The Tulbowitz/Ratner family originated in the Vitebsk region, lived for decades near Rostov-on-Don, and finally settled in Albany, New York.
That story about our Rabinowitz family's tie to a famous rabbi is tenuous at best. Here is the true genealogy of Yitchak Elchanon Spektor.
If Sholom Tulbowitz had gone to Dvinsk instead of Rostov, his Ratner descendants might have grown up in Perm instead of Albany.