PHOTO(s) OF THE WEEK (Week of 3/17/13)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
This photo of the week features my great-great grandmother, Katherine (Catherina or Kata) Turenchalk (b. abt 1877, d. October 11, 1941).  Katherine was my grandmother Mary Oschip's maternal grandmother.  Katherine was likely born in the area of modern-day Jablonki, Podkarpackie, Poland.  Unfortunately most Greek Catholic records in Jablonki were lost during World War II and the cemetery is mostly in ruins, so it has been tough to find more information than what my research has already taught me.  However, I have been in contact with someone who was born and raised in Jablonki and will be helping me with more research in the future.  I have found several possible maiden names for Katherine.  They include Elko, Drahuszczak and Wolana---I am still researching all these possibilities---none are from a direct source.  If anyone has a better idea, please let me know!  (As I will share in a later blog post, Rusyn naming habits sometimes left people "changing" their surname to become more identifiable amongst other family members with the same name!)



Katherine Turenchalk (abt 1877-October 11, 1941)
(Thank you to my cousin Cheryl for recently sharing this photo with me!)
 

Katherine arrived in the United States on November 17, 1907 with my great-grandmother Piza, who was three at the time. They arrived via Ellis Island and made their way to her husband Hryc (Gregor or Harry) who had already arrived in the United States.  Family "lore" says that Piza and Katherine were sick when they came to Ellis Island and Piza was hidden in Katherine skirts so that it concealed just how sick Piza was at the time. I have included the "passenger record" and a copy of the original manifest from Ellis Island that shows Katherine's entry to the United States. The manifest does actually mark both Katherine and Piza as being sick, but then later admitted.

 



Certificate information of Katherina's entry to the United States from Ellis Island.  Record can be found at ellisisland.org or
follow this link directly: Kata Turynczak Passenger Record.
 





The original manifest of Katherina and Pisa Turenchalk.  This record can be found at ellisisland.org or follow this link directly: Kata Turynczak Ship Manifest.
Both "Kata" and "Pazia" were marked as sick first and then admitted.
 

Katherine and Piza joined Harry Turenchalk and settled in Indiana County, Pennsylvania where she remained until after Harry's death.  In the early-to-mid 1920s Katherine and some of her children moved to Yonkers, New York.



Front row (left to right): Mary, Harry Jr., Katherine Turenchalk (mother) with Katherine on lap, George.
Back row (left to right): John and Nick
(Thank you to my cousin Cassie for sharing this photo with me!)




From left to right: George, John, Katherine, Katherine Turenchalk (mother), Mary and Harry Jr.
(Thank you to my cousin Cassie for sharing this photo with me)

On a side note: If you are a MALE descendant of Harry Turenchalk WITH the Turenchalk last name---a possible mutual cousin would be interested in doing an Ancestry DNA test to confirm the connection between Hryc Turenchalk and a man named Wasyl Turenchalk to see if they were brothers.  Contact me and I will connect you with the possible cousin.  The testing is safe and results are as private as you want them to be.  Thanks!

Rusyn Naming Traditions: Do We All Have an Aunt Mary?

When I was about 12 years old, I was visiting with a second cousin of mine and we turned to the topic of our family.  The conversation turned to talking about our relatives in common.  The conversation sounded something like this...

"My mom has always loved Aunt Mary.  We always enjoy visiting with her," I said.

My cousin replied, "Wait, Aunt Mary...who is your Aunt Mary?  It wouldn't be my Aunt Mary, would it?"

I pondered, "Well, no, I guess it would be your grandmother, Mary.  Who is your Aunt Mary?"

My cousin said, "Well my Aunt Mary is my dad's sister, but HIS Aunt Mary would be YOUR  grandmother, right?  But, I think he had another Aunt Mary too?"

My reply, "Oh, this is just confusing!"

My guess is that if you are reading this and are of Rusyn descent, chances are you also have at least one Aunt Mary or at the very least a Great Aunt Mary or a cousin Mary or two!

