Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Zakhar or Zacharie Werblowsky or Verblovski

Male Abt 1829 -


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  • Name Zakhar or Zacharie Werblowsky or Verblovski 
    Born Abt 1829  of Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis, Lithuania Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Person ID I1803  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Children 
     1. Adolphe Werblowsky or Verblovski,   b. 8 Jun 1861, Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis, Lithuania Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 2 Dec 1934, Nice, Alpes Maritimes, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 73 years)
     2. Genrikh or Henrich Verzhblovsky,   b. 12 Apr 1874, Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis, Lithuania Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 28 Oct 1957  (Age 83 years)
     3. Meir Werblowsky,   b. Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis, Lithuania Find all individuals with events at this location
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F76  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • tRESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. From Jewishgen "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames in Russian Empire": Verblovskij can also be seen in the Lithuanian form: Verzhbolovskij.
      Another variant found on Ancestry.com and Jewish.gen: Verblauskas, Verbalovsky, Verblavskiy, Verblovskiy

      2. From the Jewishgen website 28 Apr 2009 <http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/HTML/VsiaVilna.htm>: Introduction To The 1915 VSIA VILNA DATABASE by Scott Noar
      The 1915 Vsia Vilna (All of Vilna) database contains over 17,400 entries from the 1915 city directory for Vilnius, Lithuania. The entries are from the section entitled, "List of Inhabitants of Vilna and Subscribers of the Vilensko Telephone Service." While most of the entries are for families and individuals, the entries also include those businesses and government offices with telephone service. The directory was written in Russian. Entries for families and individuals usually list only the head of the household, not the spouses nor the children. The information given may include: SURNAME, Given Name, Father's Given Name, Occupation/Business, Address, Telephone Number, Other Comments. A representative entry is: ROZENKRATS, Dav, Abr, physician, Vilenskaya Street 22, 15-06. This entry is for David Rozenkrats, the son of Abraham/Abram Rozenkrats, a physician who lived at 22 Vilenskaya Street with a phone number of 15-06. The Vsia Vilna database is searchable for each of the above fields. In addition to surname searches, other information can be gathered by searching for addresses, telephone numbers, etc. For example, a search of the phone number 7-84 yields: S. Bezmertny, M. Rosenblyum, and A. Yadlovker who were all partners in a business known as "Yarb."
      A useful database of likely Given Names abbreviations can be referenced at <http://www.jewishgen.org/belarus/vr_abbrev.htm> Some of the entries refer to different state and local offices where Jews were not allowed employment. These entries are of less interest to Jewish genealogy so, to save time and money, these fields may contain untranslated Russian transliterations. If there are any questions about entries in the database, please contact SRN26@cornell.edu .
      The following entry is found: "VERZHBLOVSKY, Genr; father Zakh; address Bolshaha St.; year 1915; town Vilnius; Uyezd Vilnius; Gubernia Vilnius; page 48; publication type Vsia Vilna (City Directory)."
      Using the database for name abbreviations referenced above: "Genr." = "Genrikh" and "Zakh." = "Zakhar".

      3. See notes for Adolphe Werblovsky for copies of various emails from my hired researcher Vilius Boytrius in Vilnius []. He was hired Spring of 2009 and I was not happy with his research and judgment. It was limited to looking for a birth of Adolph in Vilnius, for which he did not find a record. The family may have been outside of Vilnius even though on Adolphe's death certificate it said he was of Vilnius. We may have to look in the region rather than the town.

