Lost City?

[chatsol]

Finally having received a copy of my husband's grandparent's marriage record form the church, I thought I'd have the answer to the family's origins. NOT SO!
It seems that Vasyl Sokol(sky?) was from Bereh (or Bereg) Magye (which I understand is similar to county). Also listed is Vyznia Magua (or Mangna). I have found a wonderful site, with maps of the areas (Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Czechlovokia, etc...) in the 16th, 17th & 18th centuries. However, I have no clue as to WHICH map to begin searching!

Anyone out there have any idea(s) where this "lost city" might have been? The closest I can come is that it belonged to the Ukraine at some point. Not much to go on.

Any helpful hints would be more than appreciated.

Cat

[Hannia]

First u need to establish where the village/town is today? Does it still exist/or has the name changed?

Tried using Shtetlseeker to locate Vyznia Magua/Magna(BIG)? or Manga...

Didn't have much success. Closest I could find was Vyzhina, in Ukraine, not to far to Moldovian border.

JewishGen ShtetlSeeker - Town Search
http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm

Think you need to check w/the specialists in the Carpatho Rusyn/Ukraine area.

Links which might guide u to proper help.

Won't hurt to read thru this link
Carpatho-Rusyn Background
http://www.tccweb.org/rusynback.htm

This link is not free (nominal cost), but very effective in getting answers for the area u r searching.
HUNGARIAN VILLAGE FINDER and GAZETTEER for the KINGDOM of HUNGARY
http://hungarianvillagefinder.com/

Distant Cousins - Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogical Resources
http://www.distantcousin.com/Links/E.../Carpatho.html

Saw some of your other inquiries and u mentioned Russian nobility and heraldry...
HERALDRY & NOBILITY - Genealogy -
http://maxpages.com/poland/Heraldry_and_Nobility

PS>SOKOL could be either Czech or Slovak, but Wasyl is distinctly Rusyn/Ukrainian.

[chatsol]

Thanks for the help Hannia. Some of the links you sent are familiar to me, but a few are new, so I will check them out as soon as I can.

My early posts were from information received from my father in law. He's turned out to be more then a "bit" off! I finally caught up with my husband's uncle, who gave me a bit more reliable information. While there is a apossibility that there may have been a Cossack connection in the background, I was able to find out some "facts" from Elias. There was no connection to "nobility". Pretty much as I had guessed, but I had only my father-in-law as a resource at the time.

Vasyl's father was a land owner in his village. He had quite a bit of "forrested" land and had a charcoal business (charcoal made from the trees on his land). He sold this charcoal to churches and schools. I also learned that Vasyl had always wanted to be a priest or missionary, so at the age of 9 he went to a monastery (THAT'S what I'm trying to hunt down) and stayed there until the age of 13 or 14. When he left the monastery, his parents gave him some money & he set off, working his way across Europe. He made it to England and from there, set sail to the US. I also know that Vasyl did NOT become a naturalized American citizen until after Elias' birth (1926), as Elias was listed as Alice on his father's papers. Now all I have to do is figure out who has these naturalization papers!

Eli also told me that the village is in what is now Hungary, but was not Hungarian at the time his father was there (he left probably around 1902-1905). This is where the problem lies, I'm not sure if I'm looking for Czech., Ukraine, Hungary or Poland (I'm sure I've forgotten a country or 2 here~grin).

I could not read the information on the marriage record, so a wonderful gentleman named Steve translated it for me. He said it looked to him as if the records said "Bereh Megye, Vyznia Magua". He checked and said the ONLY thing he could find close to this was Bereg Megye. He also thinks there might be a connection to th Magur region. I know that there is no town by any of the names still existing today, with the exception of information on Bereg, which the Carpatho-Rysun site lists as Ukraine. The Sokolsky surname is listed with that village in their records.

I'm thinking they had to be Catholic to have sent Vasyl to the Monastery. I know the family practiced the Byzentine or Orthodox Catholic faith here, in the US.

Vasyl's bride, Anna is another issue. He family left "the old country" before Vasyl went to the monastery. Anna was born in the US. I have found no records of the family in Immagration records. Nothing at all. They came from the same village or very close to Vasyl's vilage, as he knew her family before they left. If the US officials hadn't had so much fun changing people's names when they entered, this would be a heck of a lot easier! I have found the spelling for HER surname to be Fredmonsky, Fredmonski, Fridmanisk (this on her marrige record). It IS possible that they were Jews trying to leave during one of the many pograms, but I have no way of finding that out until I can pin down the correct spelling of the surname!

I have found it a much easier task to trace MY ancestors back to 800s & their Viking origins than it has been to trace my husband's family back 2 generations. I have sent for Anna's social security application, as I can't find Vasly's social security number yet. It SHOULD list her parent's palce of birth.

Sorry to ramble on so long, it's just that my father-in-law is not doing well, he's dying in fact. I had promised him I'd find his father's place of birth. I have been working at it for over 3 years, and I'm not getting very far. I KNOW the answers are there, I'm just not looking in the right place! Perhaps the links you sent will help me put the pieces together.

Again, thanks for all of your kind help.

[Hannia]

Since you are pressed for time, it might very well be worth a try @ Hungarian Village Finder and Gazetteer. Know several people of Rusyn/Ruthenian heritage that have had success there, after running into wall after wall. URL in my previous message. Good Luck!!!