Yakov Sverdlov--Some sketchy information a great niece

[Written to Hana, who invited me to add details as I could. This is here by way of background, sketchy and perhaps useful to those researching descendants of Yakov Sverdlov.

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Unfortunately, I have few details to contribute. I will offer what I have here.

My maternal grandmother, Yetta Sverdlov, came to the U.S. in the early 1900s from Russia with her family, fleeing religious persecution. We believe she was born about 1890.

We don't know when she arrived or with whom.

She arrived at Ellis Island, where the name was rendered Swerdlow

She lived briefly in Brooklyn and moved to Cleveland, where she met Jacob Olshansky and had five children

She never learned English and we knew few details about her background.

We knew about Yakov Sverdlov as part of our heritage but had no living contacts in Russia who could tell us anything. At a time of anti-communism and some anti-Semitism in the US, we were told later, our connection was referred to with some shame or disparagement, not pride.

Yetta died in 1970; I believe she was 80. She left no documents or photos from Russia.

This is not much to go on.

Based on the family tree, my guess is that Yetta's father might have been Aleksandr http://jewage.org/wiki/en/Special:GTreeViewer/Aleksandr_Sverdlov_%28_%3F%29

This is pure hunch. I assume my grandmother's father was poor but don't know that. She came here with nothing but that does not mean she was necessarily poor in Russia, or more to the point that her father was not at some point prosperous.

Her father might have been Lev or Venjamin, Yakov Sverdlov's other brothers [if I am reading the tree right]. The family tree shows no marriages for any of the men, but I assume that is due to a lack of information, not because it's known they did not marry or have children.

Looking at the tree, and knowing that the information I have is all oral and not documented, it's possible that in fact our relationship is more complex, that there is a trail between Yetta Sverdlov and Yakov Sverdlov that is less direct.

I have communicated with one US Sverdlov, a man who worked at Yale University, about 20 years ago and he believed but could not verify, a paternal great-nephew of Yakov Sverdlov. We could not identify a connection we shared.

I don't think any living US relative of ours has more information. I will point them to the site to see if that helps stir a realization.

Craig Stoltz Bethesda, Maryland stoltzc@gmail.com

ps Here is an article I wrote for the Washington Post about my son's and my recent trip to Russia--not to find relatives, but to explore the biography and life of Sverdlov as it is available in contemporary Russia. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/12/AR2009061201544.html