Finding New Family Members
After sending the message to a person named “Irving Hirsch” many questions came up again. Could it be that we have a family member we never knew about? Could the mystery lady in the family photo be related to this person? When and will he respond to our message?
There was so much tension wether he will respond or not and if he was the person we were searching for. An hour later we received a reply.
Amazing...you are right on...I am Celia's son, Irving. My parents never spoke to me about their past. It is one area that deeply saddens me and now receiving this message is quite emotional to say the least. I knew my mother had a sister in Israel. I have a son, Larry Hirsch, living in Jerusalem. I also have a daughter, Ziva, who lives here in the States with her husband and our granddaughter.
We were stunned. Was this really Irving Hirsch the cousin of Chaimas & Lonas (Arie) Kobrinas? We decided to ask him a few more questions concerning his mother, to verify that he was the person we were searching for.
My father replied back to Irving, telling him how happy he was to find him. He described to Irving our search for the mystery woman. He also attached the Kobrinas family photo we had, and asked Irving if he could recognise the woman in the photo. He also sent him the photo we had of the two young guys with the writing on the back of the photo “my cousin and a friend from Brooklyn, 1955” and asked him if he recognised the young guys in the photo.
The response from Irving was very quick:
Isaac, on the two photos you sent me, the one with the two boys - that's me sitting on the wood stoop with my best friend standing. The other photo of your dad and his brother at young ages is interesting because it begins to fill a void that's been missing in my life. In that same picture, the woman in the middle resembles my mom, but I can’t be sure. Below are pictures of my mom in her early years taken in Palestine. I have many more questions to ask and will follow up later. Thanks for finding me.
In response to the above mail, Isaac wrote to Irving:
Dear Irving, Indeed your mother looks very much like the young lady in the photo. However, it could still be the sister of my grandfather Zipa. Do you have photos from her early childhood? Did Celia ever tell you what her family maiden name was? Did your mother tell you anything about her life in Lithuania? Did she say anything about her parents, brothers and sisters?
According to the records from Vilnius, they mentioned her as a clothes designer in Kaunas. How did she arrive to Palestine, where did she meet William, when did she get married, what languages did she speak? The letters we have from her and William are in Yiddish. Looking forward to hear from you, Isaac.
On the 31st of July 2018 Irving wrote back:
To answer a few of your direct questions, on the photo you sent me I was about 18 years of age; today I'm 81 (just reverse the digits - feels like a time warp). My mother's maiden name on her passport was spelled Porudominskaite. She was born in 1905. From her passport, it appears she left Lithuania and came to Palestine in 1935. I guess she accompanied her sister at that time. Her Lithuanian passport only allowed her to stay in Palestine for two years and expired October 8, 1937. She left Palestine on July 30, 1936 for America. She met William in Palestine, who was already a U.S. citizen and they got married in Palestine. She was pregnant at the time she left Palestine. I was born in February, 1937. I am the only child.
Sad to say I don't have a family tree going back in time. It's beyond my comprehension that I never discussed my mother’s early childhood. I blame that on my immaturity growing up. If she were alive today I would ask so many questions. I do remember her in tears when she learned of her sister passing. I think it was in the 1950s. I'll check old albums and see if I come up with any photos to send you. Your news that there were two brothers is unbelievable. I'll write more later.
Wedding Photo, Celia and William Hirsch.
Isaac’s response:
Dear Irving, Chava the sister of your mother was born in 1893. She died on 19/1/48. She was 12 years older than your mother. The name of your mother in the archives appear as Tzivia - does it ring a bell?
We found in the Jewish Gen records that Tziva Porudominsky, born in 1905 in Vilnius, received an internal passport in Kaunas on 3/1/1930. Do you know who were her parents? According to what we know (from the archives) their names were: Iankel Porudominski born in 1859. He was the son of Berko-Girsh Porduminski and Vita Notelevna Porudominski. The mother of Chava was Khaia Radunski born in 1860. She was the daughter of Abram Radunski. They got married on 8/12/1882.
There were two more kids: Ber and Tzodik. We have no records of them.
I wonder why my father and his brother never mentioned an aunt (or a family) in the USA. We did not find any evidence for contact after 1945. In the two letter that your parents wrote to Arie and Mina Kobrin in Yiddish, they spoke about the lovely life in the USA and they tried to encourage Chava to leave Palestine and move to the USA. They also asked her to send packages to the camps in Germany through my father, as he was in Italy with the Jewish Brigade from 1943 - 1945 (until the end of the WW2). We could not find any additional letters.
Celia and William Hirsch.
Irving wrote back on August 1st that he did not have any more photos from his mother’s past. She must have come to America with almost nothing tying her to her past. The only pictures he had of her were the ones taken in Palestine.
On the 6th of August we received more documents relating to Irving’s mother, shedding more light on our family history. These documents included Celia’s passport, marriage certificate, and U.S. naturalisation papers. We finally had proof that we found the mystery woman in the photo. Her name was Celia (also known as Ziviah/Cive/Tzivia) Porudominskaite and she was the sister of Chava Porudominskaite. She passed away in 1974.
After searching for this information since 2014, it looked like we finally found the the Hirsch family. Why did Chaimas never mention the family in America will remain a mystery to us. Why were the two sisters not in touch? We assume it could be from a disapproval of the marriage of Celia to William in such a short time frame, or maybe it was because Celia left her family in Palestine and immigrated to America after less than 18 months of arriving to Palestine. This will remain an unknown story, as no one really knows what happened between the Porudominskaite sisters.
The unknown woman in the Kobrinas family photo. On the right, Celia Hirsch, photo dated December 16, 1935.
We are now left with more questions about the other unknown family members. Can we still find Zipa, the sister of Itsik Kobrinas? What about the two brothers of Chava mentioned by the Lithuanian archives? Where were they?
In the meantime, in order to be 100% sure that we are related to the Hirsch family, and maybe find other lost relatives, we decided to do a DNA test via MyHeritage. We are currently waiting for the results.
The search continues…
