This is my paternal grandfather Gershen Bogdanov. The picture was taken in 1910. My grandfather and his family lived in the village of Parichi near Babruysk. My grandparents were born in Parichi. Many generations were born in that village. Grandfather was a peasant. He rented land from a landlord and cultivated it by himself. He grew wheat, corn and potatoes. The money he got for the harvest was enough to get by till the next fall.

My Grandmother Nekhama was a housewife, which was customary for Jewish families. There were three children in the family: the first-born, Folia, then the middle one, Noson, and my father Jacob.

I never met my grandmother; she passed away in 1927. I knew my grandfather though. He always wore a hat. He had a long beard and payot.