PHOTO OF THE WEEK (Week of 10/21/12) UPDATED INFO!

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

This photo is a unique photo for me as it ties in my mother's lineage to my father's lineage in previous generations.  Both my grandmothers appear in this photo, my paternal grandmother Estelle Ledney Adams is the female on the left and my maternal grandmother is on the female on the right, Mary Oschip Taczak.  My grandmother's were both, at one time, members and officers at St. John's Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in Sharon, Pennsylvania.  I am not sure who all the gentlemen in this photo are or what the circumstances surrounding the photo are---if anyone should know, please click on this link for contact information and let me know! Contact me! Since this was posted, with the help from my mother and father, I was able to identify from the left, Ed Vavrek, Father Raphael Sotak, August "Augie" Vavrek, UNKNOWN and then of course my two grandmothers.  Both my father and mother recall that the event in the picture was the paying off of the mortgage of Saint John's Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in Sharon, Pennsylvania.  The church originally had a 25 year mortgage and was built in 1938, so this picture was circa 1963. 

 

From left to right: Ed Vavrek, Father Raphael Sotak, August Vavrek, Unknown and then
Estelle Ledney Adams and Mary Oschip Taczak.

 

PHOTO OF THE WEEK (Week of 10/14/12)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

This photo is of John Oschip, Piza (Turenchalk) Oschip and Demetrius (Metro) Oschip.  John (Janos) was Metro's father.  John came to the United States from the present day region of Podkarpackie, Poland, an area in Southeast Poland. He came to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines in the early 1900s but could not convince his wife to come with him.  He died some time after 1920 after going back to Poland.  Metro was also born in the Podkarpackie region, possibly more specifically Jaworzec, Poland.  Metro was "arranged" to marry Piza Turenchalk and did so on September 16, 1916.  Piza came to the United States from Jablonki, Podkarpackie, Poland when she was about 2-4 years old.  When she married Metro, she was only 12 years old.  Piza and Metro went on to have 11 children, the oldest Mary Oschip (my Gram) was born in 1917.  I have put together much of this information on my own, but had some details filled in by my wonderful Aunt Jean via a family history project she completed years ago!  Thanks, Aunt Jean!

 

Left to Right: John Oschip, Piza (Turenchalk) Oschip & Metro Oschip
Circa 1916-1920

 

Links & Basic Rusyn Information

What is Rusyn?  What does it mean...here are some links and brief summaries that allow you to learn more.

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusyns

"Carpatho-Rusyns or Ruthenes (Rusyn: Русины, Rusyns, also sometimes referred to as Carpatho-Russians or Rusnaks) are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century. The use of the term Rusyn was prohibited by some governments, as seen after 1945 in Soviet Transcarpathia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

Today, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Croatia officially recognize contemporary Rusyns (or Ruthenes) as an ethnic minority.  In 2007, Carpatho-Rusyns were recognized as a separate ethnicity in Ukraine by the Zakarpattia Regional Council. Rusyns within Ukraine have Ukrainian citizenship, and most have adopted a Ukrainian ethnic identity. Most contemporary self-identified ethnic Rusyns live outside of Ukraine.

Of the estimated 1.2 million people of Rusyn origin, only 55,000 have officially identified themselves politically or ethnically as such, according to contemporary censuses. The ethnic classification of Rusyns as a separate East Slavic ethnicity distinct from Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians is, however, controversial. The majority of Ukrainian scholars, as well as some Rusyns when considering their self-identification, consider Rusyns to be an ethnic subgroup of the Ukrainian people. This is disputed by some Lemko scholars.

The terms Rusyn, Ruthenes, Rusniak, Lemak, Lyshak and Lemko are considered by some scholars to be historic, local, and synonymical names for Carpathian Ukrainians. Others hold that the terms Lemko or Rusnak are simply regional variations for Rusyn or Ruthene."

