---
title: "Falk Zhmood"
url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/falk-zhmood/
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: "The oldest documented ancestor of the direct line. We know he existed and what he was called because his son appears in the 1858 census identified as “son of Falik”."
---
# Falk Zhmood

**Evidence status: documented.** The oldest documented ancestor of the direct line. We know he existed and what he was called because his son appears in the 1858 census identified as “son of Falik”.

c. 1797 – 1840 · The oldest documented ancestor

## Other spellings

Falk Zmudya, Falik

## Summary

- Born: around 1797, Ludza
- Died: around 1840
- Documented in: The 1858 census, through the patronymic

## Family

- Father: Alexander Zhmuydya — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/alexander-zhmuydya/
- Children: David Zmud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/david-zhmuydya/

## What is known

No paper written by him or about him survives. His name reaches us through a single word in the 1858 census: when recording his son, the census-taker wrote “David Falikov Zmud”, and “Falikov” in Russian means “son of Falik”.

He died around 1840. His name was not lost: the Ashkenazi Jewish custom was to name a child after a deceased relative, which is why the name Falk —or Falik, or Folke— reappears again and again in the following generations. Felix himself bore that name.

## Parentage, version by version

- The JewishGen trees (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/jewishgen/) — father: Alexander Zhmuydya; mother: not named — unverified. “Falk Zhmuydya, 1797–1840, son of Aleksander Zhmuydya and Dvorka, married to Ester”. No document of this research gives Falk's patronymic.
- Chaim Freedman, February 2020 (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/freedman-february-2020/) — father: not named — unverified. The report does not go above Falk.
- Chaim Freedman, October 2020 (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/freedman-october-2020/) — father: Alexander Zhmuydya — unverified. “Aleksander (Sender) Zmood, whose son Falk was the father of David”: no document gives Falk's patronymic.

## Surname variants

- Zhmood — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/name-variants/zhmood/

## In the timeline

- c. 1797 — Falk Zhmood is born

## Places

- Ludza — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/ludza/

## Where this comes from

- The 1858 census (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#censo-1858

## In FamilySearch's collaborative tree (not a source)

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/PX8V-Y1N

---

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