Moshe Chaim, Czar of Pinsk: #9 Dora's Story

Who is Dora?
A couple of the Trees I was looking at referenced a Dora Turansky, married to a husband with the surname Kawin. 'Turansky' sounds like she could be a Zaturensky, so I am definitely interested. However, these Trees do not link Dora to any of the other 'Terensky' families.

One of the Trees in which Dora appeared was that of someone called Paul, who seemed from the Tree to be her great-grandson (he's the 'Private' above). Paul's DNA match to me is 138 cM, which suggests something in the region of Third Cousin. This implies that our common ancestor could be at the level of great-great-grandparents, ie in the generation prior to Dora.

The finger of suspicion
Just a minute. If Dora's father is to be the common ancestor for Cousin Paul and myself, and if the name Turansky comes to her from him, the finger of suspicion is pointing straight at my own great-great-grandfather, Movsha Zaturensky. In which case Dora would be the sister of my great-grandmother, Shprintsa.

So where can we find the name of Dora's father? Is he my Movsha? He's 'D Turansky' in Paul's Tree, but there doesn't seem to be any documentary evidence for this 'D'. Well, death records sometimes name the deceased's father ....

This appears to be the right person. It carries her father's surname, Toransky, but not his given name. Bear in mind that this record is just an index, and that the original may contain more information. Maybe if we can find the original death certificate ...

And here she is:

Aha! Born in Pinsk - sounds promising. And the informant is her son, Sam. He should know.

But look at her father: Morris Toransky, also born in Pinsk!

This has to be my Movsha Zaturensky!!

Another sibling for Shprintsa
So my great-grandmother Shprintsa has another sibling, Dora, to add to the one we found earlier: Shmuel (Simon Morris). Movsha Zaturensky does indeed have 3 children, as was suggested in Cousin Jennifer's Tree - except, two of them are daughters, Shprintsa and Dora, where Jennifer shows her with 3 sons. [We'll come back to the two sons who she shows at the head of the Terence and Trent lines in a later post.]

More to Dora
But there's more to Dora than meets the eye. You may have noticed that Paul's tree gives her mother as 'Chana', whereas Jennifer and I have the mother of Shprintsa and Shmuel as 'Baila'. I must say that I have not as yet seen any documentary evidence for either of these names, but the dates of birth suggest that the two-mother scenario could be a possibility. The best bets we have at the moment for these three siblings are:

Shprintsa b 1858
Shmuel b 1864
Dora b 1870

So it's certainly possible that Movsha's first wife - Baila? - could have died after having Shprintsa and Shmuel, and that he then married - Chana? - some time after 1864, and Dora was born a few years later.

Back to the DNA
This scenario has DNA implications, of course. It would reduce the amount of DNA I share with cousins descended from Dora, such as Paul. I would only share one gg-g'parent with them (Movsha, but not Chana), as against the two I share with Private Morris, and also Cousins Jennifer and Rebecca (all Movsha and Baila). Always remembering that I strongly suspect that Shmuel married his First Cousin Rochel Leah, so my relationship with this branch is doubled, with further implications for DNA sharing.

At this point I will throw in another member of the original Cluster Club, Cousin David, who is also descended from Dora, and who I believe is a half-2C to Paul (that's another story). You will notice that I share a whole lot less DNA with David than I do with Paul ...

Here are the numbers, with my current estimate of the relationships, and the names of the Most Recent Common Ancestors, assuming the double- and half-cousin scenarios outlined above:

As you can see, my matches with Paul and David are in different territories - and yet the paper trail says they have the same relationship to me, ie Half-Third Cousins. Whilst the cM I share with Half-Cousin Paul suggests he should belong in the same category as the Double-Cousins Jennifer and Rebecca.

Oy veh!