Reviewing My Family Ancestry

A few years ago, in 2015, I found this Polish map online that includes the Polish towns whose Polish names seem to be Anglicized as Ciechanowiec and Czyzew-Osada. In Yiddish, we called these Shtetls. I believe these are my family's living places In Poland prior to the Second World War, a.k.a. World War II, which my generation calls The War.

 

I am trying to find out the actual names of my ancestors of my Grandparents and Great Grandparents generations who lived in these towns.

 

Then I will want to identify the names of those who escaped and of those who were slaughtered. There are various databases I need to search.

 

Do you know anyone who can help me with this? The family names are

Bressel,

Bramson,

Bross,

Goodman.

 

On this Polish map, about 40 miles west of Bialystok (a crude estimate that I will improve when I have some free time) are the old Jewish Shtetls of Chisheva or Tshisheveh, and Chekanovtzeh, as my family pronounced them.

 

(Yes, according to the cemetery reference, Chekhanovitse. ) On the cemetery lintel in the next photo, the latter is written as Chechanovitzer. In Yiddish, that would mean a person from Chechanovtzeh.

 

In Polish, they are Czyzew and Ciechanowiec. You can see that Treblinka, a major German extermination camp lies on a main road just a few miles west of Ciechanowiec.

 

This site gives lots of information about today's town along with it's old Yiddish name and all the others:

familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Chechanovitzer

 

It says:

Ciechanowiec ([t͡ɕɛxaˈnɔvʲɛt͡s], Yiddish: טשעכֿאַנאָװיץ Tshekhanovits, Čechanovic, Hebrew: ציחנוביץ, Russian: Цехановец Cechanovec) is a small town in Wysoczyzna Drohiczyńska, Gmina Ciechanowiec, Wysokie Mazowieckie County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland.

 

Alternate names used in the past or currently include Tshekhanovits Yiddish, Tsekhanovets Russian, Chechanovitz, Chekhanovits, Chekhanovitse, Rudelstadt, and Tsikhanovits.[1]

 

Contents[show]

GeographyEdit

Ciechanowiec is located in eastern Poland about 130 km (81 mi) northeast from Warsaw and around 80 km (50 mi) west from the Białowieża Forest in the Territory of Preserved Landscape of the Valley of the Bug and Nurzec Rivers. The Nurzec River divides the town into two parts: the Left Side and the Right Side.

 

HistoryEdit

Before the beginning of World War II, 55% of the town's inhabitants had been Jews. During The War, they were almost all killed in Treblinka concentration camp.

 

Jewish family names like Ciechanowiec, Ciechanowiecki, Ciechanowicz, Ciechanowski are originating from this town.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Done