My wife was born in Briceva, Bessarabia (Ukraine at the time) right at the end
of WWII. Her parents, Shmuel LERNER (1917-2009) and Lea GANDELMAN (1920-2009),
were also born in Briceva. As a young able bodied couple they were evacuated
by the retreating Soviet army to Grozny, Chechnya at the beginning of the war.
All of their parents and siblings who were left behind perished in the
holocaust. Shmuel's parents were Tzvi Dov (Hersh Ber) Lerner and Gitl
SHECHTMAN. Lea's parents were Yechiel Michel Gandelman and Sara Shechtman.
The two Shechtman grandmothers were not directly related to each other.

All we know about my wife's ancestors is based on the memories of her late
parents. We have not found any vital records to help us build her family
tree further back. Does anyone know of vital records for Briceva?

Rumor is that the local records were lost in a fire in the 1950s or 60s.
One of the Shechtman branches of ancestors was >from Mogilev-Podolsk, Ukraine.
Are there any records >from there?

Elan Caspi
El Cerrito, CA