Family History

Father's Side

My father is a non-observant Jew and my mother is an atheist Roman Catholic.  I do not know tremendous details of my family's history however I have some information.

My father was born in 1939 in Budapest, Hungary.  My father had three uncles.  My father lived in the Jewish Ghetto I believe it was District 13 of Budapest when the Arrowcross Party came to power,  My grandfather (my father's father) either died or was taken to Siberia along with my father's three uncles.  I am unsure of their fates however one of my uncles did marry a Hungarian woman who had two daughters.  

During  WWII my grandmother (my father's mother) was  travelling on a train in Hungary with her sister and when they were asked for tickets by the  conductor he discovered they were Jews.  Both of them were deported to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.  After the war when the camp was liberated my aunt died of dysentery.  

My great grandfather was killed during bombing of the Budapest ghetto when a piece of shrapnel struck him in his head killing him.

Before Nuremburg, in my distant family on my father's side there were some farming Jews who numbered ten siblings and they emigrated to the region known as Palestine as that time.  My father says that line of my distant family is living within the orthodox district of Israel. My father also told me that in our family there was a side of aristocrats.  My grandfather was from an aristocratic family line of Jews and my grandmother's side was from a line of Jews who were farmers.  My grandfather disappeared either through death or relocation to Siberia and my grandmother remarried.  

My father had a  Bar Mitzvah in a synagogue in Budapest that is now a museum.  My father's surname is Garai however that is not our ancestral name as it was changed possibly by my great grandfather to that name.  My great grandfather's name is Miklos which is where I get my middle name.

According to my father my ancestral names are Goldschmidt and Rothschild.  

My father and mother have been divorced for well over 25 years and he is remarried.  

Mother's Side

My mother is an atheist Roman Catholic and grew up in Communist Hungary.  Her parents split apart for whatever reasons.  My mother had a brother and sister both of whom have died.  My grandfather on my mother's side was from Romania particularly the Hungarian region.  My mother had a daughter from her first marriage, my sister.  There is extended family in Toronto however I know nothing about them.  I met my cousin when I was around around five years old and did not remain in contact with her.  

My sister is married to the same man for over thirty years and she has a son and a daughter with him.  

My Marriage

I was married to a young woman who had two children with me (unfortunately due to infidelity on my ex-wife's part while we were together I am unsure if the children she gave birth to are even my blood relatives our the children of a man she had sexual relations with while we were together).  I believe I have a son and a daughter.  They are both adults now.  I am divorced.

Current Family Status

My father, mother and sister do not communicate with each other.  I am not in touch with my ex-wife and have not been involved with either of my children since 12007.  I am currently divorced for well over ten years and I have been a bachelor since 2006.  Technically my marriage relationship ended without me realizing it in 2004.

My aspiration at this stage of my life is to complete a conversion to Judaism and marry a Jewish woman.  I seek to restore my Jewish family line with future Jewish children.  I am uninterested in raising a Christian family and seek to establish a future Jewish lineage again.