Greetings >from Greece

My name is Giannis Daropoulos and I am an amateur genealogist and Wikipedia editor.
For the past few weeks I have been doing a research on a Russian-born US director,
named John m Stahl, trying to verify his birth place. The problem is that although
his accepted birth place is Baku Azerbaijan(which I find really odd), i have
discovered a document where he gave his birthplace as Becan or Becau (bad hand
writing) . At the same time the passenger list >from his family's journey to
america, states Suwalki (the town or the gubernia) as their last residence.
I was wondering, if you could be kind enough to inform me A) whether there is a
place in Suwalki region or somewhere else that would fit that name and
B) considering the law about Jewish settlement in the Russian Empire
in the 19th century, do you believe that Baku is a plausible birthplace?
Thank you in advance.

My regards
G Daropoulos

Hi Giannis,

Azerbajian isn't as odd as it sounds. Baku was the epicenter of the world's first
great oil boom. Since it was part of the Russian empire many Jews went there to
seek their fortune. My great-grandfather was born in Slonim (now in Belarus) but
migrated to Baku, Azerbiajian around the turn of the 19th century. He married a
woman there and had two children, then the family moved even further east to
Tashkent, Uzbekistan. They didn't stay there long, they returned to Slonim and
then emigrated to the US in 1904.

Sherri Venditti
The Berkshires, USA