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I am looking for the locations of two towns in 1910 Russia. They are listed as Dolowicz and Nalkozile (spelling is unclear) in this passanger manifest from Hamburgenter image description here.

When they arrived in America, the towns were recorded in this way: enter image description here

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I have been trying to find information about my great grandfather's origins for many years. He died in 1923 in a mining accident when his children were very young, so there are no family memories to draw upon.

Vermont19
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    Hi, welcome to G&FH,SE! While you are waiting for an answer to your question, you could try reading the answers to other questions with the tags russia or poland to find resources that might be useful to you. – Jan Murphy Oct 11 '15 at 21:57
  • What was recorded in the race and nationality columns of the passenger lists (follow the ditto marks up)? Have you found the WW1 Draft cards and the 1920 census for these men? What do they record as birthplace? – bgwiehle Oct 12 '15 at 12:20
  • I know nothing about the Polish language but theres a Lowicz, and do seems to translate as 'to' possibly a miss translation if the place doesn't exist? – Danny B Oct 12 '15 at 13:51
  • Two other towns on this list, Płock and Płońsk, are close together and just to NW of Warszawa. There's a good chance that places you are looking for would be in the same area. – skolima Oct 12 '15 at 20:27
  • Mosaki - first town from the list - is also only 35km from the other two. – skolima Oct 12 '15 at 20:49
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    I only have the census and WWI Draft cards for Antoni (my great-grandfather) at this point. He is listed as not being literate, so the spelling seems to be phonetic -- his family name changes incrementally from document to document for instance. He entered the U.S. as a Wolkowicz and was buried 13 years later under the name that the family continues to use - Volkavich. – Vermont19 Oct 15 '15 at 01:33
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    His WWI draft card lists the town of his birth as "Dobrowiche" in Russia. The state is much fainter and more difficult to read, but I believe that it is Wilno. (Which I understand to be the state around what is now Vilnius in Lithuania). In the 1920 census, his birthplace is listed as Poland, his ethnicity as Polish, and his language as Polish. The mining accident report of his death three years later describes him as a "Polish miner". – Vermont19 Oct 15 '15 at 01:36
  • In trying to understand the Russian/Polish identity, I found this paper helpful in explaining the political landscape, language, and questions of identity prior to WWI. http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/2004_819-06g_Weeks.pdf I thought others researching this area might find it of interest. – Vermont19 Oct 15 '15 at 01:51

1 Answers1

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I took a look at towns in The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Countries

There are no towns with names similar to Dolowicz or Dołowicz in the second volume but if one looks for Dobrowicze on finds on page 78 of volume II, two entries, both in the powiat (county) of Wilejka which was in the Russian partition. Wilejka was in the Wilno Voivodeship but is now in Belarus.

The first entry is for a government village on the river Sierwiecz that had 8 homes and 56 residents; the second entry is for village with 12 homes and 120 residents and, if I understand correctly, the town was owned by the residents.

C R
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  • Thank you! I have spent much of the day looking at maps of the area. This may be the most solid lead we have. It fits with the brief oral history that has been passed down in our family -- namely that my great-grandparents were from Wilno/Vilna. I knew that they grew up in rural areas, so it was clear the reference wasn't to the city itself. Although they both described themselves as Polish, my great-grandmother described where her sister lived as "White Russia". Again, my thanks. – Vermont19 Oct 18 '15 at 21:28