Russian history/geography

stacey · May 2010

I need some help. My son and I are tracing our ancestors and have hit a snag. Well not so much a snag as beyond my limited knowledge of Eastern Europe and Russia.

My grandfather has listed his place of birth as Kamanetz, Russia. He emigrated here in 1881. When I try to search for Kamanetz I keep getting things like Kamanetz Podolsk, Kamanetz-Litvosk and some maps show it as being closer to Poland than Russia.

Then when I mapquest I get 3 "Did you mean?" And all three are in Russia.
http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&gfns=1&q=kamenetz russia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

Does anyone know if there was only one Kamanetz around 1881?

brooklyncb8 · May 2010

Stacey - I had some questions about my grandmother, who was born in Poland, near the Russian border. The Polish embassy was able to give me a lot of help with exactly where the borders were during each year and where her town was located.

You might want to try the Russian Consulate and see if somebody can help you:

Address: 9 East 91 Street, New York, NY 10128
Telephone: (212) 348-0926 Fax: (212) 831-9162

stacey · May 2010

Thank you xoxoxo

chunkymunky · May 2010

stacey wrote: Thank you xoxoxo

good luck, mami, hope they can help you!

superclam · May 2010

Stacey, am I correct to assume you are Jewish?
I know my grandparents came from various towns in what is now Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. From what my grandmother told us, the borders switched often between Poland, Russia and even Germany. (This is pre and then post WW1)
Is it possible she came from one of the SSR's?

superclam · May 2010

See if this makes any sense:
http://www.flora-and-sam.com/finalversion/finishedversion/pages/KamenetsLitovsk.htm

stacey · May 2010

Superclam wrote: Stacey, am I correct to assume you are Jewish?
I know my grandparents came from various towns in what is now Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. From what my grandmother told us, the borders switched often between Poland, Russia and even Germany. (This is pre and then post WW1)
Is it possible she came from one of the SSR's?

Yes my dad was Jewish.
The whole switching of borders is what is confusing. Even that article says that each of the Kamentz' are not to be confused with each other. My grandparents only spoke Yiddish and that was the language of the jews in both towns (from what I have read so far). The settled on the Lower East Side and most of my research about that area mentions immigrants from both Kamanetz' settling there.
You might have given me a better clue though since my grandmother was from Minsk. Which if I am reading the map correct is in Belarus now. I am going to follow up on this. I have to try and pinpoint the correct area to continue my search since my grandfather and his brother came together yet both of them have different spellings of our last name.
Its so frustrating because my father and my brother (who lived with them for a while) would tell us how they never really spoke about their life there. All they wanted was to be "American" and in the process, left us without a chunk of our heritage.

dda · May 2010

As my grandfather used to say - go to sleep in Poland, wake up in Russia. You could probably change Poland and Russia to any 2 countries in Eastern Europe (specifically any country within the Pale of Settlement) and that statement would make sense.

Despite the difficulty you are having, you are still fairly lucky that the town still exists in some form or another. We have tried to do research on where my grandmother was from and the town has literally *disappeared*....

Good luck!

Russian history/geography

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