Uncle Leibish, Found!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I was pretty sure I discovered what happened to my grandfather's Uncle Leibish--and that I was in touch with his grandson.  Everything seemed to fit, but there was still that little bit of uncertainty.

But then the grandson of Leibish/Louis dug out his father Harry's autobiography--and there was the proof.

From Harry Diamond's Autobiography

I just wrote about Cousin Jack, my father's first cousin who led quite an exciting life.  Apparently Cousin Jack knew about Leibish's family as well.

"My father's other relative was a nephew, Jack Landor, who was an orphan. He was a bachelor who lived most of his life at sea as a marine engineer and machinist.  He was a genius with tools and was able to construct replacement parts when some machinery broke down.  Jack resembled Louis in his Slavic facial appearance.  He had wavy light brown hair and blue eyes.....

"Whenever Jack returned from a round-the-world voyage, he would present Judy (Harry's wife) with expensive gifts of jewelry and clothing from the far east.  Once he brought her a meticulously hand-crafted sterling silver tea and coffee set with a huge tray weighing more than 10 pounds.  He would also bring an assortment of foreign currency in paper and coins, some of which were gold.  Our eldest son, Johnny, had a large coin collection with each item in a labeled container identifying the country of origin."

This echoes the stories I heard from my father, aunt, uncle and their cousins.  Jack would appear in town and bring coins, stamps and gifts from his travels across the world.  Here is proof that Harry's father Louis Diamond was, in fact, my grandfather's Uncle Leibish.

There were also some other gems of information--including where he mentions "He (Leibish/Louis) had...a distant cousin named Ben Diamond (who) was a coal mine tycoon in Pennsylvania."  I've never heard of this cousin before--but you'd better bet that I'm going to find him and figure out the connection!

Uncle Leibish's son lives in California.  I'll be speaking at Genealogy Jamboree's DNA Day in June.  In California.  We'll be meeting up for lunch that day--myself and my second cousin once removed!  Oh--and he dropped a DNA kit in the mail today.  So more to come when we get those results, I'm sure!

Note:  I'm on Twitter.  Follow me (@larasgenealogy).

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