RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Europe => Topic started by: Glenn5 on Tuesday 22 April 25 11:20 BST (UK)
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God morning,
Some of my distant relations , Lutherans, moved to the UK then Canada. One of them states the place of birth, 1896, as Koona, Russia. Later, 1915 he states Koona ( or Koon ), Poland.
Having searched on line I cannot find a direct link to a current place. The likely option is Kaunas in Lithuania.
Anybody know for sure?
Thank you in advance. Glenn
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I don’t know for sure, but I searched for Koona in the 1921 census birthplace field at FindMyPast. There are 18 hits. Apart from those who simply have Koona Russia, I see:
A couple living in Leeds have entered "Russia Koona" and FindMyPast have recorded this as Lithuania. (FindMyPast have only done this in this instance)
A couple living in Liverpool have entered 'Russia keinstadt Koona"
A lady in Wales has entered "Poland, Koona"
A couple in Hull have entered "Briz Koona, Russia"
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I was directed by Wiki to Kovno Province (Kaunas).
One newspaper report refers to Koona, Western Russia.
This 1894 clippng has
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The Wiki article took me to "Kovno Governorate"
From OZ newspapers -
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8729125
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After a long and fraught conversation with an AI about where Krosche might be, we finally deduced that it corresponds to the now-Lithuanian Kražiai. See Wikipedia page for details of the massacre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kra%C5%BEiai_massacre?wprov=sfti1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kra%C5%BEiai_massacre?wprov=sfti1)
Because Kražiai is quite a way from modern Kaunas I then asked about their relationship at the time of the massacre and got: "Kražiai was part of the Kovno Governorate (Russian: Ковенская губерния), the same province as Kaunas (Kovno), at the time of the 1893 massacre."
So Krosche, Koona = Kražiai, Kaunas
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Linking Krosche with Koona was to try and identify/place Koona as a province of Lithuania - as opposed to Russia or Poland as declared in a Census.
I'd checked German newspapers which delivered such as "West of Koona (Kowno) ...", "Koona, seat of German administration for Lithuania ..."
But those completing the Census - are they referring to the Town or the Province of Koona/Kovno/Kaunas?
Still, "one step at a time...." and more important AB "who Al"!!
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Looking again at what I found in 1921 (see reply #1) I think that these census entries are referring to the province. Briz could be another settlement in Koona, and kleinstadt just means ‘small town”, so a small town in the province of Koona. Possibly they just didn’t see the point in naming a village that no-one had heard of.
These emigrants were of course mostly (or all?) Jews. Were Jews more likely to be living in small provincial places or in the capital?
And AI is Perplexity AI, my artificial intelligence friend.
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AB,
Re "Al" - just joshing. It's impossible to escape reference to it these days when I'm considered a Luddite re techie stuff
Re. the Jews, I had cast around and came across this item amongst others -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivas_Knesses_Yisrael_(Slabodka)
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See next post!
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Poland, occupied by Russia, in 1875.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/52902948/3640859
Russia in 1899
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29435076
Vilna and Koona in 1905
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/217429825
Lithuanians rise in 1906
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228335626
Rogof in Koona in 1906
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/83357765
Capital of Lithuania in 1924
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63786500
Kuna today is a village in Vilnius District Municipality, 2 km from Ažulaukė (I don't know if it's related to Koona)
https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuna_(Vilnius)
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Thanks everyone. Still no definite answer but looks like Koona as a province with Vilnius the nearest major town. He used Koona as his birthplace on all his documents. My next step will be to try and obtain his birth certificate from the Lithuanian authoritys. Regards Glenn
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I think it's Kaunas. According to the links I have posted above, the region ended up as the temporay capital in the intewar period.
"During the interwar period, it served as the temporary capital of Lithuania, when Vilnius was seized and controlled by Poland between 1920 and 1939." Wikipedia.