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Family History

Back in 2015, I took out a trial subscription to one of the genealogy websites to explore the validity (vel non) of some family oral history.  My research overwhelmed me. Half of what I had been told by my grandmother was wrong; the other half was probably a lie.  More important, the facts were much more interesting than the family mythology.

These discoveries left me disappointed in, and skeptical of, my family’s curatorship of its own history.  They also amplified my basic skepticism about “history,” and my sense that rigorous historical research requires abandoning the hagiography that plagues many family histories. I have tried to remedy the gaps and gaffes in oral history, and to replace them with something that rests on firmer foundations. The results of my research are shown in my on-line family tree, “Bratkovski Family Tree,” at Ancestry.com. For some branches of my family, I have written narrative histories with footnoted references to supporting documents and oral history for the names that are bolded. The surnames and places of origin of interest are set out below. If you are interested in the histories, please contact me (Nathan@SchachtmanLaw.com).

Maternal

Brody/Bratkovski from Timkovichi and other towns in Slutsk county, Minsk gubernya

Zerkowitz/Tserkovich/Czerkowiecz from Kletsk, Minsk gubernya

Innenberg /Hinenberg from Koidanov (Dzyarzinsk)

Baruchin from Minsk gubernya

Getzoff/Getsov from Minsk gubernya

Shveidel/Schweidel from Minsk gubernya

Paternal

Markowitz/Marcovici from Botosani, Romania, and earlier from Tulchyn, Podolia

Spidkovski/Spatkoffski/Spotkov from various towns in Kyiv gubernia, Ukraine

Blumen/Blum from Bila Tserkva, Kyiv, Ukraine

Levinson/Lewinsohn from Bauska and Riga, Latvia

Wilkoff/Vilkov from Joniškis and Vilna, Lithuania