Ukraine Trip Post #6--Day 6 (September 6, 2016), Part 1

(To see everything from my Ukraine trip, see here.)

On the overnight train from Vinnitsa to Mukachevo (formerly Munkacs), I actually slept.  The solution: sleep with noise-cancelling headphones playing a white noise app.  I highly recommend that strategy!

View from the train

Ukraine Trip Post #5--Day 5 (September 5, 2016), Vinnitsa

(To see everything from my Ukraine trip, see here.)

While I spent most of September 5 in the Vinnitsa Archive, we also had time during lunch and after the archive closed to see Vinnitsa.

Downtown Vinnitsa

Ukraine Trip Post #4--Day 5 (September 5, 2016), Vinnitsa Archives

(To see everything from my Ukraine trip, see here.)

On Monday, I decided to see what I could find in Vinnitsa Archives.

Vinnitsa Archives by night

Hola, Mi Familia! Somos...Sephardim??

My family's as Ashkenazi as they come.  I grew up eating potato kugel and chulent.  Spicier Sephardi fare was something exotic I saw at friends' houses and didn't associate with my family.  But I just got a recent hint that perhaps we had a bit of Sephardi in the mix as well.  I received the following email (with permission from the author to share):

Hello!

I got my Ancestry results uploaded on Gedmatch recently and I just found we share a common ancestor.

I believe we are 4th cousins and we share a 3G-grandparent.

My father & uncle's shared segment with María

About me, my name is María.  I was born in Zaragoza, Spain.

Ukraine Trip Post #3--Days 3-4 (September 3-4, 2016)

(To see everything from my Ukraine trip, see here.)

Once Shabbos was over, we headed to the Lviv train station for an overnight train from Lviv to Vinnitsa.

My train ticket

Ukraine Trip Post #2--Day 2 (September 2, 2016)

(To see everything from my Ukraine trip, see here.)

We had spent the night in Shklyn, so we started driving through the town.  We saw two ladies on the side of the road, and one of them brought us to an older lady's home. She didn't recognize the name Fine, but when I said my great-great grandfather was Moshe Dovid Fine or Moshko, she got excited.  She said she remembered "Moshko the Jew" and said he was a very nice man.  She would be taking care of her cow, and he would stop and say hi to her.  She remembers when his family would come to visit him in Shklyn.

View from across the road from my great-great grandfather's house

Ukraine Trip Post #1--Day 1 (September 1, 2016)

(To see everything from my Ukraine trip, see here--I'll be posting regularly.)

I'm just back from a spectacular trip to Ukraine, which was more successful than I could have imagined.  I'll be posting details of what I saw here, so stay tuned!

It took a long flight to get to Vienna from Washington, a layover in Vienna where I had time to walk around the city center, and then another flight to Lviv. Did I mention I can't sleep on planes?

Here I go!!