This is my great-grandmother, my grandfather Yitzhak Bograd’s mother. Unfortunately, I don't know her name. This photograph was taken in 1876 in Dobroye.
My grandfather Yitzhak is the first from the left, sitting on a small stool. Standing in the 2nd row are my grandfather's sisters Minka Reznik and Genia Bograd, the little girl sitting on the right is Minka’s daughter Yudl.
There was a Bograd clan in our village. My great-grandfather, Leib Bograd, was a blacksmith. He wasn't a poor man. He left my grandfather a forge.
My paternal grandfather, Yitzhak Bograd, was born in Dobroye in 1869. He and his brothers, Velvl and Aizik Bograd, finished cheder and became blacksmiths.
My grandfather and Aizik worked in one forge, and Velvl worked in the Jewish colony in a neighboring village. My grandfather horseshoed horses, and fixed iron wires on wagons, caravans and carts.
My grandfather's sister, Minka, and her husband, Boruch Reznik, lived near the synagogue, which was converted into a club in 1931, during the collectivization and struggle against religion.
They were my favorites. Boruch made wooden wheels and spokes.
My grandfather also had a sister called Genia. She got married young and left the colony. This is all I know about her. My grandfather's brother, Leib Bograd, moved to the USA before the revolution of 1917. He died there.
He had five children. I only know about his daughter, Leya, born in the USA in 1920. We met in the 1990s. Though I knew about her before, we couldn't communicate since this wasn't allowed in the former USSR and was punishable. We met, when I visited the USA, and she visited me in Moscow.
