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to open a full map of Lituania. The towns described below can be found on it.LITHUANIA, The Old Country
Maps
Click here
to open a full map of Lituania. The towns described below can be found on it.
The BAYL ancestors lived in several villages and towns in what today is northeastern Lithuania. The Lithuanian and corresponding Yiddish names of these communities are Kupiškis / Kupisik), Pandelys / Ponidel), Rokiškis / Rokisik), and Kamajai / Kamai). The patriarch of the family, Laibe Krok, lived in the hamlet of Celkiai / Chelkay, a community which is to the south of Rokiskis and just to the north of Laibgaliai but so small that it does not appear on the map below. According to one source, families with the surname Krok were living in this area as early as the mid-1700s.
Until 1881, Henech and Pessa Leba Romm Yatovitz had a mill on the Šetekšna (Shetekshna) River, which flows north from Kamajai / Kamai. They then moved to nearby Daugavpils / Dvinsk, which is in modern Latvia. By 1906, some of their children had emigrated to Baltimore, some to had emigrated to South Africa, and they and the remaining children settled in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.
The Lithuanian Jewish special interest group (“LitvakSIG”) of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, http://www.jewishgen.org/Litvak/, has established web sites for many Lithuanian Jewish communities, including Kupisik, http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/kupiskis/kupishok.htm, the birthplace of BAYL founder Myer Smith, and Rokisik, http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/rokiskis/rokmain.htm, the home of Rella Krok Romm Abramson.
Going Back
Phil Shapiro, his brother David and sister Judy Auerbach and her husband Avi all returned to our ancestral home in June 2007. For more, see the links and photos below: As Phil writes:
The photo that is embedded in the article was taken by a reporter for the local Rokiskis newspaper, Gimtasis Rokiskis. There were two articles, the first discussing our visit and the second discussing our dismay with the condition of the Jewish cemetery. The original of the articles, in Lithuanian, follows the translation made by Aldona Sudeikiene, who came to Baltimore in the summer of 2006.
In the late 19th Century, Rella Krok, her second husband Rabbi Abraham Abramson (Abramovitz), and many close relatives lived in Rokiskis. Her grandson, who came to be known in America as Myer Smith and who is deemed the founder of BAYL, was born and raised in nearby Kupiskis (pronounced in the family as KOO-pih-sihk, pronounced in Lithuanian as koo-PISH-kis) but occasionally lived in Rokiskis with Rella and Abraham before moving to the US.
Rokiskis (pronounced in the family as ROK-i-sik; pronounced in Lithuanian as rrraw-KISH-kis) is a regional government center. The nobility which once owned the area had a mansion and outbuildings near the Rokiskis town center known as the Tyzenhaus. Today, the Tyzenhaus is the Rokiskis regional ethnocultural museum. David, Judy, Avi, Aldona, and I visited Nijole Sniokiene, the director of the museum, and presented her with a copy of the family society's 100th and 105th anniversary bulletins.
We also went to Chelkay (Lithuanian: Celkiai), where Rella Krok's father, Leibe Krok, once operated an inn. The hamlet is very small, and indeed the only sign noting it is on a bus stop. When David and I visited the hamlet in 1997, we spent time talking with two older men and one of their wives. In the subsequent 10 years, both men had died but we found and spoke with the woman.
Both Nijole and her staff at the Tyzenhaus and the elderly woman in Chelkay remembered David and me. It was quite heartening.
Kamai (pronounced kah-MAHY; Lithuanian Kamajai, pronounced kah-mah-YAY) was the home of the Silverman, Shapiro, and Yatovitz families. Henech Yatovitz operated a mill on the Seteksna (pronounced sheh-TEHKSH-nah) River until 1881
