Last month, I shared the story of a wax–sealed package from Palestine. In the 1920s, it was mailed to my dad’s father, Mayer Greenberg in Chicago by my great-grandmother, Lea Grunberg. Vivid Stars of David appear in the rust-colored wax seals and the blue postmarks and stamps reveal that the package was sent from Jaffa, Palestine. The package sits in our living room near a colorful Tree of Life tapestry made by an Israeli artist. Our home is filled with Jewish art, books, and precious pieces of family history. Like the package from Palestine, each piece of art has a story to tell. Sometimes these stories are handed down through parents and grandparents or by the handwritten names on the back of sepia photos of past generations. I wish there were more notes on the old photos and I regret that I didn’t ask my parents more about their family history. Yet, in recent months, digging deep into genealogy sites has revealed new and unusual things about our family’s lineage.

We’ve always known that our ancestors came from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland because we have marriage and birth certificates in these languages and our parents told stories about the past. Now, we have additional confirmation about relatives who were born in Palestine. My great-grandfather Wolf Grunberg was born in Jaffa, Palestine around 1850. Presumably, his wife Lea was born there too. My cousin and I both have a colorful watercolor painting of the Grunberg home in Jaffa. Much to our surprise, in a few handwritten letters from my grandfather, there are references to the kinds of trees in the yard of their home. By comparing photos on Google Earth and other online sources, we’re confident that the paintings are in fact, the Grunberg home in Jaffa.

Recently, in a photo album from my parents house, I found a series of photos of a woman in a cemetery surrounded by rocks and broken gravestones. The woman’s purse sits nearby on one of the piles of rubble. There aren’t any notes on the back of the photos to tell us the details but thanks to the sleuthing of our son, Adam, we now know that the woman is Miriam Teper Reinharz. Miriam was my father’s cousin and she was born in 1905. Translating the Hebrew on one of the broken gravestones confirms that Miriam was visiting the grave of Lea Grunberg, my great-grandmother, who passed away in 1943.

To the best of our knowledge, the photos were taken in the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives which is the largest cemetery in Israel. According to archaeologists, the cemetery is over five centuries old and is known as the largest and oldest Jewish cemetery on earth. Historians estimate that between 70,000 and 150,000 tombs are located there but due to vandalism, hundreds of tombstones have been desecrated. It’s ancient land which has a personal and direct connection to our family. I can only imagine what Miriam was feeling as she sat near Lea’s grave in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

As our sons dug into genealogy sites, Josh located a distant cousin that we never knew about. The cousin is Miguel Charosky and he’s one of the great-great-grandsons of Wolf and Lea Grunberg (whose broken gravestone is in the Mount of Olives cemetery). Although Miguel grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he lives in Europe now and is a classical musician. After locating Miguel, we immediately reached out to exchange details which filled in even more branches of our family tree. Now, the connections in our extended family are stronger and the roots of the family tree are deeper. It’s amazing to message back and forth and the language differences from Spanish to English haven’t posed a problem.

Another connection emerged from an old photo showing the sign on a storefront which says ‘Joyeria y Relojeria’ and underneath that, the sign says Manuel Grunberg. My Uncle Marvin hung this photo on the wall of his own jewelry store in Baltimore which was named Greenberg Jewelers. We always thought it was coincidental that a store in South America had our family’s name on it and we didn’t remember any stories told about it by our parents. We’ve now discovered that ‘Joyeria y Relojeria’ was a jewelry and clock-making store owned by my great-uncle Manuel Grunberg in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Several relatives and online research confirms this connection. It’s no surprise that these family businesses sold jewelry, watches, and clocks including my Uncle Ronnie Blackman’s store, Blackman Jewelers, in Chicago. I suppose my dad broke that mold a bit by owning and running a TV & Stereo store with his brother Bill in Denver. Throughout history, immigrants have made their own way by starting businesses so they could put food on the table and keep a roof over the heads of their families. Historically, Jews were prohibited from owning land so starting shops and businesses was a logical avenue for many Jewish families.

As our genealogical hunt continued, we were astonished to locate a photo taken on May 31, 1949 in the Golden Hall of the Argentine Foreign Ministry. The photo shows our relative Dr. Carlos M. Grunberg signing the minutes from an important meeting which established diplomatic and consular relations between Argentina and Israel. Grunberg served as Special Representative of the State of Israel in Argentina and in the photo, other dignitaries stand behind him as he signs the document. With this photo, another connection has been made in our extended family tree. It’s symbolic of our connection with the State of Israel, with our past, and our precious family history. We’ve placed this photo next to the wax-sealed package from Palestine in our living room and the Israeli Tree of Life tapestry. It just seems fitting. And, now, we have more stories to tell in the future.

Julie Richman is a freelance writer, project manager and consultant. She and her family have lived in Colorado Springs for 23 years. Contact Julie with comments or ideas for her column at jdrichman6845@msn.com.