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Yoseph and Lifsha BUDONVITZ , their son Yoseph and their daughter Zelda; perished in the Shoa " .
Thus the married couple in it are the grandparents of Reuven. The young boy Yoseph, named the same as his father, was REUVEN ' s father !

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the picture of the young soldier says " Reuven Budovnitz, in the uniform of a Partisan [ Kiryat Yam ] " .

 

Dear Cousins (Sept. 15th/08 ) : At the back of the New York City Library publication entitled "THE BOOK OF DRUYA - and the communities of Miory,
DRUYSK and Leonpol " , appear these two B&W photographs... and I have translated for you the Yiddish inscription beneath them.

After our September 7th meeting in Toronto with Allen & Shayna Boldovitch (Toronto) and David and Susan Stein ( Montreal) , plus my brother Fred
and Judy Ball (London, Ontario) and my wife Elaine and me (Portland, Oregon), I am completely certain that the wonderful man Elaine and I met this May in Kiryat Yam, REUVEN
is most definitely a cousin of all of ours...

since the Russian army discharge papers (dated 1893) and also the Russian Exit- passport issued to my paternal grandfather, known in Yiddish as

M'Nachem Mendel Baldovitch when he reached Canada around 1904, has his name typed into the Russian documents as

MENDEL MOVSHOVITCH BUDOVNICH .

My brother Dr. Fred Ball ( Ephraim Reuven , named after our paternal grandmother Fruma Riva Rusonik, also from Drujsk ) is hoping to make a trip to Israel next year, so we look forward to his making contact if possible with REUVEN in Kiryat Yam
Love,
Cousin MEL BALL, Portland, U S A

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Dear Eilat

I have at last figured out exactly how I am related to REUVEN BUDOVNITZ of Kiryat Yam and his daughter AHUVA, in Israel.

I was able to clarify the connection by studying your kind E-mail letter of April 6th, + my late father's Family Tree.

SHALOM MOISHE BUDOVNITZ, born around 1840, married to Chaya Mushya, had MANY children.

One of the at least three DAUGHTERS of Shalom Moishe was NECHAMA (later Sosnovik ). Her name actually appears on my father ' s Family tree!!!

One of his many sons was YOSEPH ( Reuven's father ), born in 1885. Other sons of SHALOM MOISHE include YAAKOV RAPHAEL and YITZCHAK MORDECHAI,

who emigrated to Canada. ( From Yitzchak Mordechai came Joe, Anna, Mary, and Rae [Stein]. )

BUT YET ANOTHER SON OF SHALOM MOISHE also went to Canada, my paternal GRANDFATHER, called MENACHEM MENDEL BUDOVNITZ,

born in 1871... and thus a brother to YOSEPH. Although there are many years' difference in their birth dates, between YOSEPH ( b.1885 ) and MENACHEM MENDEL ( b.1871 ),

in a large sibship this is not at all uncommon. Also, my grandfather Menachem Mendel would have reached Canada around 1904, and his much younger brother Yoseph, maybe 18 years old when Menachem left Drujsk, would not have seen him any more after that, nor likely received many letters.
Thus my father ELIEZER BALDOVITCH ( Louis Baldovitch / Ball ) , born 1911, was a FIRST COUSIN to REUVEN BUDOVNITZ, because their fathers were brothers.

And therefore AHUVA and I are SECOND COUSINS......

....Menachem Mendel ben Eliezer

MEL BALL,