---
title: "Oral tradition"
url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/oral-tradition/
lang: en
work: "The Smud Family: A Jewish Family History from Ludza, Latvia to Entre Ríos, Argentina"
author: "Mateo Smud"
licence: CC0-1.0
summary: "What the families told from generation to generation and no document confirms: that Felix had a brother, Leon Moises Zmud; that the Zmoods, Komisaruks and Grinblats came from a common ancestor; that Moshe Zmood and Rochel Yovel were cousins; that the family descended from a rabbi, or from the Gaon."
---
# Oral tradition

What the families told from generation to generation and no document confirms: that Felix had a brother, Leon Moises Zmud; that the Zmoods, Komisaruks and Grinblats came from a common ancestor; that Moshe Zmood and Rochel Yovel were cousins; that the family descended from a rabbi, or from the Gaon.

Oral tradition is not a tree: it is scattered statements, from different branches, that almost never say who is whose child. So this version is this research's tree with the only thing tradition does say in those terms: that Felix had a brother, Leon Moises Zmud, father of an Ana Zmud who was Alejandro's first cousin. He must not be confused with Moshe, Koppel's son.

The rest are relationships that cannot be drawn as filiations. In Melbourne, Maurice Zmood told Chaim Freedman that the Zmoods, the Grinblats and the Komisaruks came from a common ancestor in Lithuania, and that his grandparents, Moshe Zmood and Rochel Yovel, were cousins. A Grinblat had been told they descended from “a Gaon”. In Argentina it was said that the Smuds descended from a rabbi. Freedman searched for decades for the documents behind those stories: some were confirmed by later marriages between the families; the common ancestor and the Gaon still have no paper that shows them.

## Filiation by filiation

- **Leon Moises Zmud** — father: Koppel Zhmood; mother: Dvorka — unverified. The Argentine family said that Felix and Leon Moises Zmud were brothers. No document confirms or refutes it.

## The tree in this version

- Leizer Zhmuydya (c. 1725) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/leizer-zhmuydya/
  - Yehuda Zhmuydya (1748 – 1806) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/yehuda-zhmuydya/
    - Alexander Zhmuydya (1778 – 1834) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/alexander-zhmuydya/
      - Falk Zhmood (c. 1797 – 1840) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/falk-zhmood/
        - David Zmud (c. 1818 – 1880) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/david-zhmuydya/
          - married to Khana Reizel
          - Koppel Zhmood (c. 1838 – c. 1900) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/koppel-zhmood/
            - married to Dvorka (child of Aba Senderov Zmudya and Chana)
            - Moshe Zhmood
            - Pesach Zhmood
            - Hinda Ana Zhmood
            - Manyik Zhmood
            - Tybel Zhmood
            - Felix Smud (c. 1860/68 – c. 1909) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/felix-smud/
              - married to Malke Noel (child of Meyer)
              - Alejandro Smud (1897 – 1959) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/alejandro-smud/
                - married to Isabel Loyber
              - Marcos Smud (1899 – 1951) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/marcos-smud/
                - married to Esther Klaiserburd
              - Aida Smud (1904 – 1992) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/aida-smud/
                - married to Pablo Freiberg
            - Leon Moises Zmud
          - Falk Zhmood, the Nogaysk merchant (c. 1840 – 1904) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/falk-zhmood-nogaysk/
          - Leyzer Zhmood (s. XIX)

## The other versions

- This research — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/
- What the documents show — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/documents/
- FamilySearch's collaborative tree — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/familysearch/
- The JewishGen trees — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/jewishgen/
- Chaim Freedman, February 2020 — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/freedman-february-2020/
- Chaim Freedman, October 2020 — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/freedman-october-2020/

---

The Smud Family · genealogical research by Mateo Smud, published under CC0 1.0. Machine index: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/llms.txt