100 Places, post 1.

May 04, 2012 22:38


All of my paternal great-grandparents were born in what was, at the time, the Russian Empire, and I grew up thinking my ancestors were from Russia as a result. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I discovered that I was a little off the mark, since none of those places are part of modern Russia.

One of my great-grandparents was born in Estonia. My family is super dysfunctional, so I'm not even sure which one it was. I know it was one of my grandmother's parents, though.

What makes this particularly interesting to me is that unlike the other places my family came from, Estonia's Jewish population was always fairly small, so my ancestors there must have been part of a small and insular community. It's hard for me to imagine what their lives must have been like.

More than any of the European countries my ancestors came from, the one I would most like to visit is Estonia, because I know so little about the Estonian Jewish community. Other European Jewish communities my ancestors lived in are well-documented, but this one is a bit mysterious to me.

100things, meme

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