Motil Motyl Motel Madill

[Hannia]

Proposed German Museum in Limanske.
http://www.grhs.com/newsletters/Mar2005.pdf

SOAR
http://www.ahsgrsoar.org/

http://www.grhs.org/beresan/newslett...o_10012005.pdf

http://www.prairiepublic.org/features/GFR/gfrguide.pdf

http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/o.../iwanowa4.html

Publications: Ivan Mazepa's Decrees. 1687-1709
http://www.archives.gov.ua/Eng/guides-Odessa.php

[Chonya]

I just recently ran across this site when I searched for Kutschurgan volost... and found Motil Motyl Motel Madill - Ukraine.com Discussion Forum. You’ve been searching for a while now... I hope you have had success!

If you still haven’t found your ancestry, I have a suggestion for you. I've been working for several years now with the Kutschurgan Group within GRHS in tracking down settlers and the spouses they married while in Russia. Perhaps the surname that you are looking for is not MODIL, but rather MARTEL. The German dialect that still was prevalent even in the late 1800s, - made “B”s sound like “P”s, and “T”s sound like “D”s, and then they swallowed the “R” when they talked. This is the closest equivalent I can think of to the sound produced by the name MODIL. It might be beneficial for you to become a member of the Kutschurgan List who are devoted to researching the 6 villages comprising the Kutschurgan settlements: Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz, and Strassburg. Your ancestor may not have lived exclusively in Selz, Odessa, ....but may have come from Selz in Alsace, settling in Elsass in Ukraine.

[Hannia]

Most deadends are a result of poor transliteration/sounds like from one language to another to another.

Thank you Chonya for the clarification of the Platt Deutsch pronunciation. As a matter of fact, I cut and pasted your post to my files , with expectation that I will be referring to it again.

[SRHonn]

Thank you Chonya & Hannia, I will certainly give it a try. I haven't really had any additional luck. I do know that the areas you suggested are now near the Moldovian border. I also recall my grandfather saying he lived only barely inside of the Russian border. I have also tried searching Matel.

Will try to do some research this weekend on Ancestry.com and again on the websites listed below.

Thank you again for the new clues. I have found some clues in Canada, but none that lead back to Ukraine.