Moshe Chaim, Czar of Pinsk: #14 Dora and Ockham's Razor

The story so far
Dora Zaturensky was the sister - or half-sister, maybe - of my great-grandmother Shprintsa. Their father Movsha may have had 2 wives; Shprintsa was born in 1858, and may have been the daughter of the first wife, and Dora, b 1869, the daughter of the second.

I have identified DNA matches with 2 of Dora's great-grandchildren, Cousin Paul and Cousin David. David is a descendant of Dora's first husband, Gitelman (we don't know his given name), whilst Paul is from her second husband, Jacob Kawin.



The paper trail says I have exactly the same relationship to both Paul and David: half-3rd Cousin. So why is there such a huge difference between the amounts of DNA I share with them? Or, to ask the question another way around: why do I share so much more DNA with a Kawin descendant than I do with a Gitelman one?

I've had a question like this before, in this same family. In that case, it seemed the solution was that there was probably a double relationship somewhere along the line - that Movsha's son Shmuel had married his cousin Rochel Leah, for instance. Is something similar happening here?

For this to be the case, I would have to have a single relationship with David, via Dora, and a double relationship with Paul. This second relationship could occur at any point in the Tree I have researched so far - via Paul's father's family (which I think is most unlikely, having had a quick look at his ancestry), that of his maternal grandmother Alice Cowan (wife of Sam Kawin), which also seems unlikely, or through Jacob Kawin himself. And the implication of this is that Jacob and Dora would have to be be fairly close cousins.

In other words, one of Dora's parents would have to be a sibling to one of Joseph's: either Dora's mother ('2nd wife' in the Tree above) would be a Kawin, ie a sister to Joseph's father Max, or Joseph's mother would be a Zaturensky, a sister to Dora's father Movsha. We don't have any information on Dora's mother, but we do have several references to Joseph's mother as 'Hinda Sandusky'. It is possible that this could be a variant on 'Zaturensky', but the Sandusky name does occur in several places, and in any case it's not a very convincing rendition of Zaturensky. At the moment I'm tending towards Dora's mother being the connection.

A tantalising Tree
Then I came across this tantalising clip from a Tree on the JewishGen 'Family Tree of the Jewish People' (log in required). It was posted nearly 20 years ago, at a time when it was not possible to do much online research, so I'm assuming it's the product of family knowledge, and possibly some archival research in Belarus. I've written to the person who posted it, asking where the information comes from; fingers crossed I'll get a response!


The layout is not 100% clear, but it seems to be saying that Benjamin is the son of a Mosha Lipschitz from Pinsk, who died in 1886, the same year as Benjamin was born. The mother is unknown, but she is not Dora, who seems to be Mosha's second wife. The dates given here suggest Dora must have married at the age of 14, though we have her down elsewhere as born in 1869, which would make her 17 at the time of this marriage.

In addition, if Benjamin is the son not of Dora but of an earlier wife, this first wife would need to be closely related to Dora - preferably a sister - so as to retain my DNA relationship with David (see my draft Tree above).

Fact or fancy?
All this suggests the following scenario:

1 Mosha Lipschitz and first wife have child Benjamin in Nov 1886
2 maybe first wife dies in childbirth or shortly after
3 Mosha remarries immediately, to Dora
4 Mosha himself dies
5 Dora packs her bags and goes off to Peoria to marry Jacob Kawin, leaving her stepson Benjamin behind

- all in a matter of weeks.

Oh dear. There's too much going on here, and it's putting a tremendous weight on Dora's 17-year old shoulders. I'm not happy with it.

Ockham's Razor
At this point I am reminded of the wise words of the medieval philosopher William of Ockham, who is reputed to have argued along the lines of "Don't make an explanation more complicated than it needs to be", or, as expressed by Bertrand Russell, "always opt for an explanation in terms of the fewest possible causes".

