Meeting Another 3rd Cousin

A few months ago I wrote about the amazing experience of meeting a third cousin who lives here in Poland.

Tomorrow morning I will be meeting another third cousin who is visiting from the US. His grandfather left Poland in the 1920s so thank God was not here during the Holocaust.

I don’t know the name or age of this third cousin or know where in the States he lives. I only know he keeps kosher.

Last night I dreamt he turned out to be a Chinese woman and not a cousin at all!

I never expected to meet two new cousins in one year.

If you had asked me before I would have said third cousins were far afield, but now sharing great-great-grandparents feels close, especially since we lost so many in the Holocaust who would have been closer. Fourth cousins, well, that would be something else. But then again…

UPDATE: I met my cousin. His name is Mitchell and he’s from Atlanta. It’s really cool to be expanding the family. I realized after we met that it’s Holocaust Remembrance Day back home and in Israel. A fitting day, when we mourn the loss of so many and when so many should be with us and aren’t, that we have found new relatives.

It’s thanks to Brama Grodzka that we found each other at all. An inquiry was sent to them about someone related to the Płuciennik family and they know that I come from that family so they contacted me. I never knew before Mitchell arrived that our family (his great grandfather Mendel, who was my great-grandmother Syma’s brother) had a candle factory on Kowalska Street. In fact, it was at 14 Kowalska and though the building is not the same as the pre-War building, the location is the little store close to Brama Grodzka where we buy water. Who knew I had a connection to the place!

Me, my new relative Mitchell and a random dude who seemingly time-traveled into our photo.

Me, my new relative Mitchell and a random dude who seemingly time-traveled into our photo.