Elza and Artur Erdos with their children

This is a photo of Elza Erdos, one of the sisters of my maternal grandfather Emanuel Schillinger, together with her husband, Artur Erdos. In front of them you see their two daughters, Clara and Vera. This photo was taken in Budapest in 1917 and sent to my mother, Gizella Kohn.

My maternal grandfather was born in Elek, Hungary, in 1858. He grew up with both German and Hungarian as a mother tongue. He had five brothers and two sisters, and I know many of them only from pictures.

My mother, who was in better financial shape than Grandfather, supported her parents because Grandpa’s business never went particularly well. Farming depended on the seasons and the weather. In times of drought, things were particularly difficult. In those times irrigation didn’t quite exist, meaning that agriculture hinged very much on nature.