{"id":901,"date":"2015-05-01T14:04:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T14:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/?p=901"},"modified":"2015-05-31T12:39:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T12:39:24","slug":"berezhany-land-of-my-great-grandparents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/?p=901","title":{"rendered":"Berezhany: land of my great grandparents."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’m here. \u00a0If alive, my grandmother would be crying tears of joy that I valued her life and her family lineage so much that I traveled thousands of miles to learn more them. \u00a0Though Berezhany (a town of less than 20,000) began almost a thousand \u00a0years ago, life today isn’t too different. \u00a0A local market in the center of town was filled with sellers of milk in containers of all shapes and sizes; eggs in home made boxes; potatoes, carrots, beets and onions; and carefully sewn or knit items. \u00a0Groups of residents gathered in small groups to talk amongst themselves: \u00a0local news or gossip matters not. \u00a0One learned anything and everything right here. \u00a0As an outsider wearing “western” style clothing, I drew unwelcome attention but unlike in Istanbul, I felt safe. \u00a0My mission is to learn as much as possible in the few hours I had before the long drive back to L’Viv.<\/p>\n

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Town square with fountain, statue of a famous leader and a beautiful Trinity church.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Town Square<\/p><\/div>\n

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Markiyan Shashkevych was a priest of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, a poet, a translator, and the leader of the literary revival. author of famous literature of Ukraine.<\/p><\/div>\n

Though government officials were unavailable, our guide and interpreter explained my long journey and desire to discover ancestors from this area.<\/p>\n

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Center of local government and records in Berezhany.<\/p><\/div>\n

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City Hall of Berezhany<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking to city officials in the Mayor’s office we learned that all official records prior to WWII were either destroyed, moved to Poland, Germany, Austria, or Russia, or perhaps in a centralized location in L’viv. \u00a0Looking at possible records and finding none, I’m not defeated. \u00a0Before I even began this endeavor I knew records in this area of the world are difficult (if not impossible) to find. \u00a0Names were inadvertently changed in the immigration records or deliberately altered to protect the families remaining in the Ukraine during dangerous transitions from invading countries.<\/p>\n

Most residents considered themselves Orthodox Christians while a few were Catholic and even fewer, of Jewish ancestry. \u00a0Since a few records might be kept by local parishes we walked almost an hour uphill to talk to the priest at the catholic church, and then to visit the one central cemetery.<\/p>\n

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church<\/p><\/div>\n

Built hundreds of years ago, I wonder if any of my ancestors worshipped in this particular church.<\/p>\n

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic church<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hundreds if not thousands of gravestones in every direction.<\/p><\/div>\n

The few gravestones readable are written in other languages. \u00a0Grave sites are not protected. \u00a0If one is “old enough” (unreadable) it is possible to remove the one buried and use the space for a recent deceased (with a new gravestone). \u00a0They are also stacked beside one another or on top of one another. \u00a0When asked how this is possible, my guide shrugged. \u00a0This is just how it is done.<\/p>\n

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Where to begin to find possible ancestors? No wonder records are difficult to obtain!<\/p><\/div>\n

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As we stood next to this cemetery we looked over at an elderly woman as she struggled to hang clothing on a line in her backyard. \u00a0Our guide spoke to her in Ukrainian; told of my travels from America; and asked if she knew of anyone by the name of Melinchuch, Woznick or Havriluk (unsure of English spelling as the names are spoken in the Ukrainian language). \u00a0With her gray hair pulled back and covered in a scarf she walked over to the fence separating her from the roadway and eagerly began talking with our guide. \u00a0She recalled the family names but didn’t know of any living in the town now. \u00a0Tears flowed down her cheeks as she weeped about the men leaving the area for Canada, the USA and other countries to escape the Russians and Germans rounding up the men for conscription in the various military regimes. \u00a0Over and over men came to gather up any available bodies to fight in whatever military needed them. \u00a0Apparently, her own father escaped at night and then never returned or wrote letters to her mother (and herself as a very little girl at the time). \u00a0Names of the men were changed to protect families still left in Ukraine. \u00a0She cried as she spoke passionately about the men running away or facing captivity and certain death.<\/p>\n

Apparently, letters never arrived from the men who left for fear the mail was confiscated resulting in persecution (for those remaining behind), death or worse, sent to Siberia. \u00a0They never heard from her father though they knew he went to Canada. \u00a0She begged us to find out what happened to him. \u00a0Rumors that he started a new life there by marrying another woman and having other children. \u00a0Sadly, her own mother struggled with her young girl and never discovered what really happened to her husband. \u00a0Today this very elderly woman survived on a meager subsistance from the government. \u00a0Her father escaped and began a new life without thought to his family left behind. \u00a0I thought about my ancestors and how different the family would look if only the men escaped without the mothers and children. \u00a0My great grandmother was a child when she escaped with her family.<\/p>\n

I felt the woman’s pain through her tears.<\/p>\n

People didn’t want to be found if they escaped one of the wars.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m here.  If alive, my grandmother would be crying tears of joy that I valued her life and her family lineage so much that I traveled thousands of miles to learn more them.  Though Berezhany (a town of less than 20,000) began almost a thousand  years ago, life today isn’t too different.  A local market… <\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,18],"tags":[124,122,125,25,37],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berezhany","category-ukraine","tag-ancestors","tag-berezhny","tag-castle","tag-following-god","tag-seeking-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findinggodeverywhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}