So what can we identify as the "fewest possible causes" in this case? Looking at our suggested scenario again, the only things we can take as fact are:

1 Benjamin was born around 1886, probably in Pinsk
and
5 Dora went to the US around 1887, probably from Pinsk

Plus,
6 We have seen that Benjamin brought his own family from Pinsk to Peoria in 1922, and lived for 20 years or so in a house built in Dora's back yard
7 I have the DNA relationship with David and Paul outlined above

Do we really need 2, 3 and 4 to explain 6 and 7?

A closer shave
What happens if we apply Ockham's Razor to this scenario, and shave off the bits we don't need? How about discarding the marriage between Dora and Mosha Lipshits shown in the Tree above? We have no evidence for it, or reference to it, other than this Tree, and this Tree shows no sources, and could be wrong.

The consequences for Dora's story would be:
2 Mosha's wife does not need to die at this point
3 Mosha does not need to remarry, so he does not marry Dora
4 we no longer need to 'free' Dora from the marriage to Mosha, nor do we need to posit his death at this point

That feels better.

Wanted: a sister for Dora
In fact, it feels much better. Applying the razor leaves both of our outstanding queries untouched. Point 6 - Benjamin coming to live next door to Dora in Peoria, and point 7 - my DNA matches with Paul and David, are covered by just one assumption: that Benjamin's mother is indeed a sister of Dora.

This implies that when Benjamin emigrates to Peoria, he is going to live close by his Aunt and Cousins. We know he took on their surname, Kawin, shortly after arriving in the US. And it would not affect my DNA relationship with David. Our Common Ancestor would still be my great-great-grandfather Movsha Zaturensky.

The only problem is, we don't have an eligible sister for Dora.

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!

Moshe Chaim, Czar of Pinsk: #8 Brothers and More Brothers

Top of the Tree
To recapitulate briefly, we have established that the head of our Zaturensky clan is Chaim, and that he has two sons:
1) Moshe, who has a son Shmuel and a daughter Shprintsa (my great-grandmother)
2) Meir, who has a daughter Rochel Leah

NB: see this Tree in #6 It Takes Two Teranskys to Tango

Shmuel emigrates to the USA, changes his name to Simon Moses, and marries his cousin Rochel Leah. Shprintsa stays in Pinsk, marries Nevakh Schreibman, and does not emigrate. My mystery match Private Morris is descended from Shmuel and Rochel Leah, as are another match Rebecca and her sister Jennifer.

But who are the other members of the Terensky Cluster Club, and how do they all fit together? Some have not posted Trees, but of those that have, Jennifer's (above) is by far the most developed. When I first saw her Tree, she did not have a name for the patriarch, he was just 'Terensky'; after our initial conversations a few weeks ago, she has named him as I have: Chaim Zaturensky.

Three Siblings, Twice Over
However, it is the rest of the Tree that is intriguing. She has Chaim with 3 children: Herman (who is really Moshe) and two others.  Looking at Herman, he is shown with a wife Bailie Czar, and 3 children - Simon Morris with his wife Elizabeth (originally Shmuel and Rochel Leah), and two others, one named Trent, the other Terence. These last are surnames, not given names; they both look like adaptations of Terensky, so the likelihood is they are probably both male. Outside the Simon Morris line, only one given name appears to be known (Beylya).

What I find intriguing in this Tree is that, despite the lack of names, it clearly shows knowledge about the 'shape' of the family, as well as the name changes. The patriarch has 3 sons. One of those has a daughter who marries a Gitelman, another is Herman, who stands at the head of the Morris line, and about the third we are told nothing at all, except that he exists. There must have been a family story about 3 brothers, otherwise why include him?.

Something similar happens in the succeeding generation, within Herman's own line. He has 3 sons, but the only given name we see is Simon. However the family does appear to know that the others adopted different surnames: Terence and Trent. Which suggests there's another family story about 3 brothers.

