1
From the coming book of the Leiteses genealogy
I. General
1E. Introduction. Patriarchs and their clans
I am sure that everybody has to know his or her roots, the ancestors and relatives who are separated by wars, revolutions, decades of terror, emigration and so on. In the former Soviet Union it was a rule to repress everything people knew about their roots. People changed names, and did their best to destroy the documents and photos. Many people never came to know the true names of their grandparents. Fathers often changed their names in order to protect their children: to keep a Jewish patronymic off their passports. My parents kept pictures of the relatives, who lived in the USA, or had been persecuted, or had served in the Tsar's army, as deeply hidden as they could - without any inscriptions or legends, so that any moment they were ready to reply, “I have never known that person". I have written this history because we should not lose the information saved by the older generations. It is our History.
I got interest in genealogy very suddenly in 1968. I am the great-great-great-grandson of Sholom Leites from Mstislavl’, great-great-grandson of Movsha, great-grandson of Smugil, grandson of Gershon, son of Veniamin Leites. That time I supposed all the Leiteses are relatives. I began to collect all data about Leiteses in the USSR (Moscow). I would like to save the information collected for the next generations. It is a pity, but I did this job not adequately active and hard (intensive), often left it “till better times”. But I have only that I have. («чтоесть – тоесть»)
A quarter of century later I knew about a surprising (incredible; unbelievable) coincidence – in the same1968 two independent persons else began to collect information about their families and genealogy - Victor Laties in the USA and Gregorij Leitis in Germany.
Although there is no one world-wide celebrity among the Leiteses, there are a lot of persons well-known in their areas of science and technology. I met a lot of persons with PhD degree among the Leiteses. The percentage of ScD (doctor of sciences, the highest science degree in the USSR, level of Full professor) among Leiteses, especially among women, is much higherthan average percentage for all scientists.
Methodic problems of description of genealogy and book structure I solved while writing the book The Plisetskys, Markovskys, & Messerers: A Genealogy. New York: 2001. 256 p.
The history of information collection, search methods, digests of primary information and of its sources, comparison of the data and analysis of it is written in the second part of the book (Sections 6,…, 9).
Year of birth of every person is necessary for stable work of the program “Family Tree Maker”. Instead of unknown year I should write any year marked abt, bef, aft,~ (sign tilde), or ≈ (sign of approximate equality). I supposed the first child appears at parents’ age about 20 – 35 years old, that husband is older a little, than his wife, and so on. TheLeiteses with the same patronymic and appropriate age living in the same district could be children of the same person. I consider that written in the census a father’s wife is mother, if I do not see different information or her age does not come into conflict with child age.
Because of these and similar assumptions I recommend strongly to repeat the analysis carefully, up to order (book) copies of pages from the Archive, when you found your possible relatives in this book. I entered such doubtful (marked ~, ?, or ??) possible ties knowingly (meaningly, wittingly)), because of to break a false tie off is very much easier than to find a hidden possible tie.
I must underline that absence of signs of doubt does not mean absolute (complete) reliability of information. Very often the age of children was distorted in census in prevision of future recruitment for boys or marriage for girls. Sometimes son was attached to other parents, who had no own sons – the only son was not taken in soldiers. A lot of false death certificates were issued by Soviet Unionofficials. Unintentional(accidental) mistakes in documents and data distortions in a person memory are possible.
The genealogy tree of every clan or family is reproduced in the bookin the form Family Tree Outline List (Third part, sections 11 – 30).Such listing is compact; it can be easily paginated; it allows including considerable data about any person,in such form persons do not need sequence numbers, which changes if an unknown before relative is found. This part is crucial in the book; it is a base for Index (Alphabet lists).The presence of additional information about the person, his or her photos and so on in Fourth – Sixth parts of the book and in Enclosures are marked in the lists. The lists and Family Tree Charts are arranged (laid out, drawn up) with help of the program FamilyTreeMaker - Version 10 (FTM-10).
A chart of the family tree provides aclear visual representation ofthe clan or family structure. Such charts are placed in Enclosure E31 in the second volume. The marital relations between the families are shown in the end of Enclosure E31.
