Our ancestors lived in several nearby towns and villages in what today is northeastern Lithuania. The Krok family lived in a small hamlet outside of Rakisik / Rokiškis called “Tzelkay,” which in Lithuanian is known as Čelkiai (tshel-kay). In her adult life, Rella Krok lived in Rakisik. In 1847, Rella married her first husband, Yehuda Laib Romm.
Yehuda Laib was from the village of Ponedel / Pandėlys, which is about 16.5 miles / 26.5 kilometers west of Rakisik. Yehuda Laib’s brother, Feiva Romm, married a girl from Ponedel, Devorah Sussman. In the period of 1890 to 1914, when our BAYL ancestors emigrated to Baltimore, some Sussman relatives emigrated, primarily to Philadelphia. In the 1930s, the Sussman relatives in Philadelphia published a family newsletter called Sussmania. A series of articles published in the newsletter in May and June of 1934 described life in Ponedel around 1900.
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The following article, which was published in October 1934, describes life in a hamlet called "Speg:"