Leonid Pasternak (Father of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Boris Pasternak) said to a letter written to Boris (my Great Grandfathers first cousin) that our family came from a direct line from Don YItzchak (Issac) Abravanel and that he saw the family tree paperwork confirming this. Unfortunately this paperwork got lost.
I have found loads of writings about this online but I need either this paperwork or to work out how both families connect. Valentin Parnakh book on Russian Poetry talks about Pasternak's geanology to the Abravanel's.
AKIVA PASTERNAK (born 1780) or EVGENNI PASTERNAK were my great great great great grandfather. According to my research they arrived in Odessa Ukraine according to Leonid Pasternak's letter to Boris in the 18th Century. The name Pasternak was forced on Akiva & Evgenni by the Tsarist Russians in the Nicolas 1 period which means "Parsnip" to give them a new non Jewish name in place of their previous Jewish name (which was for sure Abravanel).
Akiva a Russian peasant had a son called Osip Pasternak, who had 9 children. 3 died very early. David according to Geni died at 60 but in a book I read it said he died in his teens. Osip had 5 other children, Leonid, Aleksandr, Rosa, Anna, Ekaterina. As my grandmother (Mary Posernick) father Harris Posernick was Boris Pasternak's first cousin, the name Posernick was changed from Pasternak as who they moved to England the English person who were registering the new arrivals probably could not pronounce Pasternak. Therefore I feel that my lineage is more likely to male therefore it would be Aleksandr or David if he lived to 60 as written in Geni.
Don Yitzskhah (Issac) Abravanel went to Venice and died in 1508. He has 4 children, Joseph Abravanel & Samuel Abravanel who went to Amsterdam afterwards, Judah Leon Abravanel who went to Turkey. He also had a daughter called Esther Abravanel. I also found a Abravanel called Hirsh Abravanel who was head of the Prussian community in Lissa, Prussia in 1862 which is now Leszno Poland.
Either the Abravanel's via Judah Leon Abravanel could have gone from Turkey on a boat across the Black Sea to Odessa in the 18th Century or maybe it is through Hirsh Abravanel as Poland is not too far from Odessa.
From Don Issac Abravanel (1437-1508) to Akiva Pasternak (1780) or Evgenni Paternak I reckon I am missing no more than only 10- 12 generations. If anyone can help from my long distant Abravanel or Pasternak families I can connect my family in a direct line to King David. (I am around 96 generations away).
Can you help a long distant cousin solve this puzzle ? I have sent you the spreadsheet of the generations from King David to me.
Any information will help me, especially about your family tree to Don Issac Abravanel (if you have this information) and if any of these names mean anything to you.
Shalom
