I was cleaning junk out of my desk and came across my Grandfather's 1965 obituary.

It states he was born in 1888 in Debodebowa, Russia. I've Googled it, but I'm not coming up with anything. It very well could be that the town is called something else now, or maybe it no longer exists. From what I remember from when I was young, he grew up near the Polish border, fled the Russian Revolution and came to the U.S. around 1915-1917 or so.

Anyone know where Debodebowa is/was, or where I might find more information?

quote:

Debodebowa

Debowa is a town in Poland?

Is it? I saw a Debroya in Poland.
I'm going by what the obit said - Russia.

From what I remember of family discussions when I was young, he was Russian/Polish.

Could you possibly mean Domodedovo? It is now the name of one of Moscow's airports, but was once the name of a town in the area.

The borders over there historically weren't all that static. Today you're in Poland, tomorrow you're in Russia.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Is it? I saw a Debroya in Poland.
I'm going by what the obit said - Russia.

From what I remember of family discussions when I was young, he was Russian/Polish.

It wasn't Poland at that time (1880s). The nearest to the description of "Poland" was the 'Kingdom of Poland' which was formally in unity with Russia, but its autonomy was scraped long before that time. Nevertheless, the tsars of Russia retained the title of King of Poland until the collapse of the House of Romanov on the Russian throne.

Updated to add: Here is an 1888 map of Europe, Poland was considered Russia, if you look at the red borders at that time. Not sure where Debodedowa is.

https://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/4600/4667/4667.htm

quote:

Originally posted by SigSAC:
Could you possibly mean Domodedovo? It is now the name of one of Moscow's airports, but was once the name of a town in the area.

I suppose that's possible, but the obit said Debodebowa. If that town was near Moscow, it would put it too far away from the Polish border.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Is it? I saw a Debroya in Poland.
I'm going by what the obit said - Russia.

From what I remember of family discussions when I was young, he was Russian/Polish.

I think, that part of Poland was a part of Russia in 1888. There was no Poland at that time.

Yes, correct. I think my family was referring to the post WWII border.

They're all gone now, so I have nobody to ask.

There's a Demidov as well. Part of the problem is that when Stalin and Hitler parted out Poland to suit them, Stalin had a habit of renaming places as a deliberate conceptual break from the past. At the same time, it could now be somewhere in Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus or Ukraine.

It could also just be a poor translation from Cyrillic Russian, with something like direct copying of the Cyrillic letters into their seemingly similar-looking Latin letters, which would not be correct.

For example, DЄВOdЁЪOЩА (a made-up word) is not Debodebowa, even though that's what it looks like if you simply swap the Cyrillic symbols for their closest-looking Latin symbols. Instead, the Latin character version of that word would be more like Dyevodeoshcha.

You may be correct about that translation.
I'm hoping there's a Polish or Russian member that would know what it is by the sound or from some knowledge of the area.

I have an atlas book published in English by the Soviet Union in 1967. Although the maps of that area are at a scale of 1:500,000, I did find the town of Dabrowa Bailostoka. It’s shown in Poland, but relatively close to the border with the USSR. It is about 60 kilometers north of the larger town of Bailystok, and by rough estimate by eye, the lat/long is about 53° 37' North, 23° 20' West.

Thanks. That's worth investigating.

So far closest is this

Debowa Kloda
Per Google Translate, “bows” means “rustic”. Maybe something like “Old Debowa”?

Numerous other geographic locations starting with “Debowa” but not ending in “Debowa”

If you are a vodka drinker, you may be in real luck.

Masters of Malt: Debowa Distilleries

I suggest a trip to the distillery, I’m sure they can give you directions from there.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
So far closest is this

Debowa Kloda
Per Google Translate, “bows” means “rustic”. Maybe something like “Old Debowa”?

Numerous other geographic locations starting with “Debowa” but not ending in “Debowa”

That seems to be in the right general area.

I have been doing a fair bit of genealogical research lately. I find that names and locations are very often misspelled by immigration officials when people from overseas first entered the US. It also is common in other documents when Americans could not pronounce or spell a name or place.
Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Is it? I saw a Debroya in Poland.
I'm going by what the obit said - Russia.

From what I remember of family discussions when I was young, he was Russian/Polish.

In 1888 Poland was mostly part of Russia.

quote:

From what I remember of family discussions when I was young, he was Russian/Polish.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
My Grandfather and Grandmother immigrated from Eastern Europe about the same time. Much of that history has been lost thanks to the USSR and Germany. Renaming of towns, genocide by both the USSR and Germany. Behind the Iron Curtain, letters could not be sent to the West. Communication was not possible. Poland and the Ukraine got the worst of the Nazis and the Red Army. A real mess. Most of the death camps were in Poland if I recall. Much of my heritage on my father's side in unknown to me. Sadly, that is not uncommon.

IIRC Poland became an independent state again about 1920 and its first act was to declare war on Russia. Stalin in turn took the eastern part of Poland two weeks after Hitler invaded the western part. Polish city of Lvov later became Ukrainian city of Lviv. The German states of Schlesien (Silesia) and Pommern (Pomerania) were taken from Germany and given to Poland at the end of WWII; the German inhabitants were driven out and resettled to west Germany.
More history there than the land can stand.

Another possibility: Debowola: a village on the Vistula river NW of Lublin; however only 170 population.
I think you need to pass this by a Polish speaker, Waterbury Bob.