Josephine Rosenblum asks whether anybody has ever heard of a brother's
taking his dead brother's given name. Though I haven't heard of this, I
have heard of a new-born infant's being given the same name as that of a
deceased brother. My maternal grandparents named their first child David.
This child died of pneumonia at age 6 (sometime in the late 19th century).
He was a beautiful boy; and my grandmother always liked showing us his
picture, which she brought out with great pride and pleasure as if saying,
"This is the beautiful, wonderful child I had," rather than, "This is the
child I lost." Later, there was a second, unfortunate David, who was
diagnosed with dementia praecox at age 16 and was in and out of the
Minnesota State mental institution for most of the rest of his life. I've
always wondered whether giving the 2nd David the same name as that of a
first-born son whose life was prematurely cut off somehow put a Jewish
curse, a hurra (spelling?), on him! My grandparents were devout Lithuanian
orthodox Jews, though (my grandfather having been an orthodox rabbi), and
surely wouldn't have done anything totally against religious precepts or
tradition.

On a somewhat related note, I've recently found out (if my grandmother's
death certificate can be trusted) that my maternal grandmother seems to
have had the same name as her mother: Anna. I've speculated that perhaps
my great grandmother died giving birth to my grandmother. If anyone has
any other ideas to explain this oddity, though, I'd be glad to hear them.

Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld
marjorie.rosenfeld@...
Carlsbad, CA

Researching: JUDELSOHN/UDELSON, Zemaiciu Naumiestis ("Neishtat"),
Lithuania; KOVARSKY, Vilnius, Lithuania; WEISSER, Vishnevets, Ukraine;
STAMM, Brody, Ukraine.