My Grandparents came to the USA in the 1880s from what we knew as Russia. I know my Grandfather didn’t want to serve in the Czar’s army so he switched identity with his younger brother, and as immigrants commonly did, found a ship to the USA with not much except what he could carry. When he arrived at the port at the age of 19, they asked him his name which he answered in Russian. They wrote down what they understood the English version of it was and for all generations since that has been our family name, although there was a suspicion that it was close but not completely accurate, which proved to be true. I’m not going to reveal here for privacy reasons. BTW my mother’s grandparents came from Belarus but at the time that was Russia too and we had better info about her family. They all considered themselves Russians.
Fast forward, my daughter found some records on Ancestry.com put together by a distant second cousin which has the real name - it was a fairly common name from the area of the Ukraine where my grandfather lived and elsewhere, and it was formerly part of Russia. So now in my old age I finally know what my real last name was and exactly where my Grandfather was from. BTW my Grandfather didn’t speak much English and although I visited him until he died at age 94, he didn’t talk much about the old county.
I think his family had a sawmill business there. He went on to build a furniture frame factory in Pennsylvania and was a successful and very hard working man. He would insist on running the lumber through the saws himself when he was 80 years old and my father and uncles who also worked at the factory had to talk him down feeling he would keel over. They died in their 50s and. 60s and my grandfather and his wife who was 10 years older both made it to 94. He had a good appetite and I remember he liked to eat 6 poached eggs with bread for his meal. He had a high forehead, a bushy mustache, and a broad smile and he always dressed up in a fancy suit and tie for holidays.
Anyway I’ll go to bed tonight with a certain sense of identity and satisfaction in learning my heritage. I’m sure as more investigatory work is done I’ll find out about distant relatives both here and abroad.
Thanks for indulging me by reading through this personal stuff. I’m sure others have stories of their found family histories.
Fast forward, my daughter found some records on Ancestry.com put together by a distant second cousin which has the real name - it was a fairly common name from the area of the Ukraine where my grandfather lived and elsewhere, and it was formerly part of Russia. So now in my old age I finally know what my real last name was and exactly where my Grandfather was from. BTW my Grandfather didn’t speak much English and although I visited him until he died at age 94, he didn’t talk much about the old county.
I think his family had a sawmill business there. He went on to build a furniture frame factory in Pennsylvania and was a successful and very hard working man. He would insist on running the lumber through the saws himself when he was 80 years old and my father and uncles who also worked at the factory had to talk him down feeling he would keel over. They died in their 50s and. 60s and my grandfather and his wife who was 10 years older both made it to 94. He had a good appetite and I remember he liked to eat 6 poached eggs with bread for his meal. He had a high forehead, a bushy mustache, and a broad smile and he always dressed up in a fancy suit and tie for holidays.
Anyway I’ll go to bed tonight with a certain sense of identity and satisfaction in learning my heritage. I’m sure as more investigatory work is done I’ll find out about distant relatives both here and abroad.
Thanks for indulging me by reading through this personal stuff. I’m sure others have stories of their found family histories.
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