Albert Einstein

It is without any doubt that Albert Einstein is the man of the century, Jew of the century (Jew of all-time is still Jesus, of course), for what he had contributed to the world and helped shaped the world into what it is today, especially in the field of physics (my baby's pet subject, and my least favorite). Einstein's many contributions to physics include his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism, and his general theory of relativity, which was intended to extend the principle of relativity to non-uniform motion and to provide a new theory of gravitation. His other contributions include relativistic cosmology, capillary action, critical opalescence, classical problems of statistical mechanics and their application to quantum theory, an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules, atomic transition probabilities, the quantum theory of a monatomic gas, thermal properties of light with low radiation density (which laid the foundation for the photon theory), a theory of radiation including stimulated emission, the conception of a unified field theory, and the geometrization of physics.

I had always been interested learn about his family tree, to know if he had any offsprings to carry on his genius genes, and who his ancestors were. After spending some time searching, I learnt that he had only one surviving grandchild - Bernhard Caesar Einstein, 78 this year. Of Einstein's three children, Bernard's father Hans was the only one to marry and have children. Lieserl Einstein is assumed to have died in infancy (although other theories suggest that she was given up for adoption within the first few weeks of her life and lived to around 58 years old before dying), and Eduard Einstein developed schizophrenia and had no children.

Bernard Caesar Einstein has five children; the eldest is Thomas Einstein, a medical doctor specializing in anesthesia and working at the

Clavin Center, a center for plastic and cosmetic surgery in Santa Monica, California. That makes Thomas Einstein the great grandchild of Albert Einstein. So, looks like the great grandson is continuing his great grandfather's legacy of shaping the world - by helping to shape people's faces and other body parts! (By the way, I am against plastic surgery for "beautification" purposes. God made us "perfect" in His sight. No adjustments required. But if it is for facial reconstruction after a terrible burn accident, then it's ok.) I wonder if Dr Thomas is married or have any kids?

What about the person who started the Einstein family? Let's see... ah! It is God, of course :)

Let's see how far back we can trace Albert Einstein's ancestors... the very first Einstein was Baruch Moyses Einstein, the great great great great great grandfather of Albert Einstein. And there were no other records before this man. Probably there was another Einstein before him, probably not too. No one knows, except God. Please remind me to ask God when I am in heaven ;)

It's really interesting how people in developed countries had managed to keep such a good record of their ancestry and genealogy. How I wish to keep records of my own family tree too. And to do a proper one would require me to go all the way back to China, and upgrade my Mandarin or my dialect - Chao Ann. Not many people seems to be interested in keeping track of who's who in this part of the world. Among my hundreds of friends, I doubt that even one had even thought of starting to keep records of their own family tree. Hmmmm...

What about you? Do you know who your great great great great great grandfather was?