After many years of trying to trace the Dworkin (originally Dvorkin) family back to Brest-Litovsk, Belarus, it was discovered that the Dvorkins were actually from Velikaya Berestavitsa, Belarus (or Brestovich for short) instead. This was found in the American records of two unknown siblings of the Dvorkin patriarch in England who went by the surnames of Devorkin and Dwarkin respectively in the USA.
By using the research services of The Together Plan – a British Charity tasked with rejuvenating Judaism in Belarus – many Belarusian records for the Dvorkins from Brestovich were found in the Grodno archives. This was duly documented as a success story and published as an article in Shemot as well as posted on The Together Plan’s website.
Imagine my surprise when out of the blue a stranger from Boston, who had seen the article, explained that his grandmother’s maiden name was Dwarkin and that she was originally from Brestovich. Had an unknown sister been discovered?
About Leigh Dworkin
Leigh Dworkin is a Professional Genealogist and an IT Consultant, and has a Diploma in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies from the University of Strathclyde.
In his spare time, he acts as the webmaster for a number of charities he supports and has performed this task for the JGSGB.
He has been Chair of the JGSGB since May 2016, having joined its Council in 2014 and been Vice-Chair in 2015. He has spoken frequently at Regional Group meetings and the Eastern European Special Interest Group and at the IAJGS conferences and at both the JGSGB London and Manchester conferences.
He is a passionate genealogist and has been working on his own family tree for about 40 years. Genealogically speaking, he considers himself to be 5/8ths Polish, ¼ Lithuanian and 1/8th Belarusian, judging by his great-grandparents’ nationalities, which is far more interesting and exotic than being just an Essex lad.