(((The next 3 paragraphs will be deleted:
A chart of the family tree of the clan or family – a patriarch and his descendants including spouses. Such a chart provides a clear visual representation, but it is rather cumbersome even when containing only a limited amount of details.
- An outline family list of the clan (listing from the left to the right of the chart). This part is crucial in the book;it is a base for Index (Alphabet lists). The presence of additional information about the person, his or her photosand so on in Fifth – Seventh parts of the book and in Enclosures are marked in the lists. Such listing can be easily paginated and allows including considerable data about any person, but the ties between far persons are not visual easy.
The marital relations between the families are shown in section 30 (in Third part of the book).)))
List of clans and familiesis in Table 1. Turn (queue) of them here and in all parts and sections of the book corresponds to their sizes approximately.Majority (The most) of the Leiteses-jews clans and families descend from a limited area of Moghilev province (SE part of Bielorussia), but I do not have information about relative (blood) ties between them. Such ties are possible. An ancient clan of Gregorius Leitis from Upper Zapadnaya Dvina in Baltic is included too. In addition I include the clan of my great-grandfather Abram-Gilel’ Malev, father of wife of Gershon Leites.
Table 1. Patriarchs and their clans Таблица 1. Родоначальники и их потомки.
Родоначальник(поколение № 1)Patriarch(generation No 1) / Год рожд.родона-
чальника
Theyear of birth of the patriarch / Количество1
The number of persons1 / Номера
Sequential numbers
Членов
рода2
Total2 / Кровных потомков3
Descen-dants3 / Повто-ров4
Repeti-
tions4 / Разде-
лов
Sec-tions / Страниц
Pages
Лейтесы: The Leiteses:
Шолом из Мстиславля
SholomfromMstislavl / 1750 / 411
180+225+6 / 306
180+120+6 / 15
7+8 / 11 & E31.1
Яков из Толочина
Yakov from Tolochin / 1830 / 137 / 12 & E31.2
Соломон из Смольян
SolomonfromSmolyany / 1840 / 120 / 13 & E31.3
Буня из Смольян (данные Левине)
Bunya fromSmolyany (Levine data) / 1800 / 110 / 14 & E31.4
Мовша из Хисловичи.
MovshafromKhislavichi / 1740 / 47 / 15 & E31.5
Янкель из Мстиславского уезда *
YankelfromMstislavluezd* / 1740 / 40 / 16 & E31.6
Лейба из Хисловичи *
LeibafromKhislavichi* / 1760 / 30 / 17 & E31.7
Лейба из Хисловичи
LeibafromKhislavichi / 1880 / 31 / 18E31.8
Яков из Веселых Тернов
Yakov from Veselye Terny / 1853 / 30 / 19 & E31.9
Абрам -Хаим из Петровичей
Abram-KhaimLeitesfromPetrovichi / 1880 / 21 / 20 & E31.10
Вульф из Мстиславля*
Vulf from Mstislavl / 1760 / 20 / 21 & E31.11
Завель из Хисловичи.*
ZavelfromKhislavichi* / 1760 / 20 / 22 & E31.12
Отец. изКиева
Father from Kiev / 1850 / 15 / 23 & E31.13
Залман из Гомеля
ZalmanfromGomel / 1880 / 13 / 24 & E31.14
Иосиф из Смольян (от Левине)
Iosif from Smolyany / 1830 / 11 / 25 E31.15
Малыесемьиподанным Архива*
Small families from Archives* / 31 / 26 & E31.16
Малыесемьипоинымисточникам
Small families from other sources / 25 / 27 & E31.17
Всего в родах и семьях Лейтесов
All Leites clans and families / 900
Грегориус Лейтис с Верхн. Двины
GregoriusLeitisfromupperDvina / 1100 / 80 / 28E31.18
Абрам-Гилель Малев из Гомеля
Abram-Gilel’ Malev fromGomel / 1852 / 190 / 85 / 29E31.19
Всеговкниге
Totalinthebook / 1120
*– Information from Belorussia archive only. Сведения есть только из переписей и иных архивных дел 19-го века.
1 – Numbers of males, females and persons of unknown sex (if any) are shown in the second line in the box.
2 – Including spouses, adopted children and their families.
3 – Only direct descendants are taken into account, excluding spouses, the adopted children, and patriarch himself.
