Greetings from Colorado!

My paternal great grandfather took his family from what is today western Russia to London, UK around 1893. From what my grandfather told my mother who, in turn told me, the family originated in Bessarabia but must have migrated to the region of Vitebsk near the city of Nevel. This seems plausible since our family name, PROOTH is very similar to PRUT or PRUTH, the river that flows along the northern border of Bessarabia.

I have found a number of relatives in 23AndMe.com but nobody who has any knowledge of our ancestors. I have found no source of information online which may be of interest.

If anyone has any suggestion then I would be pleased to hear from him or her.

Thanks!

Charles Prooth.
Brit in Colorado Springs.

FWIW, in 1930, in Regina, Saskachewan, David Prooth married Ollia Stein. The marriage didn't last. That's all I know.

Mel Comisarow
Vancouver BC

Charles,

Have you been able to obtain documents such as naturalization, passenger manifests, vital records, etc.?

These documents may list town of birth for the original immigrants.

Once you have a town name then you can begin searching further back in time.

Have you tried doing a soundex search on the surname on various JewishGen databases?  https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/

www.familysearch.org
is a free site and good starting point for census, manifests, naturalization and other records.

Hope this helps,

Sherri Bobish