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Saturday, June 3, 2017

The ancestor who moved the farthest

Randy Seaver at Geneamusings asks: Which of your ancestors moved the farthest from home?

Of course, I first think about my ancestors who immigrated from Eastern Europe

  • My second great grandparents, Moshe Leyb and Minnie Cruvant, and their family moved 4,872 miles from Cekiske, Lithuania to St. Louis, Missouri
  • My second great grandfather, Morris Blatt, and his daughters moved 4,980 miles from Losice, Poland to St. Louis
  • My maternal grandfather, Martin Deutsch moved 5,236 mies from Varalmas, Hungary (now Almasu, Romania) to Chicago, Illinois, and then to St. Louis. (He accompanied his parents and siblings on the first, and longest leg of the journey.)
  • My second great grandparents, Selig and Annie Feinstein, and their family either moved 5,260 miles from Zhitomir, Ukraine to St. Louis, or 5,477 miles from Oleksandriya, Ukraine to St. Louis. (Those are the two most likely origin points for his family.)
So the Feinsteins win for distance, right?

Well, there is more than one way to define "move."  My paternal grandfather, Melvin Newmark, while serving during World War II, was stationed in Australia, easily beating them all. My maternal grandfather was stationed in Africa and the Middle East. Thankfully, both returned to their homes in St. Louis.



2 comments:

  1. Suzanne McClendonJune 3, 2017 at 9:09 PM

    What was the time frame for their moves from Europe to the US? Do you know what prompted their move to the US?

    I ask because I just recently read a memoir of a family that escaped Hungary during the revolution that happened a little better than a decade after the Holocaust. The woman in the story lost her entire family at Auschwitz. That part of the story was very sad, but she, her husband, and their children had a happy ending. It was a great book.

    I am glad that your grandfathers returned from the war, too. One of my great-grandfathers and his brother were in WWI. My great-grandpa came back alive. Unfortunately, his brother did not. I've read through the old newspapers published during that time frame and I can't leave without a tear, so many died and so many missing in action. Those were hard times all around.

    Have a blessed evening.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JohnJune 3, 2017 at 10:49 PM

    My maternal grandfather's family immigrated in 1913. The other families between 1880s and 1900.

    I didn't include my Newmark ancestors who immigrated first from Warka, Poland to London in 1893 and then to St Louis in 1909.

    My paternal grandfather's brother also didn't return.

    ReplyDelete

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