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Author: DR_JWP
Surnames: Cole, Cohn, Shapiro
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.cohn/177/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I'm searching for my great-great grandfather, Maurice Cohn. I recently found the death certificate for my Great-Grandfather Michael Cole and instead of giving a birth date and location in NY, 1886- It says "Vilna, Russia", which would have also been spelled "Wilna". This town is now Vilnius in Lithuania, During the 1880s, Vilna was in Russia. I double-checked due to shifting Russian, Prussian and Polish Borders.
Anyway, Michael's father's name is given as "Cohn" and mother as "Shapiro". Both are said to be born in Vilna, but I have no dates, or date range. Don't know whether the name was changed before/at or after immigration.
This was a complete surprise to me, and I really don't know what are good resources/databases to try or where to begin. I've spent a lot of time tracking down western European families (Ireland, England, France), but I'm at a complete loss with eastern Europe (Russia). I know there are lots of sites out there, but I have tried to use some of them and just got completely lost. Maybe I didn't go for a user friendly site?
Any ideas or suggestions for websites that would be a good place for a "noob" to start would be really appreciated. Meanwhile, I will keep searching. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have.
JWP
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