Welcome to the 2021
(covid-19, stay at home) edition of the website, with more images,
many more relations, several extra charts, and other treats
(including a powerful search tool).
This site presents the genealogy of the Proschansky (Прощанский,
Proschansky, Proshansky, Proschan) family of Turets, a small village
in what is now Karelichy District of Hrodna Province, Belarus, about
90 km southwest of the capital city of Minsk. It also includes other
families of Turets and Mir, as well as my maternal ancestors from
the region of Andrezejewo in Poland and Kaunas in the
Latvian-Lithuanian borderland.
Turets
Turets is halfway between the towns of Karelichy and Mir (home
of the famous Mir Yeshiva between 1815 and 1939). When my
great-great-grandfather Leib Proschansky was born at the end of the
18th century, Turets had just passed from being part of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) to being part of the
Russian Empire. When my grandfather Israel Proschansky was born in
1877, Turets remained Russian territory, part of Novogrudok
District, Minsk Province. From around 1920 until the Second World
War it was known as Turzec, in Stolpce District of Nowogródek
Province, Poland. From 1944 until 1991 it was part of the
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, and now the Republic of
Belarus.
Proschansky
Sometime in the
1870s, it seems the Proschanskys resettled in the larger town of Mir
(see Reeva Kimble’s wonderful website
on Mir), and in 1893 the first Proschansky
emigrated from Mir to the U.S., Gershon (1865-1937). A year or two
before, Gershon’s older sister Mariatcha had immigrated to Paris
with her husband Rabbi Moise Chaim Elia Berman and infant son David.
Gershon settled in Philadelphia, where he was soon joined by his
wife Malke (Molly), who was his first cousin and a Proschansky even
before marrying him. In the first decade of the 20th century, half
of the population of Mir immigrated to the U.S., including almost
all of the Proschanskys. Apart from the Philadelphia branch – many
of whom took the name “Perry” – several Proschanskys settled in the
Lower East Side of New York, including my grandfather Israel. The
children of Gershon and Israel’s sister Ester and her husband Leib
Gordon settled in Camaguey, Cuba, before coming to the U.S. A few
family members immigrated to British Palestine before the Second
World War, with only a few remaining behind in Mir.
In a
decade of genealogical research, I've only ever encountered one
person named Proschan, Proshan, Proschansky or Proshansky who wasn't
somehow a member of our family (not to be confused, of course, with
the unrelated Prushanskys).
If you're a descendant of Leib
Proschansky of Turets, get in touch.
Rabinovich,
Rubinowitz, Rabinovitch
My grandfather Israel's
mother was Chana Rubinowitz (spelling according to his marriage
certificate), who was in turn the daughter of Moshe Faiveshker
Rabinovich and a first wife of unknown name. Moshe remarried, and
there are Rabinovitch descendants of his son Yehoshua Heshel (who
was born a full 50 years after Chana was).
Garkavy
(Harkavy)
According to family lore, the first person
to take the Proschansky surname (Leib?) was a brother to several
other men who took the Garkavy surname, in the early 19th century
when Jewish residents of the Russian empire were first allowed to
take surnames. Confirmation - if any - rests in the archives in
Minsk, but there was clearly a close connection between the
families, both in Turets and Mir and in New York.
My
great-uncle Harris Proschan married Mina Harkavy, and Harkavys were
identified as the US contacts in a number of Proschansky immigration
documents. So the site includes an incomplete genealogy of the
descendants of Moshe of Turets, the first Garkavy. The site also
includes large numbers of Harkavys who settled in the U.S. but
cannot be connected reliably to old-country Garkavys for lack of
confirming evidence. If you happen to be a Garkavy/Harkavy
descendant and can help me reconnect some of these orphaned
branches, please get in touch.
Gilimowsky (Gelman)
My grandmother Rose Gelman Proschansky was born a Gilimowsky
(variously spelled Gil'imowski, Gilmofsky, Gelmovsky, Gelman,
Gilman, Gilmore, etc.), from Mir. She married my grandfather Israel
in New York, but the families doubtless knew each other in the old
country. There are other marriages between Proschanskys and
Gilimowskys, but we still don’t know exactly where my grandmother
fit into the Gilimowsky clan. There are also some interesting links
between Gilimowsky, Pollack, Kessler, and Harkavy families, and
doubtless more to be confirmed if only we had the documents.
Leftins (Lewtons) and Slomskis
The site also
includes the genealogy for my mother’s maternal ancestors, the
Leftin family of Andrzejewo (in Yiddish, Janczewo), in Lomza
Province of Poland, and the Slomski family, from Wysokie
Mazowieckie, also in Lomza. When the Leftins immigrated to the U.S.
(Newport, KY and St. Louis, MO), they were all living in Janczewo.
If you're a Leftin (Lefton) descendant, let me know where you fit
it. The Slomskis have a large branch in Argentina, descendants of
Minnie Slomski and Schepsal Wengrowicz. The Lewton family married
early into the Sznejer family of nearby Ostrow Mazowiecka.
Sachars, Sandlers and Plotniks
My mother’s
paternal ancestors were Sachars (later, Harris) and Sandlers from
the Latvian-Lithuanian borderland, formerly Courland. My
grandfather, Henry Louis Harris, was born Henoch Leib Sachar in the
town of Vecumnieki (Neugut), present-day Latvia; his parents were
from the villages of Vabalninkas and Birzai, Panevezys, Kaunas,
Lithuania. When Henry came to the U.S. as an infant of one year’s
age, he and his mother were initially refused entry at Philadelphia
because of an ostensible eye ailment of his mother. Their appeal,
deportation, and return as illegal aliens via Canada (under
different names!) is all documented in immigration records. And then
there was that little matter of Henry's failed citizenship
application, when he proudly told the immigration judge that he
earned his living as a bookie.
Personal names
Names were rendered differently when Romanizing the Cyrillic
alphabet, but are given here in the form in which they appear in the
reference documents (okay, not always, but usually). For people who
immigrated to the U.S. or western Europe and adopted a standardized
Romanized name, that is (usually) used here as the primary name
entry. Similarly those who shortened or changed their names are
typically identified primarily with their names at death, not their
names at birth. Alternate names and maiden/married names are
searchable as well.
Place names
Over
time, borders changed even if towns did not move. As a general
practice, place names are standardized to those of the late-19th,
early-20th centuries, before the First World War. A robust place
index categorizes Eastern European locations by
gubernia (province) rather than modern-day country. Within the U.S.,
the place index is categorized by state.
Who did I
leave out?
People alive or assumed to be alive are
not shown here, in order to protect their privacy. If you’re a
family member and have information on any members, living or dead,
please let me know. My address is frank.proschan [@] yahoo.com. I’m
especially eager to know more about family names Gilmofsky, Pollack,
Sagalowich, Lande, Berman and Gordon of Mir or thereabouts. There
are also many names included here that are parents and grandparents
of spouses, or siblings or children, but the person connecting them
remains alive and thus they appear for now to be disconnected.
Coming soon…
Maps, more photos and
documents…
Frank Proschan