Family Surnames and Places in My Research

On this page, you will find some "thumbprints" of graphics images. To see a larger version of the image, click on the image.

• All originally from the town of Tecuci in the Galati county of Moldova, which is now Romania.
• They left Romania in the early 1900's for Asia Minor (now Turkey) settling near Eskisehir, a large city some 75 miles southeast of Bursa.
• Most of them emigrated to Canada in the early 1900's and settled in or near Lipton, Saskatchewan.
• Family now exists in or near Winnipeg, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Paris (France)

  More about my Braunstein family

• All originally from in and near the city of Dorohoi in the Botosani county of Moldavia, which is now Romania.
• Our branch came to Canada in 1902 and settled near Lipton, Saskatchewan. Other Focshaner branches emigrated to the US, France and Israel.
• Family now exists in or near Winnipeg, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Toronto, New York, California and Australia.

  More about my Focshaner family

• From Odessa, Russia.
• Arrived in Canada in the early 1900's and settled in the Sonnenfeld colony in southern Saskatchewan.
• No known family remaining.

  More about my Kesler family

• Originally from Mezhirichi and before that Tuchin, in Rovno district in the province of Volhynia then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine.
• Most came to Canada in the early 1900's and settled in Winnipeg.
• Family now exists in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Chicago, and Israel.

  More about my German family

• Originally from Kozhanka and Dzyunkov, then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine.
• Most came to Canada in the early 1900's and settled in Winnipeg.
• Family now exists in Winnipeg, Toronto and Israel.

  More about my Goretsky family

• Originally from Lukashevka, then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine.
• Came to Canada in the early 1900's and settled in Winnipeg.
• Family now exists in Winnipeg, Cleveland, Boston, Portland, and Vancouver

  More about my wife's Kushner family

• Originally from Tetiyev, then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine
• Came to North America in the early 1900's and settled in New York, Cleveland and Winnipeg.
• Family now exists in Winnipeg, Cleveland, New York, Phoenix, Maryland, California, Alabama.

  More about my wife's Zaslovsky family

• Originally from Zhitomir, then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine.
• Some of the family came to Canada in the 1920's and settled in Winnipeg.
• Most of that family stayed in the Ukraine and Russia.

  More about my wife's Furman family

• Originally from Kodnia, Berdichev, and Zhitomir, then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine.
• Some of the family came to Canada in the 1920's and 1980's and settled in Winnipeg.
• Much of the family is still in the Ukraine. Other family is known to be in Moscow, New York, and Israel.

  More about my wife's Muchnik family

My Braunstein Family

Moise Yitzhak Braunstein (1802 - 1885) and Ruhleia (maiden name unknown, 1825 - after 1885)
had at least two children:

1. (Rivenu) Reuben Braunstein (1852 - 1908?) m. Adasia Meraru (1861 - 1908?)
2. (Mordechai) Marcu Braunstein (1870 - 1933) m. Esther Hechter (1878 - 1940)

Rivenu and Adasia left Tecuci, Moldavia (now Romania) for Asia Minor (now Turkey) in the early 1900's, to escape some of the anti-semetic movement that was then taking place in Romania. They settled in a Jewish farm colony near Eskisehir. They went with their nine children: David, Becky, Annette, Maria (Mary), Leib (Louis), Ruhla (Rachelle), Mollie, Rosa (Rose) and Sarah. The Kieves family who were close friends were with them there in Asia Minor.

Marcu instead went with his family in April 1902 to Canada, settling in Lipton, Saskatchewan where he opened and ran a general store. Their store burned down in the 1920's. The family then moved to Lorlie Saskatchewan and ran the store there. Marcu and Esther had three children: Max, Morris, and Rebecca (Shafron).

In Asia Minor, Becky married Leib Feinger and they moved to Paris, France.

After Rivenu and Adasia died, David, Annette and Mary left for America to join their Uncle Marcu in Lipton in 1907. Louis followed in 1910 bringing his younger sisters Mollie, Rose and Sarah. The girls were detained in Ellis Island for 6 months, possibly with the measles.

