Hello,
My grandfather is Polish, but I'm still not able to pinpoint the exact area his family is from. I've been told that he was born in a part of Poland that is now Belarus. However, British and American records for his three older brothers say they were born in Zascianek, Poland (I don't have membership right now so I can't see if the US records said this was a Zascianek in Grodno or Nowogrodek or wherever else).
My great grandfather said in his British Army application he was born in 'Dojlidy, Iwje, Lida, Nowogrodek, Poland' but when I looked up those places, the Dojlidy I found was hundreds of miles from Iwje, Lida and Nowogrodek, but was less than 20 miles away from Zascianek.
Basically, I've found two clusters of places my grandfather's family is linked to, one in eastern Poland and one in north-western Belarus. It looks like my grandfather himself was born in Iwje (in the Belarus cluster) but I'm not sure. Also, I'm not sure if I have the right Zascianek (I hear that Zascianek means 'backwater' - a part of a village inhabited by peasants- in Polish). I'm even less sure that I've got the right Dojlidy (the one I found is called Osiedle Dojlidy and is in Bialystok).
(I'll finish this post tomorrow)