The family of Feige-Gitl and Yitzak Herszkorn -- my great-grandparents -- lived in Skierniewice, Poland, a large town and major railroad hub near Warsaw.

After Yitzak died (probably of tuberculosis) in 1899, Feige-Gitl supported her son Josef (my grandfather) and daughters Salka and Rozia by making wigs for married women. Josef -- one of the first Jews to enroll in medical school in Poland -- married Eda Itzkowitz, a school teacher, in 1920, moving to the smaller nearby town of Grojec to open his medical practice and raise their son (my father) and two daughters. Eda's family had been emigrating to the U.S. in stages since approximately 1913, and in November 1937 Eda, Josef, and their children left Poland to join them. (This required sponsorship by Josef's cousin in Pennsylvania and smuggling the requisite money to the U.S. -- but that's another story!) Reluctantly, Josef left behind his family, which by then also included Salka's husband, Jacob Unger, and their daughter Regina and her husband, Schoya.

Fran Hawthorne