As we reviewed all of the new information we collected about our family, it felt like we were trying to place together various puzzle pieces that might fit or not together. We kept looking at what we managed to find out up until now. We had the Kobrinas family photo from the 1920s with a mystery woman, a photo of two unknown young guys - one of which could be a cousin from Brooklyn, two letters from the Hirsch family in Brooklyn addressed to Leonas (Arie) Kobrinas. In addition we had the death announcement of Chava mentioning she was the sister of someone and had family abroad. Could all of these pieces be related to each other?

This search led us to write an email to one of the American Genealogy groups online, asking them if they had any information about Tziva (Celia) and William Hirsch. We received several responses from various people providing us with all kinds of information. One of them indicated that the couple arrived to Jaffa in 1936 from Lithuania and that Tziva soon-after, left to the USA, while William stayed in Jaffa and moved to the USA at a later date.

We also contacted the online forum of Jewish Gen, asking them for suggestions on what and where to look next. Surprisingly, we received many responses with links to different databases of information about US citizens.

One suggestion was to look at death registries. The search revealed a certificate in Jewish Gen indicating that Celia Hirsch born on May 25, 1905 in Lithuania died on January 25 1974. It also indicated that she was buried in “Shomre Israel” Cemetery in Arlington NY. A comment below the certificate said: “beloved wife, mother and grandmother”. There was no information about a father, mother or husband. We contacted Leonard Grossman, who was responsible at that time for the cemetery, asking him if he might have more information. Mr Grossman replied that there were no records that Celia Hirsch was buried there. He suggested we contact the Poughkeepsie synagogues.

Later, we received another response online from someone named Yehuda, who sent us a copy of the 1940 US Census. Celia (not Tziva) and William Hirsch were on the list, including their son Irving who was born in 1937. Yehuda also sent us a list from the United States Immigrant Inspector at Port of Arrival from 1936. It indicated that Zivian Hirsch arrived from Jaffa on the Vulcania ship, and that she was born in Lithuania in 1905. It also indicated that William Hirsch was still in Palestine and that Zivian was going to stay with his brother in NJ.

List of passengers that arrived to the USA in 1936. Zivian is mentioned in row 30 of the document.

From this gathered information we realised that the Hirsch couple had a son called Irving, born in 1937. This meant that he should be around 81 years old right now. Where was he living and is he still alive? Is he one of the guys in the photo we found with the information on the back of it?

Later on, we received another email from a person named Allan Jordan suggesting that the Hirsch family lived in Tamarac Florida and that their son Larry, aged mid 50s, was still living there. We received their phone number. We called several times, but there was no response.

As we continued our internet search for “Irving Hirsch” we came up with endless results. An interesting finding similar to what we received from Allan Jordan, indicated that there was an Irving Hirsch aged 81 living in Tamarac Florida. There was a different phone number We decided to call this number several times, but again there was no response. It was starting to get a bit frustrating.

After several months of research, with no actual results, a friend suggested to search for Irving Hirsch on facebook. How did we not think of this earlier?

As we typed the name Irving Hirsch on facebook, we found an Irving Hirsch who lives in Tamarac Florida. There was a photo of a man that could be in his 80s. Could this be the person we have been looking for? Was this Irving the son of Celia and William? Is Celia the woman in the family photo we were searching for?

My father decided to send Irving a message on messenger on July 30th, 2018:

“Dear Irving. My name is Isaac Kobrin. I am searching for Irving Hirsch the son of Celia or Zivian and William Hirsch who lived in Herzl street 225 in Brooklyn. Irving was born in 1937. Is this you? If this is true, your mother was the sister of my grandmother Chava Porudominski Kobrin from Lithuania. While searching the history of my father we found photos and letters from Celia (or Zivian - not sure how she called herself in the USA) and William that were sent to the brother (Arie Kobrin) of my father (Chaim Kobrin) in Palestine in 1945. Let me know if this is you or am I completely wrong. Regards, Isaac Kobrin”

We anxiously waited for a response.

The search continues…

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