With the war, genealogy has become popular among Ukrainians as a way to reclaim their historical heritage. Mariana travels to her home region to find lost family roots.
I have traced my ancestry back to around 1500, and it’s a humbling experience to find out about them, often living against the backdrop of historical events. So, I can easily relate to this story.
One of the oldest documents I found is an ancestor sending a note to the local waterboard, claiming expenses for the maintenance of a local windmill and levee. Can’t get any more Dutch than this, I guess.
I’ve been lucky on my dad’s side. Two different people researched the family tree in the middle of the last century. I’ve added more and was actually able to meet a 4th cousin last summer. We share great-great-greatgrandparents.
To anyone who’s created a family tree, I recommend putting the information on Wikitree.org. It’s a free site, run a bit like Wikipedia. The goal is to create a single family tree for everyone. Still a long way from that, but there are a lot of dedicated volunteers. The site has an honor code and is a stickler for references, but that’s to keep one person’s family legends from mucking up other’s hard won research. Check it out.
Long before the internet I helped my maternal grandmother search. Her family has been here in the states for generations. Many years later, my dad told me he wished he could search his in Poland but his mother's village had completely disappeared and the people scattered with only what they could carry. His mom died and never talked about it. It must have been in the early 1900s. Ukraine can't suffer the same fate. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
My father‘s brother invested considerable time in family genealogy. That’s how I learned that my grandfather left the western Ukrainian region while it was still under Austro-Hungarian control. The town he left near Tarnopol was later annihilated by the Nazis. It exists today, as far as I know, only on the memorial walls of the US Holocaust Museum and Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
My mother actually did the work, and shared it. She only went back to the early 1800s. The ancestors came from Prussia from an area about 150 miles northeast of Berlin. The fled to avoid conscription into the Prussian Army. In 1878, they arrived on the deck of a freighter, not being able to afford berths. Some travelers, not any of them, died from the exposure. I heard about the recipe for potato peel soup. They arrived in Baltimore. Half went to northern Minnesota, and my half settled in northern Indiana. My grandfather was born a few years after they arrived.
On my mother's side, much of my family traces back to what is now the Czech Republic, so it was ironic to see bad news from there after such a lovely essay on genealogy!
272702 I used Ancestry.ca. A lot of other bits came up of other ethnicity. 16 in fact. Explained a lot. I have been doing a lot of reading now on the history of the area (Romania and the other Balkans).
Genealogy is fascinating - especially if you can trace your ancestors to antiquity. My own ancestry is a continuing source of amazement and I hesitate to share it. My ancestors include Vikings, the rulers of Ireland, Wales, Scotland & the kingdoms of England; the Patriarch Abraham & the biblical monarchs of Israel; Mark Anthony (yes, the Roman husband of Cleopatra!) & his first wife; the Prophet Mohammed (through one of his descendants & a Spanish queen); and Saint Yaroslav the Wise & Saint Ingegerd Olofsdotter, founders of Kyiv; a few Popes, nearly 200 saints & assorted Doges of Venice! So far my tree has 64k members, with around 24k being direct. Ironically I have very few close relations left these days, and my closest relations are a niece and some second & third cousins in Germany.
I have traced my ancestry back to around 1500, and it’s a humbling experience to find out about them, often living against the backdrop of historical events. So, I can easily relate to this story.
One of the oldest documents I found is an ancestor sending a note to the local waterboard, claiming expenses for the maintenance of a local windmill and levee. Can’t get any more Dutch than this, I guess.
I’ve been lucky on my dad’s side. Two different people researched the family tree in the middle of the last century. I’ve added more and was actually able to meet a 4th cousin last summer. We share great-great-greatgrandparents.
To anyone who’s created a family tree, I recommend putting the information on Wikitree.org. It’s a free site, run a bit like Wikipedia. The goal is to create a single family tree for everyone. Still a long way from that, but there are a lot of dedicated volunteers. The site has an honor code and is a stickler for references, but that’s to keep one person’s family legends from mucking up other’s hard won research. Check it out.
thank you. stay strong and hopeful
Long before the internet I helped my maternal grandmother search. Her family has been here in the states for generations. Many years later, my dad told me he wished he could search his in Poland but his mother's village had completely disappeared and the people scattered with only what they could carry. His mom died and never talked about it. It must have been in the early 1900s. Ukraine can't suffer the same fate. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
My father‘s brother invested considerable time in family genealogy. That’s how I learned that my grandfather left the western Ukrainian region while it was still under Austro-Hungarian control. The town he left near Tarnopol was later annihilated by the Nazis. It exists today, as far as I know, only on the memorial walls of the US Holocaust Museum and Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
My mother actually did the work, and shared it. She only went back to the early 1800s. The ancestors came from Prussia from an area about 150 miles northeast of Berlin. The fled to avoid conscription into the Prussian Army. In 1878, they arrived on the deck of a freighter, not being able to afford berths. Some travelers, not any of them, died from the exposure. I heard about the recipe for potato peel soup. They arrived in Baltimore. Half went to northern Minnesota, and my half settled in northern Indiana. My grandfather was born a few years after they arrived.
On my mother's side, much of my family traces back to what is now the Czech Republic, so it was ironic to see bad news from there after such a lovely essay on genealogy!
272702 I used Ancestry.ca. A lot of other bits came up of other ethnicity. 16 in fact. Explained a lot. I have been doing a lot of reading now on the history of the area (Romania and the other Balkans).
Genealogy is fascinating - especially if you can trace your ancestors to antiquity. My own ancestry is a continuing source of amazement and I hesitate to share it. My ancestors include Vikings, the rulers of Ireland, Wales, Scotland & the kingdoms of England; the Patriarch Abraham & the biblical monarchs of Israel; Mark Anthony (yes, the Roman husband of Cleopatra!) & his first wife; the Prophet Mohammed (through one of his descendants & a Spanish queen); and Saint Yaroslav the Wise & Saint Ingegerd Olofsdotter, founders of Kyiv; a few Popes, nearly 200 saints & assorted Doges of Venice! So far my tree has 64k members, with around 24k being direct. Ironically I have very few close relations left these days, and my closest relations are a niece and some second & third cousins in Germany.