Benjamin Max Potok - POTOKS FROM POTOK

@Benjamin Max Potok
Around 4 decades ago when my beloved maternal grandma Ethel Bell Mossman, z”l, went with family to see Rabbi Chaim Potok in an Atlanta, GA synagogue speaking about his books, she reported back to me that "Chaim looked just like his father, z”l". That would be Benjamin Max Potok. Grandma Ethel called them "the POTOKS FROM POTOK", and explained to me that families took the name of their town.
Grandma and her Belmagia/Belmacsia/Bell family stayed with the Potoks in Phily, PA when the Bells immigrated to America Dec. 1912, landing in Philadelphia from Russia.
Wish I knew how my Belmagia family was distantly related to the Potoks. I have learned that my husband’s, z”l, family (Geldzahler/Horowitz/Krauthammer are related to the Potoks, but that doesn’t help me figure out how my Lander/Balmacsia/Bell family knew the "Potoks from Potok".
Shana Tova U'Metuka, Joy Krauthammer