Let us set aside for the meantime the mystery of where and when Tanchum was born and learn a little about him and his life. In the Pakroy census records of 1892 Tanchum is described as a tavern owner. He also owned a flour mill, so he had two businesses. He was a rich man; in a 1910 report on real estate owners he is listed as the owner of a house worth 5640 roubles. (His file at the Kovno Archives is No. 1 49 1,330000).The flour mill was in the village (“dorf”) of Pakroy on the estate of the local German landowner, Baron von Ropp, not in the shtetel itself. Mum mentioned that as a child, living in the shtetel, she enjoyed going to the dorf by horse and cart to visit her grandfather, it was a big outing.

(The pictures below, taken by Roch herself, are views of Baron von Ropp’s estate).

((In an early -1923 - telephone directory of Lithuania, Tanchum is listed: Maizelis Tankels, maluninas, Siauliu g-ve 13. Andrius told me that the 1923 telephone directory address, Siauliu Street, was later changed to Dariaus &Gireno Street.

The attached translation  of a document of 1914 – found in the Kovno Archives by Yael Shamir Driver – is a letter from the Ponevez Police to Tanchum Maisel regarding the call-up to reserves of his son Yaacov David Maisel (see below) from which we can deduce facts relating to Tanchum. This document is exceedingly useful in the absence of official birth and marriage records: although there was no record in the Jewish community records of the marriage of Tanchum and Merre, the Police authorities accepted the fact that they were indeed married because it was corroborated by the highly respectable Pakroy residents Fishel Fuchs, Baruch Taitz and others. These prominent Pakroyers declared that Tanchum, a bachelor, had married Merre more than fifty years previously. As this declaration was made in 1914, it means that the marriage had taken place not later than 1864.

So we can conclude that Tanchum was born long before 1850; probably he was born about 1840 and was indeed the guest relative mentioned above. There are more statements referred to in this Police document made by other prominent Pakroyers (Israel Atlas, Yosef Klavansky, Avraham Rosen, Shimon Kolitzman) attesting to Tanchum Maisel's family status. So I think that this can act in lieu of the official records. Tanchum and Merre had only one child, a daughter Minde, born on 1st November 1870. Here we assume that she was named after a Mendel, the name Minde being a derivative of Mendel. There are no records of other children. Merre died on 27th November, 1889, in Pakroy, at the age of 51, of typhus. As I wrote before, we do not know her maiden name nor where she was born: in her death report in the Pakroy records she is called "Merre Tankhelova". In the report of the birth of her daughter Minde, she is called simply "Mirioma".

On 10.8.1890 Minde Maisel married Israel Atlas, the son of David and Golde Atlas of Beisegola. Israel was born in Baisegola in 1864. He was registered as a member of the Nemoksht (Nemksciai) community (a shtetel between Ponevez and Pakroy) where he must have lived prior to his marriage. After their marriage Minde and Israel Atlas lived in Pakroy. In the census of 1892 Israel Atlas is described as a shopkeeper, but Mum said that he dealt with the woodlands of Baron von Ropp, the German nobleman and landowner of Pakroy, and I have also seen his occupation listed as “wood” in a commercial publication of 1911/1912, so he, like his father-inlaw Tanchum, had two businesses. He was well-off: in a 1910 report on real estate owners he is listed as owning a house valued at 2400 roubles. And what is most impressive: the nedunia ( the dowry) in the ketuba ( the marriage certificate, contract) was not the usual customary rate of 75 roubles but 2000 roubles!

There are discrepancies in the given names in the archive records: In the ketuba Mum’s mother’s name appears as Miriam whereas in the birth record of Mum her mother's name is given as Minde. Also, in the birth records of Mum's siblings her name is sometimes Mina, sometimes Miriam, sometimes even Merre.  

[Here below, from the Jewish Genealogy website, all are as Minde or Mindel ..wds http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsearch~model2~[lvrnewb] lvrnewb18]