Thread by @MrEdwardRueda

#Genealogy update! A thread on how I depend on the kindness of strangers.

Michael kindly commented on my #Korsun rebbe thread and led me to the incredible work of #AlexKrakovsky, who digitized Ukrainian Jewish records even as Russia invaded: m.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=47…

I owe my rudimentary Russian alphabet skills to my ol’ bestie @_atricapillus, who I shocked/amused once by singing the Russky alphabet to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

Any hope of reading Tsarist era handwriting is thanks to this Cyrillic cursive chart: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russ…

And to my haters who say it can’t be done, here’s the Russian Alphabet sung to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in slightly minor mode and in appropriate bass:

Anyway, #AlexKrakovsky posted an 1879 census for Korsun(!!!), and BOOM 💥: there was the 45-year-old widow Ester Divinska in Korsun, with 4 sons, 1 daughter, 1 daughter-in-law, 1 grandson, 2 granddaughters. Nearly everyone expected was there.

The Divinskii family of Korsun.

My Grandma (who told the truth as best she could) said her Davis family was named “Davinsky” and came from “Kiev.”

I was saddened to see my gg-gf Paul Davis listed on his ship manifest as… Peisach DAWIS. Like @CleverTitleTK’s worst nightmare.

This brick wall was mad brick 🧱

No joke, this brick wall took 20 YEARS to demolish. I had to find an obit. Then I had to find in the census the right Rubin Davis and Louis Davis in NYC. And I did!

I blogged about it, descendants reached out and proved my theories! Each Davis branch sorta knew about the others!

The evidence for Korsun kept building. Uncle Louis was buried in a plot for Korsuners. Uncle Rubin’s immigration record listed him as coming from Korsun. The cherry on the cake, from just earlier this month, was learning 6 Davis family weddings involved a Korsuner rabbi…

And now I had a record proving this Davis family was named Divinskii and lived in Korsun.

The most poignant part: at the bottom of the census form is a signature of “Rubin Divinskii” that matches the slanted way the Davis brothers signed their names in Ameriker!

Now: PLOT TWIST

Tsarist Russia loved counting and recounting its male Jews to see who was eligible to be cannon fodder. So there are TWO lists for Korsun from 1875, listing the Davis family’s patriarch Zus [Zusman] Chaimov and his sons. One of the lists had a curious note in column 12…

Google Translate app’s camera did intensely heavy lifting here:

Apparently in 1875, Papa Zus Divinskii was not LIVING in Korsun, he was only VISITING… and he came from KANIV (Kanev)…

Ah Kaniv! Come for the museum-house and burial plot of poet Tara’s Shevchenko, stay for the majestic views of the Dnieper River! (Historic photos from: jewua.org/kaniv)

#AlexKrakovsky’s treasure trove includes an 1875 census of Kaniv, and WOW 💥:

Papa Zus Divinskii is with wife Ester and 3 sons, his MOTHER Chana-Bluma Divinskaya(!!!), FIVE brothers with 2 wives(!!!), 4 nephews, 2 nieces? I’m still figuring out the names and relationships…

It’s sad these lists are mostly just names and ages. What were their jobs? Who came to America? Who’s buried in the (extant!) Kaniv Jewish cemetery?!!? Who was murdered at Berestovetsky Yar and remembered in Kaniv’s Holocaust memorial? (Again, photos from jewua.org/kaniv

I remember my Great-Grandma Bess (born on the Lower East Side in 1900) telling me with a straight face her parents raised Sammy Davis Jr. and that’s why he was Jewish.

It’s kooky and weird, but there’s pathos too. Our Davis family wasn’t special. We had no past.

Now… we do!

I’m learning about these distant hometowns at one of their worst times of need.

#Kaniv’s sister city, Sonoma, CA, has a fundraising page for the people of Kaniv: givebutter.com/SisterCities_K…