Sunday, July 04, 2004
Happy 4th of July
Happy 4th of July to all my American friends and readers. I'll have to visit one day and see the fireworks.
A piece of Chrenkoff trivia for today: my family doesn't know anymore what was the original spelling of our surname, but the version you are seeing now is courtesy of the immigration officials at Ellis Island. My great-grandparents had sailed to America sometime in the early 1910s and my grandfather was born in Chicago. What happened later is shrouded in mystery but the family legend has it that my great-grandfather died as a result of a run-in with the mob, and my great-grandmother fled back to Poland with my grandfather, fearing for their lives. The legend also has it that there were still some relations living in the US, but the surname has disappeared over there, probably through intermarriage. There are only eight Chrenkoffs in the world today, in Poland and Australia. Any readers out there with an even rarer surname?
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A piece of Chrenkoff trivia for today: my family doesn't know anymore what was the original spelling of our surname, but the version you are seeing now is courtesy of the immigration officials at Ellis Island. My great-grandparents had sailed to America sometime in the early 1910s and my grandfather was born in Chicago. What happened later is shrouded in mystery but the family legend has it that my great-grandfather died as a result of a run-in with the mob, and my great-grandmother fled back to Poland with my grandfather, fearing for their lives. The legend also has it that there were still some relations living in the US, but the surname has disappeared over there, probably through intermarriage. There are only eight Chrenkoffs in the world today, in Poland and Australia. Any readers out there with an even rarer surname?
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