---
title: "Marcos Smud"
url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/marcos-smud/
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: "Born on 25 January 1899 in Mariupol. His birth record is the most important document in this story: it is what made it possible, a century later, to learn who his father and grandfather had been."
---
# Marcos Smud

**Evidence status: documented.** Born on 25 January 1899 in Mariupol. His birth record is the most important document in this story: it is what made it possible, a century later, to learn who his father and grandfather had been.

1899 – 1951 · The boy in the Mariupol birth record

## Other spellings

Meyer Zhmud, Meir, Meier

## Summary

- Born: 25 January 1899, Mariupol
- Calendar: Julian. Today's equivalent is 6 February 1899
- Died: 1951
- Married: Esther Klaiserburd, around 1922
- Towns: Aranguren and Ramírez, Entre Ríos
- Buried: Paraná, Entre Ríos

## Family

- Father: Felix Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/felix-smud/
- Mother: Malke Noel — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/malke-noel/
- Married: Esther Klaiserburd

## What is known

He reached Buenos Aires at the age of five, on 23 December 1904, with his mother and his two siblings. He went to primary school in Buenos Aires and qualified as a bookkeeper at the Antonio Bermejo School of Commerce.

He found work in Aranguren, Nogoyá department, in a general store owned by the Jozami brothers. Around 1922 he married Esther Klaiserburd. He lived in Aranguren and in Ramírez. He died in 1951.

His gravestone, in Paraná, preserves his Hebrew name: it calls him Meir Smud, and names his father as Folke. In other words, on the Argentine side the gravestone says the same thing the birth record says on the Russian side —the son was called Meir, the father Folke— but with the surname already in its Spanish form. It is the piece that joined the two halves of this story.

## Photographs

![Studio portrait of the Smud family: Ester Malka seated, in a dark dress with a lace front; beside her Aida, in a light dress; Marcos and Alejandro in short suits and bows, one of them holding a cane; and Felix standing, his hand on one of his sons' shoulder.](https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/fotos/felix-smud-ester-malka-y-familia.jpg)

**Felix Smud and Ester Malka with their children.** Felix Smud and Ester Malka with their three children: the girl is Aida; the two boys are Alejandro and Marcos (Meyer), though it is not known which is which. Undated. (documented.)

## Parentage, version by version

- What the documents show (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/documents/) — father: Felix Smud; mother: Malke Noel — documented. Meyer, son of Falik and Ester Malka, born in Mariupol on 25 January 1899.

## Surname variants

- Zhmud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/name-variants/zhmud/
- Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/name-variants/smud/

## In the timeline

- 1899 — The Mariupol birth record
- August 1904 — Malke leaves Berdyansk with the three children
- 23 December 1904 — The ship docks in Buenos Aires
- c. 1915 — Malke dies and the siblings move to Entre Ríos
- c. 1922 — Marcos marries Esther Klaiserburd
- 1951 — Marcos dies
- 2026 — The circle closes

## Places

- Mariupol — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/mariupol/
- Buenos Aires — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/buenos-aires/
- Aranguren — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/aranguren/
- Paraná — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/parana/
- Berdyansk — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/berdyansk/
- Bremen — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/bremen/

## Where this comes from

- Marcos's birth record (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#partida-1899
- Marcos's gravestone, in Paraná (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#lapida-parana
- The 1904 immigration register (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#registro-inmigracion-1904
- Rubén's document, October 1996 (family memory) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/ruben-1996/

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

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GLQK-8B7

---

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