Ganczarz (Gancarz) and Skiba from Stare Siolo, Galicia

[huzyda]

In Ukrainian, 'skiba' means a clod (lump) of earth; a glebe; or earth turned up between two furrows. Hanchar is a corruption/variant of 'honchar' - a potter.

[huzyda]

In Ukrainian, 'skiba' means a clod (lump) of earch; a glebe; or the earth turned up between two furrows. It can colloquially also mean a slice of bread. Hanchar is a variant/corruption of 'honchar' - a potter.

[jakimicha]

Larry.... hello cousin :-)

My family also came from the Gancarz and Jakimicha's from Stare Siolo (Near Oleszyce/Lubaczow). Email me: jyakimic (at) purdue (dot) edu.

We settled in Indiana in the 1910s/1920s and some more from the Gancarz/Jakimicha's are in Freesoil Michigan. Jakimicha became Yakimicki here in the states and remains Jakimicha in what is now Poland. There are still a few Jakimicha's in the Stare Siolo area and some in the far north east of Poland.

I'm extremely interested to find what you know. Our family has always claimed a Ukranian ethnicity and were listed as Ruthenian on all the manifests. This being said, my ggrandfather Mykolaj Jakimicha's baptism info seems to indicate a Roman Catholic baptism.

A guy from Oleszyce has sent me some pictures of the Orthodox church in the area. I will add links here later today.

[jakimicha]

Also, I forgot to mention, there is a Helen Gancarz in Michigan who is very interested in Genealogy and has visited the old village a number of times. She is my grandfathers cousin. I have lost contact with her in the last couple years and am attempting to reconnect.

[jakimicha]

Tomasz Michalski - Oleszyce

There you will find current photos from Oleszyce, including a number of shots of the abandoned orthodox church. The text mentions that it was used to store fertilizer for some time. :-(

Did Stare Siolo have its own separate orthodox church, or is this the one?

-Joe Yakimicki

[Larry S]

Hi Joe:

My Grandmother, Eva Ganczarz, immigrated to Canada in 1899 and married my Grandfather, Georgius Skiba, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Both were Ukrainians from Stare Siolo and listed as Ruthenians and Greek Catholic on Winnipeg 1911 Census documents. Her Testimony of Baptism (TOB), written in Latin, was issued by the local Greek Catholic church in Stare Siolo (which I believe later burnt down). On the TOB, her last name is shown as above. Web searches for Ganczarz show about 200 compared to about 100,000 for Gancarz. I’ve wondered if the name was spelled wrong on the TOB, but have found Ganczarz in the village of Rzeszow, 69 km southwest of Stare Siolo.

Other Ganczarz, who traveled with my grandmother to Canada, settled in the farming area of Sifton, Manitoba. They included Anton, Helene, Kaska, Rosalie, Franz and Steph Ganczarz. Here Ganczarz became Gancher.

The TOB and her Winnipeg marriage certificate, show her parents as Tomas (Tomiko) Ganczarz and Anna Jakimicha. The TOB shows Anna’s father as Georgii Jakimicha. I have also found Jakimicha in the village of Makowisko, 18 km from Stare Siolo. (Galizien-Online - Geschichte und Ahnenforschung des ehemaligen KцІnigreichs Galizien, ц√sterreich)

Last week, I visited the first Ukrainian Catholic church (St. Michael’s) built in Canada in October 1899 in Gardenton, Manitoba. It is my understanding that when Ukrainian immigrants from Galicia arrived in the Prairies there were no Greek Catholic churches, so they built their own, and Ukrainian Catholic became a modified version of the original Greek Catholic. The church in Gardenton is very much like the photos of the churches in Oleszyce, except much smaller, and was built by Ukrainians mostly from Bukowyna, West Ukraine. The cemetery contains no Ganczarz or Jakimicha, but I did find a Woroniuk, which are relatives on my Grandfather’s side.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Larry

[jakimicha]

Thanks Larry. I have forwarded your message to Helen Gancarz in Michigan. I'm sure she will compare notes and see if a connection can be made.

Have you looked over the LDS films for the area? I am thinking of ordering them again now that I have a few more pieces and my sounding-out of cyrillic is quite a bit quicker than it was last time I had them.