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Granadier Families of Belarus

Project Tags

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tura%C5%ADskaja_synagoga._%D0%A2%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%9E%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%81%D1%8B%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B0_(1910).jpg

This project brings together all families who have ancestors with the Granadier and variant surnames (Grenadier, Grenader, Granadir, Grand), who lived in what is now Belarus. This work will also tie in any families who are connected to the Granadiers by marriage.

There are several large, well documented Granadier families from the region of the Pripyat River (southern Polesia), particularly in the towns and cities of Turov, Zhytokovitch (Zhytkavichy, Zitcovitz), David-Horodok, Stolin, and Gomel (Homel, Homyel). Whether or not, or how, these families are related is not currently known, but this project may help us find answers.

Do you want to get notified when there are new discussion forum postings? Then click the "+Follow" button toward the upper right of this page. If you are related to the Granadier/Grandir/Grand families that this project is researching, or just interested, it would be wonderful if you could introduce yourself on our discussion forum, and let us know your connection to or other interest in our families.

Contents

News

[2016 Aug 23] Another major Granadier lineage (that's four total!) was merged together here today, based on work by Cary "vjlp1062" and others on Ancestry.com. This lineage descends from Menachem Granadier (spouse unknown). whose son Benjamin is known to have been born in Turov. These four major lineages documented here are also the only major lineages documented at Ancestry.com. However, not all known Granadier/Grenadier families have been connected to one of these four, so there may also be some minor lineages as yet not well documented. Also, some additional Lineage Founder section entries, and bibliographic links in the References section were added to this project page.

Past news postings can be found on this discussion thread.

Some "Lineage Founders" Here at Geni

Here are some links to help you find the Granadier families within Geni's big World Family Tree. There are four major Granadier/Grenadir lineages identified, plus some smaller fragments. We suspect these tree segments can all be tied together, but we don't yet know what the relationship between the different lineages might be. Do you have more branches to add to the list below? Do you have some ideas or new information that will connect these branches? Please post it to our discussion forum.

  • Yankel (Jacob) Granadier (c.1829-1898) & Chashke, parents of Yankel Granadier (c.1864-1916,Turov) who married Chana Borkin (1868,Turov-1937, Detroit. This is a large lineage, with 1800s descendants primarily from Turov & Zhytokovitch, and whose living descendants are mostly now in the U.S.
  • Granadier brothers Hershke, Bunim, Antzil & Itchen, whose parents' names are as yet unknown. This is a large lineage, with 1800s descendants primarily from Turov & Zhytokovitch, and whose living descendants are mostly now in the U.S.
    • Hershke Granadier (c.1820,Turov-c.1908, Zhitkovich) & Henya Raizel Bickman (1844-1908), and Hershke's two other wives (names unknown).
    • Bunim Granadier & Maryasheh, parents of Tillie Weissman (nee Granadier) (1873-1930), and her siblings.
  • Shlomo Granadir & Rachel, parents of Noach "Noah" Granadir/Granadier (1868, Turov-1931, Israel) who married Rivka Moravchik/Muravchik (Nirtcha near David-Horodok-1936,Tel Aviv). This is a large lineage, with 1800s descendants believed to be from David-Horodok, and whose living descendants may mostly be in Israel.
  • Menachem (Mendel) Grenadier, whose son Benjamin/Berel/Bernard/Dov Ber Grenadier/Grand (1863,Turov-1933,Bronx) married Sarah/Sora Rivka (1865-1942). This is a large lineage, with 1800s descendants primarily from Turov & Zhytokovitch, and whose living descendants are mostly now in the U.S. Please also see this Ancestry.com tree for more details. The family consensus is that Benjamin and Sarah had 10 children, but only 9 have historical documentation. The undocumented child's name is recalled differently by different descendants of this lineage, as either Philip or Beckie, and may have died before the family immigrated.
  • <private> Granadier & <unknown> Tinelli.
  • <unknown> Granadier and Golda Granadier (c.1893, Rubel near Stolin-1942, Stolin].
  • Meyer Grenadier who married Venta (Malke) Millman (1888,David-Horodok).
  • Lena Fischman (Grenadier) who married Asher/Chaim Fischman, and whose daughter was Ida Doroshkin (1884-1940).
  • Jan Schulte Grenadier, who married Enne Alheit Pilat (d. 1823,Burgsteinfurt).
  • Naftala Grenadier (Naftali?), who married Esther. Their daughter Goldie Kusnit, who was born in Turov, immigrated to Detroit, Michigan, and married Abraham Kusnit (born Kusnetsky/Kuznetsky/Kuznitsky/Kusnitsky).

