Quote Originally Posted by Mike_Oettle View Post
Almost all the Jews who settled in South Africa during the 19th century came from the Russian Empire; in fact well over 90% were from a small area close to the Lithuanian/Latvian border. Their communities of origin all suffered under Nazi occupation during the Second World War: not a single Jew lives in those towns today. Most died in places like Auschwitz.
This is waayyyy OT, but historically pertinent:
Mike,
A lot of Eastern European Jews didn't make it to a concentration camp. In an episode of the NBC show "Who Do You Think You Are" - sponsored by Ancestry.com - which traces celebrities' family roots (with their active cooperation), Rashida Jones discovers her mother's (Jewish) family was Latvian, and many of the Jews in their hometown were taken to the forest outside town, shot, and buried in a mass grave. I have also read reports of many Ukranian Jews meeting a similar fate - just taken to the nearby woods, shot and buried.


You may be able to watch the episode online. (We can here in the US, but I don't know about international availability.)

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Many Borders clans have fewer 'septs' listed. (From what I've been told, "clans" as we understand them now were more of a Highlands 'thing'). In the Borders, they tend to think more along the lines of 'associated families' rather than formal 'clans', and a lot more people adopted (or were assigned) the surname of their landlord when a surname became necessary.