Mikhail Ogranovich with his wife Rahil and daughter Matilda

My maternal grandfather Mikhail Ogranovich is on the right, my mother's sister Matilda is on the left, and my grandmother, Rahil Ogranovich, is in the center. The picture was taken in Moscow in 1917. My mother's family lived in the Ukrainian city Nikolayev. My grandfather's name was Mikhail Ogranovich. His Jewish name was Mendel. My grandmother's maiden name was Rahil Kazhdan. My mother told me the romantic story of how my grandparents got married. My grandfather was a common worker at the mill. My grandmother was married before she met my grandfather. She was very beautiful, but she came from a very large and poor family. She had a prearranged marriage to a wealthy man, who was much older than her. The first time she saw her husband was under the chuppah as her parents and matchmakers had arranged everything. My grandmother had a hard nuptial life. She didn't love her husband, and his family didn't have a good attitude towards her as she was poor and without dowry. She gave birth to two children - a son who was called Naum, and a daughter who was called Genya. I don't know how my grandmother met my grandfather as she was married and the mother of two children. They fell in love with each other, and grandmother didn't care that she was married and had two small children. She trespassed all social laws and rites, took her two children, and moved in with her beloved. From the standpoint of society at that time it was an improbable action. The children from the first marriage lived with them, and my grandfather treated them as his own. Besides, my grandmother gave birth to six more children in her second marriage. Matilda was married to a Russian man, Sobolevskiy. She worked in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. She processed the forms for equipment purchase overseas. Matilda had a son who was my age. I don't remember his name.