4 – The repetitions are caused by marital relations, adoption of relatives, and so on.
Notesto table 1in Russian are shown in section 1R. Примечания по-русски приведены в разделе 1R на стр.22.
Distances of towns or areas mentioned from Mstislavl are equal:
Tolochin–130 km (80 miles) to NWW,
Smolyany–110 km (70 miles) to NW (30 km to NE from Tolochin),
Khislavichi = Khoislavich–30 km (20 miles) to NE,
Petrovichi– 25 km (15 miles) to E,
Kiev–400 km (250 miles) to S,
Gomel = Homel–180 km (110 miles) to S,
Veselye Terny–650 km (400 miles) to S (120 km to SW from Dniepropetrovsk = Ekaterinoslav),
Upper Dvina – 200-400 km(150 - 250 miles) to NW.
The 14 clans and about 60 separate families of the Leiteses listedin the Table 1 make in total about 900 persons,including 480 males, 400 females, and 20 persons, whose sex is unknown. Among all 900 persons 700 are Leites in blood, 10 are adopted children, 70 are husbands, and 120 are wives.
The main data about the clans were given by the next persons:
Clan of Sholom – Samuil Moiseevich Leites in 1968 – about first forefathers and branch of Lejba Movshovich.
– Bela Grigor’evna Leites in 1968 – about branches of Shlyoma Smugilevich and Gerson Smugilevich.
– Natan Semyonovich Leites in 1969 – about branch of Nota.
– Nekhama Shlyomovns Leites in 1969 – about branch of Shlyoma Smugilevich.
– Mira Erukhimovna Bolotina in 1998 – about branch of Masya Smugilevna (Masha Ratner).
– Victor Laties in 1990 – about branch of Shmaya Gershonovich (Simon Laties).
Clan of Yakov from Tolochin – Natan Solomonovich Leites in 1970 – about clan of Yakov and branch of Sholom.
– Abram (Aleksandr) Grigor’evich Leites and his wife Aelita in 1999 – about branch of Paya Yakovlevna Leites.
–Aleksandr Moiseevich Leites in 1990 – about all clan of Yakov (a table 4 pages).
– Irina Yakovlevna Leites (Marder) in 1970 – about branch of Iche (Isaak) Yakovlevich.
– Basya Yakovlevna Leites (Shchyokina) in 1983 – about branches of Iche (Isaak), Gitl and Geneshe.
–Raisa Yakovlevna Leites in 1983, Galina Isaakovna Fridman (Leites) in 2003, Oksana Zakharovna
Korotkina in 1999 – about their families members and some relatives.
Clan of Solomon – Il’ya Solomonovich (great-grandson) Leites in 1977 - about branch ofEl’ya Solomonovich.
– Veniamin Grigor’evich Leites in 1991 - about branch of Mendel’ (Moisej)Solomonovich.
– Sof’ya Sholomovna Leites (Teller) in 2003 - about branch of Mendel’ Solomonovich.
Clan of Movsha– Evel Abramovich Leites in 1983 - about branch of Meishe-Yanki (Moisej).
Clan of Lejba–Klara Filippovna Leites (Tarley) in 1998.
Clan of Yakov from Veselye Terny – Nataliya Samojlovna Leites (Leytes) in 1988.
Clan ofAbram-Khaim – Viktor L’vovich Leites in 1995.
Clan from Kiev– Mishel Leytes through his daughter Virginia Leytes in 1997
Clan of Zalman– Eva Zalmanovna Leitesin 1992, Boris Semyonovich and Maja Isaakovna Shnitman (Leites) in 1993.
Clan ofIosif– Jimmy Levine in 1997.
Clan ofGregorius Leitis – Gregory von Leitis in 1992.
ClanofAbram-Gilel Malev – Lev Grigor’evich Leites in 1968 and 1975, Natal’ya Iosifovna Giller in 1975, Judith Vladimirovna Maleva (Amory) in 1991.
Besides many people ascertained data about their family members and families of their siblings and cousins by phone, letters and at meetings.
Unfortunately, in the first years of collecting data I did not have enough time for working up all new information and in the aim at decreasing data amount I limited myself by (at?) persons bearing last name Leites, I not enough interested about wives and women who changed their maiden name Leites.
