This group is for those people interested in Justingrad (aka: Yustingrad/Ustingrad), Kiev (Kyjiv), Russia (now Ukraine). The Justingrad shtetl was created after Jews were forced out of their homes in the village of Sokolivka (aka Sokolovka, Sokolievka, Sokolowka, Sokoliefka). In 1825, Czar Nicholas I of Russia expelled merchant shopkeeper (non-farmer) Jews from regular villages to villages of their own, shtetlakh (plural of shtetl). Thus, these Jews from Sokolivka moved to the land on the other side of a quarter mile bridge/damn across a lake edge. This shtetl was named Justingrad (J pronounced as a Y) in honor of Justina, wife of the Nobleman who sold the land to the Jews. Many of these Russian Jews left for a better life in the United States around 1900. In 1919, a pogrom made its way through Justingrad. Jewish men were murdered and Jewish women were defiled. With WWII, on July 27, 1941, the Nazis destroyed Justingrad. Currently, the land of former Justingrad is used as farmland and grazing for livestock from those of neighboring villages.
My ancestors from Justingrad were the Kradin (alternative spellings: Kraidin, Krejdin, Craiden, Criden, Cradin, Creighton, etc.) Family
http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~modestino/Kradin_Surname.html
|