Tag #116230 - Interview #100288 (Eta Gurvichuyte )

My name is Eta Gurvich. In Lithuanian my last name sounds Gurvichuyte and this name is written in my passport. It is my maiden name. In my relatives’ words, my paternal great grandfather was a chimney sweep. I do not know his first name, just surname –Gurvich. Great grandfather was from Lithuanian town Rumsiskes [80 km from Vilnius]. At that time, prior to Lithuanian independence [1] from Russian empire, great grandfather, a simple chimney-sweep, dreamt of getting rich. His dream came true. It was like a fairy-tale. A poor chimney-sweep, who bought all kinds of lotteries, won an all-Russian lottery prize. I do not know exactly how much money he got, but at that time it was a real fortune. My great grandfather bought a large house in Kaunas. He lived with his family there and raised his children. I have no idea how many children great grandfather had. One of them was my grandfather Jacob Gurvich, a rabbi of one of the many Kaunas synagogues. I did not know grandfather. He died in 1911. He was not senile; he died at the age of 60.