2E. Transliteration
The used program “Family Tree Maker” made by Broderbund Co and, as I know, World Family Tree Collection cannot work with Cyrillic. For this reason Family Tree charts and lists are based on the Latin alphabet. I use Russian for the names, abbreviations, terms and so on, which are seen (visible) in outline family tree list only.
The rules of transliteration (Table 2) are necessary for the unambiguous perception of Russian first and last names, of geographical names and of other objects in the Latin alphabet. It must be possible to recover the original names.
Table 2E. Transliterationbetween Russian and Latin letters
Russian Latin / Latin RussianRuss. / Latin / Russ. / Latin / Russ. / Latin / Latin / Russ. / Latin / Russ. / Latin / Russ.
А / A / Л / L / Ш / SH / A / А / KH / Х / U / У
Б / B / М / M / Щ / SHCH / B / Б / L / Л / V / В
В / V / Н / N / Ъ / '' / C / -- / M / М / W / --
Г / G / О / O / Ы / Y / CH / Ч / N / Н / X / --
Д / D / П / P / Ь / ' / D / Д / O / О / Y / Ы
Е / E / Р / R / Э(3) / E' / E / Е / P / П / …Y(2) / ..ИЙ
Ё(1) / YO / С / S / Ю / YU / E' (3) / Э / Q / -- / YA / Я
Ж / ZH / Т / T / Я / YA / F / Ф / R / Р / YO(1) / Ё
З / Z / У / U / G / Г / S / C / YU / Ю
И / I / Ф / F / H / -- / SH / Ш / Z / З
..ИЙ(2) / …Y / Х / KH / I / И / SHCH / Щ / ZH / Ж
Й / J / Ц / TS / J / Й / T / Т / ‘ / Ь
К / K / Ч / CH / K / К / Ts / Ц / “ / Ъ
(1), (2), (3) - otherness from the Beider’s system.
The table is based on the system of transliteration used in the dictionary[[1]]. This system appears to be the most unambiguous among those I know.Yet the following changes are added:
(1)To make the Russian letter Ё(the letter E with two dots on the top of it) distinguishable YO is used.
(2) Two Russian letters ИЙat the end of surname are changed by one Latin letter Y.
(3)For technical reasons the letter E with the sign of accent on the top of it, standing for the Russian letter Э, has been substituted by the symbol E' (E’, E‘, E`).
(4)Letter J must be replaced by letter I in the middle of name Lejtes, which seems wrong in English. Леитес is wrong in Russian, so mistakes are excluded.
Emigrants often have names transliterated from Russian using other rules, different in Europe and in the USA in different decades. For example, in my passport I am Leites, but in INS documents made by computer on the basis of the Russian spelling, and in Driver License I was Leytes during 6 years. My uncle, who entered the USA in 1922, received the last name Laties. German pronunciation of the name Grеgorij Leitis is exactly the same as Russian pronunciation of my sonGregory Leytes name (ГригорийЛейтес). We asked Grеgorij von Leitis and his friend to repeat his name many times and to listen to our pronunciation of my son’s name – no difference was found. There are about 40 spelling versions (variants)for only one Russian pronunciation Лейтес. 17 of them were in use in the USA – see table 3.
Table 3. Spelling versions of surname Leites and close of it.
Таблица 3. Версии написания фамилии Лейтес и близких к ней латинским шрифтом.
Version of spelling ofthelastname.
Версия написания фамилии / Russian Лейтес / Лейтос
…as / …es / ….ies / …is / sum / ….os
Number of persons found 1998 in the USA
by + in Family Finder FTM-5.0 (SS death index and other Archives).
