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My grandfather's brother

My grandfather's brother

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 4:28PM GMT
Classification: Query
My name is Paul, I'm from Belarus. My grandmother told me a story about her father, Isaak Gaba, and his two brothers - Wassily Gaba and Andrey Truchan. They arrived to Ellis Island at early 1910s. I found records about their arriving at Ellis Island Foundation site, and that's what I found.

Wassily arrived to Ellis Island first of them at Nov 30, 1909, on "Lituania" from Libau. My grandfather Isaak Gaba arrived there at Sep 05, 1913, on "Adriatic" from Liverpool. Their third brother Andrey Truchan arrived between them, at Jun 03, 1912 (19 years old), on "Kursk" from Libau. They lived in America from 1913 till 1919, then Isaak and Wassily returned to Russia. And Andrey decided to stay at Boston, MA (probably). They sent letters one to another till 1937, and then their correspondence was cancelled due to obvious reasons (repressions, you know).

So all I know about Andrey's destiny: he lived in Boston, MA (probably, according to grandma's memories), was married, his wife had Polish roots, they had three sons (or 2 sons and 1 daughter). I have no access to Ancestry.com database, so I can only trace it by keywords without details. There's no information about Andrey Truchan (only Andrew Truchan).

One more thing: his father's name was Ivan, and his motherland was Tesowo (Tysowa, Tesowa) or Seltzo, Russia.

Can you help us with genealogy research and finding our lost relatives?

Thank you very much,

Paul and my family.

Re: My grandfather's brother

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 6:51PM GMT
Classification: Query
I am having trouble finding records that match all the details. I looked at the Ellis Island manifests. The one for Andrey was a misfiled record, but I managed to find it, Series T715, Roll 1874, Frame 467. It indicates he was going to Chicago IL, to an uncle Jergey Char???, spelling hard to read. It says he is coming from his father in Seltzo, only one name, looks like Olimpi.

As for the manifest for Issak, he is going to a "friend, Wasily Truchan" in New Britan Connecticut.

I can't find Andrey on the census, but I do find a John Truchan in Chicago, but he gives his birth year as 1888, which seems to make him too old to be Andrey.

Can you clarify why one of these brothers has a different last name? wouldn't he have a different father?

Re: My grandfather's brother

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 8:35PM GMT
Classification: Query
First of all, thanks a lot for your help. I'm really appreciate for your researches.

My grandfather and his brothers had double surname: Gaba-Truchan (Truchan was mother's surname, and Gaba was father's). I don't know about reasons for Andrey's statement of second surname (everybody knew them like Gaba). But who knows...

The only info about Andrey is about his arrival to Ellis Island. I've found some info about Andrew (not Andrey!) Truchan on ancestry.com, but this man was mentioned on the 1920 US Federal Census (born at 1892, lived at Luzerne, PA) only (no details available to me).

Another info about Andrey from my grandmother :-) She said he had daughter Eva (or Eve) and son Adam. Tracing by those keywords (Eva or Adam Truchan) didn't give any result.

So is it deadlock?

P.S. Sorry for my awful English.
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