Productive. Well, sort of.

[ysobelle]

So tonight I had a nice long chat with my aunt, and asked her some family history questions. I managed to track down her father's family! My grandfather, Oscar, was one of six children. They came over in 1905 from Grein, Austria. I looked up some pictures of the town, and it's utterly adorable. I can't help but think, however, that it probably wasn't so adorable to Jews in 1905. The 1910 Census lists them as being from Austria Germany-- which I take to mean they were from Austria and spoke German while there, though they're listed as speaking English at the time of the census. Except for William (Wilhelm), my great-grandfather. He's listed as speaking German. They lived on a street of immigrants from Austria, Russia, and Ireland, who spoke German, Yiddish, and "Irish," respectively. Oh, and "Magyar," like my father's mother's parents.

I also discovered that my Uncle Irving, of whom many of you have heard me say so...er...much, was one of the soldiers who liberated Dachau in WWII. I wish I'd known that when he was alive. He told my aunt stories of jumping into trenches only to find the guy he'd been jumping with dead beside him, or without an eye or a limb. She said, "Maybe that, well, not excuses him, but...." I didn't argue that it probably had nothing to do with his later dementia, or the way he treated her. But still. Things I'd never known....

If only I'd spent today working so hard on my corsets.