Vera Doroshenko’s grandmother Anna Dubova, Raissa Dubova and her older sister Rosa

Sitting: my grandmother Anna Yakovlevna Dubova. Standing from left to right: Raissa Dubova and her older sister Rosa. Photograph made in Zvenigorodka around 1912. Sergei Mikhailovich Dubov, my grandfather (my mother's father), was born in 1847. His Jewish name was Srul Moishkovich. My grandmother Anna Yakovlevna Dubova was born in 1895. My mother's mother Anna Yakovlevna was a very wise Jewish woman. She was a member of an arbitrary court in her village (this was a public court, dealing with all kinds of everyday life problems). There were three of them in this court (two men and Anna). Hers was a decisive opinion. She was much respected and her opinion was highly valued. They had a huge house with ten rooms. They had an orchard, a pigsty, chicken and a cow. My grandmother had servants. She had a small dairy store in the town of Zvenigorodka. She sent her milk products (milk, sour cream, cottage cheese) there every day. This business of my grandmother was much support for her family. At home my grandmother and grandfather spoke Ukrainian and Yiddish. They were fluent in both languages. My grandparents' family was big. They had 9 children. The oldest girl Maria was born in 1885, her brother Samuel - in 1890, Rosa - in 1893, Efim - in 1894. My mother Raissa was born in 1895, and her brother Vladimir was born in1896. These are my mother's brothers and sisters that I knew about. There must have been other children, but I've never been told about any of them. The oldest daughter Maria finished school and got married. She died in 1920 from typhus. My father Leonid Efimovich Shtein was born in 1890 in the village of Gruzkoye, Pervomaysk district, Odessa region. I know very little about his parents. I know that his father Efim Shtein was a brewer. My father's mother Rosa Shtein left her husband for some reason after my father was born and was raising her son alone. I believe, they were religious people but my father wasn't raised as a Jew and didn't understand a single word in Yiddish. My grandmother died when my father was 7 or 8 years old. He lived with my grandfather for some time, but then he left home when he was 14 and found a job at the Nikolaev factory. . In the summer of 1913 my grandmother Anna died from illness and hard work.