My grandmother Sarafina Pupacz came from Belarus. I don't know the village or city where she was from. Possibly, she was from Koydanov where my grandfather, Vasily Santorovich, was from. Possibly, she was from Slutsk or elsewhere - maybe even Bialystok for all I know. I don't know if she had siblings. She married my grandfather on June 18 1911 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA. I think she did not know my grandfather until she came to the USA. Although the name Sarafina Pupacz is on her marriage certificate, she also was addresses as Puparto, Pofitch, maybe even Popek and similar. She was born in 1889 or 1890 in Russian Poland. My mother, now deceased, said that she may have come over with a male friend or relative named Horuk(?) (pronounced huh ROOK). There are not many people with the surname Pupacz (Pupach). I don't know if the National Archives in Minsk would have information or not.
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Surprisingly, I have been in contact with someone who says he is a distant relative of my grandmother, Sarafina Pupach. If correct, she is from Deniskovichi village, the district of Gantsevichi, Brest voblast, Belarus. I need to learn more if there is more.
Previously, I had guessed my grandmother may have been Marya Papuszka of Seredpil'tsi in Lvivska oblast, Ukraine.
The information I have is that Sarafina Pupach was probably born in 1889 and she arrived in the USA in 1908. She married my grandfather in Philadelphia in 1911. A cousin of mine says that she spoke Russian and used Ukrainian words. My father may have said she was Ukrainian, but I don't have a good memory of this.
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My family came from Seredpil'tsi or Srodopolce and my great grandmother was Marya Papuszka. Why did you believe that she was your grandmother?
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I think I made a mistake. I did a search of women who were born in about 1889 and who came to the USA in 1908, information I was fairly sure about. I also had a vague memory of my father telling my mother about 40 years ago that my grandmother was Ukrainian and came from not far from his home of Belzec in Tomaszow Lubelskie, Poland. A cousin on my mother's side recently told me that my grandmother spoke Russian and used Ukrainian words. Although the wedding certificate of my grandfather and my grandmother Sarafina indicated her name as Pupacz, I was told that there were many different versions of her surname - Popek, Puparto, etc. - and that she may have used the given name of Mary and Maria as well as Sarafina and Sarah. I recently was contacted by someone in Brest voblast who claims to know of Sarafina through his grandmother. At present, I accept that she was Sarafina Pupach and I erred in assuming that she was Marya Papuszka. My mother told me that my grandmother could not read or write. The record keeping for immigrants in the early 1900s leaves something to be desired. Mistranscriptions seemed to be relevant.
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Thanks for the background. It certainly appears that we do not share any ancestors.
Good luck in your research.
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