looking for relatives Masluk/melnik

[lhasard1]

hi i live in australia and i am looking for my grandfather's relatives. His name is Anton Masluk (aka hans hasard) he was born in kovel ukraine 1912 his parents are Leopold Masluk born 1886 and Ahafia Masluk born 1887 (nee: Melnik). love any help or info? dont know any of his family.

thanks

[Hannia]

Do you have any documentation for him at all? Have you checked Australian Archives? Was he in Germany before immigration to Australia?

Hans Hasard ???? Please explain.
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Both your surnames Masluk (Маслюк in Ukrainian means CREAMLIKE - 4,086 in UA) and Melnik (Мельник means MILLER - 158,042 in UA & 283 in Kovel, the city) are quite common throughout Ukraine.

Are you sure that Anton was born in Kovel, fair size district center town, and not in one of the 40+ villages in the Kovel raion/district > Vohlyn oblast/region?

I see only a small family living in Kovel ???

МАСЛЮК АЛЕКСАНДР ВАЛЕРЬЕВИЧ 34910 1982-03-27 КОВЕЛЬ ПЧІЛКИ 29 0 14
Oleksa, son of Valerij
МАСЛЮК ВАЛЕРИЙ ВАСИЛЬЕВИЧ 34910 1954-10-19 КОВЕЛЬ ОЛЕНИ ПЧІЛКИ 29 0 14
Valerij, son of Vasyl

PS> Closer transliteration from Ukrainian to English of surname Маслюк is MASLIUK / MASLYUK.

[Hannia]

History of immigration from Ukraine to Australia
Source: Museum Victoria

Ethnic Ukrainians from western Ukraine are known to have been in Australia as early as 1860. One of the best-known early Ukrainian arrivals was explorer, naturalist and ethnographer Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay who visited Australia in the late 19th century and was instrumental in the establishment of a Zoological Field Station at Watson’s Bay, Sydney.

The Ukrainian population in Australia remained small for many more decades, during a tumultuous period in Ukrainian history. Ukraine had been fought over and subjugated for many centuries because it was rich in natural resources. After World War I it was briefly independent, but by 1922 it was split between the Soviet Union and Poland. Two disastrous famines followed, and millions more died in World War II.

Large numbers of Ukrainian refugees first arrived in Australia in 1948 as part of the International Refugee Organization resettlement agreement. Other Ukrainian immigrants arrived in Victoria on Assisted Passages. In 1954, when Ukraine-born people were first recorded in the census, 4,678 were living in Victoria. This may understate the number of immigrants from Ukraine as it is defined today, as some Ukrainians were represented in the census under other nationalities such as the Soviet Union.

In 1991 Ukraine gained independence, and over the next five years the Ukraine-born population in Victoria increased for the first time in many decades, from 2,937 in 1991 to 5,370 in 1996. Many of these new post-independence migrants were young professionals in the fields of science, mathematics and computer technology. In 2001 Victoria had the largest Ukraine-born population in Australia, with a total of 5,740 people. While 53% of Ukraine-born in Victoria spoke Russian at home, 31% spoke Ukrainian.

Living predominantly around Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, around half of the community are Christian, while a quarter are Jewish. The majority of those in employment work as professionals, and are in the property and business services industry. Supporting the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian community today, are a range of organizations including the Association of Ukrainians in Victoria.
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Ukrainians immigrated to Australia under the Australian Federal Immigration Scheme and were bound by two-year contract of employment. The first Ukrainian immigrants to arrive in Australia were either unmarried persons, married couples without children, or family men alone. The wives and children of these family men remained in Europe and were reunited with their men once their two-year work contract had been completed. Upon arrival in Australia these immigrants were placed in holding camps in Bonegilla (Victoria), Bathurst (NSW), Northam (WA) and Woodside (SA) before being sent to various locations to fulfil their employment contract. At these camps they received only a few weeks of basic English language tuition. From 1948 - 1950 about 3,500 Ukrainians arrived in South Australia.

Your Grandfather was a WW2 DP (Displaced Person). Since he immigrated to Australia under a work agreement, he had to fill out an extensive personal questionnaire, which included lots of personal data. These questionnaires are called MIGRANT SELECTION RECORDS. They should provide you w/important keys for your search. They will even provide you w/names of DP Camps in which he resided and the type of work he did as an Ostarbeiter/Forced Laborer or as POW. In some cases they will even provide you w/names of siblings.

