abram Kaplan is related. (More closely related than being a descendant of Aaron, brother of Moses.) 

I found who I believe is the same Abram Kaplan on Geni. While from nearby Josvainiai, Lithuania, his wife is from Čekiškė, so it could be the same individual. I asked Geni to find the shortest connection between us, and I was told it was through his wife. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection through him that Geni doesn’t know about yet.

Surname: Greenstein

• Abraham Greenstein married first cousin three times removed, Rebekka Kroovand. (They were married in New York, and I am not sure where he immigrated from.) If I can confirm he came from the vicinity of Čekiškė, I'll research further to see if he is related to Lewis Greenstein.

Surname: Trotchky

• No known relatives. Just a small note that Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, was born in Bereslavka, Ukraine about 1200 km (745 miles) from Čekiškė. His surname at birth was Bronstein. He changed his surname to Trotsky after the surname of a Siberian prison warden.

The linked website at the beginning of this post has some great pictures from inside the Čekiškė synagogue I posted about a few years ago.

Note: Senator Sanders was born in Brooklyn, NY and later moved to Burlington. He is not a descendant of the Burlington Chai Adam founders. Alas.

Poem: Cause of Death

Below is the poem which won 3rd place in the Poetry & Song category of the 2017 ISFHWE Excellence-in-Writing Competition. Last year, I finished 2nd with The Genetic and Synthetic.

Cause of Death

A dozen distant cousins
in Prienai, Lithuania
died on the same day
all with the same cause of death.

If my cousin who researched the family
had written down ‘Auschwitz,’
“Treblinka,’ or ‘Bergen Belsen,’
I think I would have nodded
and kept on reading.

It’s what I expect happened
to most of my relatives
who didn’t get out of Europe
before the war.

I wasn’t ready for
"townspeople with axes" -
Neither were my cousins.

"Townspeople with axes"
could be the name
of a b-grade horror movie
with vampires and zombies.

"Townspeople with axes"
should not appear
in my genealogy database.

On the towns of Krūvandai and Čekiškė, as well as the Lithuanian Language

It is almost a certainty that the surnames Cruvant/Kruvant/Kruvand/Kruvant come from the Lithuanian town of Krūvandai. We have traced ancestors back to the nearby (5.5 km) town of Čekiškė. One cousin told me that his family lore said the Lithuanian town got its name from the family. Regardless of whether the chicken or egg came first, there is still the unanswered question: What does it mean?

I decided to ask on a Lithuanian Genealogy Facebook group.

I've learned Krūvandai was founded in the 1600s, and named after a particularly bloody battle in the Polish-Swedish wars (1600-1629). 'Kraujas' means 'blood.' 'Kruvinas' means 'bloody.' This information pretty much sets to rest any question of which came first. Jewish family surnames were uncommon in 17th century Eastern Europe. They weren't required by law until the late 18th, early 19th century, depending upon the area.

My query on FB did result in an enthusiastic contact fluent in both Lithuanian and English, with current relatives in Krūvandai. In addition to providing me with the information above, he translated from a recent book a chapter on the history of the Jewish community in Čekiškė. A handful of 20th-century cousins of mine were named in the chapter. Sept 4, 1941 marked the violent end of the Jewish community.

I also learned that in the Lithuanian language, surnames are gendered. That is, a male cousin might be referred to in documents with the surname 'Kruvandas,' a female cousin either as 'Kruvandaite' or 'Kruvandiene' depending on whether unmarried or married, respectively.

The images are of a synagogue in Čekiškė that still stands. An older synagogue was destroyed in an 1887 fire, and rebuilt. My second great grandfather and his family left in approximately 1886-1887. While they would never have seen the current synagogue, the cousins who remained would have worshipped there for fifty years.

Amanuensis Monday: Čekiškė Conflagration - 1887

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

---

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: A-J, Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder, NYU Press, 2001, page 236.

CEKISKE (Yid. Tzeikishok) Kaunas dist., Lithuania. Jews first settled at the end of the 18th cent. a conflagration in 1887 left most Jews homeless. The J. pop. in 1897 came to 432 (65% of the total). In 1915, the retreating Russian army, together with local farmers, staged a pogrom against the Jews before expelling them to Russia. After WWI only some returned. The Zionist movement won widespread support. In 1940, there were about 60 J. families in C. After the German conquest of 1941, the Jews were killed on 4. Sept. 1941, according to a Nazi document, which reported the deaths of 22 men, 64 women, and 60 children.