Rachelle, who married Moses Kieves in Turkey, stayed there with her husband. After Rachelle passed away in 1925, Moses and their children went to Saskatchewan.

The Braunstein line is of Levite descent, and my Y-DNA test has confirmed this. I and my uncle are both Y-haplogroup R1a1a and have both contributed our DNA to the Levite DNA project. None of our Y-DNA matches have the Braunstein surname or are close enough to identify our common ancestor.

I have been able to acquire 9 Romanian birth records and 2 Romanian death records for my Braunstein family from researcher Gheorghe Mireuta that has greatly helped with my research.

My research has identified about 600 kin-folk of Rivenu and Marcu.

Braunstein - Unsolved Mysteries

1. Rivenu and Marcu were said to be brothers, but my current information indicates that they were about 17 years apart in age, and Marcu's mother would have been 45 years old when he was born. Marcu's gravestone does say his father's name is Moshe Yitzhak, which is pretty good confirmation. But being born 17 years apart, you would think they should also have other siblings between them.
2. The family moved near the city of Eskisehir in Asia Minor, and resided there for a few years up to several decades in the early 1900's. Eskisehir is a large city, but supposedly the family was in a Jewish farm colony near there. Most Jewish genealogical resources concentrate on the Jewish settlements of Eastern Europe. I have so far found very little about Turkish settlements. I would love to eventually do an in-depth study of the Jewish settlement at Eskisehir, if I can find anything about it. Rachelle's son Joe Kives passed away in 2012 in Winnipeg at age 100. Despite his having dimentia and not knowing who I was, I talked with him about his life as a boy, and he remembered stories from his growing up in Turkey.
3. The Ellis Island detainment is very interesting. I'd love to find more records about the girls there and what they went through and when they were released.
4. The Kieves family, although not directly related to me, seem to be an important clue to my Braunstein's family background. The Braunstein and Kieves families were apparently very close. They lived near to each other in Turkey, and possibly may have also known each other in Romania (although I have been unable to confirm this). My grandfather, Louis Braunstein, supposedly set up his sister Rachelle with Moses Kieves, and they soon married in Turkey. There were four Kieves brothers and a sister - two came to Canada (Kiva and Moses to the Sonnenfeld colony in Saskatchewan), Philip went to New York, Zeida went to Porto Alegre in Brazil, and the sister Celia went to Paris France.
5. Rivenu and Adasia's oldest son David left Turkey and arrived in New York in 1907. The record said he was going to join his uncle, which looks like S. Brustein 129 Fort Street, New York. I have no idea who this uncle might be.
6. Nothing is known about the Meraru family. Seems to be a very rare surname, so something should show up eventually.

My Focshaner Family

On this side of my family, I know at least the first names of 7 of my 8 great-great-great grandparents.

They are all from the Dorohoi and Zvoristea regions of Moldova which are now in northeast Romania.

Haim's son Hershcu Zvorashteanu (1826 - 1916) was supposedly a wealthy man who owned a winery. He and his wife Dvoira Naftulovici (1832 - 1892) lived in Dorohoi. They had 5 sons that I know of, and maybe other children that I don't:

1. Josub Focshaner (1859 - 1927)
2. Strul Zvirashteanu (1865 - 1938)
3. Isak Focsaner (1870 - 1934)
4. Sigmund Fossner (1874 - 1943)
5. Simon Focsaner (1878 - 1944)

My great-grandfather Josub Focshaner was the oldest son of Hershcu and Dvoira. He married Toba Sigal (daughter of Haim Hertzanu) in Ungureni, which is about 20 km NE of Botosani. Josub and Toba immigrated to Canada via Hamburg Germany in April 1902 on the German vessel S.S. Bulgaria, with their children, Hyman who was 11, Goldie (Braunstein Kessler) 10, Dora (Elfenbaum) 8, Shava (Zelickson) 2, Max 1, and Toba's brother Zalmon Hertzan who was 27. Zalmon was often called "Shlomo" - his Hebrew name. The Hamburg passenger lists state they came from the town of Ungureni in Romania. Upon arrival, they located in the Tullymet municipality near Lipton, Saskatchewan. The family lived in a log house that Josub and Zalmon built. Their youngest child Rebecca (Jacobs) was born in Tullymet in 1903.

