roots

My name is Joyce Homan, and I've started this blog to trace my family tree, specifically my grandmother's line, the Yacynychs.

I've done this research in bits and pieces, like most family historians do, I guess. I knew from a fairly young age that my father's parents died when he was five. And that (I thought), my grandmother was Ukrainian and my grandfather was Austrian. But other than that, they were always sort of mythical figures to me, and I didn't know much else about them.

My father had several sisters, who raised him like he was their own. One in particular, my Aunt Irene, was very dear to me, and very influential in my growing up. She died when I was 18, but I feel so fortunate that I got to know her as long as I did.

I always also felt extremely tied to my Ukranian heritage (I think a large part of that was growing up around lots of ethnic traditions and food, like having a second Christmas, lots of ethnic food like pierogies, nut roll and pigs in the blanket, psanky art, etc.) and eventually, I decided I wanted to find out more about who my father's family was.

I started by asking my dad stories. (Unfortunately, I didn't really start this process until all his other siblings had died.) He would tell me things, here and there. He continues to remember and share stories every time we talk, and I hope to record some of those here.

From there, I started doing some online research, and discovered about researching through the census. And that moment was when I started to get a clearer picture of who my family really was.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to posting my findings so perhaps you might know more about your family as well. If you're a Yacynych, I hope you'll share your own memories and knowledge here so we can all learn from them. And if you're not a Yacynych, and just an interested reader, I hope you'll explore your own family history and share it with the ones you love--I think you'll find you'll get hooked on the process!