trying to find Michalegko (Michajleczko?) family

[WRITER]

I am trying to work out a family tree for my wife. Her grandparents came from Turka, Ukraine. The gfather was Dimitrus Michajleczko and the gmother was Anastasia Holawoczak. I had a geneologist in Hungary tell me there was no such town as Turka, but I have maps that show it. Can anyone help in deciphering the probable true last name and the whereabouts of Turka to help in my frustrating quest?
Thanks!
Bill Todd

[Hannia]

There are two Turka's in Ukraine. One not very far from Polish border, formerly Lemko area, the other near Kolomija, in Northern Bukowina area.

You mentioned Hungarian researcher. Did Grandparents list themselves as coming from Hungary? If so, that's a clue as to which Turka.

Was there ever any mention of Grandparents being BOYKO's...from BOYKO area?

Short read will help clarify...
"Did Your Baba Come from Austria?" by Orysia Traczc
http://www.infoukes.com/genealogy/tracz/baba.html

Do you have immigration documentation for either Grandparent? When did they immigrate? To where specifically and approximately when? Any idea what the entry port was? One Turka is a large district center? Is there any mention of another town/village name in conjunction w/Turka? What religion did they practice? Polish/Roman Catholic, Ukrainian /Greek Catholic or Christian Orthodox?
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PS> The only correct spelling of the surname is in the original language, using the original alphabet. I will transliterate the surnames back into Cyrillic alphabet for you. Easy enough.

First answer some of my questions and I will put the links together. Not as complex as you might think. Knowledge of history of area will UNCOMPLICATE your research. Believe it or not, the key is their religion.

Do you have Mormon Family Center near you?

Chances are that your wife might even have surviving relatives still in Ukraine.





[Edited by Hannia on 9th January 2002 at 07:25]

[WRITER]

Hannia,
Thank you for replying to my post. The town of Turka that her grandparents were from is located just inside the border between Poland and Ukraine in the region of L'viv (I don't know if the region is still called that or not). I am fairly certain it was not a big city. My wife mentioned that her gfather, Dimtrus Michalegko, was possibly a migrant farmhand (a gypsy?) Both came to Ellis Island. I believe the gmother in 1912 and the gfatehr in 1917. They were married here in NY state in a Greek Orthodox church, so I assume that was their religion. All the children and gchildren have been raised Roman Catholic.
Agian, thank you so much!!

Bill

[Hannia]

DMYTRO MICHAJLECZKO, lovingly called Tzhyhan/Gypsy by his wife.

(DIMITRIUS, Latin given name, most likely taken from his Metrika/Baptismal certificate, which also served as birth certificate. Dmytro's actual date of birth would have been 8-10 days, give or take, BEFORE what was/is on Metrika. In that time frame, Baptismal dates were considered the legal date of birth.)
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Using Ellis Island:
Passenger Search
http://ellisisland.org/search/index....6740052753504&

Grandfather Dmytro arrived @ Ellis Island July 24, 1911 (the immigration clerk recorded info the day after actual arrival, and that was considered official date of arrival). So record shows him arriving July 25, 1911 on the Friedrich der Grosse, via exit port Bremen. The steamer was one of the largest in its day.*** He was 25 yrs old, paid his own fare, started out ocean journey, which took appx. 11-14 days (sometimes longer), with $20 in pocket and arrived w/$19. He was heading for his friend's, Fedko Pzyzowicki's address, who lived in Frvrica PA/NY??? Dmytro listed himself as a farm laborer, a RUTHENIAN/Ukrainian, leaving HIS FATHER, Michajlo Michajleczko in "Galician" village, RYKOW, Austria.

