From a small town in Lithuania,
eight children.
From them, the world.

The Buchman / Buchmann / Bookman family, descended from Zvi Buchmann of Klykoliai. Eleven cities, ten countries, one quietly stubborn line.

The story, briefly

A century, eight branches, one origin.

Zvi Buchmann, son of Yitzhak and Chopa Esther, married Rivka Stein in Klykoliai — a town in what was then Russia, then Lithuania, then briefly Latvia, depending on the decade and the map. Their eight children — Noah, Mendel Leibel, Hanna-Rocha, Brina, Meyer, Aaron, Fruma and Dov Bereh — were born there, or in Riga, or in Mitau.

They left, mostly. By the time their grandchildren were grown the family had farms in Norway, doctors in the Netherlands, shopkeepers in Manchester, an orchard in Provence, descendants in the Montana land rush, a knighthood from the Queen, and a habit of meeting again every decade or so to remember why.

This site is a small attempt to keep that record. It will be incomplete for a long time.

— Stefan Buchman, sixth generation from Zvi

Contents

Where to begin.

  1. 01The storyKlykoliai, the eight children, the leaving, the reunions. About a thousand words.
  2. 02The branchesOne card per child of Zvi. Where their descendants live now, who they are.
  3. 03The treeSix generations, expandable, searchable. Coming with V2.
  4. 04GatheringsSix reunions since 1999 — Denmark, New Zealand, the United States, Norway, Israel, the Netherlands. Mapped, with photographs and write-ups to follow.
  5. 05About this siteWhy it exists, who maintains it, how to contribute or correct.