Family Stories

Why am I interested in being the Vapniarka KehilaLinks leader? Here is the reason in form of my family’s story. I tell it perhaps because some who read it will recognize themselves in it and make connections that did not exist before.

As the KehilaLinks leader, I don't want to report specifically on the atrocities of the Holocaust in Vapnyarka, because there are already many sad and destructive stories about that. I want to build something positive by perhaps creating new connections through my personal story. 

My grandmother Jenny Litvinskiy and my grandfather Victor lived in Vapnyarka – from about 1925 on until Jenny died in 1931.  The family moved to Vapnyarka since Victor worked for the railway.  According to family stories, they met in Chernovitz and married there. Jenny (or Yevgeniya = Zhenya,maybe Sheyna or Shendlya) was an orphan and the youngest of 3 sisters, with Ann (Anna or Anya, maybe Khava) being the oldest, and Mary (maybe Manya, Menya, Malka, Matlya, Merlya, and Marim) born between Jenny and Ann. The use of two given names, one traditional Yiddish (in official documents), and another new, fashionable (in daily use) was quite common during the turn of the 20th century. 

In 2023, I used the  JewishGen Ukraine database revision lists to research my family.  Using the available records, I created a density map to show the location of the 159 families living in Ukraine from 1800-1900 with the surname Litvinskiy. 

This map helped me organize my research and provides a way to connect related family members. Each red dot on the density map represents a family. The 159 families from the revision list were assigned a number, which is entered in the red dots. This allows each Litvinskiy family to be assigned between 1800 and 1900 (as of 2023, more families have certainly been added). Upon request, a zoom-in with the numbers in the red dots and the corresponding list can be sent. It is interesting to note that most families with the surname Litvinskiy lived south of Kiev along the Dnieper River. There were no other Litvinskiy families living in Vapnyarka and the surrounding area, except perhaps families in which the wife's maiden name was Litvinskiy.

Litvinskiy Density Map