From Slovakia.org:
http://www.slovakia.org/society-rusyn.htm

"Rusyns (sometimes spelled Rusins, or called Carpatho-Rusyns signifying their villages being in the Carpathian Mountains) are one of the many nationalities/ethnic groups of Slovakia, along with Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, and Romanies (Gypsies). Rusyns are eastern Slavs, which means that their history, culture, and language are rooted in the medieval Kievan Rus' kingdom (Slovaks, by contrast, are western Slavs), although Slovaks and Rusyns have lived together on the same territory for nearly 1000 years (and share some cultural traits). Traditionally, almost all Rusyns belong to the Byzantine/Greek Catholic or Orthodox Christian churches. Rusyns have never had their own country, but their homeland today lies in 3 countries: Slovakia, Ukraine (the Transcarpathian Oblast, former Subcarpathian Rus/Ruthenia, part of Czecho-Slovakia from 1919 until 1939), and Poland (the Lemko Region, formerly part of Galicia). There are approximately 1.5 million Rusyns in Europe today, and about 120,000 of them are in Slovakia."

PHOTO OF THE WEEK (Week of May 20, 2012)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

This photo is of a young William and Mary (Oschip) Taczak, holding a baby.  William and Mary were my maternal grandparents.  I believe that baby they are holding is my Uncle Bill, their first child, but haven't been able to confirm that it is in fact him.  My grandfather was born March 12, 1910 in Dixonville, Pennsylvania, the son of John and Mary (Kovalyak) Taczak.  My grandmother was born September 23, 1917 in Idamar, Pennsylvania to Metro and Piza (Turenchalk) Oschip.  They married on May 8, 1943 and spent their married life in Masury, Ohio.  My grandpa passed away in 1979.  My "Gram" passed away just shy of her 90th birthday in July of 2007.  A big thanks to my NEW FOUND cousin Cassandra for scanning and sharing family photos, she provided me with this photo of my grandparents! 

William & Mary (Oschip) Taczak,
(Possibly) holding their eldest son, Bill.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK (Week of April 22, 2012)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Each week I am going to feature a family photo, old or new, here is this Photo of the Week!

This photo is of the Ledney family.  This picture was taken before the last two daughters in the family were born, including my grandmother, Estelle Ledney.  John Ledney came to the United States in 1909 from the area of Majdan, Torun and Lopushne, Ukraine in the Maramaros Mountains.  After spending some time in south eastern Pennsylvania, he and his family settled in South Pymatuning, Pennsylvania.  A big thanks to my cousin Kelly for scanning and sharing Grandma's family photos and taking the time to go through them with Grandma to record who is in the pictures!

 

Ledney Family picture, circa 1925
Front- Syl, John Sr, John Jr, Anastasia "Stella" (Bitlyan)
 holding Nicholas
back- George, Mike, and Anne



Collective Effort

I am by no means an expert on the Rusyn Heritage.  I would like this blog to be a collective effort and a place of sharing information with others.  I am proud of any research I have done, but I am not so proud that I am not willing to share!  I will be reaching out to family members who might know more than I do in order to make this blog feasible.  Please feel free to contact me if you would like to contribute or if there are any errors you might see! Thanks!  CONTACT ME!

I am Rusyn

Geneaology is in my nature; I have always been interested in my ancestral roots.  It is as if I hear my ancestors whispering my name asking me to share their story; it is my calling.

I first became interested in my dad's family, the Adams family.  How cool is it that we are likely related to TWO Presidents of the United States?  How could anyone NOT be interested in that?  How about the fact that my ancestors crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower and the Fortune and participated in that first "Thanksgiving?"  Super neat!  To me, these roots helped me understand the history involved to a deeper extent than most people do.

About 10 years ago, as I was looking at information I had compiled as a kid, it struck me that the quarter of me that was an Adams was just that, a quarter of me.  What about the other three-quarters of me?  I didn't know much more than that I was Slovak and Ukrainian (and possibly Polish!).  I knew the stories of AFTER these families came to the US, but what about before?

At this point I began to search, obviously the first place I turned was the Internet and Ancestry.com.  I kept seeing the same words pop up over and over again on various pages: Rusyn, Ruthenian, Lemko.  These names were associated all six names that I was researching (Oschip, Turenchalk, Ledney, Bitlyan, Taczak and Kovalyak).  What is Rusyn, I asked?  Finally it began to sink in.  That other three-quarters of my blood wasn't from Slovakia, Ukrainian, or Poland; it was all from one common heritage, the Rusyn Heritage.

In this blog, I will share what being Rusyn means and explore the roots of my family.  I hope this blog allows me to expand the knowledge of my family and connect with new family members or others that share this common heritage.  I also want to utilize this blog to help keep the Rusyn heritage alive.