Name Origins

The word "grenadir," in various spellings, means "soldier" in several European languages. There is an entry in "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire" by Alexander Beider (1993. Avotaynu, Teaneck, NJ): Grenader (Vilna, Pinsk, common in Mozyr') N: grenadir [Russian] (nickname for a strong or tall man) {Grenadir, Grinader; Granatur, Granaturov}.

Genetic Genealogy: Granadier DNA Project

A genetic genealogy project is going to be started to help clarify the relationships between the known Granadier families. We will focus that effort using FamilyTreeDNA.com because they offer Y-chromosome testing, although AncestryDNA is an OK choice too for autosomal-only testing. All participants will be encouraged, no matter where they do your DNA testing, to download the raw test data and then upload it to GEDmatch.com where we can all jointly compare DNA. You can find news about the Granadier genetic genealogy project, or ask questions, on this discussion thread.

References

  • From Zhitkovitch Throughout the World: Episodes of My Life (1974) by Yitzchak Yankel "Jacob" Doroshkin, translated from the Yiddish by Mindy C. Gross. (OCLC 1999317; LCCN 76359550, 95855123; OpenLibrary OL6939980W). In Yiddish as "פון זשיטקאוויטש איבער דער וועלט" ("Fun Zshiṭḳoṿiṭsh iber der ṿelt") and available online from the Yiddish Book Center. This is a personal memoir from the same person who wrote "Roots of the Granadier (Grand) Family."
  • Roots of the Granadier (Grand) Family: From Zhitkovitch (A Shtetl in White Russia) to America (1978) by Yitzchak Yankl "Jacob" Doroshkin; translated from the Yiddish by Mindy C. Gross. (OCLC 6496933; LCCN 81475280; OpenLibrary OL17362193W, OL25940185M, OL25940187M). This book describes the family descended from the Hershke, Bunim, Antzil & Itchen brothers. Only fifty copies of the book were self-published by Jacob, but the text is under review by his great grandson Matthew Gewirtz and his granddaugher Wendy Spatt for possible re-release as a valuable genealogical resource.
  • Memoirs of Sol Granadier (c.1977) by Solomon "Sol" Granadier. This memoir describes the family descended from Zalman Granadier & Chashke. The memoir is under review by Sol's son Chuck Granadier ahead of possible distribution as a valuable genealogical resource.
  • Scholarly works from Leonid Smilovitsky (webpage). Wikipedia articles about Dr. Smilovitsky are in French (auto-translated to English) and Russian (auto-translated to English).
  • A massive online tree was developed by Cary ("vjlp1062" at Ancestry.com) to present together all the Granadier/Grenadier families of the southern Belarus region where nearly all the Granadier families were living around 1900. It represents a heroic amount of genealogical research.

More articles about Jewish life in Belarus are available at the JewishGen Belarus SIG online newsletters archive.

More Resources

The list of links to other online resources found below is not intended to be a complete listing of everything available for each category. These are links to a few relevant major resources or tools, any specialized websites and pages that have much more complete lists of online information, links to other projects at Geni.com, and perhaps a few minor sites that have not been listed elsewhere.

Granadier Families

Turov

Zhytkavichy (Zhytokovitch, Zhitkovitch)

David-Horodok

Gomel (Homel, Homyel)

Jewish Belarus

Do you have suggestions for additions or changes to this page? Please post them to this discussion thread.
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