ALBANY PARK — Albany Park has long served as a gateway for Chicago's immigrants, among them the grandparents of Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman.
Hoffman made the discovery while participating in the PBS series "Finding Your Roots," having set out, at the beginning of an episode that aired Tuesday, to learn more about his father's family.
Now 78, Hoffman didn't know so much as his paternal grandfather's first name — the actor's father never spoke of him. After combing through records and archives, the show's host, Henry Louis Gates, revealed the tragic reason why.
In 1920, the elder Hoffman, Frank, a Russian Jew, left his wife and son behind in Chicago and returned to his homeland to rescue his father from persecution by the Bolsheviks, Gates surmised.
He disappeared, never to return, and the paper trail ran cold until Gates came across a 1934 article from the Chicago Tribune.
"Widow Will Sue Russia in Death of Her Husband," the headline reads.
A Chicago Tribune article from 1934 revealed the fate of Hoffman's grandfather. [Finding Your Roots]
Esther Hoffman, Dustin's grandmother, sued the then Soviet Union for $150,000 in the execution of her husband. At the time, the article states she was living at 4947 N. Whipple St.
"Man, your grandmother had chutzpah," Gates says.
"So, my grandmother, she's in Chicago. And my father is there. He has to know what's going on. And the fact that it was never brought up," Hoffman responds. "My poor dad."
Click here to watch the full episode.
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