Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Before Shpikov -- Welcome to Kuna!

I've always known my grandfather's family was from Shpikov.  Except that I found that the Tolchinskys weren't from Shpikov.  And the Sanshucks and Brandmans weren't from Shpikov--although they were from nearby Krasnoye.  But I knew the Supkoffs (or Zubkis family) were from Shpikov--they were listed in the 1895 Households List.  So there was proof of my family's long-time Shpikov existence, right?

Well, not so much.  Here's the 1882 Households List from Shpikov.  And the Zubkis family is here again!
1882 Shpikov Households List; Zubkis Family (males)

1882 Shpikov Households List; Zubkis Family (females)
Household members were:
  • Shaul Ber (son of Shaya) Zubkis (my great-great-great grandfather), age 56
  • Shaul Ber's son Shaya (my great-great grandfather), age 25
  • Shaul Ber's son Yos (Shaya's brother Yossel), age 15
  • Shaul Ber's second wife Sima, age 42 (this verifies my conjecture from the 1895 Households List; Shaya's mother was Elka)
  • Shaul Ber's daughter Esther, age 5
  • Shaul Ber's daughter Frima, age 2
A notation next to Yos's name states that he is to be be conscripted in 1887; column 8 then states that he was placed into militia fighters [i.e. not the regular army].

Column 2 was especially interesting--it states that during the last (1858) revision list, the Zubkis family were townspeople of Kuna of Haysin uezd.  Kuna was also mentioned in the Zubkis entry from the 1895 list, but the handwriting was quite difficult to read; the fact that the 1882 list specifies Haysin uezd verifies that this is the town of origin.

Kuna is about 30 miles east of Shpikov, also in modern-day Ukraine.  The Supkoffs came to America in 1908; it looks like they came to Shpikov at some point between 1858 and 1882.  So it seems like my "family town" was only my family's town for fewer than 50 years--and maybe as few as 26!

Time to investigate Kuna records!

1 comment:

  1. We tend to think of the places our immediate ancestors come from as some long term ancestral home.

    My gf's older siblings were born in Zalosce, but the father came from Podkamen and both his parents were from Skalat. And I really have no idea how long the family was there before 1800. Our Galicianerness may be only a hundred years deep.

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