One of Ari’s 6x great-grandmothers was called Itka. She was born in 1804 in Lithuania, probably in Svencionys (also known as Švenčionys, Sventzion, Święciany, Shventsian, Śvianciany, Schwintzen, Švenčoņi, Svencionyz, Shvintzion, Shvyentsiani, Shvyetsiani, Sventsian, Sventsiany, Swenziany, and Svintzian!). I don’t have any photos of Itka, but here are some of her descendants and their families in South Africa. Itka is a derivative of the name Judith, according to Alexander Bei

One of Ari’s Lithuanian ancestors was Moses Gurvich, the father of LK Hurwitz. Moses was known as Movsha or Moshe, and his middle name was Nison. He was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather. Moses was born in about 1847 in Svencionys, Lithuania and died aged 73 in 1920, also in Lithuania. He worked as a timber merchant. The middle name proved to be the clue that enabled me to discover relatives in Wisconsin a couple of years ago (before that I had no idea about his parents or brothers