Photoessay #2028 - Relatives

I grew up far away from extended family.  We lived in California and my parents' families lived Back East.  I saw my grandparents maybe once a year when they came visiting.  I took a very few trips as a child to New England to visit my aunts, uncles and cousins.  They didn't know me and I didn't know them.

Most of the relatives seemed in awe of 'California', some kind of promised land, in the 1950s and 1960s.  As a child growing up in suburban Sacramento, I couldn't quite understand the fuss.

I've been the one to collect the family history but, not for a long time.  But now I'm back on it.  Dennis and I will travel to New Haven and Boston next month. Mostly we will work on my main project, Maier Zunder et al with my cousin Mary Ann.  From my maternal grandmother (Regina Zunder Weil Baumann)'s family.

But it doesn't end there...even for this trip.

We're planning a get together in New York City with my talented second cousin Flash Rosenberg with quite a few other cousins and relatives from my maternal grandfather (Irwin Samuel Baumann)'s family.  And Sue Geiger continues to do a ton of work for the extended family of Irwin's grandparents (Samuel and Marie Lederer).  Just this week, she's identified a new third cousin (who I blogged about).  Marilu and I have exchanged warm emails and Mary Ann suggests that we make a special trip to New Jersey to visit them on a future trip.

At the end of the trip, we'll travel to Boston and spend the afternoon and dinner with my aunt Elgie.  Her first cousin Barbara called me today.  She would love to get together with us when we come.  She remembers seeing me when I was about 5 years old.  From my paternal grandmother (Betty Cohen Ginsburgh)'s family

That's a wad of Jewish relatives no matter how you look at it.  I'm fortunate to be able to have this munch fun at the age of sixty.

No, these are not my relatives in the first picture.  That's President Obama with his Kenyan relatives.  The second picture is the extended Lederer picture at the occasion of the bar mitzvah of their youngest son probably around 1885.  My mother had this picture; my sister now has it and we were able to share it with Sue and her project.