Shaina KARPMAN is Benjamin MILLER (MELAMED) mother. Ben’s cousin Abraham MELAMED (MILLER) was married to Miriam ‘Mary’ KARPMAN and Miriam’s father’s name was Morris (Srol Moshe) KARPMAN. I’ve never been able to find anything else about the KARPMAN branch of the family . . . until November 2017, thanks to DNA.
Our KARPMAN Most Recent Common Ancestor – Known as a MRCA in DNA genealogy jargon – are David and Igor GOLDMAN; David is my 4th Cousin Once Removed: 4C1R. The GOLDMAN’s ancestor is Rivka KARPMAN: Shaina and Rivka KARPMAN are sisters; Miriam is their cousin. Not positive at this time where Esther KARPMAN fits on the tree. Probably also a close cousin but until we can get more DNA it’s currently a mystery.
Some documented MELAMED (MILLER) – KARPMAN data:
Ben MILLER’s father, Bernard Baruch Mordechi MELAMED, was married to Shaina KARPMAN based on Ben’s Social Security Form 5 application for benefits. Ben’s grandmother was also a KARPMAN named Esther. Ben’s cousin Abraham MILLER had his parents names on his death certificate: Father Gedalia MELAMED and Mother Esther KARPMAN, both born Mozyr, Russia. Abraham was married to Miriam ‘Mary’ KARPMAN and Miriam’s father’s name was Morris (Srol Moshe) KARPMAN. I have not yet been able to find Esther’s relationship to Shaina and Miriam.
Background on the family branch DNA connection:
On November 17th, 2017 I received an email inquiry about a DNA match between Herman MILLER and Igor GOLDMAN. Igor is the Uncle of David GOLDMAN.
That began an email correspondence for analyzing our relationships. By comparing DNA matches and analyzing how David’s GOLDMAN branch connected to our KARPMAN branch we were able to confirm that his Uncle Igor’s maternal branch connects our KARPMAN relatives: Igor’s grandmother Rivka is the sister of our Ben MILLER’s mother Shaina. That’s the KARPMAN-MELAMED family branch connection.
And this is how our KARPMAN tree with new relatives looks now. However, it is subject to our continued analysis as we know it needs tweaking based on more DNA and as yet undiscovered records. There are also more known extended names on these branches, but these are the ’top level’ new names.
DNA analyses verified the levels of relationships in addition to documents such as online family trees (MyHeritage, Ancestry, GEDCOM, and hand drawn); geographic locations of where ancestors were born, died and lived; birth records; death and cemetery records; immigration ship manifests; naturalization papers; census and voter lists from America and Europe that list family names; and family oral histories.
These are some of the DNA matches used to verify relationships:
Note than some matches are half of others. That is normal, as in each generation the original DNA from a common ancestor gets diluted by about half, but can vary from 1/3 to 2/3.
DNA Matches to Igor GOLDMAN
So far, no matching X-DNA relatives have been found. (X-DNA follows a mother’s line)
NAME DNA cM
David GOLDMAN 1799.7
Herman MILLER 109.6
Ron MILLER 58.1
Robert MILLER 55.4
Scott MILLER 49.3
Farryl WEITZMAN 32.4
Aaron MILLER 14.4
Lee STERN 12.4
Bryan MILLER 10.8
Joanne DONOVAN 10.8
Michael ROMM Not a Match
OTHER DNA MATCHES
DNA matches to Michael ROMM are of interest because his DNA helped validate the relationships. E.g. He is not a match to Igor, but is a match to Herman.
Michael’s KARPMAN branch ancestor is Boruch KARPMAN who is my 1C3R.
The higher DNA matches of Lee to Herman, and to Michale Romm validate the lower matches of my immediate relatives. There are also some pending DNA tests of other Abraham MELAMED descendants which could help with our analysis.
Lee Stern matches to Herman Miller 180.9
Lee Stern matches to Michael Romm 76.8
Michael Romm match to Herman Miller 8.8
Michael Romm match to Ron Miller 8.6
Michael Romm match to Bryan Miller 8.5
Michael Romm match to Robert Miller 8.5
The Belarus 1906 voters list transcription extract from their home town of Rechitsa.
Note: Men had to be age 28 to vote. These voter lists, and census lists called Revision Lists, where they exist often help verify family tree data.
Looking at extracts from the 1906 voter list below, the following lineages include the familes MORDUKHOV and GERSHENOY, from Rechitsa.
Source (registration required): https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/jgdetail_2.php
In the town of Khoiniki (lineage of Igor’s wife Mila KARPMAN:
1. Mordko (Mordukhov) son of Gershenoy; Mordko’s son Leiba
In the town of Narovlia (lineage of Abraham MELAMED’s wife Miriam ‘Mary’ KARPMAN):
1. Mordko’s sons Srol and Froim
2. Boruch son of Srol. Leib son of Srol. Srol son of Leib.
These are some family oral history and comments that added to the mix:
– David GOLDMAN comments: About two years ago, when my son started preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, he started asking questions about my family that I couldn’t answer. I always thought I had a small family, so I thought this would be a nice little project… but after I found and spoke with some relatives who were born in 1920s and 1930s it snowballed VERY quickly. No end in sight for this little project just yet.
Igor’s been telling me that when he was a kid, he remembers a relative stopping by. However, Igor doesn’t remember how he was related, except that it was through his grandmother’s mother Rivka Karpman. So, Shaina and Rivka were sisters to each other, but cousins to Boruch and Miriam.
– A sad note concerning Boruch: Baruch Karpman, born 1859 in Narovlia. Was a Rabbi. At the beginning of WWII lived in Rechitsa. In December 1941 he poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire rather than submit to Nazis.
Some of Millers were originally from Mozyr area. The area of the modern south-eastern Belarus – Mozyr to Bragin is exactly where my Milyavsky line is from.
My Uncle Igor Goldman’s third cousin is not as close a match to Herman. That means that there is only one path how this match can work from our side. My uncle’s mother was Gitl Glukhovsky. Her mother was Brucha Milyavsky. Her father was Israel Milyavsky. I do not know the surname of Brucha’s mother. Because of that and because DNA clearly shows a “second cousin once removed” relationship, our side the link is through her. If we go back one more generation, DNA numbers would be completely different.
On the Miller side there is no X-DNA match between Igor and Herman. Since on our side there were two generations of women that do inherit X-DNA, the only explanation is that on your side the link goes through Herman’s father Benjamin. That’s the only combination that would’ve prevented X-DNA match from appearing. That, in turn, means that there are only two combinations of how the entire thing can play out: Either Benjamin’s father Boruch Melamed had a sister that married Israel Milyavsky, or his mother Shaina Karpman had a sister like that. Here’s another interesting detail: Our Milyavsky family knew Karpmans from the region.
What’s interesting is that while Abraham was from Mozyr, his wife Miriam ‘Mary’ KARPMAN was from a town called Naroulia in Belarus. Naroville is Narovlia (Naroulia, Narowlya), just SE of Mozyr – but far enough to be in Rechitsa Uezd (region), not Mozyr Uezd, unfortunately. It’s about 20 miles SE of Mozyr. Unfortunately it’s sufficiently far from Mozy to fall into Rechitsa/Bragin administrative district :( Shaina may or may not have been from the same town, people did move around back then. As a side note, Naroville is located right on the edge of the Belarus radioactive exclusion zone and has barely avoided being wiped off the map of the earth in 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.