Nathan Shechtman

There is some doubt about the year of birth of Nathan Shechtman.
- The 1913 (Sept) passenger list for the Ionian lists his age as 15, which is consistent with 1898
- The 1921 Census lists his age as 21, which is consistent with 1899 or 1900
- His 1922 marriage record lists no age
- His 1926 naturalization file contains a petition dated 1926-10-25 in which (4) he claims to have been born November 1898, and (4) his age is listed as 27 years, which is also consistent with that year.
- His 1989 gravestone indicates his date of birth as Nov. 17, 1896

Nathan's 1926 petition for a certificate of naturalization identifies his place of birth as Slovezhne, Volhynia, Russia (although it is hard to read, despite being typed). Volhynia is a region of central/eastern Europe that was part of the Russian Empire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volhynia

No towns matching Slovezhne were found on Google, but a search through the towns of Volhynia on JewsihGen.org found a likely match, now called Slovechno, in the district of Ovruch. It is in Ukraine, near the border of Belarus. The Romanized Ukrainian name is Slovechne. http://www.jewishgen.org/Ukraine/GEO_town.asp?id=557