"Joseph Folkshonner (sic) arrived with the second group (of Romanians). He was a simple, honest, hardworking farmer. He prospered so well that even the English farmers respected him.

He, his wife and children all worked hard. You should have seen his daughter, Goldie, sixteen, ploughing with four large oxen. The plough left a furrow in a straight line. His seventeen-year-old son and his brother-in-law, could do equally as well."

- from Memoirs of a Pioneer Farmer in Western Canada by Jacob A. Baltzan

Louis Segal was an older brother of Toba who for a time lived in London England. Louis' Yiddish name was Laib. The story was told by Shava Zelickson that Louis and Shifra (Sophia) came to escape England prior to the First World War to join his brother Zalmon and sister Toba in Saskatchewan. Louis, his wife, and his daughter made the journey in 1913. Louis turned out to be absolutely inept at farming. Sol Sinclair, whose farm Louis and his family stayed at, recalled that Louis would often come over to borrow some horses because he didn't know how to handle his own team of oxen. Louis' wife and daughter Sarah were said to have completely domineered him. After the war Louis, Sophia and Sarah left for Florida. They were said to have then divorced, which was quite unusual in those days. The family then never heard from them again.

I have have been in contact and sharing information with Focshaner relatives on Sigmund and Simon's sides (two of Josub's brothers) who are also doing family research, including Joel Koenig (my 3rd cousin) who has a tree at Ancestry and Phil Rodd (my 4th cousin) who is adding his information to FamilySearch.

I have been able to acquire about 70 Romanian birth, marriage and death records for my Focshaner family from researcher Sorin Goldenberg that has greatly helped with my research. I am a member of Sorin's Jewish Genealogy in Romanian Moldova group on Facebook.

My research has identified about 800 kin-folk of Josub and Toba.

Josub and Toba Focshaner

Focshaner, Hertzan, Segal - Unsolved Mysteries

1. Jewish people in Romania did not take on family names until the early 1800's. Until then, they were just so-and-so, son or daughter of so-and-so. I have identified that my great-great-great grandfather Manashcu, whose father was Naftuli, took on the surname Naftulovici, which thus appears to be patronomic-based. I guess my Zvorashteanu, Focshaner and Hertzanu relatives took on place-name based surnames, based on the towns Zvoristea, Focsani and Hertza. I don't know why they chose the latter two town names because I don't have any records that show they were ever in those towns. Brothers sometimes did not use the same surname and my Focshaner great-grandfather had a Zvorashteanu brother. Lots to fish out here about how the surnames were chosen or assigned.
2. I have a number of people with a Zvorashteanu/Zvorestineau surname who married Naftulovici relatives. At one time we hypothesized that Isaac Zvorestineau who married Dvoira's sister Freda could have been Hershcu's brother. And Dvoira's half-siser Clara Naftalovich married Charles Frucht whose mother was Hunah Zvoristeanu who could possibly be Hershcu's sister. But we have so far been unable to find any evidence that either confirms or denies that Haim is the father of Isaak or Hunah. Haim could be an uncle, cousin, or not related at all.
3. I have documents showing Toba's maiden name was Sigal. She had a brother Louis Segal. But her brother Zalmon went by the surname Hertzan and his father was Hertzanu. I have never seen any evidence indicating that Toba and Zalmon were not full brothers. They were both born about 50 years after surnames were taken, so it's a mystery to me why they have different surnames. Segal/Sigal was a very common Jewish surname in Romania. Finding Segals there that were related to them will be a challenge. They were likely of Levite descent, since most Segals were, which makes it even more odd why Zalmon does not have the Segal name, since Levite descent was passed down through the male line.
4. The story above of Louis and Sophie Segal is very interesting. They married in Romania and spent about 12 years in England. I have found records of them in London with their daughter Sarah. For some time, I thought I had found records of them in Jacksonville, Florida in the 1920 to 40's (US City Directories at MyHeritage). But it turned out it was a different Louis and Sophia/Sophie Segal there. So I don't know where Louis, Sophie and Sarah went or what happened to them. I'm especially interested in what happened to their daughter Sarah Segal. Did she marry and have a family? Do I have some cousins living in Florida that I don't know about?
   Here is some of the extensive research done on my Louis Segal on WikiTree.