Keep in mind that if Grandfather was born pre 1919, he was technically born in Russia, and if in Interwar Period, 1919-1938, he was technically born in Reconstituted Poland and considered a Polish citizen. (Poland has not existed as a geopolitical entity for the previous 125+ yrs.) Immigration records may show him as Polish, Stateless or Ukrainian???

WHAT ABOUT GRANDMOTHER? WAS SHE ALSO A UKRAINIAN IMMIGRANT?

Migration, citizenship & travel - National Archives of Australia

Fact sheet 86 Б─⌠ Family history sources held in Canberra - National Archives of Australia

ISTG - World War II Refugees to Australia

Displaced persons DP Migration to Australia
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Some other extremely valuable documentation re grandfather's (and Grandmother's???) history may be in Bad Arolsen Archives in Germany???

Before we can do anything at all, we need to ascertain EXACT place of origin. Immigrants frequently referred to their district center towns as places of origin for geographic reference, because their own villages were small. There were approximately 40+ villages in the Kovel district.

Contact the Bad Arolsen Archives. Since Grandfather had DP status, these archives will provide you w/details of his exact experience in Germany and other personal details such as EXACT PLACE OF BIRTH. Inquiry by immediate family is available for free. All you need to provide is his full name and any other spelling variants and his exact birth dates, or as exact as you have it.

Do not provide more info than that !!! Your inquiry can be done by e-mail. I understand the archives have upgraded their service and response can be received via e-mail as well. Response can take as little as three days or as much as three months.

Upon accessing site click HUMANITARIAN REQUESTS. Follow instructions.
ITS-AROLSEN.ORG |*Homepage

[Hannia]

Hans Hasard ???? Please explain.

HANS in German is equivalent to John in English and Ivan in Ukrainian.

HASARD means a CHANCE - RISK - GAMBLE in German.

Could HANS HASARD have been HANS HESSERT?

[lhasard1]

hi wow! you have alot of knowledge on the subject took me about 4 months to find a little of that information

my Grandfather changed his name from Anton Masluk to hans hasard when he was in germany 1947(researcher couldnt find anything he didnt know where to look. i would really like to find the certificate i have a witness name), and changed to sound like his wife (Johanne AE Hasert) maiden name so it was easier to immigrate to australia. she was born in germany i have found many things about her but for Hans hasard i only have their wedding certificate (1949) which has his new name recorded and he even put his Dad's name as Hasard too (i dont think is right). So i am trying to get a birth certificate but i have limited information so prooving very hard

i have contacted the australian archives which had wonderful information about his wife and son when they immigrated except Hans hasard took off over to sydney New south wales and when they transfered his file to sydney it never made it and has been lost !! couldnt beleive it so that file would of had good info in there .

so i have had help from researcher Beyond history in germany. but that doesnt help in the ukraine and couldnt find much on displaced camps that he might of been in.

in a letter i read it did say he had a previous wife and daughter in ukraine/russia so then his 2nd wife u got their marriage enolled when things rough 1956 !?? just to make things hard. no one has seen him since

so yeah ...bit frustrating

does the ukraine have a birth, marriage, death data base or index?? that you know of?

[lhasard1]

oh and all hans hasard had on the wedding certificate was kowil as his birth town

[Hannia]

just to make things hard. no one has seen him since

Have you made an inquiry at Bad Arolsen, using both his old name as the primary and later name as a variant? THIS IS CRITICAL TO YOUR RESEARCH.

Vohlyn, the region where Grandfather was born, became hell during WW2. The Poles were burning metrykal data. The Russians were burning everything. The Germans were just as bad. AND today you are researching a non-digitized country, where even online phone listings are at premium. For many villagers, telephones are still a luxury. Ukraine is typical of most Eastern European countries, where nothing is where it is suppose to be.

Your Grandfather carried a very onerous psychological burden. We can't even start to imagine what he endured. I guess he just tried to survive the best he could.

I will take a look at the villages in the Kovel district for both Masliuk and Melnyk surnames, but that will take some time. MEANWHILE get that inquiry at Bad Arolsen done !!! Otherwise you will just continue to chase your own tail.
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I have already provided you URL for following site, but you mentioned that you could not find info on DP Camps.
See Table of Content. Browse from top to bottom before accessing links.
Displaced Persons' (DP) Camps Table of Contents