village of Werbinci, Galicia

[yvonne]

I have just found my grandfather's name on the passenger lists of Ellis Island. He arrived on the George Washington on April 24, 1911 from the port of Bremen. The manifest shows his village as Werbinci. However, I do have a copy of his Canadian naturalization papers (he arrived in New York but was enroute to Canada) and his place of birth is shown as Horodenka. I have tried to find Werbinci through the JewishGen Shtetl Search and I also have a gazeteer for Galicia, but was unable to find it. Can someone help me in my search?

[Hannia]

The village name is VERBIVTSI!!! There is no Verbinci in the Horodenka District. Name of village means PLACE OF WILLOW TREES in Ukrainian. Verbivtsy is the birthplace of M.Holynskyi (1890-1973), an famous opera singer.

Chances are that Grandfather was born in selo/village Verbivtsi>Horodenkivskij (Horodenka) Raion/District>Ivano-Frankivska Oblast/Region> today Ukraine, latest zip 78160

Immigrants frequently referred to their district center as place of birth for geographical reasons, because their own villages were small.

Grandfather was most likely a Hutsul.

Hutsuls were/are renowned craftsmen & artisans.
Your ancestral village is still producing them today.
Art Gallery / Articles
http://art.sumix.com/articles/article_2_1.html

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/print.a...XOsB1ZrV8%253d

If you would like to write the village administrator and ask re any surviving relatives still in village, address follows:

Holovi Silskoji Rady
selo Verbivtsy
Horodenkivskij Raion
Ivano-Frankivska Oblast
UA 78160

[Edited by Hannia on 29th January 2004 at 22:19]

[yvonne]

Hi Hannia,
As always, I am amazed at the wealth of information that you provide. I am extremely grateful.
We are presently corresponding with a Semenchuk family from the village of Nesvisko (13 miles NW of Horodenka). My grandfather's name appears as Sennanczuk on the Ellis Island manifest, but in later years it was spelled Semenchuk/Semanchuk. We have not yet determined whether we are related. My grandfather immigrated by himself and we have absolutely no information on his parents or siblings.
I will check with the LDS Family History website to see if they have church records on microfilm for Verbivtsi.
Again, my deepest appreciation.

[Hannia]

Happy New Year Yvonne!

Sennanczuk <butchered /Semenchuk/Semanchuk = all transliterated (sounds like) variants of the same surname.

The only correct spelling of the surname is in its original language, using its original alphabet, in this case Cyrillic.

Semenchuk = яЕЛЕМВСЙ = son of Semen/Semeon (biblical given name)

If you have difficulty reading your surname above in Ukrainian, place your cursor any place where it is blank on this window. RIGHT CLICK once, Left Click ENCODING, Left Click CYRILLIC WINDOWS.

[yvonne]

Hello Hannia,
A belated Happy New Year to you as well. I was able to tranliterate the Sennanczuk surname as per your instructions. Thank you very much. However, I haven't seen any responses from you lately.
I have found LDS records for Verbivtsi for the Trembowla, Terebovlia area. The Horodenka records do not show the village of Verbivtsi. Perhaps you can help me in this regard. Also, if I wanted to request a birth record, would I request them from the State Archives of Ternopil Oblast? Any help that you can give me is very much appreciated.