Samuels Family Geography
Annopol, Ukraine (formerly in
Poland, also variously known as Anapoli, Anapola, or Onopol) 50.27N
26.54E, about 50 km. ESE of Rovno, and about 35 km. ENE of Ostrog.
Population was about 1250 before the war. There were other towns named Annopol, but this is the one where our family lived.
William and Morris Samuels were born here, according to
their naturalization papers and ship records.
Volhynia
This was the region in Russia, east of Galicia and south of Grodno and Minsk, in
which Annopol was situated. Also
Volyn (Russian) or Wolyn
(Polish).
Region around the headstreams of the Pripyat and Bug Rivers; well forested, with
marshlands and many lakes. Originally a Russian medieval principality, at times
it (or the western portion of it) belonged to Poland. Population is largely
Ukrainian.
Many Jews from Volhynia appear to have migrated
through Germany to Liverpool to Canada; and quite a few settled in St. Louis.
There was an active Voliner Society in St. Louis, as
well as in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Ostrog, Russia (now Ukraine)
50.21N 26.40E about 50 km. SE of Rovno.
David Frumerman Kafri (son
of Leah Samuels) says he was born and raised in an inn at a crossroads near Ostrog.
The Volhynia map,
with arrows pointing to Annopol and Ostrog