      4. Variants in searching for Name ZAKHAR from Jewishgen's "Lithuanian Given Names Database" <http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsearch~model1~GNDB_LITH>:
      A. Legal/Hebrew: Yisakhar Gender: M Legal Origin: Genesis 30:18
      Yiddish: Isokhar / Isokher / Isokhor / Isukher / Yisokhor / Yosekher
      Yiddish Nickname: Sakhar / Sokher / Sukher
      US Name: Issachar
      B. Legal/Hebrew: Yisakhar Ber Gender: M Legal Origin: Genesis 30:18
      Yiddish: Isokhar / Isokhor / Isukher / Yisokhor / Yosekher / / Ber / Bera / Bere
      Yiddish Origin: Yiddish 'bear'
      Yiddish Nickname: Sakhar / Sokher / Sukher / / Bara / Barish / Berek / Berel / Berele / Bereleyn / Berelin / Berik / Beril / Berish / Berka / Berke / Berl / Berko / Berkhen / Berman / Bertshik / Bertsig / Berush
      Local Secular: / / Berelis
      US Name: Issachar / / Barnet / Barnett / Benjamin / Bernard
      C. Legal/Hebrew: Yisakhar Berman Gender: M Legal Origin: Genesis 30:18
      Yiddish: Isokhar / Isokhor / Isukher / Yisokhor / Yosekher
      Yiddish Nickname: Sakhar / Sokher / Sukher / / Bara / Barish / Berek / Berl / Berele / Bereleyn / Berelin / Berik / Beril / Berish / Berka / Berke / Berko / Berkhen / Berush / / Berman
      US Name: Issachar / / Bernard
      D. Legal/Hebrew: Zekharya / Zekharyahu Gender: M Legal Origin: Kings II 14:29; Chron II 24:20
      Yiddish: Skhariye / Skharye / Skharyahu / Zekharyo / Zkhariya / Zkharye
      Yiddish Nickname: Zakhar / Zakharyas / Zakharyash / Zkhare
      US Name: Sam
      E. Legal/Hebrew: Zekharyahu demitkari Zekharya Gender: M Legal Origin: Kings II 14:29; Chron II 24:20
      Yiddish: Skhariye / Skharye / Skharyahu / Zekharyo / Zkhariya / Zkharye
      Yiddish Nickname: Zakharyas / Zakharyash / Zkhare
      US Name: Sam

      5. Email from Nava Isseroff of Israel addressed to Kenny Petersen:
      A. May 12, 2016:
      "As I wrote to you before I needed time to search a bit for the information my father gathered in the past few years regarding his family.
      "It just happened that 6 years ago he was approached by a professor in Germany that found out the his grandmother's last name was Werbalowky (note the A in the name) and he wanted to check a possible family connection with my father as this last name is not very common. With the help of my sister Yisca (Jessica in English) I reconnected with Prof. Joachim Krause and yesterday he sent me the fascinating email I am sharing with you. As for a definite family connection our information goes up to my geart great grandfather Abraham Werblowsky born in Jubarakas in the district of Kowno [Kaunas], once in Russia, then in Lithuania. His wife's name was Mina. One way to detect possible a familial connection is of course by DNA testing. I did this test 2 years ago as my 3rd double cousin from my mother's side asked me to do it. Funny enough the results showed a strong possible family connection to a guy from Boston who's great grandparents are Werblowsky that immigrated to US from Lituania in 1905."
      B. May 12, 2016. The following is a forward of the above-referenced communication from Prof. Joachim Krause:
      "Dear Nava, dear Yisca
      You wonder where the family name (surname) Werblowsky might have come from. I have done some research and found some interesting information. One is a link to a paper written by Joseph Rosin about the town of Virbaln in Lithuania, a border town between Lithuania and what was earlier Prussia. The "second name" of this small town was "Verbolov", he wrote. This town was in turns under Lithuanian, Polish, Prussian and Russian administration and had a sizeable jewish population which was often subject to harassment, which entailed that many jews left the town in order to find shelter elsewhere in the region (http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/virbalis/vir.html). The name Werblowsky might actually come from there (insofar your father was not quite wrong), but in another way as your father had assumed. He thought that in Germany those jews who had entered Prussia through the border town of Virbaln (in German: Wirballen, in Russian Vershbolovo) might have to accept this place as their family name so long as they were living in Prussia/Germany. This was usually not a practice that could be found in Prussia in the 19th Century. For me it sounded not convincing, since there were so many jews coming through Virballen to Prussia without getting this name. And the occurence of the name Werbalowsky was and is quite limited.
