Discovering and learning about my Goldfarb cousins has been such a joyful adventure. And to illustrate why, let me tell you about how we identified everyone in this photograph:

Alyce had previously sent me this snip from that photograph of the people she believed were Malzbergs taken at her brother Stewart’s bar mitzvah in 1960:

Evelyn Ginsberg, Burt Malzberg seated. Standing, Gus Malzberg and Barbara Weinberg. Courtesy of Alyce Shapiro Kunstadt

Before I first posted it, I sent it to Steve Malzberg, who confirmed that the couple standing were his parents, Gustave and Barbara (Weinberg) Malzberg, and that the seated couple on the left were Burton and Evelyn (Ginsberg) Malzberg. But we didn’t know who the woman sitting to Burt’s left (our right) was, so I labeled her “unknown woman.”

Once I published the post I received an email from my cousin Ann and then one from her daughter Melissa informing me that the unknown woman was in fact Ann’s mother, Melissa’s grandmother, Marcia (Berger) Goldfarb. So I went back and relabeled the photo in my post.

That prompted Alyce to send us all the full photograph from which she had clipped that closeup, asking whether the man sitting to the left of Marcia (our right) was her husband Martin Goldfarb, which Ann and Melissa confirmed.

Then when Sue saw the whole photo, she identified the couple standing to the right of Gustave and Barbara as her mother and stepfather, Sylvia Goldfarb (daughter of Julius and Ida) and George Horowitz and the couple seated in front of them as Evelyn Goldfarb (daughter of Julius and Ida) and her husband Samuel Block.

That prompted Alyce to ask if George Horowitz had been a photographer as she vaguely recalled, and Sue confirmed that recollection.

So in the end we had names for everyone in that photograph. The three oldest Goldfarb siblings—Julius, Morris, and Bessie— were represented at that table by some of their children.

In fact, in 1960, five of the seven children of Sarah Brod and Sam Goldfarb were still living—Julius, Bessie, Joe, Leo, and Rose. Gussie and Morris had passed away by then. Were the five remaining siblings at the bar mitzvah?

Joe Goldfarb was the grandfather of the bar mitzvah boy and is in this photograph also taken at Stewart’s bar mitzvah:

Seymour Wahl and son Steven, Selma Goldfarb Wahl, Joe Goldfarb, Betty Amer Goldfarb, Francine Goldfarb Shapiro, Irving Shapiro, Alyce Shapiro, Stewart Shapiro, Florence Glasser Goldfarb, Marvin Goldfarb, c. 1957 Courtesy of Alyce Shapiro Kunstadt

But were Julius, Bessie, Leo, and Rose also in attendance? And what about the other members of the next generation—the other daughters of Julius and Ida, the other sons of Bessie and Meyer, and the other sons of Morris and Anna? Were they there? I guess we need to check the rest of the bar mitzvah album.

As they say, it takes a village. And amazingly we now have connected many of the children of the people who were seated together back in 1960.

Standing L to R, Gustave Malzberg, Barbara Weinberg Malzberg, George Horowitz, Sylvia Goldfarb Horowitz. Seated, L to R, Evelyn Ginsburg Malzberg, Burton Malzberg, Marcia Berger Goldfarb, Martin Goldfarb, Samuel Block, Evelyn Goldfarb Block.

I have another big group photo that was labeled “Goldfarbs and Malzbergs” that I asked this group of cousins to identify. Next time.