Preface
This book is written for my children. It is intended to give them a glimpse into the several most recent generations of their paternal family.
Due to various geographic, social, and biological reasons, my direct knowledge and experience of my own parents’ families was very limited. Naturally, this was even more true for my own children. This book is an attempt to narrow that knowledge gap, and give them a sense of at least some of the blood that courses through their veins.
In writing the book, I have drawn on various sources of information. This included conversations with surviving family members (of which there are, sadly, few), some letters, a few photographs, as well as the known historical record of the time. As might have been expected, I found that some remembered dates and timelines did not synchronize neatly with objectively documented historical facts. In those instances, I attempted to reconcile the discrepant threads as much as possible without unduly sacrificing either narrative. As a result however, some of what I present may not always fully mesh with the memories of some of my sources. I trust they will understand.
The sections of the book nominally referring to my parents are notably shorter than my own. This is clearly not intended to reflect my sense of our relative life importance. It is merely a mirror of the practical reality that my knowledge of my own life’s early details is, understandably yet sadly, significantly greater. However, since my own story is naturally and inextricably linked to theirs, the inevitable result is that they continue to figure prominently throughout the section that is ostensibly ‘mine’.
In order to provide better contextualization, I have attempted to weave in some sense of the social, political, economic, cultural, and historical environments that surrounded the events I describe. This viewpoint necessarily reflects my own particular biases, although I have tried to remain as objective as possible.
As I said, this book is written for my children. However, it is dedicated to my parents, especially my father who died before he got to see his grandchildren. Hopefully, they will get to know him a little through these pages. And maybe even recognize a part of themselves.
