Michael Gregor/Grega in /Place: Keretsky, Zakarpats'ka Region, Maramures Ukraine

[saftamicha]

Looking for Michael Gregor/Grega in /Place: Keretsky, Zakarpats'ka Region, Maramures Ukraine
There is a church located in Keretske according to Mapia
Name: Michael Grega or Gregor or some variation.
Born: Oct 1896
Known family left behind in Kretske: Charles Grega (brother)

Arrived Ellis Island. New York.
Age at Arrival: He was 17, we think he may have been younger?
Traveling Companions: Possibly Mateus Grega and maybe Mary Petrische.
Gregor ?
via: Hamburg, Germany-N.Y.
Year of departure: 1909

Settled: Western Pennyslvania region in Fayette County, Uniontown or
Brownsville.

Wife: Mary Petrische ?(He married Mary and had two children, our
father and uncle, Michael Gregor Jr , our father, born 1917 and John
Gregor born 1918. Mary died early, we think around 1925

Additional info: Michael's father was said to be the mayor of his
town/village of Keretske. Said to have lived to 107, this must have
been very unusual for that time. Was very tall by their standards.
Grandfather called himself a "White Russian". He often told tales
about vampires in his region as actual events. He said the whole town
or village had the same name? I am told that Kretske is a mountainous, thinly populated village that he came from. Today, Keretske appears to have a good sized town of approx. 1000-5000 inhabitants.

He followed the Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church in the US, Brownsville, Pa.
He lived in Brownsville./Alicia. Pennyslvania (Fayette County)area.
Later, towns of Vestaburg(Washington County) and Mather, (Greene County)
He ended up in Dillner, Pa which is in Greene County. He was buried in Wolfe Cemetery in Dilllner, Pa. around 1964.

[Hannia]

Looking for Michael Gregor/Grega in /Place: Keretsky, Zakarpats'ka Region, Maramures Ukraine
There is a church located in Keretske according to Mapia
Name: Michael Grega or Gregor or some variation.
Born: Oct 1896
Known family left behind in Kretske: Charles Grega (brother)

1896 Kerescke > Szolyvai jaras/district > Maramures megyve/region > Kingdom of Hungary > Austro-Hungarian Empire

Your ancestral village, Keretsky/closer transliteration Keretzky (Керецьки in Ukr) is a fair size village w/population of 4,324 people. It is an ancient settlement, dating back to 1389. The Borzhava River runs right through the middle of it, otherwise it is completely surrounded by mountains. Today it is in the Svalyaskij raion/district > Zakarpatska oblast/region > Ukraine, latest zip 89334.

Charles was very likely originally Vasyl and very likely might have spent some time in States, because Vasyl/Wasyl was frequently anglicized to Charles or William/Bill. Don't ask, because I don't know how that came to be.

This immediate area has Romanian influence and Dracula's castle is right on the Ukrainian/Romanian border. It is very common to find crosses standing at cross roads.
_______________________________________

I don't have the time to look into the surname for you right now. It could be Gregor/Grega and it could be Hryha???? WIll take a closer look later.

PS > Michael Gregor??? was Rusyn. Rusyn is pronounced as RUE-THEEN, not to be confused as Russian. Internationally, these people and their culture are considered an anthropological pearl.

[Hannia]

Grega--Griga = Грига in Ukrainian

According to database I use, today there are 2,854 residents in Ukraine w/this surname, 546 seem to live in Keretzky (Керецьки).
_________________________________________________

There are so many same named people residing in Keretzky, it makes it very difficult to make a proper connection.

Have you located Michal's / Michaly's immigration record? The ship manifest might have his father given name????

If the children were baptized in the Orthodox Church, you might be able to request copies of Baptismal Certificates, that might contain helpful info to your search. Orthodox Church records are very detailed.

PS> No one w/Gregor (Грегор) surname found in Keretzky.

[saftamicha]

Hannia,
Thank you very much, This is the most information I have received. I will ck the Ellis Island records with the names you suggested. I am getting excited again. I may be related to the whole town.! I have read many of the messages and learned much already. You are a wealth of information to many people. Saftamicha

[Hannia]

Using GOLD FORM, you can submit name of village in SOUNDS LIKE BOX. Click off Hungarian, Slovak and Ruthenian for ETHNICITY, then right click SEARCH and the database will show all emigrants from Kerescke. Make sure to check out ORIGINAL SHIP MANIFEST for any person of interest. These are generally 2 pages. Use ZOOM icon to view.

One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse

[georgetaft]

My name is George and I am from Brownsville, PA and went to Holy Resurrection Church in West Brownsville. I was totally amazed when I came across this blog. My family name is Sokol and Marfinetz and I remember the Grega name from my youth and I will check with my Aunt who is still in Brownsville.

My grandparents immigrated from Kerets'ky (Keretski), Ukraine (Carpatho-Rusyn), former Austria-Hungry and Czechoslovakia, as well. I was fortunate to be doing business in the region and had a Polish friend that spoke Russian who escorted my wife and I to Kerets'ky in May of 2009. Going armed with two photos, baptismal papers and a passport of my grandmother's sister in law we found family from both sides! We were the first Americans there since the 1980's when some folks from Holy Resurrection went unbeknown to me.

We did manage to go to the Church which looks almost exactly like Holy Resurrection. I was amazed at how similar the region is to southwest PA in climate and topography.

Long story short it was a fantastic surreal day and we did come away with contact information. It has been difficult though because they have no internet and the language and alphabet barriers are huge. I can try to see if I can get them to look for your family if I can get in touch.

I also am going to be in the region next week and am hoping another trip there but my time is tight and it may not be possible. The borders are more open now and I will be going back possibly next year just to spend more time there with the family. They want me to stay two weeks!

If you wish let me know and we can arrange for us to get in contact with one another outside this forum to discuss and share further.

Peace

[lauralee26]

George My sister and myself have been working on the geneology together..she unexpectedly passed away this July...so sad ....I am now left to search and it is not as fun as we used to search and get excited when we got new material.....I would love to stay in touch...my email is HELGAJAKE@YAHOO.COM