I’ve adapted Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.
Each week I follow my children’s ahnentafel numbering to select the featured ancestor, ensuring no one through the mid–sixth generation is left behind.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2026 Week 45: A Family Value

Introduction

My Week 45 ancestor is the mother of Mortchel Rabinovich, my husband’s great-grandfather.

I don’t know much about her. I don’t even know her name for certain. But I’ve found some intriguing clues in the records, and they may tell us something about a family value that continued into the next generation.

As is often the case with records from this time and place, I’ve encountered several spellings of the family name, including Rabinovich and Rabinowitz. Mortchel’s given name also appears in different forms. For consistency, I’ll generally use Mortchel and Rabinovich here, except when referring to a particular record.

Discerning a Name

Using vital records, I believe I’ve identified several siblings of Mortchel.

Feiga Rabinovich, who I believe was a slightly older sister, married, and her marriage record names her mother as Chana.

Leja Rabinovich, probably a slightly younger sister, named her mother in her marriage record as Chana Krygier, daughter of Szmerek.

Izrael Rabinovich, a little younger than Leja, died as a youngster. His record names his mother as Chana, daughter of Smerek.

There was also a sister, Basha, born not long afterward, although her mother’s name was not recorded.

Taken together, these records give me good reason to believe that Mortchel’s mother was also Chana, quite possibly Chana Krygier, daughter of Szmerek.

What Happened to Chana?

I believe I’ve identified another younger brother, born about seven years after Basha. This time, however, the mother’s name was Tauba, daughter of Zelik.

That raises an interesting possibility. Did Chana die sometime during those seven years, leaving her husband Rubin to remarry?

I don’t yet have records to confirm this, but it seems a reasonable explanation for the change in the mother’s name.

A Name Carried Forward

I haven’t been able to identify children of Mortchel’s other nearby siblings, but I did find something interesting about Basha, also known as Basia.

In 1863, she had a daughter whom she named Chana.

Among Ashkenazi Jewish families, it has long been customary to name children in memory of deceased relatives. If this tradition was followed in the Rabinovich family, Basha may have named her daughter in memory of her own mother.

Chana is generally rendered as Hannah in English and is sometimes associated with Grace. These are familiar names in our family.

Of course, a shared name doesn’t prove that the child was named specifically for her grandmother, or that Chana had died by 1863. But it does give me another reason to wonder about Chana’s fate.

My Theory

I suspect Chana may not have lived a long life. Although I know little about her beyond the names in a handful of records, perhaps her memory survived in the names given to later generations.

For me, that’s one way to interpret this week’s theme of A Family Value.

Honoring those who came before us can take many forms. In this family, one of those forms may have been giving a child the name of an ancestor.

It’s a way of remembering someone through something that child will carry throughout their life.

And perhaps that’s how Chana’s name lived on, even when so much of her story was lost.

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

Next Week’s Topic: An Ancestor Who Took a Risk