The Telephone Call

Several years ago, I had a telephone conversation with a stranger that changed my life. I was in Israel visiting my husband's family, and I knew that I had family of my own (on my father's side) in Tel Aviv. I had actually met some of these cousins on a number of occasions: the first time in 1967, after the Six-Day War, when my father's cousins Luba (Tomshinski) and Dr. Issak Rashkes came to visit my parents. At the time, I was only ten years old, and unfortunately, wasn't too interested in my extended family, and so, did not learn anything about the roots of my family at that time.

Then, on my first trip to Israel in 1975, I met Luba's brother David Tomshinksi, his wife and their daughters. I stayed at their lovely home in Herzelia Pituach, and I must have been quite a sight with my backpack and overalls, straight from kibbutz farm life. Once again, I was not really all that interested in family connections, being young and foolish, so I did not pursue contact with my extended family.

On a subsequent trip to Israel in the 1980s, I met Luba's daughter Hanita, who, sadly, along with Luba and her husband, and David and his wife, has since passed away. I met Hanita's three sons, who were in their teens or early twenties, like me.

Years passed. I married and had my own children, and before email and skype and facebook and the like, I really didn't pursue family connections with these or any other distant cousins. But on this particular trip, I decided to call the house of Hanita's husband, Aron.

The housekeeper answered the phone, and when I asked to speak with Aron (who wasn't at home at the time), she asked for my name. When I told her THOMPSON from Canada, she became very excited, and informed me that one of the sons had married a Thompson girl from California. Could I be related to the bride?

I was confused. I had heard nothing about this union, and besides, if this couple were cousins, how were they connected to each other -- and to me?

And so, I set out to discover the answer.

I had assumed the search would take me several weeks, or a few months, at most. I am still looking for all the answers. In this blog, I will attempt to trace my research and what I have found. I have had many late nights on the internet looking (and very often finding!) cousins and other connections.

So I would like to share with you how I met my family.