Another source has more information:

In 1887, a fire broke out in Cekiske that burned all of its houses, including the two prayer houses and their valuable books. A young woman was burned to death. Only 3 houses remained intact. About 160 families remained without shelter and without any means. Among them was the Rabbi of the town, Rabbi Avraham Levental, who was a wealthy man and who lost his entire property in the fire. Jews from the nearby towns of Vilkija, Seredzius, Raseiniai, Girkalnis and other towns were the first to bring wagons loaded with bread and foodstuffs to the stricken families, who were living under the open sky. A call for aid in their names was advertised in the “HaMelitz” on July 1887. It was signed by Eliyahu Gorland.

---

Notes:

When did my Cruvant ancestors immigrate from Čekiškė, Lithuania to America?

My second great grandfather's 1911 death certificate stated he had been in the US for 35 years, implying an immigration year of 1876. However, two sons appear in Lithuanian birth records for 1883 and 1885. I've theorized the death certificate was 10 years off, and 1886 is a more likely year.

It was said that my great grandmother, Bertha, was born in Missouri on the Jewish New Year in 1886 or 1887. In 1887 that would have been September 19. But no birth records have been found in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, or St. Clair County, Illinois. (Not exactly definitive since birth records weren't required in Missouri until 1910.) While she doesn't appear in Lithuanian birth records, either, could she have been born en route? If the fire occurred before July (when the call for aid was advertised), they may have been able to get to the US prior to September 19.

There were family stories told by some branches that they were escaping a pogrom. A home destroyed by a fire isn't exactly a home destroyed by a pogrom, but it's not difficult to envision the story being embellished upon. (And the neither description gives an indication of the cause of the fire.)

The earliest documentation of my ancestors being in St. Louis is a naturalization record from 1889.

There were cousins among the 22 men, 64 women, and 60 children who were killed on September 4, 1941.

Further Coincidence?

Last January I blogged about a mathematical coincidence. For three Jewish kin, there are records claiming alternate birth dates approximately 20 days apart. Adjusting for the 12 days conversion between Julian and Gregorian calendars, this leaves approximately 8 days - which could be explained if one of the dates is actually the date of their Brit Milah. (Covenant of Circumcision).

I didn't mention it last week in the Amanuensis Monday notes, but Max Kruvand's Petition for Naturalization states he was born on August 22, 1897, and his record of birth in Lithuanian records states August 3. So it's now four kin. (Three from Lithuania, one from Poland.)

I am unaware of a religious tradition of observing the anniversary of a brit milah (Outside of Christian tradition - of course, the Feast of the Circumcision could have Jewish roots.) I know that celebrating birthdays was not considered appropriate in traditional European Jewish households. There was the superstition that it was tempting the 'evil eye'. Celebrating any anniversary connected to birth would likely be seen similarly. However, it is conceivable that the date of birth wasn't recorded in some family records, but the Brit Milah would have been, due to its religious significance.

Which calendar?

In order to properly record a date from a document, you might need to know some geographical history.

My paternal immigrant ancestors came from four different towns in the late 19th century.

• The Cruvants came from Cekiske, Lithuania (near Kruvandai)
• The Dudelczaks likely came from either Alexandria or Zhitomir, Volhynia
• The Newmarks came from Warka, Poland (near Warsaw)
• The Blatts came from Losice, Poland

What do all these communities have in common?

All were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, however, by the late 19th century, at the time my ancestors left, they were all part of the Russian Empire.

This is a crucial piece of knowledge for a genealogist. Why?

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an early 16th century adopter of the Gregorian Calendar, however, the Russian Empire didn't switch to the Gregorian Calendar until 1918. So when the territory was under Russian control, the Julian calendar was used for official record keeping, and likely for everyday use.

This means the civil calendar (non-religious calendar) all of my paternal immigrant ancestors were used to, prior to immigration, was likely the Julian Calendar. So, after arriving in America, when my great grandparents wrote down on a document what their date of birth was - were they using a Julian or Gregorian date?