Traditional Rusyn naming practices were pretty specific for both sons and daughters.  These practices lead to confusion when doing genealogical research as so many individuals share names with other family members, oftentimes even repeating generation after generation.

When it came to naming sons in the Rusyn culture, it generally went like this: 1) the first son was named after his father, 2) the second son was named after his paternal grandfather, 3) the third son was named after his maternal grandfather and then finally, 4) the next son was named as parents wished. This meant names would be repeated generation after generation.  It wasn't until a family had a fourth son that the name might change to a non-generational name or at least a name that was from a family member that wasn't as closely related (often the name came from a family member what was recently deceased).  This was not a "strict" practice and was often observed with some variation, but was the traditional guideline for naming sons.

The practice of naming girls was also very structured.  How many of you have a female relative who is named Helen?   How about Anna?  Maybe Mary?  In each Rusyn family, tradition indicated that the first daughter be named Mary, second daughter Anna and then the third daughter Helen.  After that, girls were generally named after another family member or a name with Biblical origin.  Again, as with naming the sons, this "protocol" wasn't aways followed, but most families included daughters with at least one or two of these names and/or sometimes they used these names but in a different order.

Is your head spinning yet?  Take a minute to look at an example.  Consider this fictional family (based on real family names):
There are two brothers, John & Alex Taczak.  Their father's name is John Taczak.  Their paternal grandfather is Alex Taczak.  Their maternal grandfather is Paul Gernat.

John Taczak (the older brother) and his wife Mary have sons John, Alex, Paul and Michael and daughters Mary, Helen, Anna and Eva.

Alex Taczak (the younger brother) and his wife Helen have sons Alex, John, Paul and William and daughters Mary, Anna, Helena and Catherine.

In this example, there are already four John Taczaks, four Alex Taczaks, three Helen Taczaks, three Mary Taczaks and multiple others that share the same name!  This example shows only the children of two brothers---most families had many more children thus the results of the naming practices were exponential.  Plus, most families resided in the same village for generations, so eventually cousins were marrying distant cousins---which just added to more confusion with names.  As one might imagine, this leads to confusion in genealogical research.  Getting the names and dates nailed down for different ancestors can be difficult.  Knowing this naming pattern exists can certainly help with identifying ancestors correctly.  Obviously not everyone adhered to these practices completely and/or regional differences existed, but generally speaking this was the traditional way Rusyn people named their children.

So, if you ever wondered about why you had so many aunts, uncles and cousins with the same name, now you know why! Watch for a post soon on Rusyn surnames. There are more practices with surnames that lead to even more confusion!

Here is a good example of Rusyn naming practices.  This is an example from the "Slovakia Census"
 taken in 1869 in what is currently modern-day Circ, Slovakia.
Father's name is Gyorgy, first daughter is Maria, first son Gyorgy and second daughter Anna.

References for this post:
http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/crs/rnames.htm
http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/gord.htm
http://www.rusyn.com/crgiven.htm
http://www.tccweb.org/index.htm

PHOTO(s) OF THE WEEK (Week of 2/3/13)

PHOTO(s) OF THE WEEK
This week I am featuring several photos of my great-grandmother, Piza Turenchalk Oschip.  Piza was born to Gregor or Hryc (Harry) and Katherine (Kata) Turenchalk.  She was born in Jablonki, Poland on November 5, 1904.  Piza and her mother came to the United States through Ellis Island on November 17, 1907.  They arrived on the ship "The Seydlitz" which originated from Bremen.  The Turenchalk family settled in Dixonville, Pennsylvania.  Piza was the oldest of seven children. 

She was married to Demetrius "Metro" Oschip on September 16, 1916 in an arranged marriage.  Piza was only 12 years (nearly 13 years) old.  Piza had her first child, my grandmother Mary Oschip, at age 13, on September 17, 1917.  Piza and Metro had another 10 children between then and 1937.  Piza passed away in April of 1977.

These pictures came from albums my grandmother had at her house and my aunt recently let me go through.  I assume all these pictures were taken in Clymer or surrounding areas.  If you have any other information regarding these pictures, please don't hesitate to let me know!