Researcher found Belarusian roots of Applebaum

Anne Applebaum. Screenshot from video: malina_by / YouTube

Anne Applebaum is an American writer and journalist, historian. Formerly editor of The Economist and The Spectator magazines, member of the editorial board of The Washington Post. Pulitzer Prize winner. Has Belarusian roots (her ancestors come from Kobryn). Lives in Warsaw. Married to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. Acquired Polish citizenship.

In a recent episode of the talk show «Zhyzzyo-Malina» (Life-Raspberry), when asked by Mikita Mielkazioraŭ about her Belarusian roots, Applebaum admitted that almost no one in her family remembers anything, as they tried to forget as quickly as possible and integrate into American society.

«I have no knowledge of exactly where they came from, but I had the name Kobryn, which was passed down through three generations. So I think it's true. I've been there, I've traveled there, I even wrote about it a few years ago,» the American journalist said in an interview.

Applebaum was in Kobryn in the 1990s, when she visited Belarus several times while working on her first book «Between East & West».

The question of Applebaum's Belarusian roots interested a Belarusian amateur genealogist, who wanted to find documents that could confirm this fact.

At the beginning of her search, the Belarusian woman referred to a common Wikipedia article, from which she learned the name of the Pulitzer Prize laureate's father — lawyer Harvey Applebaum.

Павялічыць

It turned out that a lot of genealogical information can be obtained from ordinary newspapers, whose archival issues in Western countries have been scanned and made publicly available.

Thus, in The Birmingham News, the main newspaper of Birmingham, Alabama, announcements of engagements and weddings were found, from which the names of the journalist's grandparents and great-grandparents became known. Harvey Applebaum's father was Oscar, and his grandfather was Joseph (Joseph Applebaum).

Knowing these names, one could delve into American censuses starting from 1950. Censuses were conducted every ten years, which allows tracking when certain individuals appear and disappear in the region.

Павялічыць

In the 1910 census, the Belarusian researcher's scheme failed — the Applebaum family disappeared from the search results. Changing one letter in the surname, from Applebaum to Epplebaum, provided answers to all questions — a document was found stating that Iosif (also Joseph) Applebaum and his wife Dora, née Kantarovich, arrived from Kobryn in New York in 1898.

In the 1880s, the number of Jewish migrants arriving in the United States from the Russian Empire sharply increased. The reason was not only the desire for economic freedoms and new opportunities, but also state antisemitism, legal restrictions, and persecution of Jews in Russia.

The assassination of Tsar Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya members in 1881 led to mass pogroms in the southern part of the empire, predominantly in the territory of present-day Ukraine and Moldova. Even greater restrictions on Jewish rights, known as the «May Laws», were introduced. Pogroms resumed with new force in the 1890s, when the Applebaum family left the territory of Belarus.

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