Your guess is as good as mine. It's possible that they made the 12-day adjustment when they immigrated to America. Or perhaps they didn't. I have to record both possible dates of birth.

My maternal ancestors immigrated from Transylvania, Germany, Holland, and England. The first three areas adopted the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century, and Great Britain and her colonies adopted it in 1752. I have several maternal ancestors who immigrated to America prior to 1752, and when I see dates for them, if the source doesn't specify, I can't be sure if they're Julian or Gregorian.

Steve Morse's website, popular among genealogists, has a Julian-Gregorian converter, and provides years each nation changed. However, one has to be careful with his table of years. For example, he says Poland went to the Gregorian Calendar in the 16th century, which is accurate. However, once it became Congress Poland in 1815, it was under Russian control. Documents would often have Julian or both Julian and Gregorian dates (source). He says Lithuania changed to Gregorian in 1918, which is also true, but between 1586 and 1800, it was Gregorian as well. I'm unsure if the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is the only example of territory which switched back and forth.

Poetry: Julian Ursin Niemcewicz - America and General Washington

My third and final entry for the Great American Local Poem Genealogy Challenge

The challenge is to:

Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region one of your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river) or a local animal. [follow link for complete rules]

To recap:

• I have found a poem by a Hungarian from Kolosvar, nearby where my maternal grandfather was born, describing a local forest.
• I have also found a poem which references St. Louis, by a St. Louisan who became an expatriate to England.

Half of my maternal ancestry is Hungarian. My goal was to find a final poem for this challenge to represent my Polish ancestors - 75% of my paternal ancestry. But I found a Polish poet who was born in Lithuania, capturing the remaining 25%. Furthermore, he spent some time in Germany, where a few of my maternal ancestors originated. And he spent some time in America as well.

JULIAN URSIN NIEMCEWICZ (1758-1841), Polish scholar, poet and statesman, was born in 1757 in Lithuania. In the earlier part of his life he acted as adjutant to Kosciusko, was taken prisoner with him at the fatal battle of Maciejowice (1794), and shared his captivity at St Petersburg. On his release he travelled for some time in America, where he married. After the Congress of Vienna he was secretary of state and president of the constitutional committee in Poland, but in 1830—1831 he was again driven into exile. He died in Paris on the 21st of April 1841. [Source: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition]

Niemcewicz, scion of a moderately well-to-do Polish noble family, graduated from the Warsaw Corps of Cadets.

He subsequently served as aide to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and visited France, England and Italy.

During the Great Sejm of 1788–92, Niemcewicz was a deputy and an active member of the Patriotic Party that pushed through the historic Constitution of May 3, 1791. He subsequently was a founder of the Zgromadzenie Przyjaciół Konstytucji Rządowej (Assembly of Friends of the Government Constitution), formed to help support and implement that progressive document.

After the victory of the Targowica Confederation in 1792 and the consequent overthrow of the May 3 Constitution, Niemcewicz, along with other Patriotic Party members, emigrated to Germany. [Wikipedia entry]

And here's the poem. (Despite the title, it's as much about Poland and the events that led to Niemcewicz's exile. His life reminds me of the poet, Victor Hugo, for whom I created a website back in 2000.)

AMERICA AND GENERAL WASHINGTON

With my wounded commander* compelled to depart
From thee, oppressed Poland, the pride of my heart;
An asylum I sought o'er the dark rolling sea,
In the land of the noble, the brave and the free;
But e'en there the sad thought of my country would rise,
And the tears of deep anguish would roll from my eyes.

In boundless savannas, where man never strayed,
Amid woods that ne'er echoed the axe's keen blade:
In the foaming abyss, where the clouds of bright steam
Round the falls of the roaring Niagara gleam;
And on the deep sea, when the white sails are spread,
Lo! the shade of my country, all gory and dead.

Full of bliss to my heart is the thought of that day
When to Washington's mansion I wended my way;
To visit the warrior, the hero and sage,
Whose name is the day-star to each coming age;
By his valor the new world rose happy and free,
And her glory his endless memento shall be.

His features are still on my memory defined,
With the fadeless and delicate colors of mind.
Full, noble, majestic, with a crown of swan-hair.
And a brow deeply writ with the finger of care:
Old Roman simplicity marked his fine face,
Expressive of dignity, grandeur and grace.

