Harry Demsky would prove
to be as challenging to our researchers
as he was to his son. Michael had heard that
Harry came to America to avoid serving in
the Russian Army, and that the family's original
surname was not Demsky, rather it was Danilovich. But beyond that,
Michael knew nothing about his grandfather's roots, and for a time, neither did we. There were no records of
Harry at Ellis Island, so we couldn't determine
when he came to America or where he came from. What's more, Harry had two
brothers who immigrated to the United States,
Movsha and Abram, and we couldn't find an
arrival record for Movsha. Happily, our luck
changed with Abram, and the passenger
list for a ship that arrived in New
York in April of 1911. Please read who was on board. "Danilovich, Abram, age 42. Occupation, dealer.
Nationality, Russia. Race or people, Hebrew. Mm-hmm. Last permanent residence,
Chausy, Russia." Chausy, Russia. You
know who that is? That's your father's uncle. Oh, wow. That is the arrival of
your great-uncle Abram, recorded with the
surname Danilovich,
arriving in New York. Chausy is your
ancestral hometown. Whoa. It was then part of
the Russian empire. Did you know, have you ever
heard of this place Chausy? Never heard of that. Chausy, wow. Today, Chausy is a small
town in Eastern Belarus, but when Michael's
relatives lived here, it was part of the notorious
Pale of Settlement, the vast region
where Russia confined and severely restricted
its Jewish population. Jews in the Pale were
second class citizens, subject to continuous, sometimes
violent discrimination, and though it's often difficult
to learn about their lives, with Michael's ancestors,
we were fortunate. We found photographs of
the neighborhood in Chausy, where we believe
his family lived. In essence, it was the
town's Jewish quarter. 90% of the residents
there were Jewish. Okay. It's the ghetto, right? Yes, it's the ghetto. What's it like to learn this? Well, it just gives you
a better understanding of how it all worked, you know, even then, how it
all worked, I mean. I'm sure they all, Jews
like to be together, but not together that much. By law, Jewish people
in the Pale were barred from owning land and denied
access to higher education. As a result, most
worked as tradespeople, but as we researched
Michael's family, we discovered that
his great uncle Movsha found a more unusual
way to support himself, crime. "Under the decree of the
Mogilev district court is wanted a Chausy townsperson, Movsha Danilovich- Uh-huh. Accused under Article 1654. Anyone who knows the
whereabouts of Danilovich is obliged to inform
the court where he is." Your great-uncle,
Michael, was a wanted man. This is wild. This is, this is, do we
know what he is wanted for? We do, but have you
ever heard this story? No, no, I never heard. Well, as I said, we didn't
find any firm record of his arrival to
the United States, so it's possible he may have
been in Russia as late as 1906, which is when that
article was published. Right. It's also possible
that he'd already left when this wanted
notice was issued, because he was... Sounds more likely. According to this
newspaper in 1906, Movsha was accused of what
we would call armed robbery. We don't know anything
further about the case, so it's possible
that he was innocent. However, as we dug deeper, that possibility seemed
increasingly unlikely. Records show that five
years earlier in 1901, Movsha was imprisoned
for a different crime. What's more, we discovered
that Michael's grandfather, Harry, was born
Girsh Danilovich, and that he, too, had
trouble with the law. November 12th, 1903,
Girsh Danilovich- Mm-hmm. "Alexandr Perepechka - Good. And nobleman, Alexandr Benkovsky charged under
articles 13 and 1642." My God, this is a
little gang here. Your grandfather Harry's real
name was Girsh Danilovich. He was charged with
robbery like his brother, but not with a weapon. Okay. This is your grandfather, no
family stories about this? Incredible, no, never. I guess this is
probably the part that they were not proud about when they first came
to this country. Yeah, we left that behind. Yeah, yeah. What's it like to learn that? Well, it just all
kind of comes to life. They must have been
struggling to make ends meet, but it looks like somewhat
of a professional gang. It doesn't seem like a one-off, it seems like they live
and survive by robbery. You know, the records at
Ellis Island are pretty good. Yeah. So we're thinking, how come
these guys don't show up? Neither of them? Probably aliases. I'm kind of reeling with
this information, but sure, makes all the sense in
the world, they were- And let's go back to the
story your father told you, that his father came to
America to escape the army. Right. He came to America to escape- - Prison, yeah.
- Prison, yeah. This is blowing
my mind a little. This is really blowing my mind.