Количестволюдей с указанными фамилиями, встретившихсяв США
в списке адресов + в списке умерших и рядедругих архивов
Lait…. / 12 + 0 / 5 + 1 / 0 + 0 / 4 + 1 / 21 + 2 / 6 + 2
Lajt…. / 0 + 0 / 0 + 0 / 0 + 0 / 0 + 0 / 0 + 0 / 3 + 2
Lat…. / 70 + 40 / *54 + 46 / 19 + 5 / 5 + 9 / *148+100 / 100+38
Layt…. / 0 + 0 / 0 + 1 / 0 + 0 / 0 + 1 / 0 + 2 / 13 + 6
Leit…. / 1 + 0 / *36 + 27 / 0 + 0 / 15 + 10 / *52 + 37 / 5 + 2
Leyt…. / 1 + 0 / *12 + 5 / 0 + 0 / 0 + 0 / *13 + 5 / 0 + 0
sum / 84 + 40 / *107+80 / 19 + 5 / 24 + 21 / 234 + 146 / 127+50
sum / 124 / 187 / 24 / 45 / 380 / 177
Number of spelling versions in use in the USA
Количество встретившихся версий написания фамилии в США
All / 4 / 5 +**3 / 1 / 4 / 14 +**3 / 5
* - including a version with double S, for example Latess. – включая версию со сдвоенной буквой Sв конце.
** - number of versions with double S. – количество версий со сдвоенной буквой Sв конце.
The persons with surnames Latas (110 persons) and Lates (100 persons)weremost often. The majority of them had Spanish and other Western (European) given names. The persons with surname Leites (63 persons) was the next. Some of them had Jewish given names. The majority of Leitis (25) and Laties (24 persons) had Western names, but Leytes (17persons) had mostlyJewish and Russian names. At last, the majority of Latis (14 persons), Laitas (12), Laites (6), and Laitis (5 persons) had Western and Spanish given names. This review (survey; round-up)is a very subjective estimation because Catholics use biblical names. But among the Leitoses (Latoses and so on – 177 persons in table 3) I did not see Jewish first names almost at all.
3E. Data about each person and notation
Data of every person are given in the following sequencein the family tree outline list:
First, either the number of the generation is given as counted from the patriarch, or the sign "+" (spouse) is provided. If the person is mentioned repeatedlyas a result of, say, entering into a marriage to a member of the same clan, or the adoption of a relative, a number in brackets ([1], [2], [3]..,which helps to identify the repetition)precedes the name of such a person.
Secondly, the first name,the first letter of the patronymic or of the middle name (the initial), and the surnameare presented as written at birth.
If all over the life a different name was used, this name may be written. If the person wants, the name he or she used later is shown instead of the name written at birth. As a rule the changed surname is shown for person who changed the country.
If the first name is unknown, it is replaced with the words Son, Daughter, Child, Husband, or Wife.If the surname is unknown, it is replaced by the word "Unknown".
If the name is too long, a truncated one is used for do not block up (? jam, (en)cumber, crowd; overload ?) charts, alphabet Index, and lists. The full namefollows. It includes the patronymic or of the middle name. The patronymic is not written if it correlates with the father’s name absolutely clearly.
If the names are shown not at birth, the names at birth are introduced by the marks “b: and till .…”(year). After that the name changes, variants, modifications (accompanied with the date and the reason of the change) are mentioned, pseudonyms, and nicknames (aliases) under which the given person is known.
The same names in Cyrillic follow for the people born in the former USSR or for others whose Russian spelling is known.
If sex is not clear from name, or spose’s name, or parents’ number of children, it must follow names as “(M)” or “(F)”.
Next, all the following information is given:
The date and location: of birth (b:),
of marriage (m:),
of divorce (marriage ending (This is printed, although I select “Divorce”)),
of the moves to a different country (moved),
of death (d:).
Often the date is preceded by the word "about" (abt), "before" (bef), or "after" (aft), indicating its being approximate. In the case if the date in documents was changed from Julian calendar to Gregorian one, the Julian date is shown in brackets.
The comments may follow each of these items, such as the cause of death, the place of the burial (buried in) if it differs from the place of death, and so on.
Persecutions, death in pogrom or Holocaust, participation of wars, ….
Profession, education, … .
Degrees, titles in science and art, awards, … .
Publications (details and examples are in section 24, here: “Publ. …” (amount)).
Position, employment, occupation, business, … .
Medical information.
Ancestors, relatives not shown as independent membersin the family tree.
Personalfeatures (appearance, behavior, character…).
The number of children. For example, 4s+3d+2ch+(1s) indicates the four sons, three daughters, two children of unknown sex, and one adopted son or stepson.
The remarks about the presence of data in census (mark C), of the additional data (Ad), documents (D), publications (P), photos (F), or essays (E) in sections 9, 31, 32, 33, 34, and Enclosures.