PHOTO GALLERIES

Let's Celebrate Maurice Furchgott's Centennial

On April 11, 2024, Maurice Furchgott reached his 100th birthday! His wife Debra and son Roy hosted a grand party for his nieces and nephews and family friends in Towson, Maryland. Over 100 attended. Attached below are some pictures from the event. All of us in the Furchgott / Furchtgott family send our best wishes to Maurice on this landmark occasion!

PHOTOS OF JEANNE DREYFOOS

On August 19, 2023, we lost our oldest family matriarch, Jeanne Pinkerson Dreyfoos, at the age of 101.  Dale Dreyfoos put together a brief slideshow “Jeanne Through The Years”. Also see the section “Notes and Correspondence” on this website for her obiturary and other memories.

PICTURES FROM MAXINE WALTERS

Uncle Maurice passed these to me a month or so ago which he received from Maxine Walters who I believe is a cousin.  These photos are of our grandmother Dora Brown Furchgott grandmother Yetta Rashbaum (mother of Clara Rashbaum Brown). The pictures date from the mid 1800s.  One of them shows her holding a fan.  We were told that was taken before she was married.  We were told that the other one of her in dark clothing shows her as a widow in mourning. 

Additional comments / clarification from David Furchgott:

Just a reminder, since it seems often mistaken: Dee Brown's family of origin is only related to those of you who are Melvin Brown (senior) descendants, not to the rest of the family on the website. Thus far, the website has been a patrilineally focused history of common ancestors. For example, there are other Brown's (originally Braun's) that are in the Arthur Furchgott "line" from a totally different (but very interesting) Brown family that came to the US and to SC in the 1840s or 50s). That family's information has not been added to the family tree -- nor has information from Aunt Nat's (great uncle Oscar's wife's) family.

Adding one more thought to consider: With the exception of Gene's son Seth, I don't believe that there are any other male descendants in the next generation of the entire Max/Bertha Furchgott family line (that is our common great grandparents), that carry the Furchgott name patrilineally to the next generation. Roy, Charles, and I have no male Furchgott-name-bearing descendants. That's true at least among our "t-less" Furchgotts (as opposed to the Furchtgotts with a middle 't"). I'm not making any particular value judgement about patrilineal naming, other than to point it out.

One other obscure matter of note: Our family has had a direct connection with the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim reform temple in Charleston (the birthplace of Reform Judaism) since the 1860s, that is for nearly 170 years. Those of you who have attended the past reunions in Charleston know that nearly two dozen of our ancestors from the Max/Bertha Furchgott family line are buried in the KKBE "modern" (post-1900) cemetery. One of our ancestors (Anna Furchgott, the infant daughter of great, great uncle Herman Furchgott) is buried in the famous KKBE Coming Street cemetery, the oldest Jewish burial site in the south.

I have made the totally undocumented assertion to our more Orthodox Furchtgott relatives, that it is possible that our ancestors in eastern Europe who came to the US in the 1860s might have been affiliated with the Neolog branch of Judaism that was popular among assimilated Jews in that part of Austro-Hungary. Neologs were the Reforms Jews of their time in the 19th century in what is now today's Slovakia. Jeremy Furchtgott, who has done research on the European family roots has found nothing to corroborate my assertion, but I believe that he has found nothing to contradict it either. Affiliation with Neolog Judaism would explain why Max Furchgott joined the Reform synagogue in Charleston when he arrived rather than the Orthodox one. This is only a supposition -- but an interesting one to consider.