I am looking for a Boutelkoff who married a "Tuba" (nickname) who had been married to a Grossman. They had a connection with Uman--her son was born there.

Boutel means "flask". From what I can tell bocken means "buck". I am wondering if my family name was changed because I have come across very few.

Be prepared to play with the root--given the linguistic influences--Polish, Ukrainian, High Russian, Low Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew there are many, many possibilities. One surname in my family had six variants among siblings of the same generation. Slavic names became Germanic and vice versa. So you might find some surprises.

There were no standard transliterations until relatively recently.

I have the same situation in my Russian family with people who seem to look as if they are from Northern Europe. Ironically my great-uncle looks very fair and my grandfather, his brother, looks darker. My great-grandfather took after his father.


Best,

Rachel