125 Years Later: Golivesky Cousins Meet at Camp

When Abby and Emily Warden attended Camp Barney Medintz for the first time this past summer, they knew they might see some relatives there. What they didn’t know, however, was exactly how many they’d meet. At lunch one day, their names, along with eight others, were called – each of them told to meet outside.

“I was like ‘who are these people?’” Emily Warden said.

One of those people was Devin Golivesky, who had pretty quickly figured out what was going on. “They were asking us, ‘What’s your name, and who are your parents,’” Devin Golivesky said, “They were trying to get us to see if we could figure out how we were all related.”

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His younger brother, Grant Golivesky, caught on shortly afterwards. “I was just confused at first,” Grant Golivesky said, “but then I was like ‘oh wait, I’m related to all these people.’”

All told there were 10 cousins, some more distant and some more closely related to each other, but all sharing a common, recent ancestor – one Devin and Grant Golivesky already knew something about.

Nathan Golivesky (right) and his wife, Bayle “Bessie” Golivesky (left).

“Somehow, not by design, I’ve kind of become the Golivesky historian” said the boys’ father, Alan Golivesky, displaying a watch engraved with the initials N. G. – Nathan Golivesky, the forefather of the cousins that met at camp.

“Nathan and his wife, Bayle, had two kids,” Alan Golivesky said, “Well, three, technically, but one died before they came to America.”

Nathan, born in 1865, had fled to America around 1900, during the pogroms in Russia under Tsar Nicholas II. The story goes that he walked from Savannah all the way to Valdosta, and shortly made enough money to bring the remainder of his family there with him. The family became an important part of the already established, but small, Valdosta Hebrew Congregation (now Temple Israel).

“Nathan housed the first Torah down in Valdosta in his own home,” said Alan Golivesky, “His son, my grandfather, Abe, brokered the deal for the Jewish section of the cemetery in Valdosta. And my dad, Norman, managed the plots in the cemetery for 40 or 50 years.”

Since then, Nathan’s descendants have spread out across America, with some living in Georgia, some in Virginia, and some in Florida – though, since the recent passing of Lamar Golivesky, none remain in Valdosta. The fact they all reunited at Camp Barney, and the fact that anyone realized they were all there at once, was an interesting matter of chance.

“One of my first cousins [Karen Stark], we were talking on the phone for some reason,” Alan Golivesky said, “and she says, ‘did you know there are 10 cousins at Camp Barney right now?’”

After a few phone calls to the camp, the little reunion was organized, with more than a few surprises in store. Emma Levin found that she had not one, but two, distant cousins in the same cabin as her – Abby Warden and Taylor Smith.

“Both of our parents sent us letters, and we were reading our letters and we both looked at each other and we’re like ‘Oh, we’re cousins,’” Emma Levin said, “and then we looked at Taylor and we’re like ‘We’re all three cousins.’” She had been going to camp with several of the cousins for years, without realizing she was related to them.

Meanwhile, Emily Warden didn’t find any new relations among the campers in her cabin – instead, she found one with a counselor, Lindsey Mirsky.

“I already knew a second cousin named Jordan,” Emily Warden said, “but then the first time I met Lindsey was when we were getting assigned to our cabins. She sent her mom all the names of the kids in her cabin. Her mom said that Lindsey was related to me.”

“It’s a very small world, especially for Jewish people,” Emma Levin’s dad, Brian Levin, joked – but it’s also an interesting truth.

Professor Itsik Pe’er, who studies the statistics of Ashkenazi genetics/relations, notes that hidden relationships in the Ashkenazi community are reasonably common. “For any random Ashkenazi individuals A, B, and C, it is reasonably likely that A-B are fourth cousins, A-C are fourth cousins, and B-C are fourth cousins,” he said.

Still, what happened with these 10 cousins was rather remarkable. “Having a specific group of 10 people share the same fourth or fifth generation ancestor is highly unlikely,” Pe’er noted.

This is not lost on Nathan Golivesky’s youngest descendants.

“Everything started with one man, and his dream to start life in South Georgia,” said Devin Golivesky, “It’s just kind of hard to process that all 10 of us are descendants of that same person meeting all at the same summer camp.”