      But there is another explanation. As you can see from another text to be found on the internet, ashkenazic jews (jews living in Eastern Europe) were obliged to get surnames only in the early 19th century (starting in Austria and Prussia, and subsequently this practice was applied in the East). Before that, ashkenazic jews had a different system of providing men and women with names and denoting family communities (http://jewishcurrents.org/the-origins-and-meanings-of-ashkenazic-last-names-12849).
      The names Werblowsky and Werbalowsky sound for me as if they were given by Polish authorities. This could have taken place either before 1795 (i.e. before Poland ceased to exist and was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria) or, more likely, in the years between 1807 and 1813, when there existed a short-lived "Duchy of Warsaw" (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Duchy_of_Warsaw_1807-1809.PNG) which included Kalvarija (where the Werbalowskys came from) and which bordered Kowno, the second largest city of Lithuania, an area from where most known Werblowskys came from (including your grandfather). The Duchy of Warsaw was a proxy state of Napoleonic France.
      Making Polish authorities responsible for this surname makes sense for the following reasons: (1) the ending "sky" connotates in Polish language that you come from somewhere. Originally it was a suffix used in Poland for nobility names (such as the prefix "von" in Germany). In the 19th Century it became fashionable in Poland to chose this suffix to indicate that someone came from a certain place or had an affiliation to it (such as the Dutch prefix "van"). If a jew coming from Virballen/Verbolov asking an Polish authority for a family name in the years between 1807 and 1813 and if this jew had no better name to suggest or if he clung to his place of birth, he would have most likely got a name indicating that he came from Verbolov - sky. (2) Since the Polish language uses "W" instead of "V" and since "Verbolov" most likely was pronounced "Verbalov", the name Werbalowsky might have resulted from this, or simply "Werblowski" by deleting the "a" in the middle. (3) The short duration of the Duchy of Warsaw might also explain why the names Werblowsky and Werbalowsky are so seldom. After 1813 this part of the world was governed by Russia and in Russia jews got different surnames.
      This is just one interpretation of how this family name came into this world, but it seems for me the most convincing one.
      Best regards, Joachim."
      C. May 13, 2016:
      "Kenny,
      The family tree I have is something that my sister came up with after a Werblowsky family gathering more than 40 years ago in Israel. We have only Avraham-Simon as my great great grandfather. He and Mina apparently had 4 children (that we know of, may be more): Yehuda (my great grandfather, my father is named after him), Bezalel, Beno and Meir -- all the descendents we know of this family moved at some point to Israel.
      As I wrote to you before, my family moved at some point from Kowno to Memel where they owned a cigarette and cigar factory. It is now a center for arts and music."
      D. In email "B" above, the following link is given <http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/virbalis/vir.html>, which I accessed 24 May 2016. The article is about the town of Virbaln or Verzhbelov (Virbalis), Lithuania, written by Joseph Rosin. Whether or not it is the ancestral home of the Werblovskys remains to be seen. The article is quite lengthy, but the following pertains to its early history:
      "Virbaln can be found on the main road stretching from Kovno (Kaunas) to East Prussia (now under Russian rule), about 90 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Kovno and 4.5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the (former) German border, and the railway station with the same name (now Kybartai) which is on the railway route from St. Petersburg to Berlin.
      The town of Virbaln was founded in 1539-1540 at the initiative of the Queen Bona Sfortsa, the wife of King Zigmunt "The Old". The name was then Nova Volia. It is found in documents under this name until the eighteenth century, but in the sixteenth century it already had a second name, "Verbolov". In 1593 King Zigmunt Vaza granted it "The Privilege of a Town" (The Magdeburg Privilege). He also prohibited construction of synagogues and other non-Catholic praying houses in Virbaln. This "Privilege" was also observed in Virbaln during the Lithuanian rule. There was a municipality and a mayor.
