August in New York

This past August, I attended the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) meeting in New York City. Since I was in NYC for 10 days, I had a lot of time to do research on both my maternal and paternal lines at the Municipal Archives, and also to visit, for the first time, the graves of my grandparents and on my dad's side, my grandparents and great-grandparents. I also got to spend time with Uncle Leon and Lenore. Steve and Rachel came with me to New York, but while I was out visiting cemeteries, they took advantage of being in Manhattan to do a lot of sight seeing. I signed up for a tour to Beth David Cemetery out in Elmont, Long Island and after a little while, was able to locate Henry and Cecile's headstones. Aunt Germaine's was close by. When I looked at a map to see where the cemetery was I was astounded to discover that the house that we lived in prior to moving to Los Angeles was less than a mile away! I wasn't able to get the van driver to take me over to my old house, so I walked there. I would not have recognized the house - it looked soooo much smaller. And also, the trees and shrubs had grown quite a bit in the past 45 years which completely changed the look of the neighborhood. I don't ever remember visiting the cemetery while we lived in Valley Stream, nor do I think my mom did on her own. That's pretty amazing, considering that the cemetery was a 10 minute drive away.