Note: please see my 2023 update
Tomorrow, I’m going to travel to Israel with my mom. It’s going to be a little different than other trips I’ve taken in that there’s a much more involved backstory.
About 7 years ago, my mom was going through papers, and came across a letter to her father (my grandfather), who had passed away. The letter was from the State of Israel, claiming my grandfather’s father (her grandfather) may have owned some land in Israel. Sounds awesome!
Instant inheritance, right? Not quite. My mom had to prove her lineage, which was difficult because she needed an address for her grandparents, which she did not have. She got a copy of some census data in New York from the 1930s, and a copy of my great-grandfather’s application to pharmacy school and finally found an address that matched.
Another bump in the road: my great-grandfather had two kids. One, my grandfather William, and the other, his brother Morris. Morris was estranged and nobody knows where he went, and no death certificate has turned up. If alive, he would be in his 90s. At the age of 120, Morris can be considered biblically dead, and so the land would go 100% to William’s descendants. In the meantime, 50% of the land is just chilling for another 30 years.
After finding a lawyer in Israel with a reasonable fee structure, my mom is set up to sell this land. She and her sister each get 50% of the money–after some heavy taxes and fees.
Once my mom had finally gotten everything set up to be sold, I asked her if she had ever seen the land, or that area. Nope. Then I asked if she wanted to visit. So here we are, about to travel across the world to check out this land she’s inherited!
Also we’re going to meet some second and third cousins while we’re there!