PS> Sloppy, sloppy ship registry. When you get on link above and get Grandfather's record up, make sure to click on to ORIGINAL SHIP MANIFEST/handwritten. Use ZOOM ICON to examine manifest. By the way Grandfather shows up married on Ellis Island form and single on original manifest. The person copying info from manifest to form just made a mistake that was not caught. These errors very common. Married men listed spouses, not fathers, left behind.
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Using both links to locate village, raion/district and oblast/region:

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

Ukraine Town Location Guide
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ukrwgw/ukrainetown.html#step1

Rykow per ship manifest/RYKIV today ( 49.03 - 23.03) > Turkivskij Raion > Lvivska Oblast > Ukraine

Rykiv is 6.9 miles south of Turka, Administrative Town, ( 49.09 - 23.06), in Lviv Region.

Fairly new map, still using Russian names - PRINT READY

Rykuv = Russian / Rykiv = Ukrainian

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/print.a...4dqKuO00iagRgp

PS> Having trouble getting the URL to hold. Will try reposting later.
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***The FRIEDRICH DER GROSSE was built by A. G. Vulcan, Stettin in 1895 for the North German Lloyd of Bremen. She was a 10,531 gross ton ship, with two funnels, two masts, twin screw and a speed of 15 knots. There was passenger accomodation for 226 first, 235 second, 1,671 third class. Launched on August 1, 1896, she sailed from Bremen on her maiden voyage to Australia via Suez on November 11, 1896. On April 4, 1897 she commenced her first voyage from Bremen to Falmouth and on March 22, 1907 she started her first Naples - New York crossing. She then transferred to the Bremen - New York service. In 1914 she transferred to the Bremen - Philadelphia - Baltimore service. In August of that year she took refuge in New York and in April 1917 was seized by the U. S. authorities and became the U. S. Government ship "Huron." In 1922 she went to the Los Angeles S. S. Co. and was renamed "City of Honolulu". While on her first Honolulu - Los Angeles crossing she was damaged by fire on October 12, 1922 and on October 17, 1922 was sunk by gunfire by the U. S. transport "Thomas" probably because she was a danger to navagation
. Picture of steamer and copy of ORIGINAL SHIP MANIFEST can be purchased thru Ellis Island. This is a great idea if genealogy intention is to provide legacy for your children!!!
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Have done a quick wild card search for Grandmother Anastasia. She doesn't show up @ Ellis Island.
Will have to spend more time trying variation of her surname. Don't have the time now, but you can give it a try with link below. In Search use only first 3 letters of surname (STARTS WITH) and see what you can find. Stay very loose with dates of arrival. Try different vowels.
Keep her arrival dates between 1910-1920. WW1 was fought 1914-1918. There was a lot of fighting going on in Atlantic waters. Immigration to N.A. slowed down tremendously in that time frame. If she is there, we will find her. That is if she didn't come to NY thru Canada, using St. Alban's, VT border crossing. Perfectly legal. Those immigration records are a tedious search.

Searching Ellis Island Database in One Step
http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/ellis/ellis.html
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PS> If I can't get back to this later today, will do so tomorrow. Make sure to double check everything, that I have done. Links are user friendly.
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PPS> You might be questioning RYKIV as place of birth for Grandfather. Immigrants almost always referred to their district center as place of birth, for geographical orientation, because their own villages were very small!



Hopefully this URL for map will hold.

Rykiv
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/print.a...4dqKuO00iagRgp

[Edited by Hannia on 10th January 2002 at 11:04]

[Hannia]

These are the wild cards I have tried...

WILD CARD HOLOW, A. 1900-1920?
http://www.ellisisland.org/search/ma...et=0&dwpdone=1

WILD CARD HOLAW, A. 1900-1920?
http://www.ellisisland.org/search/ma...et=0&dwpdone=1

WILD CARD HOLEW , A 1900-1920?
http://www.ellisisland.org/search/ma...xact&dwpdone=1

HOLIW, A. same date spread
http://www.ellisisland.org/search/ma...et=0&dwpdone=1

PS> What was Grandmother's birthday? Some of these can be eliminated by age. Some by location. Is there any kind of documentation for Grandmother? What church did Grandparents marry in NY? Date?