My Kessler Step-Family

Louis Kesler (1878 - 1940), Sarah Katkow (1877 - 1929)

This is my father's stepfather and his first wife. My grandfather Louis Braunstein passed away when my father was 6 months old, and 5 years later, his mother remarried the newly widowed Louis Kesler. My father was raised by his mother and stepfather and took on the name Kessler. I am named after his stepfather.

Louis Kesler was from Russia and fought in the Russian army. He came to Canada in 1904 and settled in the Sonnenfeld colony in Saskatchewan. Sarah came to Sonnenfeld about 1906. I believe Louis and Sarah must have been married in Russia. Sarah passed away childless in 1929.

I know of none of Louis Kesler's family, other than his father being Yossel (Joseph) from Louis' marriage record with Goldie, and none of Sarah Katkow's family other than her parents being Yehudah (Yidel) and Clara Rivka from Sarah's death certificate and gravestone.

Louis Kesler and an unidentified compatriot in the Russian Army

The grave of Sarah (Katkow) Kessler. She was one of about 10 people who were buried in the Sonnenfeld Cemetery.

Kessler, Katkow - Unsolved Mysteries

1. Other than the Russian Army picture, I have nothing about Louis Kesler or any of his family from when he was in Russia. Can anyone identify the army uniforms, or identify the person in the photo with him?
2. Sarah is also a mystery. I believe Louis and Sarah were married in Russia since they came from the same place. Louis likely arrived first to obtain a job and find a place to stay and arranged for Sarah to come a year or two later. Katkow is a rather odd name. I don't doubt that her maiden name may in fact be Katkov or some other variant of that.
3. Most of Louis' documents spell his name with a single "S". My father later adopted the double "S" spelling of Kessler as that's how his schoolteachers told him it was spelled. So it is interesting to me that Sarah's gravestone spells Kessler with the double "S". I don't know of the existance of any pictures of Sarah.
4. The 1916 Canadian Census listed a place of birth for Louis and Sarah. It looks like Ogec or Ogic or Oyic or Ogu or something like that, somewhere in Russia (see image).
   "
   I had a lot of trouble figuring out where that might be. See my question What is the Russian town in this census listing? I posted at Genealogy Stack Exchange. I have since discovered a 2nd death record for Sarah that states her birthplace as well as her mother and father's birthplace was Odessa, Russia. Now it's just a matter of finding them out of the 140,000 Jewish people who lived in Odessa in 1897 in the small number of digitized, translated and indexed records that are currently available.
5. This is the one side of the family where DNA doesn't help me at all, since Louis was my father's stepfather and is not a blood relation and neither is Sarah. Since I don't know any living relatives of either of them, I know of no one that can DNA test for me.
6. Louis and Sarah are my biggest roadblock in all my genealogy research. Louis is the person I am named after (we both also have the same Hebrew name Eliezer), and he was like a father to my dad and neither Louis nor Sarah have any descendants. So I really want to know about their lives and preserve their history and the memory of them.

My German Family

Wolf German (? - 1898) m. Yolha (Brondal) Lapedes (? - 1899)
had at least two children:

1. Joseph German (1885 - 1959)
   
2. Minnie (1896 - 1939) m. Gedalia Zew (1893 - 1939)
   

Joseph was the son of Wolf German and Yacha/Yolha Lapides. They lived in the town of Mezhirichi that was then in the province of Volhynia in the Russian Empire, but now is Mezhyrichi in the oblast of Rivne in the Ukraine. The town numbered about 3,000 people in 1897, of which about two-thirds were Jewish.