How oft on his accents with rapture I hung,
While wisdom and kindness distill'd from his tongue;
And whene'er the sad tale of our fall I'd relate —
How brilliant our struggle, yet awful our fate —
A sweet tear-drop of sympathy stole down his cheek —
Better pledge of affection than language could speak.

Precious tear! a rich proof of his sorrow for thee,
Loved home of my fathers! once peaceful and free.
And oh, could I that gem which so peerlessly grows,
In some costly and beautiful crystal enclose,
So priceless a treasure a witness I'd keep,
That o'er Poland's sad ruin a great man could weep.

* General Kosciuszko

Source for poem: Poets and Poetry of Poland: a Collection of Polish Verse, 1881, p. 165. [It's not clear if the translation was done by the editor of the collection, Paul Soboleski, or someone else.]

Note: Further research on this author indicates he wrote some rather polemical works including "The Year 3333" and "Levi and Sara, or, the Jewish lovers" - which lead me to compare him to my distant cousin, Chief Magistrate William Stoughton, who presided over the Salem Witch Trials. While he represents a region where some ancestors originated, he doesn't represent those ancestors. (Except in foreshadowing what would happen a century after his death.) But while I am less fond of the man, I can attempt to separate the poem from its author. The patriotic imagery in the poem above is still very moving.

Tombstone Tuesday - Minnie (Mojsabovski) Cruvant

Transcription: Here is interred Michaliah  Machla Kruvant, daughter of the righteous Zadok Mandel. Died on the 8th of Adar I, 5684. May her soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

Here is one of the few photographs I have of my second great-grandmother, Minnie (Mojsabovski) Cruvant, wife of Moshe Leyb.

They immigrated to America from Lithuania circa 1875-1885.

May I ask you for a date?

Looking over the notes a cousin had made in her research on a 19th century date of death, I saw a Hebrew date (Adar 18) and civil date (Feb 18). It is very unusual that the calendars are in sync like that.

So I went to a calendar converter and discovered that Adar 18 that year was March 1. February 18 was Adar 6. Either way, one of the two dates recorded was off by 12 days.

My cousin doesn't usually make mistakes like this, and she was quoting the Lithuanian Archives as her source. I looked at the archival database on JewishGen, and the records matched. So maybe someone else made the mistake in the transcription, and my cousin hadn't checked the dates like I had.

Further research indicated I was the one in error -- as I was using the wrong calendar converter.

The Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, was decreed in 1582 by the Catholic Church, and since then has become so widely used by Catholic and non-Catholic countries alike, many people probably think it is universal. Or at least, while one might be aware of other calendars like the Hebrew, Islamic, or Mayan calendars -- if one sees a date that looks Gregorian, we assume it is Gregorian. This can be a mistake.

The civil calendar in use in Lithuania has changed over time. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an early adopter of the Gregorian Calendar in 1586. However, in 1800, when Lithuania was annexed by Russia, there was a return to the Julian calendar. The Russian revolution of 1917 reinstated the Gregorian Calendar. [Source (linked above): Wikipedia entry on Lithuanian Calendar]

A side effect of this history is that dates on Lithuanian documents, such as vital records, between 1800 and 1917 are likely on the Julian calendar.

Once you know what calendar you're dealing with, converting from Julian to Gregorian is easy. Depending upon what century the date occurs in, you add a specific number of days.

16th and 17th centuries - 10 days
18th century - 11 days
19th century - 12 days
20th and 21st century - 13 days

For those who like mathematical formulas:
For the Nth century, add [[3*N/4]] - 2 days (where [[ X ]] truncates the integer.)

The question I don't have the answer to is how to record it in my database. I lean towards using the Gregorian date, since other dates in the database are Gregorian; Indicating in the notes that the Julian date is what appeared on the document. I am already converting Hebrew dates I find on tombstones to the Gregorian date for my records, and this is really no different.

Database Size and Lifespan Revisited

On the first of this month I mentioned that my primary database had 1458 individuals in it. I also said I probably had enough unentered data to make that 2000.

Most of this unentered data came from a 694 individual register a cousin gave me from over 20 years of research on my paternal Cruvant branch of the tree. (One of the downsides of the Register numbering system is that it doesn't give numbers to spouses, so there are actually even more individuals in this document.)

