Dworkis Families of Ukraine

This project seeks to bring together all the Dworkis families of Ukraine, and related families, including those of Moldova/Bessarabia. Many of the Dworkis ancestors who emigrated in the early 20th century cited "Russia" as their birth country, since Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire at that time, so Dworkis families from Russia must also be considered as potential relatives of the rest. Thus far, all the Dworkis families found have been Jewish.

Are you a Dworkis or a descendant of a Dworkis? Think you might be related to one of the families described here? You can join this group and get notified when there are changes or discussion forum postings by clicking the "+Follow" button toward the top right of this page. And we encourage you to say hello by adding a reply to the "Introductions" topic in our forum.

Do you have a question, or wish to share a family story about one of our common ancestors? You can start a new discussion in our forum. If you have any historical family photos then please consider sharing them to our Photos and Documents collection.

[2016 Aug 15] This project is newly established. Upcoming outreach will try to bring in Dworkis family members to explore our potential common genealogy.

[2017 May 28] Notes about the Dworkis families of Moldova/Bessarabia have been added to this page. At least one of those families (Benzion & Sarah) seems to have some connection to Tulchin also, which is enormously intriguing. There are DNA matches between the families, but only autosomal DNA has been tested and the amount of matching DNA is not large enough to be conclusive. However, Y-DNA testing of at least one male with the Dworkis surname from each lineage should be able to strongly confirm or disconfirm the connection.

Origin of the Dworkis Surname

It's not clear how the surname Dworkis might have been derived. There are two small towns in Poland named Dworki, one in the southwest and the other in the north. The word "dworki" in Polish means "manor house." The surnames Dworkus & Dvorkis are known variations of Dworkis. The surname Dworkin also might be related, but most Dworkin lineages appear to come from Lithuania or Belarus rather than Ukraine or Moldova.

Some "Lineage Founders" at Geni.com

Here are some people who are potential relatives, near or at the top of a Dworkis lineage here at Geni.com. Additional research will be needed to clarify if and how they might be related.

• Zelig Dworkis & Sheva "Sadie" Dworkis, from Tul'chyn, Vinnyts'ka oblast, Ukraine, parents of Kessel "Karl" who married Lena Kaplan, Hyman who married Rose Hoffman, and other siblings.
• Barakh Dworkis & Rachel Dworkis, parents of Mordche "Max" who married Annie Luvech and was the father of Harry from Linitz (Illintsy), Podolia gubernia, Ukraine, Heman from Kiev, Ukraine, and other siblings.
• Levi Dworkis & Hannah, parents of Abraham Dworkin and Elijah Dwarkis (Dworkin), both born in Russia.
• Louis Dworkis born in Massachusetts, who married Florence Marie Shaser.
• David Dworkis
• (Unknown female) Dworkis who married (unknown male) Sondel.

There appears to be a cluster of Dworkis families in the area of Vinnytsia, Ukraine and the nearby south and east. Linitz/Illintsi, Tul'chyn (Tulchyn, Tolchin, Tulchin), Lypovets,and Shpykiv (Spikov) are all places from which people surnamed Dworkis immigrated to North America. Other Dworkis families were more distant, to the northeast in Kiev and Kozelets.

There are also two known Dworkis families from Kishinev, Bessarabia/Moldova. An ancestral couple of one is Benjamin (Benzion) Dworkis (Dworkus) (21 Oct 1878, Kishinev, Bessarabia - Mar 1956, Brookfield, Waukesha County, Wisconsin) and Sarah Zeltzer (Seltzer) (1884,Kishinev, Bessarabia - Aug 1957, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin). An ancestral couple of the other is Moyshe Dvorkis (of Kishinev, Moldova) and Ginda Galperin (b. 1886, Moldova). As of August 2017, their trees are not yet here at Geni.com.

DNA matches at AncestryDNA suggest some strong links between some Dworkis families and Solodar families who are also of the Vinnytsia oblast in what is now Ukraine.

Dworkis Genetic Genealogy (DNA)

A Dworkis surname project is planned, especially to focus on the Y-chromosome to test if the existing males surnamed Dworkis all have a common patrilineal ancestor. In addition, autosomal DNA testing can be used to explore relationships if branches of the family are within the range of fourth cousins, or possibly fifth cousins in rare cases.

Testing will focus on FamilyTreeDNA.com because it's the only service offering fairly inexpensive Y-chromosome testing, but all Dworkis relatives are encouraged to download the raw data file from wherever they are tested, and ulpoad it to GEDmatch.com so that we can all compare DNA. You can find news about the Dworkis genetic genealogy project, or ask questions, on this discussion thread.

If you've got additions, changes or other suggestions for this project front page, please post them to this discussion thread.