As the historian of the TALALAY-TALALAI family, I invite all family members to contact me to make sure that the information on their branches is included in our charts. The family was in Mogilev, Belarus since the late 1700s. There is the long-standing tradition in several branches that the family is originally Sephardic in origin. There are known branches in many cities across the former USSR, and today in the UK, Canada, America (many), and other places, as well as Israel. There were branches in the Ukraine, possibly in Pogrebische area, also Chernigov area, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, Baranovich, Bobruisk, Novosibirsky and others. I invite all with this name to contact me with as much of their family history as possible. Best regards, Schelly Talalay Dardashti (Spain-Mogilev-New York-California-Israel) dardasht@barak-online.net
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I was born 1961 Bayonne, NJ. My birth name was Michael Gregory Talalai. My fathers name was gregory from what I can tell he had seven sisters whom I don't know. My mother and he divorced after I was born and I was later adopted when she remarried. My name was legally changed. Can you help
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Dear Mike: There are two families with this name. One is the Belarus/Ukraine family, which is Jewish, and there is the branch from Cracow, Poland, who are Catholic. We have yet to determine if there is a link, however ancient, between the two. I believe there is based on historical events in the 1600s. However, the spelling of your name as TALALAI is the Polish form. There is only one branch of our family that still uses TALALAY (Baltimore-Toronto-London, etc.). Most changed their names after immigration to TOLLIN, TALLIN, TALL, TOLL, TAL and four brothers in Philadelphia who switched to FEINSTEIN. There are a number of the Polish-origin TALALAI still in New Jersey (West Caldwell, Fair Lawn, etc.). I am not sure exactly what you want me to help with, but at least one of the Cracow family is working on genealogical matters and I will forward your message on to him. It would help if you could supply the names of your father's parents (grandparents if you can find that out), and the years in question. Please respond privately to me and I can perhaps offer more information to you. Best regards, Schelly Talalay Dardashti
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hello my name is dmitry pravich my grandma's and grandpa's names are tanya and arkaday talalay and my great grandma's and great grandpa's namess are manya and salamon talalay. tanya and salamon recently died. we used to live in kiev, ukraine but recenty about 7 or 8 years ago we moved to chicago,illinois were we reside now. I hope this helps clear up some of the charts please respond to my email apravich@comcast.netthank you
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Thank you for your kind replies.....i know that it has been several years but i only just re-discovered this site and my original post. I had no idea that anyone had responded. I have, however emailed you privately.
thank you
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okay I just discovered some facts. My father Gregory Talalai was born in Dickson City PA in 1936 he had sisters named Phyllis, Evy, Marianne and Dorothy. His parents were Stella Kolenda and Stephen Talalai.
Stella's parents were Jacob and Mary Kolenda they had Anthony, John, Stella, Verna, Pearl, and Walter. At that time in Dickson City PA there was a Julian Kaminsky age 27, Florence Orbitak age 10 and John Zawatski age 30 living with them.
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Hi, As I stated before, there are two major groups of TALALAI. One is the Jewish family whose major branches lived in Mogilev, Belarus and Chernigov, Ukraine. The other is the Polish Catholic family from several places in Poland, although most seem to be related. This family in the US settled in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan, etc.
I have been in contact with TALALAI still in Warsaw and Poznan. The stories they tell are interesting. The Warsaw man, who knows quite a bit about the family, tells some "telling" anecdotes.
1. The name is very strange. It is not Polish, not Russian, not Slavic. When he was in university, because it was a "foreign" name, no one would room with him. He and another student also with a "foreign" name had a room for three students all to themselves for their school years as no one would room with him. His brother is a linguistics professor at a major Polish university and concurs. The family counts many academics, doctors, etc. in their backgrounds.
2. As far as we know, the name TALALAI is actually Aramaic/Hebrew. It is considered Aramaic as it ends in 'AI, a common construction. We have documents from Spain indicating the origin of the family, one is dated 1353, concerning Moshe Talalaya or Talalaia, a kosher winemaker of Lerida, which is about 140 km NW of Barcelona. There are six other archival references to the family that we are tracking down.
In 1391, pogroms across Spain (and these also occurred much earlier) began a wave of people leaving Spain for europe and eastern Europe - this is much earlier than the well-known Expulsion in 1492, which threw a huge number of Jewish people out of Spain. Additionally, there are archival documents in Polish towns indicating that the original Jewish individuals in those towns were Spanish refugees.
Following numerous historical events across Europe, assimilation and conversion from Judaism were common events for many reasons, including access to education.
While we have no proof (or at least not until I can convince members of the Polish TALALAI family to participate in my DNA project at Family Tree DNA), it is possible that today's Polish TALALAI family has ancient Jewish roots. Right now it is a theory, but DNA genetic genealogy testing would provide some answers. I have had 4 branches tested of our family, and would welcome others testing to see if there is a genetic match.
Schelly
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wow......that is very very interesting. I sure do appreciat you taking such an interest and going to such lengths to explore the origins of these names and thier histories. I actually find it quite fascinating and have been a bit obsessive lately with tracking down the little i've learned.
I have to admit their is something deeply satisfying about hearing the information you present here. Most of my people on both sides, the Irish and Polish put alot of emphasis on being catholic, many, in fact, on the Irish side have been priests in the Catholic faith. My Uncle John was in the marine corps for Korea and Vietnam and like many came back a changed man. He became a missionary in Bogata Columbia where he met my aunt and where my cousins were born. They came back to the states, my cousin got a job and saved for a car, the first night he drove his new car to work he was hit and killed by a drunk driver.....My uncle has been in an institution ever since.
So...the Irish side of my family has its history and mystery as well. But the Polish side, the side of my fathers people has until recently been shrouded in some secrecy. I only wish I had not been so willing to accept the casual disuasions and discouragement to pursue finding out sooner.
Thanks for your interest and work!
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Michael Gregory Talalai - I am one of your dads sisters - we were five girls and one boy (your dad)
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Mike, I don't know if you still check this site. I came across it last night. Your Dad was my husband's first cousin. My husband's mother, Anna Talalai Drobnak was your grandfather, Stephen Talali's, sister. He had another sister, Josey and three half-sisters, Valeria Talalai, Elizabeth Talalai Kovaleski, and Irene Talalai Greenfield. He also had two half-brothers, Edward Talalai and Robert Talalai. Stephen, Anna, and Joseys mother died when they were children and Grandpa Talalai remarried. Edward and Robert Talalai both have sons who carry the family name. Anna, Josey, and Valeria are now deceased.
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