Over the past two weeks I have entered all the data for descendants of my third great grandfather David Aron Kruvond. He did have two siblings whose descendants I haven't entered, but the information on those lines is sparse anyway. The size of the database is now 1951. So it was a pretty good estimate.

Of course, my cousin didn't type the Register by hand. She has her own database. I could have had her send me her GEDCOM, which I could have uploaded, and I would have had all her information in my database in a minute. But entering the vital statistics by hand helped me catch typographical errors I wouldn't have caught if I just imported all the data instantaneously. [I'm now going to ask her for the file, so I can have a separate database containing her extensive notes I didn't copy.]

For reasons that will become clear, I then began to wonder...

With the growth of my database in the past year, from 700 to almost 2000 individuals...are there any differences in the Lifespan Statistics I calculated a year ago.

(Numbers in parentheses below indicate value last year)

In my overall database, with now 1030 males and 921 females

Average Male Lifespan 60 (61)
Average Female Lifespan 62 (62)

This is nearly identical to what it was a year ago. It's interesting that there has been very little change here.

In my Cruvant branch, with 368 males and 367 females (an increase of 509 individuals from a year ago)

Average Male Lifespan 58 (68)
Average Female Lifespan 62 (70)

This is a significant drop, but not unexpected from what I have entered over the past two weeks. A large amount of this drop can be attributed to a high mortality in Lithuania between 1941-1943. I'm quite impressed we have all this information, but it is depressing to read repeatedly for cause of death 'townspeople with axes.' Part of me thinks I could have handled seeing the names of any of the death camps more easily than that repeated phrase.

Shachna Itzik Birger - 1881-1928

A famous non-relative buried in St. Louis

Shachna Itzik Birger (aka Charlie Birger) was born on February 5, 1881 in Lithuania. His family arrived in Glen Carbon, IL (near East St. Louis) when he was about 8 years old. After a stint in the army from 1901-1904, he returned to Illinois and became a miner and a saloon keeper. When Prohibition happened, he became a bootlegger in Southern Illinois.

As a bootlegger, one of his largest rivals was the local branch of the KKK, which actively supported prohibition, viewing alcohol as an evil allegedly introduced to the US by immigrants. Birger’s gang, and a rival gang, The Shelton Brothers, managed to run the KKK out of town. After this success, though, the two gangs fought over who would control the bootlegging in the area.

In June of 1927, Birger was arrested for ordering the murder of a small town mayor named Joe Adams, in connection with his feud with The Shelton Brothers. April 19, 1928, Birger was the last man to be executed by a public hanging in the state of Illinois. Birger asked to be accompanied to the gallows by a Rabbi, and he asked to wear a black hood rather than a white one, so no one would mistake him for a Klansmnan. His final words were, “It’s a beautiful world.”

Shachna Itzik Birger is buried at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, in Section 28, 5th row, 3rd grave.


Excerpted from:
"The Hanging of Charles Birger"
by Carson Robison, recorded by Vernon Dalhart

I will tell you of a bandit in a great Midwestern state
Who never learned his lesson until it was too late;
This man was bold and careless and the leader of his gang
His boldness did not save him when the law said, "You must hang."

This bandit's name was Birger, he lived at Shady Rest
The people learned to fear him throughout the middle west;
It was out in old West City, Joe Adams was shot down
Then the cry of justice said, "The murderers must be found!"

[...]

On the nineteenth day of April in nineteen twenty-eight
Way out west in Benton, Charlie Birger met his fate.
Another life has ended; another chapter done
Another man has gambled in the game that can't be won.

[...]

Sources and Further Reading
Wikipedia
Find a Grave
Standerfer Researcher Site
WSIU Public Broadcasting
Franklin County, IL - Genealogy Trails
Southern Illinois History, Genealogy, and Folklore

Celebrate Your Name Week

The first week of March is Celebrate your Name Week

Celebrate Your Name Week is a holiday created in 1997 by American amateur onomatologist Jerry Hill. Hill declared the first full week in March a week for everyone in the world to embrace and celebrate his or her name, and to appreciate names in general, by having fun getting to know facts about names. This is a week set aside to participate in names-related hobbies, activities, and to take part in entertaining names-related events inspired by a fondness for and true appreciation of names.