Stories passed down told me that Joseph's parents died when he was about 11 or 12, and he was raised by his grandmother. Joseph came to Canada alone in 1906 when he was 19. His grandmother, Brondal, then 82 years old, had put him on the ship. He arrived in Winnipeg where many people from his town has previously emigrated to. His surname in Canada evolved into Girman.

Joseph had one known sister, Minnie, who married Gedalia Zew (sometimes written Zev or Zeff). Minnie and Gedalia were murdered in Mezhirichi by the Nazis during WW II. They had eight children. Eunice (Tenenbaum) came to Winnipeg in 1928 before moving to Montreal. Zipora (Pisetky) went to Israel. The other siblings may also have been murdered during the war.

Gedalia's mother's maiden name was Gershfield. This Gershfield family supposedly lived across the street from my grandfather Joseph Herman in Mezhirichi. There was one Gershfield son and three Gershfield daughters who married Zew (later Zeff), Sitner, and Zimberg. Almost all the children of these four siblings came to Winnipeg in the early 1900's and married into the Zaidman, Ginpil, Mindess, Shapiro, and Gurevitch families.

In fact, a large number of the Jewish community of Mezhirichi came to Winnipeg in the early 1900's. They formed their own Mezhiricher Landsleit and Aid Society, and also built and congregated in their own synagogue known as the Tiferes Israel on Manitoba Avenue until it closed in 1973. I am researching any or all people who have a connection to these immigrants from Mezhirichi to Winnipeg. There is a JewishGen site for Mezhyrichi and a Tsal Kaplun Foundation page for Mezhyrichi.

Researcher Viktoria Chymshyt acquired records for me from Mezhirichi, but was unable to find my family among them. She later found records for German in the Revision Lists for Tuchin, a town about 15 km (10 miles) away from Mezhirichi.

The Russian Revision lists from 1816, 1851 and 1858 for Tuchin include information that may be Wolf German's family including his likely father Mikhel Girman, b. 1837; Mikhel's parents as Leyba/Leyzor German, b. 1802 and Sheyna Etya, b. 1803; Leyba's parents as Mikhel German (1763-1843) and Rukhlya, b. 1776; Mikhel's father as Volf, along with a few of their brothers and sisters. These records are now indexed and included in the Unified Search on JewishGen.

My research has identified about 150 kin-folk of the German family,
and about 250 kin-folk of the Gershfield family. And I've identified close to 2000 kin-folk of others from Mezhirichi who came to Winnipeg.

German, Gershfield, Mezhirichi - Unsolved Mysteries

1. There are some documents listing the family name as German, as Girman and as Herman. The Russian Revision Lists indicate the likely spelling is German. The Russian letter "geh" in Ukranian is pronounced "H" which is likely why some spellings are "Herman".
2. Some people spell the town name as Miedzerich or Mezerich and say it was in Poland. All towns of that name or a similar name before 1915 were in the Russian Empire, but many of the towns, including Mezhirichi in Volhynia became part of Poland by 1930 for a period of time. This article Prairie Palace, by Ben Waldman, Winnipeg Free Press, 2021 tells about David Cantor who was one of the first from the town to arrive in Winnipeg in 1903 to become Rabbi of the Tiferes Israel Synagogue. The article names the town as Miedzerich, Poland. In the article, it says David Cantor "had written glowingly about Winnipeg to townspeople in Poland, resulting in the estimated immigration of more than 600 families of Ashkenazi Jews to Canada".
3. Joseph German arrived alone and supposedly lived with an Orenstein family on Stella Avenue in Winnipeg when he first arrived from Mezhirichi. I was very pleased to find 1906 Census records for an Ornstein family on Jarvis Avenue (2 blocks South of Stella), with Joseph possibly listed as the boarder "Leon Herman". I've found very little information available about the Ornstein family. I need to research them more.
4. Joseph German owned a dairy farm for a few years which he may have sold around 1914. The land was where Belmont School was built in the 1950's, very close to where I grew up. I have found records of his living at that site, but I'd like to learn more about his brief dairy farming efforts.
5. One family memory passed down was that the German family descended from cattle thieves. I haven't been successful in proving this one yet.

