Looking for family members - Ptasznyk / Welyczko

[Julianne]

Hello, I am new to this discussion list!

My grandparents came to Canada in 1930:
Vasyl & Maria Ptasznyk. Maria's maiden name is Welyczko.
Vasyl born Oct 25/06 and Maria Sept 18/07.
Baptismal records give listings of Rohatyn (Maria) and Stanislaopolionsis (Vasyl) as districts. According to the baptismal record Vasyl's parents were Elias & Tatianna (Lachocki) Ptasznyk and Maria's were Michael & Anastasia (Perchinu?) Welyczko. Can anyone tell me what village/area this is and if there are relations still there?

Maria has a nephew still living but I am not sure of exactly where. His name is Lawko Welyczko (not sure if first name spelled correctly). Can anyone help in locating him or telling me how to best go about it? I would like to be able to write to him...

Thank you in advance for your help!!

[vivandr]

Hi Julianne,

Rohatyn is the district center at current Ivano Frankivsk region of Ukraine. And Stanislaopolionsis is most probably the old name for current regional center Ivano Frankivsk. In order to find a relatives you need to narrow down the information you have to the names of the villages by looking on the immigration or naturalization papers of your grandparents.

Both surnames are very common in Western Ukraine. In particular Lviv phone directory gives 19 families with surname Ptashnyk in Lviv. You may try to call some of them and figure out if some of them came to Lviv from Frankivsk region.

In particular, I can mention that my scientific supervisor at Lviv national University was Bohdan Ptashnyk, very known in Ukraine mathematician. I definitely know that he is from Ivano Frankivsk region, so you may try to call him. I found at the phone directory that his phone number is: (380)-322- 72-92-80. I am not sure if they speak English, but I know that they definitely speak German.

Using surname Velychko, Lviv phone directory provides 72 families with this surname.

Good luck,
Vitaliy

[Hannia]

Ukraine is predominantly a non-digitized world. Searching for family in Ukraine can be an arduous process, unless you have the EXACT place of origin.

I SUSPECT that both Grandparents were from same selo/village in the Rohatyn District within the Stanislawow Region/today the Ivano-Frankivska Region. Today the Ivano-Frankivska Oblast has a total of 765 villages and a population of appx 1 1/2 million people.

Google Search: ivano frankivska region population
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...ion+population

My assumption relegates us to the 50+ villages in the Rohatyn District.

Can you scan a copy of the birth certificates for me? The the name of birth village should be in these METRIKAS. A metrika is a Baptismal Certificate which doubled as a Birth Certificate.

Once we ascertain the village name, we can then proceed to locate Lewko (nickname meaning little lion) and/or his descendants.

Scan document and e-mail to me. Click on mail icon below this message. If it is a standard metrika, it should be easy enough to translate.

[Julianne]

Hi Hannia & Vitaliy

Thank you so much for your replies...they are very helpful!
On my grandfather's naturalization record for Canada it lists his birthplace as Tyctahm, Galicia. There is no known naturalization record for my grandmother.

The other area listed on his baptismal certificate is Tustan. On Maria's baptismal certificate and the marriage certificate it lists Botoxance. I also have another document that seems to be written in polish that I cannot make out and it lists Stobodka Botszowiecka. Does this narrow it down any? I currently do not have access to a scanner but will search for one!

Also, in response to Vitaliy's comment about Bohdan Ptashnyk, I unfortunately am not fluent in Ukrainian and do not speak any German - it is possible to locate a mailing address for him? I am learning how to read and write in Ukrainian and this would probably be my best bet.

Thanks again for your help!

[vivandr]

Hi Julianne,

I found the villages that you mentioned.
Those are villages: Tustan▓, Slobodka, and Bil▓shivtsi. They are comparatively close to Rohatyn, but now belong to other administrative district: Halych district of Ivano Frankivsk region.
Zip codes are: Tustan▓ √ 77170, Slobodka √ 77121, and Bil▓shivtsi▓ √ 77146-77148 (it is larger town).

The phone book gives the following address for Bohdan Ptashnyk:
Str. Venezianova, house 15. But it does not provide the apartment number. I was at that building and remember that it is big, 9 stored building. So you probably need apartment number also.
I still would recommend calling, as most probably somebody from the family will speak English. It is almost sure.

Best wishes, Vitaliy

[Julianne]

Hi Vitaliy:

Thanks again for all your help. I have managed to dig up some more information. My father had an address for Lewko, it was from around 15 years ago. I had the instructor that is teaching me Ukrainian translate it last night. He said it is written in Russian and translates as follows:

285130 (he said this zip code no longer correct - can I assume it is somewhere between 77146 - 77148 now?)
Village of Bol'shevtsky
85 Kirov St (he also said name of street is probably no longer correct)
Ivano - Frankivsk
Halych
Velychko Lev Myroslavovych

Can you tell me how I could find out if the name of the street changed? Or if I do write to this address what are the chances of it being sent to him anyway?

Also, another question for you....I would like to find further information on family members that are no longer living. For example, my grandfather was rumored to have a sister and my grandfather's father is rumored to have had 6 brothers. Any suggestions as to how I could go about finding more information out on this?

Thanks again!!

[vivandr]

Hi Julianne,

Current address would be the following:

Velychko Lev Myroslavovych
vul. Kirova 85
smt. Bil▓shivtsi
Halych rayon
Ivano Frankivsk oblast
Ukraine


I agree that the name of the street ⌠Kirov■ was most probably changed, but it is not for sure. I think that there is no way how to find what is the current street name, but I am sure that people in the post office in the village would know the old and new name. So it should be safe to write street name as Kirov.
Also concerning zip code, it is definitely different, but this small town has three different zip codes and we do not know which one corresponds to that street name. That▓s why I would say that writing the old zip should be OK (you may write it after the oblast or after Ukrane).
I think that chances are very high that letter would be delivered.

Concerning the info on other members of the family. One way is to write to the Velychko Lev and through correspondence with him find out about the family history. It would take some time but who can better know the family history than family members that live there. (Thou it also depends because in general people in Ukraine are thinking more about present time and the ways how to survive and earn something for everyday needs, than about family history. Many families have ⌠short memory■, remembering at best just their grandparents and some cousins. But some have very tight family relations and you could see it during the weddings when 200-300 distant family members come together.)

Other way is to put the information you have together and contact Lviv historic archive or private researchers. In this case it would cost you some money, but probably it would be more deep and professional.
I can recommend contacting Ihor Voronchak (voronchak@ukr.net), he did some research for many people on this board, and is good in these things. He can do both archival research and visit the village and talk to relatives there.

Vitaliy