[WRITER]

Hannia,
The info you sent is very helpful. My wife had photo copies of the Ellis Island stuff, but it was VERY unreadable. Is that where you got Dmytro's father's name? I know the correct spelling of the last name and the great grandfather were two links that had eluded my wife's family in the past when trying to find the family history. Thank you so much for finding that out. Also, the geographical information is very helpful, as well. I must correct their religious affiliation, though. They were Greek Catholic not Orthodox, and were married in, I believe, Corning, NY. I don't know if this may help in the search for Annastasia Holawoczak: she came over to Ellis Island travelling with cousins. I know one of the names was Anna Cebulak (sp?). I also have a question about genealogy research. I would love to be able to find relatives that might possibly still be there (I guess, Dmytro talked about leaving behind a brother that looked just like him (twin?), but he never talked about anything else pertaining to his homeland. I've been in contact with two different genealogy places, both situated in Budapest, Hunagary. One says that no research at all can be done there. The other says it would be difficult but could be done. I know because of wars and Soviet occupation that it would be difficult, but can research be done, and do you know of reputable people who can do it? I don't want to fork over lots of money just to have someone make something up and pass it off as a family tree.
Again, I want to thank you for the time you are putting into finding these things out for me. I am greatful for the info you are giving back!

Bill

[Hannia]

The avg Ruthenian farming family (in that time frame) produced an avg of 6/7 children and owned an avg of 3 hectares of land.

Migration from that area was mainly driven by poverty.

Specifically in the Galicia area, village farmers were being taxed into oblivion by the Poles, who were stand in administrators for Austro-Hungarian Empire. Most Ruthenian farmers carried great debt, because "Polish" taxation laws were very severe. There were also hereditary laws at the time, applying just to the small farmers. How land could be divided among small farm heirs was very restrictive.
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Dmytro probably had more than one brother. LOL.

Yes, these people have seen tremendous upheaval in their history, but there is a resilient quality in them, that makes them the survivors that they still are.

Chances are that there is a Michjaleczko surviving relative, probably still sitting on a small patch of the original family land.

Currently Ukraine's economy is in complete disarray. Life there is extremely hard right now.

It would not be difficult to write a letter to the village mayor and make a general inquiry re Michajleczko family. BUT... You really don't want relatives that might not be yours.

You need to establish names of Dmytro's siblings!!! This can be done thru an oblast archives inquiry, which might run you $50-$100, depending on complexity. Once you have these names, then you can write a letter to village mayor, with specific given names of siblings.

I know for a fact that success ratio for making contact is high!

I know of one (very recent) case, where my cyber acquaintance is the daughter-in-law of a post WW2 Australia immigrant. He had spent most of his adult life thinking that everyone in his family had been executed, because he was from Kotyn Forrest area. That area suffered horrendous loses in human life because of both the Soviets and the Nazi's. In some cases entire villages were completely obliterated.

Her father-in-law hardly ever spoke about his personal experiences and his family. This was/is very typical for Slav patriarch behavior. One internalizes the pain and protects one's family from that pain using silence. His daughter-in-law said that his sadness was palatable. When he became seriously ill, she took it upon herself, to see if maybe, just maybe, someone survived in his family. He was unaware she was doing this, so she was working with hardly any facts.

Once his hamlet was located, she did exactly as I am suggesting to you. An archival search was followed by a letter to village mayor. Three months went by and there was no response. I encouraged her to write another letter. A month later she received a response from the village mayor providing her w/a current address for only surviving sister, quite elderly, living with her married daughter in large Ukrainian City, two regions away.

The connection can be made w/out the use of professionals. The real cost to you will be in patience and time.

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I had already come to the conclusion that Dmytro was Greek Catholic. Dmytro & Dimitrius was the giveaway. I have translated several Metrika's and am very familiar how they were written up. I was going to suggest to you that Dmytro was most probably Greek Catholic.
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PS> Are you in Finger Lakes area? My niece graduated Cornell, so my husband and I have had the occasion to make several trips up there. Pretty country!