My grandfather came to USA in 1912. In his Federal Naturalization record he said his town was Novoe Kurhane in Russia. I can't find the town on maps.
Does anyone know where Novoe Kurhane was or possibly the town's name was changed?
Does anyone know other sites where I might be able to find that town?
There are several villages called Kurgan'e (Курганье) in present-day Russia and Belarus.
Yandex Maps has a settlement called Kurgan'e, a part of Vladimirovka village, in Klichev district, Mogilev oblast of Belarus, and a bus stop called Novoe Kurgan'e nearby. Wikimapia names that settlement Novoe Kurgan'e, and the description of Wikimapia object says that previously Novoe Kurgan'e was a village on its own.
Also there is a village Staroe Kurgan'e nearby (Staroe means Old and Novoe means New; Staroe X and Novoe X are a very common pattern in village names in Russia and neighbour countries).
I also found a site about a WWII partisan that says that she was born in 1923 in Novoe Kurgan'e of Klichev district, Mogilev oblast in Belarus, which also confirms that at that time there was a separate village with that name.
(Note that transition "g"->"h" is very common in slavic languages, especially for Belarussian or Ukrainian language speakers.)
