Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Paula and Ibolyka Schwartz

This is a Wordless Wednesday because alas, I knew far too little about my great-aunt Paula Schwartz and her daughter, Ibolyka (Violet), shown in a photo they sent  to my maternal grandfather Theodore (Teddy) Schwartz (original name "Tivador," as in the inscription) in 1930.

Paula and her sister, Etel Schwartz, never came to the US even though their older brothers (Teddy and Samuel) arrived in the early 1900s and subsequently pooled their money to bring their baby sister Marushka (Mary) Schwartz to New York, as well.

Paula and Etel died in the Holocaust in World War II, along with other siblings. Their father, Herman Schwartz, died some time before the war.

2022 update: I've learned a lot about the family by searching Yad Vashem's testimony and connecting with Ibolyka's daughter, who is my 2d cousin on the Schwartz side.

8 comments:

  1. Wow, what a challenge. Good luck, looking forward to updates.

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  2. Thanks, Mary, I appreciate your reading and your encouragement :) Will keep posting as I learn anything.

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  3. I agree with Mary - this is going to be an interesting challenge. Good luck, Marian, and we all await further updates about Paula and her family.

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  4. Hi Mary, This takes me into an entirely different realm of genealogy but it's something I feel compelled to try to honor the memory of these great-aunts and my great-grandma. I'll let you know how things are going!

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  5. This is such a wonderful photo. It's so important to remember family lost in WWII. Researching ancestors in Eastern Europe definately presents a challenge. I wish you luck, and I hope you post the results of your research.

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  6. Cynthia, so glad you took a moment to leave a comment. I sincerely appreciate the encouragement! I'm determined to learn more...nobody's a better detective than a genealogy researcher, right?
    - Marian

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  7. What a great old photo...

    Let me suggest the Ukraine message boards on Ancestry and Genealogy.com.

    There were people from the Ukraine who were very helpful to me when I was looking for a family who immigrated from Croatia during the time the land was "up for grabs" - and some of the documents I found required translation.

    Good luck. I hope you are able to find out about them.

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  8. Dee, thanks for the wonderful suggestion. I'll definitely check into this! I also have an honorary cousin helping so between all of us, I hope there will be a breakthrough this year. - Marian

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