      Until 1795 Virbaln was included in the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom. The same year the third division of Poland by the three superpowers of those times - Russia, Prussia and Austria, divided Lithuania between Russia and Prussia. The part of the state that laid on the left side of the Neman river (Nemunas) including Virbaln was handed over to Prussia. During the Prussian rule (1795-1807) Virbaln was named Wirballen.
      According to the Tilzit agreement of 1807, Polish lands occupied by Prussia were taken away and "The Great Dukedom of Warsaw" was established on those lands. The King of Sachsonia, Friedrich-August was appointed as the Duke. At the core of the Constitution of the Dukedom was the Napoleon Code, according to which everybody was equal before the law, however the Jews were not granted any civil rights.
      During the years 1807-1813 Virbaln belonged to the "Great Dukedom of Warsaw" and was included in the Bialystok District. In 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon, whose retreating troops passed through the town, all of Lithuania was annexed to Russia, and Virbaln was included in the Augustowa Region (Gubernia). In 1866 Virbaln was included in the Suwalk Gubernia. The construction of the main road in 1829 from St. Petersburg to Warsaw stretching through Virbaln, spurred the growth of the town.
      The town developed fast and served as a connecting terminal for transfer of goods from Russia to Western Europe.
      During Russian rule (1813-1915) the town was renamed Verzhbelova boasting a grand railway terminal near the border with Prussia, built on the route from St.Petersburg to Berlin in the sixties of the nineteenth century. The new town developing around the station - Kybartai - grew fast and in a few years surpassed Virbaln.
      At the beginning of World War I Virbaln, burnt down in fires and was deserted by the majority of its population. In 1915 Germans occupied Virbaln and ruled in the area until 1919 followed by its handover to the Independent Lithuanian State..."
      E. DNA follow up 13 Jun 2016. We compared DNA from Nava and Kerry Petersen with no matching segments. We did the same with Irene Petersen and found the following with a possible match 5.1 generations back:
      GEDmatch.Com Autosomal Comparison - V2.1.1(c). Comparing Kit T102627 (*Irinanadia) and M221204 (*Kittys3rdAJcousinN)
      Minimum threshold size to be included in total = 700 SNPs
      Mismatch-bunching Limit = 350 SNPs
      Minimum segment cM to be included in total = 7.0 cM
      Chr Start Location End Location Centimorgans (cM) SNPs
      7 36,746,435 46,538,047 12.6 2,296
      Largest segment = 12.6 cM
      Total of segments > 7 cM = 12.6 cM
      1 matching segments
      Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 5.1
      F. The results of the matching of Dna were sent by Nava to Kitty Munson Cooper for analysis. She is an expert in Jewish DNA. She responded 13 Oct 2016 as follows:
      "Sorry for the long delay but single segment matches are rarely findable even when > 10cM and can be anything from 4th to 10th cousins
      And if it is on the jewish side, then at best maybe an 8th cousin - all ashkenzim typically look like 4th cousins to each other in the DNA."
      As a side note, Kitty has a couple of websites of interest:
      genetic genealogy blog at http://blog.kittycooper.com/
      family history and genealogy at http://kittymunson.com
      http://blog.kittycooper.com/2014/11/using-ashkenazi-jewish-dna-to-find-family/
      G. 11 Oct 2016 to Kenny Petersen in response to my email regarding my Oct 2016 visit report to Lithuania. "Thanks for your email ... Your brother's report of his journey with your mother to Lithuania is very interesting and with your/his permission I am forwarding it to Joachim Krauss in Germany who is also a Verblovsky descendant and I shared his inquiries regrading the Verblovsky history with you in the past. Kerry mentioned driving through Klaipeda (what used to be called Memel). This is where the known history of my Werblowsky ancestors begin (we all assume that it begun someplace else but have no documentation ). My great great grandfather moved to Mememl with his large family. He was a merchant and at a certain point owned a tobacco factory with two of his sons. http://www.kulturosfabrikas.lt/en/m/paslaugos-2/apie-kufa-2/ My grandfather was also a merchant but left Memel to Germany, then to different cities in Europe. He died and was buried in Amsterdam, Holland."
