Like a lot of Jews from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 19th Century,

[no_hypocrisy]

my great grandparents "lost" their birth names and assumed names and identities chosen for them by Immigration. Both first and last names.

I couldn't do genealogical research without their true names.

Then I went to Find A Grave. I had a friend translate the three lines of Hebrew that are above the English memorializing their "American" names. The Hebrew listed their birth names as well as their fathers' true name. It's almost like their birth names are a secret that could only be put in a language, hidden from the world.

But at last, I know who they were.