Czernowitz group: Becker family reunited

<x-flowed>Dear Czernowitzers:

Not long ago, I posted a 1974 interview with Jack Becker on the
Sadagora web site. Jack was born in Chotin, but grew up in Sadagora.
His daughter, Elizabeth Becker Cooksey, noted that one reason for
posting her interview with her father was because she was "hoping
that someone related to my own grandparents will see this and let me
see photographs of them. They, old-style European Jews, disowned my
father when he married outside the faith, and I have never seen what
my own paternal relatives looked like."

Within about 10 days of posting the story, Elizabeth was reunited by
phone with her first cousins! She has now seen pictures of her
grandparents, and her father and grandfather had a strong
resemblance. One of her cousins told her that "your father was my
favorite uncle; us kids never knew what happened to him."

How did this reunion come about? A check of the 1930 census for
Elizabeth's grandparents and her great-uncle showed both families
living at the same address in the Bronx. With a common name like
Becker, this was the needed breakthrough in confirming that they were
Elizabeth's relatives. The great uncle had a son named Solomon, born
1919. At www.anybirthday.com, we found a Sol Becker living in
Florida, with a 1919 birthdate. Elizabeth wrote a letter to Sol
Becker, while checking into some other leads as well. Several days
later, she had a phone call from another cousin in San Diego who had
received Elizabeth's note from the cousin in Florida. Within
minutes, the San Diego cousin had emailed a scan of a family wedding
picture which included Jack Becker's parents. Other phone calls
followed, and Elizabeth and her daughter are both rather stunned by
the rapid sequence of events which they had dreamed about for a very
long time.

All the best,

Bruce


</x-flowed>
Received on 2003-06-01 09:56:41