This is a free weekend on Ancestry.com, so I looked up my father. Here’s something strange: He’s listed as being 10 years old in the 1930 census, and I know he wasn’t born until ’28 or ’29. Guess my grandparents had so many kids, they got confused?
My grandfather Tony was 10 years older than my grandmother. He was a widower with kids when he married her; she was only 16. He was an ironworker at one of the local steel mills, where one son worked with him. Two of his other sons worked in a paper mill. Everyone in the house knew how to read and write.
I was surprised to find out that they owned a house, at 114 Seville St. I guess my grandmother sold it after my grandfather died and left her with all those kids.
My grandmother’s name was Leokadja Haraburda, 1893 birthplace listed as Jardonova, Russia. (I seem to remember one of the relatives telling me she was from Byelorussia, the part of Poland that was split between them and the Soviet Union. All I know is, I can’t find it on a map.)
re: Jardonova
the problem with “byelorussia” is that what went under that name in the 19th century could be in modern day poland, lithuania or belorus. if it’s in belorus, it probably would retain its russian name (or something close to it). if it’s in modern day poland, the modern name is going to be some polish version of the name, which at least might be close to “jardonova” because polish, like russian and belorussian, is a slavic language.
but if it’s located in modern lithuania, there’s no telling what the lithuanian name for the town/region is. you probably need a late 19th century map of the russian empire to find it. my best guess is that it would be spelled “ярданова” or “жарданова” in cyrillic, with “ярданова” being a bit more likely because it actually means something in russian (“new yard”)
just my 2 cents from a guy whose family is from lithuania/belorus and who spent almost a year in the former soviet union.
You mean we’re related?
My sister says my aunt told her my grandmother is from the same town as Pope John Paul II, and he’s listed as being from Wadowice, near Krakow.
http://www.krakow-info.com/wadowice.htm
only if you have jewish roots on that side of the family.
…or maybe not. one of my great great uncles actually turned catholic and became bishop of kaunas (in what is now lithuania)
That country is now known as Belarus, and as far as I can figure, never had to struggle against any Polish overlords…
In the Ukraine, things were different.
one of my great uncle’s birth certificates listed the country as “Russian Poland”.