My Goretsky Family

Leyzer (Louis) Goretsky (? - 1895?) Chaya-Mindlya Zilberman (1857 - 1903)

Leyzer was born in Dzyunkov, Russia. Chaya Mindlya was born in Kozhanka, Russia which is now in the Ukraine. After Leyzer died, Chaya-Mindlya left with her children for Odessa. After she died, Benjamin, Esther-Bayla, and Abraham immigrated together to Canada, arriving in Winnipeg in 1907.

Benjamin married Sarah Rivka (maiden name unknown). Esther married Joseph German (see above). Abraham married Sonia Tabachnikov.

In 2021, I acquired about 20 Russian records (census and special lists) from researcher Boris Makalsky that has has completely changed what I thought I knew about my Goretsky/Zilberman families. Unfortunately, Boris says there are no birth, marriage and death records availilabe for this region of Russia. But the documents found tell much more of the story than most BMD records would.

My research has identified about 150 kin-folk of Louis and Chaya Mindlya.

Esther-Beyla and Abraham Goretsky at their mother (Chaya Mindlya)'s gravestone in Odessa.

Goretsky - Unsolved Mysteries

1. Years ago, I had written down that Leyzer Goretsky was born in Jenkov, Russia. I never could determine where Jenkov was until I got records and found out that it was Dzyunkov. So that mystery was solved!
2. Leyzer and Chaya-Mindlya were both said to be only-children, and they were said to have remarkably had seventeen (17) children of their own. However, a record from 1897 showed Chaya Mindlya as a widow with just Benjamin, Esther and Abraham, and no other children, making 14 more pretty unlikely. And we have found records indicating likely siblings of Leyzer. So there's something wrong with this information which was told to us by Abraham's daughter many years ago. She also said Chaya-Mindlya's maiden name was Silverberg, but the records show it to be Zilberman. Maybe it was Leyzer or Chaya-Mindlya who had a lot of siblings. One was supposedly named Fruma who died in a fire, so that may be a clue that might help solve this one day.
3. If there was a large family of siblings, they supposedly had died in the 1910s in Russia. At the 2017 IAJGS Conference in Orlando, I heard LeeAnn Dance talk about the historical documentary she was producing called "My Dear Children" about the anti-Jewish massacres in Eastern Europe form 1917 to 1921, when as many as 250,000 Jews were wiped out, that may have included many of my grandmother's family.
4. Records indicate that Leyzer and Chaya-Mindlya had little money. After Leyzer died, Chaya-Mindlya shows up in loan and aid documents. In the 1880's the Jews were being evicted from the towns and Chaya-Minlya and her children went to Odessa. The photo of Esther-Bayla and Abraham at their mother's grave then is hard to explain how they are dressed so well, how their mother has a beautiful gravestone in a large cemetery, and how they afforded to come to Canada.
5. The photo shown is one the most interesting items I have on them. This is supposedly from a Jewish cemetery in Odessa. Which cemetery was this taken in? Does this cemetery still exist? Will I one day be able to personally visit the gravestone of my great-grandmother Chaya-Mindlya?

My Wife's Kushner Family

Ralph Harry Kushner (1883 - 1927), Yetta Zaslovsky (1884 - 1926)

Ralph's mother was Rachel Shapiro. Rachel married twice. Her first marriage was to a Lerman. They had at least 4 or 5 children who were Ralph's half-brothers and sisters. Some of them settled in Boston. Ralph's mother later married Mordechai Kushner. Ralph was the only surviving child of this marriage. Ralph was born in Lukashevka in the Ukraine. Yetta was born in Tetiyev, also in the Ukraine which is not very far from Lukashevka. They married about 1906 in the Ukraine, and left for Canada in 1907, arriving in Winnipeg to join Yetta's brothers and sisters who were already there.