My first name: John

John comes from the Hebrew Yochanan, meaning 'G-d is gracious.' It isn’t short, as some assume, for Jonathan. Jonathan comes from the Hebrew Yanatan, which means 'Gift from G-d,' and is a longer form of Nat(h)an.

My Hebrew name: בָּרוּ (Baruch).

Baruch is a Hebrew word meaning, “Blessed.” Benedict is the common English version of this name. My parents chose “Baruch” naming me after my great grandfather, Barnet "Barney" Newmark (1886-1956).

My middle name: Cruvant.

Cruvant is one of my ancestral surnames, the maiden name of my paternal great grandmother Bertha Cruvant Newmark (1887-1978; She and Barney were married in 1911.) Since my parents followed the tradition of choosing names from deceased ancestors, my middle name came from Bertha’s father, Moshe Leyb Cruvant. The origin of Cruvant is the town Kruvandai, Lithuania.

My surname: Newmark

The origin of our surname isn’t certain. It is thought that the surname was Neimark (or Nejmark) in Poland. There are multiple Newmark “clans” in the United States, and it is uncertain whether they are related, though several appear to have originated in Poland, and several made stops along the way in Great Britain. I am unsure of the family origins of the British Member of Parliament, Brooks Newmark, or the British celebrity chef, Rex Newmark.

Namesakes

I share the name “John Newmark” with a Canadian pianist (1904-1991) - Though he came from Germany, and his original surname was Neumark.

I also share my name with the British biologist, and identical twin who appeared on the television show, To Tell the Truth, with his brother, George.

Recipe for Me

Mardi Gras two weeks away, I decided to break my heritage down as if it were a mixed drink. This is as accurate as I am currently able to calculate it:

24 parts Polish or Russian (depending upon where the border was drawn at a given moment in time)

16 parts Transylvanian (could similarly say Hungarian or Romanian, but in this case there is a name for the geographic region)

8 parts Lithuanian

(or 48 parts Jewish, but while I identify with the tribal aspects of the religion, I also see value in remembering which nations my ancestors came from, as their experiences differed.)

7 parts British

6 parts Dutch

Dutch can have one of two meanings, and in this case, I'm mixing both. My Van Every ancestors are generally thought to have come from the Netherlands, but some researchers think it is equally likely that they were German. I have other ancestors who were definitely German, or at least Alsacian, while Alsace was under the control of Germany.

3 parts Native American (another tribal culture, a mixture of Choctaw and Cherokee)

Shaken, not stirred.

A complicated mixed drink, to be sure. However, I am 100% American in nationality, and 100% Jewish both religiously and tribally.

Note: Naturally, Mardi Gras is a local custom for me, not a religious custom. St. Louis likes to celebrate its French heritage, and our Mardi Gras celebration is generally considered to be the second largest in the nation.

Divergent Yet Intersecting

Both ReadWritePoem and Totally Optional Prompts have weekly writing prompts - both with a deadline of Thursday. The creative juices still have a tendency to flow even while on vacation.

This week's prompt at ReadWritePoem was Go Ancestral, which wasn't specific enough for me, since I think and write about my ancestry often. I needed a secondary prompt, which Totally Optional Prompts provided: Opposites.

Divergent Yet Intersecting

Transylvania, Holland, Alsace, Poland,
England, Germany, Lithuania and Texas
all contain soil upon which ancestors dwelt;
Farmers, beekeepers, shepherds,
tailors, blacksmiths, salesmen,
clergy, judges, and doctors.

As I research ancestral lines I discover
some ancestors celebrated Hanuka,
others Christmas, and still others
the Green Corn Ceremony;
Jewish, Methodist Episcopalian,
Puritan, Christian Scientist, Mennonite,
Choctaw, and Cherokee.

I shall never find the records
for my distant ancestors
who either came to this continent
by crossing the Land Bridge,
or originally emerged
from the Nanih Waiya in Mississippi.

I delve through obituaries,
microfilm depositories,
internet databases;
I interview relatives,
and rummage through attics.

What I find doesn't alter who I am;
It illuminates the divergent,
yet still intersecting
paths of my ancestors.