Based on the question posed by Bryan (Miller)

One of the more interesting family stories we don’t know about is how Ben Melamed (Miller) and Hyman Shargorodski (Chargo) traveled from Russia to Liverpool, England in July 1914. Every time Bryan looked at our family history, the events leading up to Ben and Hyman’s departure gnawed at him. So Bryan wrote the basis of this story on what’s been puzzling him so long. As Bryan noted, “It must have been quite an adventure.”

In somewhat chronological order:

Ben Melamed (26), and Leah Shargorodski (24) are married in Kiev in April 1913. Leah’s younger brother, Hyman, is about 20 years old. During this time, both Ben and Hyman are presumably in the Imperial Russian Army. Ben is pictured in military uniform holding his weapon — a coronet.

According to a postcard Hyman sent to his parents, he, Hyman, is stationed in Yablonno Station, Warsaw Province, as a member of the 8th Infantry Estland Regiment, 6th Company.

Hyman’s Postcard (Above). See details by following link below. Note: We have not yet identified Hyman as one of these soldiers.  http://ronaldimiller.com/wp/post-card-hyman-chargo/

Thus, based on the military history below, Yablonno Station where Hyman was assigned, was near Kalushin (Kaluszyn, Poland) which is about 60 miles east of Warsaw:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1920734,21.8345687,12z

Jablonna, Poland, about 10 miles north of Warsaw – could this be Yablonno Station?  It most likely is;  Jablonna is located about 10 miles north of city center Warsaw, Poland.

http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~community~-504592

HISTORY OF THE PSKOV INFANTRY REGIMENT, 1815-1862

Click to access Kutuzow_Regiment.pdf

. . . . Hidden from the enemy by elevated terrain, the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions formed into battle order and moved forward, but the Poles

retreated to Minsk. The 3rd Division’s regiments rose from their halt at Yablonno at 3 o’clock in the morning and went to Kalushin as part of the first line of our forces. Having discovered the enemy in the forest, they were sent through the woods supported by the 1st Division. Passing

through Kaluszin to Jendrzeiow, the regiments were again in the first line. . . .

Around this time, Leah (Ben’s wife – Chaja Leja Shargorodski) is pregnant with a daughter (As related later to some of her grandchildren).  Note:  Married April 1913; baby due about December.

By June 1914, the 8th Infantry is mobilized to the Russian eastern front near the Bug River.

Ben and Hyman leave Liverpool for Quebec (July 25, 1914). Three days later, while enroute, Austria-Hungry declares war against Serbia (July 28, 1914).

So between April 1913 and July 1914, Ben and Hyman desert the Imperial Army and leave their families in Russia. Did they cross the border into Austrian-Hungaria and cross Europe to England? Unlikely. Going south through the Balkans? Unlikely; the Balkan wars had just ended (October 1912 to July 1913) and the infrastructure would have been difficult to navigate, especially for a couple of guys who spoke Russian and Yiddish.

How about headed up to Lithuania and sailing from Gdansk to England? To Dover perhaps? Then rail from Dover to Liverpool? Were they part of a larger group of defecting Russian soldiers? It’s a mystery.

More about Shargorod:   http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Shargorod

By 1821 Tsar Alexander I ordered Jews to take surnames. These, as a rule, originated from the names of places where Jews lived (Vinnitsky from Vinnytsia, etc.) or from their occupation–e.g. Masnik (butcher).

If correct, that would place the Shargorodski’s in Shargorad in 1821.

MAP Annotations:

–Kiev – red star

–Shargorod, (Leah and Hyman’s ancestral home) – green star 

–Mozyr and Ivankov  (Ben and Leah’s birthplaces) and Rechytsa – purple star

Note: Ben & Lena lived in Rechytsa which is close to Mozyr & Ivankov. Lena’s parents were born in ‘Rosaki’ which could have been Rechytsa since on documents ‘Rosaki and Russaki’ was spelled phonically.  In 1920 Lena bought ticket to New York in Danzig, Germany living her last residence:  Retchitsa.  Both Ben and Lena were founders of the Retchitzer Aid Society Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois, where they are buried.

-8th Infantry Estland Regiment, Bug River, summer 1914 – blue box Note: That is about 250 miles from Warsaw and about 100 miles to Kiev.

-Russian Imperial Front, blue boxes. Note position of 8th Army (Arrow).

An amendment already…

From the postcard Hyman wrote to his parents:

Now I’m staying in Varsh… and I will be there after all until the 15th, (and) I’m staying here since the 12th of August. Then I can write, that from the first of September we’ll have the start of the season of going to (…??)

Later, Hyman mentions “Varshav”…Warsaw, Poland. August 12th…but what year? 1913?

Later, in 1920 Leah acquires a Polish passport in Warsaw. This is the passport she uses to immigrate to the US.  She arrives without children and later told of a daughter killed by a cow.

A PHD dissertation discussed this very issue.  These are a few pages that relate the trials our ancestors, probably including Ben & Hyman, endured enroute to England and America. Source: The Journey To America By Steam: The Jews Of Eastern Europe in Transition:

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/osu1298924484/inline