1 B The shtetl of Dolyna and the origins of the Weinbergs.

The shtetl of Dolyna and the origins of the Weinbergs.

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The Jews of Dolyna ( also spelled Dolina) trace their origins back to the times of the Polish kings who had conquered Ukrainian territories.  My uncle, Benjamin (Munio) who travelled back and forth in the former territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as a lawyer, found ancient records in the town’s archives. He reported having found documents dating to the 16^th Century, when a progenitor of the Weinberg family ( with name registered as Turteltaub) came from Turkish held  regions to Dolyna. During the time of massacre of Jews  in the Ukrainian territories of Poland by the Cossacks in 1648, the borders of the Ottoman empire came just north of the town of Dolyna. These regions were spared the massacres and Sefardic Jews came as administrators or merchants into those territories. (Presumably, Turtletaub is a later “Yiddishization” of what may have originally have been a Sefardic/Spanish name, perhaps akin to “ Paloma” or “ Tortola). This first ancestor of record established the Jewish cemetery and built a house there, which was still in use at least till 1917, and the family members were always given the choicest burial plots.  He opened and operated salt mines under contract from local aristocrat. By the 17^th century, the first “Weinberg” was  registered in the Grundbuch, land registry, of Dolyna in Latin, German, and Polish. (Note: This Dolyna/Dolina is not to be confused with a current Dolina, which was formerly called Janow).
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