      H. Email to me from Joachim Krause dated Oct 22, 2016: I got your mail transmitted by Nava Isseroff and I wanted to comment on some of your findings. My name is Joachim Krause, I am a German University Professor with a jewish great-grandmother whose maiden name was Sarah Werbalowsky (born 1849 in Kalvarija, Lithuania, she died 1926 in Schleswig in Germany). I did some research into her and her family's history. Her father's name was Moses Mordechai Werbalowsky (1821-1905), who traded in timber in East Prussia (although he was born in Kalvarija too), her grandfather was Jankel Werbalowsky.
      As to the question, where the name "Werbalowsky" or "Werblowsky" came from, I think you are following the right trace. The name sounds Polish, because of the ending "sky", which means that the bearer of the name came from a certain place (town, village). As you rightly learned in the museum, jewish families in eastern Europe had to accept family names only in the early 19th Century. In fact: Austria was the first to make family names for jews mandatory in 1796, Prussia followed soon. In Russia, it took some more years (until the 1830s) to make family names mandatory. The strange thing is: there was no more Polish state after 1794, since in that year Prussia, Russia and Austria had divided the Kingdom of Poland among themselves. Hence most family names for jews from that time were either German or Russian. The only execption was the Duchy of Warsaw, which was created by Napoleon in 1807 and which lasted only until 1814. It had a Polish administration, Polish was the official language used in this state. This Duchy was relatively small but it encompassed the areas bordering Lithuania. It also made family names for jews mandatory. The only explanation for the occurence of the name Werbalowsky or Werblowsky is for me that there must have been individuals or families who had moved from a place called Werbalow into the Duchy of Warsaw, where they got this name (Werbalowsky in Polish language means: someone coming from a place called Werbalow).
      Since there is no such place with the name Werbalow or Werblow one has to look a little bit closer to second names. The town of Virbalis, which you mentioned, in fact had three more names: for germans the name was Wirballen, for Russians it was Vershbolow and for jews it was Verbolow. Since the "o" in the middle of Verbolov is in Russian language usually pronounced like an "a", any jew entering the Duchy of Warsaw in the years between 1807 - 1814 intending to settle down there might have got the family name Werbalowsky or Werblowsky, or Virbalsky (except he had a preference for another name). So the common thing all Werbalowskys, Werblowskys and Virbalskys have is that they originated from the jewish community in Virbalis when they entered the Duchy of Warsaw. They might be related to each other, but they might be not. Without access to Virbalis Synagogue documents from that time, there is no chance to get more clarity.
      I hope this might be of interest to you. Sincerely, Joachim Krause, Kiel, Germany."

      6. From Oct. 7 to Oct 10, 2016, I and my mother Irene visited Lithuania by car. We entered from Latvia on the west coast along the Baltic Sea traveling from Kuldiga in Latvia. We passed through the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda before turning inland to Jurbarkas. According to my research on Jewish.gen, there was a presence of some Verblovskys in Jurbarkas. This locality is a rural farming and small industry area with no real town center. It is mainly surburban housing and there was no place for local history nor historical buildings of any interest. No time was spent here except to view the area.
      From Jurbarkas, we drove down south along the Russian border of Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad is what used to be Prussia of Germany and it remains in Russian hands since WWII. From the border gate about 7 kilometers east is the small village of Virbalis, which is believed to be the source village for the name Verblovsky (see separate discussion on this). This area was under Polish administration for many years which explains the -sky ending in our name, which means from such and such a place. the Jewish people here most likely spoke German. There are a few old buildings among both the older and modern suburban homes, but there is no Jewish presence here nor much more than a small city hall and a library. We were here on a Saturday and nothing was open nor does there appear to be any research opportunities there.
