Many of the people coming to America wanted a fresh start and chose different names themselves, which seems odd to me.
It does seem strange! I know I've heard it said about Asian immigrants, for instance, that they changed their names so it would be easier to integrate in a new community since their real names would be difficult to pronounce (as I'm sure would be the case for Slavic names, also) and would contribute to that sentiment of "othering".
My pleasure. Hope it's the right one - it was literally the first thing that came up on Google, so can't take too much credit for it :D
You're likely right, they probably were trying to choose names that would make them more likely to be accepted and assimilate. That's so opposite of how protective we are of our racial/national identities now.
Funny! I have no idea why finding the town online was so difficult for us? I even had a Russian friend of mine (who lives here) try to help and he thought it was a clerical error. I wonder if Google search results are somehow different in America? Time to turn on that VPN and find out. : )