In a twist of fate, a family straddles the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Daniel Estrin discovered while reporting from Ukraine that the current geopolitical drama touches his family's history in unexpected ways.
Updated February 13, 2022 at 2:33 PM ET
KYIV, Ukraine — In 1912, my great-grandfather Jacob Estrin said goodbye to his family in Ukraine, landed at Ellis Island, and eight days later, the Titanic sank. The family legend is that his mother thought he had been on board, and died of heartbreak before his first letter could reach home.
One hundred and 10 years later, I board a rickety elevator in a Kyiv apartment building to visit the family that my father's father's father left behind. Our family, separated and reunited through decades of wars, now unexpectedly straddles a new conflict in Ukraine.
"Your hair turned gray over these ten years. I remember a