      From Virbalis, we traveled to Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. There is a synagogue that is about 140 years old still remaining and well worth the visit. Nazi Germany used the building as a warehouse and it survived that time period. There was a caretaker couple there who also confirmed that the previous small village of Virbalis is most likely the source for our surname. They were well-informed and knew no one with our surname. They did provide us a contact by the name of Galina Baranova at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, Gerosios Vilties 10, LT-03134, Vilnius. She is a Director in the facility and the Jewish expert.
      We then traveled to Vilnius and spent two days. We first visited the Jewish Gaion Museum, which was a disappointment for research purposes. It was more of an art museum with some history as well, but certainly not a research resource. I did learn in one exhibit that at in the very earliest 1800s, the authorities required the Jews to take on surnames since they were instituting excessive taxes on them and needed to better account for them. This would mean that the Verblovsky name probably only came into existence a generation before Zacharie. Also it was interesting to learn that at one point in history, Lithuania had the hightest per capita of Jews which amount to almost 20% of the population.
      Our next stop in Vilnius was to the actual Archives where we were able to meet with Galina Baranova. From our short visit I learned the following:
      1. She confirmed that Virbalis could very well be the source of the Verblovsky name. It doesn't necessarily mean that our family came directly from there, but it could very well be the source of the name.
      2. She did not feel that our Verblovskys were of Vilnius even though they may briefly lived there.
      3. She was able to locate the street name Bolshaha where Genrikh Verblovsky lived in 1915. It is now called Didzioji and is one of the most prestigious streets in the old city. It fronts the City Hall and the Philharmonic Hall. Today, it is the most fashionable street for international fashion houses. It would indicate that Genrikh was probably well off financially.
      4. She confirmed that until the early 1900s, there was no civil registration of vital events. Each religious group kept track of these events; i.e. the Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox, and the Jewish shetls. The only source of births for our family would be Jewish records. She also used and recommended the same site I do which is the Lithuanian history site https://www.litvaksig.org/. She said that there are occasional updates, but unfortunately some areas have good records and others have none -- so it is hit and miss.
      5. She also confirmed that if the family was financially well off, then they could have easily paid a poorer family for their sons to render military service in their behalf.
      6. She indicated that Virbalis records, if any, could perhaps be in Polish archives since this area was under their dominion at certain parts in their history.
      7. Since Adolphe achieved First Guild status in his lifetime according other sources we have, she indicated that Russian Archives may have more information on our family.
      8. The Lithuanian Archives does not do research, but they do offer a reading room. The documents are mainly Russian, who had dominion over Lithunia from 1795 to the modern era. She did not think a search would be too fruitful unless there was a specific village we could prove we are from. Their cataloging is mainly by locality. She was not very hopeful about this approach, but she says there may be some government document that mentions our family in passing.

      7. Email from Cary Kronick Pollack, clucenti@comcast.net dated 1 Oct 2020:
      Subject : The JewishGen Family Finder: Verblovsky - Poliak
      I appear to be descended from Kushel Zelik Poliak (1802-1842) via his son, Mendel Poliak (1828-1902). During my researching I located an 1851 RL that in additional to Kushel Polyak and his son Aron Polyak, also includes two relatives, Pesya and Shasa/Shosa Verblovska (Verblovsky), both of whom were daughters of Leyzer Verblovsky. After searching for households that they might belong to, I found a household that appears to consist of Leyzer Verblovsky, born ~1791, son of Berko. His children included Girsh (1820), Leyba (1822), Malka (1823), Shaya Itsko (1823), Berko (1825), Pesya (1827), Khaya (1829) and Shasa/Shosa (1830).
      I am wondering if by any chance this was the Verblovsky household you are researching, and if so, do you know of any connection to the Poilyak/Poliak/Polyak family of Vilnius, or any family ties to the Trakai district of Vilna gubernia?
      My response: I have no knowledge of any connection; however, the name Berko (1825) is one of the children's names in the Leyzer family and it is on the list of variant forms of Zakhar. Could he be Zakhar?