Once in Canada, Ralph went by his middle name Harry and was known as Harry Kushner.

All of Harry and Yetta's nine children were born in Winnipeg. The four oldest children moved to Cleveland where some of their Zaslovsky cousins lived as there were jobs available. Yetta died in 1926. Harry couldn't handle his wife's death and tragically committed suicide in 1927. The five youngest children spent some of their early years at the Jewish Orphanage in Winnipeg afterwards.

My research has identified about 125 kin-folk of the Kushner family.

Harry and Yetta Kushner with their 5 oldest children in 1915.

Kushner - Unsolved Mysteries

1. I've heard several stories from independent sources that Ralph was a twin, but his twin had died. I wish I knew more on this.
2. I do not yet know Ralph's mother's maiden name. Actually I do from his death certificate. It is Shapiro. I still have her complete line to trace.
3. I have contacted family on the Lerman side. There is quite a bit of research done there. Ralph was considered part of their family tree, but since he was most likely a half-brother, he is not blood-related to his Lerman step-father or any Lermans other than his half-siblings and their descendants.
4. Kushneer is on Harry's gravestone. Not sure why the double-E was inscribed when Kushner was used almost everywhere else.

My Wife's Zaslovsky Family

Yudko "Yehudah Mani" Zaslovsky
had at least 6 children:

1. Rebecca Zaslovsky (1855 - 1912) m. Joseph Straub (1855 - 1924)
2. David Aizik Zaslovsky (1862(?) - 1920(?)) m. Mollie Resnick (1864 - 1951)
3. Jack Zaslovsky (1869 - 1938) m. Annie Reichman (1873 - 1935)
4. Fannie Zaslovsky (1871 - 1946) m. a cousin Harry Saslavsky (1869 - 1955)
5. Peter Zaslovsky (1872 - 1955) m. Elizabeth Hoffman (1873 - 1955)
6. Yetta Zaslovsky (1884 - 1926) m. Ralph Harry Kushner (see above)

Yudko Zaslovsky lived in the Tetiev shtetl in what was the Russian Empire but now is the Ukraine. Rebecca went to New York. David died in the Ukraine but his children went to Cleveland. Jack, Yetta and Peter went to Winnipeg. Fannie went to Cleveland joining David's children.

Some of the family names in Cleveland that are related include: Kappelman, Chervin, Bogard, Selby, Goldstein, Molinsky, and Mills.

My wife's cousin, Terry Lasky, has done extensive research of the Zaslovsky family. He has allowed me to include his research in my family tree. Terry has been doing a DNA study, where he has got 60 descendants from the various Zaslovsky lines to DNA test at Ancestry or Family Tree DNA, and is trying to use it to provide information that will help determine how the Zaslavsky families from Tetiev are connected. The study is still ongoing as of 2023.

I have been able to acquire about 15 Russian birth, marriage, death and census records for my wife's Zaslovsky family from researcher Boris Makalsky.

My family tree includes about 1000 kin-folk of the Zaslovsky family.

Zaslovsky - Unsolved Mysteries

1. Zaslovsky, Zaslawsky, Zaslowsky, Saslovsky - Yikes! There are so many different spellings of the family name. Several variants were in use, even between brothers and sisters.
2. The people who moved from Tetiev to Cleveland interest me, as the city had a large Jewish community from Tetiev with a lot of my wife's family. There was a Tetiever Synagogue in the city.
3. Unfortunately, birth, marriage and death records from Tetiev only exist for a short period in the 1850's, so we can't confirm relationships of Yudko's children.
4. The Russian 1897 Census and other documents from that time have added about 20 people to the Zaslovsky family that we know very little about.

My Wife's Furman Family

Moshe Furman (1863 - ?) m. Charna Rushaylo (1864 - ?)

