My motivation for starting the Poliakov project is to ascertain if Poliakov was my husband's paternal grandfather Jacob's surname. Jacob's family ran a candy business in Odessa. He was orphaned at a young age and may have been sent to live with relatives in Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, and then sent to the US alone. His older brothers may have emigrated to South Africa.

There are archival records of a candy factory in Odessa run by Poliakov brothers; there are also records of a Poliakov family from Berdiansky (near Mariupol) with five sons, one of whom moved to South Africa. We do not know if either of these Poliakov families are related to each other or to Jacob. We know that the Berdiansky Poliakovs had family connections in Lithuania.

One Poliakov family from Kiev has an oral history that their ancestors were instrumental in funding the Moscow railroad system.