A census document which contains the name of my paternal great- great-grandfather states that he was born in "Valkacreszr Russia."
I have been unable to trace this town, including on the JewishGen site.
I would appreciate advice on how I may find the correct name and location of this place.
Sincere thanks
Dianne Moses

I recommend to publish an image of the document as the problem may be in the interpretation of the cursive characters
--

Angel Kosfiszer

Richardson, Texas

Diane,

I agree with Angel. Perhaps you could post a screenshot of the text here.
Otherwise, here is a page from the JewishGen gazetteer that has many hits on it for Volkacreszer: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/gazetteer/gazetteer.php?Town=Volkacreszer&Country=AU|BO|HR|EZ|EN|HU|LG|LH|MD|PL|RO|RS|LO|SI|UP&Miles=MILES&cl=capital&stype=D&accnt=Y&HttpVerb=Post

Once you can secure the name I would like to find a historical map of the area for you. You may be able to use the map to understand the immediate environment around the town/village.

Hap Ponedel
Eugene, OR
hapsky@...
http://easteurotopo.org/

On Thu, Jun 23, 2022 at 03:31 AM, <topaz1943@...> wrote:

Valkacreszr

Hi Dianne,

I was able to find this website that mentioned a nearly identical town name:

Valacreszr, Russian Poland

https://british-jewry.org.uk/leedsjewry/getperson.php?personID=I0012654&tree=1

The RUSSIAN Poland makes me even more confident that this could be the town you're looking for. I'm replying publicly just in case this could be of use to anyone else looking for this town.

Best of luck,
 
--
Chloë Kogan
Arizona, USA
Email: KoganAncestry@...

Researching:

• KOGAN (Tarutyne & Kakhovka, Ukraine):
  • Great-grandparents Bentzion (b. 1871; sochet, cantor, soapmaker; murdered Kakhovka 1941) & Frieda nee BERCOVICI (b. Akkerman, Ukraine), and their children Joseph (Montreal, Canada), Riva / Rebekah (Moscow), Israel (Moscow), Blyuma (murdered Kakhovka 1941), Moisey (killed at the front near Kiev 1941), Unknown child.
• FISHER / FISERAS (Anyksciai, Kupiskis, Skapiskis, and Utena, Lithuania):
  • Searching for my paternal grandmother's brother, Jankelis / Jankel / Jacak / Yaakov FISHER / FISERAS (born ~1899 in Utena) & wife Sonia nee PICKER / PIKERAITE (born ~1898 in Anyksciai), and their children.

Thank you for your quick response.
Here is the census document from which I tried to interpret the name.
Warm regards
Dianne Moses

Other than sz, this combination of letters is not Polish; in particular, Polish has no v and no Polish word ends on szr, unless it is an abbreviation. 
Frank Szmulowicz

On Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 04:27 AM, Frank Szmulowicz wrote:

Other than sz, this combination of letters is not Polish; in particular, Polish has no v and no Polish word ends on szr, unless it is an abbreviation. 

No doubt Frank knows what his is talking about.

That said, we have no reason to assume the census taker spelled to town's name "correctly".  He may have been from another country, and could have been using the phonetic spelling of his native language.  For example: the "sz" diphthong in Polish indicates the English "sh"  but in Hungarian it indicates the "ss" you find in the word "hiss". 

You don't mention the census year. Country borders changed, and these changes are reflected in records. For example: Warsaw, that we recognize as the Polish capital, belonged to the Russian Empire in 1900.

Try searching other pages with the same census taker's handwriting to see if it helps you interpret this town name. 
 
--
Odeda Zlotnick
Jerusalem, Israel.

what if the pronunciation of the city name should be English?
This case Valka maybe Velke, etc.
best regards
Marianna Toth