Moshe and Charna lived in Zhitomir in the Ukraine. They had six children, Nechama (married name unknown), Gitel Snider, Buzi (married name unknown), Frima Unikel, Motel, and Yakov (Jack). Most of the family remained in Zhitomir, but Jack and his wife Eda Muchnik left for Winnipeg in 1928 shortly after they married.

Moshe's parents were Motel and Chana. His grandfather was Michel. Charna's parents were Jankel Rushaylo and Sima Berova. Yankel's father was Ios and grandfather was Gershko.

I have been able to acquire about 70 Russian birth, marriage and death records for my wife's Furman and Rushaylo families from researcher Boris Makalsky that has greatly helped with my research.

My research has identified about 120 kin-folk of Furman and Rushaylo.

Furman, Rushaylo - Unsolved Mysteries

1. I do not know much about the side of the family still living in the Ukraine. How many survived the war? How many emigrated? How many still remain?
2. Charna's family, Rushaylo, is easier to track down because of the uncommon surname. But still lots of pieces to put together. When interviewing my wife's grandmother 40 years ago, I had written down "Oshila" as her husband's mother Charna's family name. It was very much my surprise to when researching Ukraine records to find it was Rushaylo instead.
3. I still must go through the old boxes we have from my wife's grandmother to find some documents and physical evidence she had of her family.

My Wife's Muchnik Family

Jankel-Meer and Tsipora had at least eight children: Sara-Zislay Schwartz, Sheyna-Rivka Bronstein, Feyga, Aron-Ios, Avrum-Arye, Ovsey-Geshel, Leah Chernis, and another son (name unknown).

Ovsey-Geshel married Maryasya Dubovy. They both were born and lived in Kodnia in the Ukraine. Mayasya's mother's mother was said to have been from the Rothschild family. Her parents supposedly owned hotels in the Ukraine, and entertained the Rothschild families when they came to visit. Ovsey-Geshel was also known as "Shiesal". He was a cattle dealer. They had six children. Two children came to Winnipeg in the 1920s, two escaped to Tashkent during WW II, and the other two were killed when the Nazis overtook Zhitomir. Maryasya died when she was only 42. After Maryasya died, Ovsey-Geshel married Chonka Bronstein. Maryasya and Chonka were said to have been 1st cousins of each other.

Maryasya had a brother, Srouel Elievitz Dubovy. One of his sons emigrated to New York and there are currently some Dubovy relatives there. Another son and his family stayed in the Ukraine and are now living in Berdichev. Families also known to be related to Dubovy include Kemach in Israel, Kris in Berdichev, and Carp in Winnipeg.

I have been able to acquire about 60 Russian birth, marriage and death records for my wife's Muchnik family from researcher Boris Makalsky.

My research has identified about 150 kin-folk of the Muchnik and Dubovy families.

Muchnik - Unsolved Mysteries

1. I have been told many times that this family had a connection to the Rothschild family through a female line. The Rothschild family is well documented and has an enormous family tree going back to the 1600's. Unfortunately, it is mostly the male lines that are followed. I have not yet found the link of Maryasya Muchnik to the Rothschild family. Finding a documented connection to the Rothschild family would be an enormous breakthrough.
2. The New York and Israeli relatives should still be out there somewhere. I do not have that much information on them yet.

For More Information About My Family Research

My main Family Tree is available for you to view at MyHeritage.

In 2021, I started writing profiles for all my ancestors and their siblings on WikiTree.

I have smaller versions of my tree at Ancestry, FamilySearch, Geni, Geneanet, GenealogieOnline, Family Tree DNA, GEDmatch and JewishGen.

I have DNA tested at all the major companies: Ancestry, 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, Living DNA, and my DNA has been uploaded to GEDmatch, Geni, Geneanet and Borland Genetics. On all sites, I am listed as Louis Kessler. If you match me and you think we can determine the connection, please .

I am very willing to share my family information with you if you are willing to share with me. Together we may both be able to help each other with our common family. I have had hundreds of people contact me as a result of this web page, which has resulted in scores of amazing revelations for myself and my many new-found and possible relatives.