One of the Clan
Note that the current generation do not appear to know that Simon's wife Elizabeth/Rochel Leah is also member of our Zaturensky clan. I am only in a position to suggest that she is, because a) I have found documentation that she is a Teransky from Pinsk, which some of the others don't seem to have found, and b) the strength of my DNA match to Private Morris indicates that there could well be a second strand to our relationship. There is a good possibility that (a) explains (b). This would require her father Meir to be a brother to Moshe/Herman (see #6 again). Might Meir be the lonely 'no-name Terensky' we see in Jennifer's Tree, next to Herman?

My Clustered Cousins
So who are the unnamed siblings in this Tree? Are their families correctly located? And is this where we will find the remaining members of the Cluster Club, who should all turn out to be Third or maybe Fourth Cousins to me? The first two questions need a bit more work, but I can tell you now that the answer to the last question is "Yes".

Moshe Chaim, Czar of Pinsk: #6 It Takes Two Teranskys to Tango

What's going on?

We have established that Private Morris, my mystery match on AncestryDNA, is related to me via my Zaturensky line from Pinsk, and that our most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is my great-great-grandfather Movsha. This would make us Third Cousins. Movsha's father was probably *Chaim, but we're not sure about that so I'm giving him an asterisk for the time being.

However, the amount of DNA shared by Private Morris and myself, at 183 cM, is fairly strong for a 3C match. Is there something else going on that we haven't spotted yet?

We've been following the journey of Movsha's son Shmuel Zaturensky from Pinsk to Peoria, Illinois, where he became Simon Morris, and we've wrung just about all we can from his US records. What else can we find? What can his wife and children tell us?

Simon's wife

Simon's wife Elizabeth died in 1923, 3 years before Simon himself. Her headstone identifies her as Rochel Leah, daughter of Meir. So it seems the anglicised name 'Elizabeth' was a play on the Yiddish name 'Leah'. One of the other documents associated with her death was this transcription of her Illinois Death Record:

Father: Mayer Tarsusky? Tarsusky?? You do come across a few Tarsuskys in the records, but none of them appear to be Jewish. That's a bit odd ...

Simon's children

Then I went through looking for records of the children of Simon and Elizabeth. Here's the relevant bit of their daughter Sadie's Death Record, 1979:

Mother: Elizabeth Teransky. Teransky? Teransky?? But Simon's father was 'Turiansky', supposedly. Is this the same name? Are they related?? And might the 'Tarsusky' we found a few minutes ago just be a mis-transcription of a hand-written 'Teransky'???

I have not been able to find death records nor marriage records for any of their other children, that might have given their parents' family names. For the moment this is all the information we have to go on.

Two Teranskys

If Simon (Shmuel) Turiansky and Elizabeth (Rochel Leah) Teransky are related, the closest it could be would be via their fathers, Moshe Chaim and Meir/Mayer - if these two were brothers. In other words, the father of both Moshe and Meir would be the same person, *Chaim Zaturensky, and they may well have had the same mother as well. Or the connection may be one generation further back. For the moment I'm going to stick with *Chaim as their most recent common ancestor (MRCA). This of course would make Shmuel and Rochel Leah First Cousins.

Double Cousins?

This is getting complicated. If we're now looking at *Chaim, he is my 3xgreat-grandfather. Anyone related to me, with him as MRCA, is my Fourth Cousin. And anyone related to me via the couple Simon Morris/Shmuel Turiansky and Elizabeth/Rochel Leah Teransky, is related to me via both of them.

So my mystery match Private Morris appears to be a double cousin to me: both 3C via Shmuel through to our common 2g-g'f Movsha, and 4C via Rochel Leah through to Movsha's brother Meir, and on to my 3g-g'f *Chaim, who is also Private Morris's 3g-g'f but by a different route.

I hope that's clear.

The Two Teransky Tango
My software (MacFamilyTree), doesn't seem to be able to put this double relationship into graphic form, so I'm going to try to draw it out:

Private Morris and me

Is this the explanation of the seemingly high 3C DNA match between Private Morris and myself? Are we not just 3C, but actually double cousins, 3C+4C??