Tonight I was talking to my dad for a bit, trying to get him to rack his brain for stories. (And seeing if he could remember anything more about my grandparents or things he'd even heard anecdotally.) He reminded me that my Uncle Steve went to St. John the Baptist (in Conemaugh, PA), and that reminded me that I really need to call there and to Christ the Saviour to see if they have any records. Still trying to connect all the Yacynychs! (Fortunately, Johnstown isn't that big, so if you're Rusyn and Orthodox, there were only but so many places you were going.)
Speaking of being Rusyn, the Pittsburgh City Paper has a great
article about Carpatho-Rusyns in it this week. I highly recommend reading it to get a crash course in our heritage.
Next up--getting the film from LDS that has the records from the family parish on it, to see if I can find my grandmother and Great-Uncle Jacob's parents. Here's hoping.
3 comments:
Interesting...I went to the rusyn.com web site but did not see our name or any of its variations listed among those of the Rusyn immigrants. I was always led to believe that my father's side was "Ukranian."
The article in the Pittsburgh City Paper was also interesting (clearly this is a big deal to some in the Pittsburgh area). However, I did not come away with anything that would necessarily associate us with being of Rusyn descent. I could identify with the Greek Catholic part, as I was baptised in that denomination, but not so much with the Cyrillic alphabet they mentioned as also being a characteristic of this heritage. How did you arrive at this conclusion?
BTW, the article you cited is no longer linked from the main page, but this may work:
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A52607
If not, try typing "rusyn" in the search bar.
Peace...
Steve:
Sorry, I just saw this! I thought blogspot let you know when you got comments, but apparently not.
My aunts both attended the Carpatho-Rusyn church in Johnstown (Christ the Saviour). Also, the village that everyone originated from (Lodyna) is in the area now considered to be C-S. Many of them also say "Ruthenian" on their Ellis Island ship's manifest, which was a way of identifying someone from this region.
It's a tricky question, though especially because (like the article says) some people don't even know they're Carpatho-Rusyn. I always thought we were Ukrainian too, and maybe, if that's how our ancestors identified, that's the nationality we should remember them as. (And since they're not here to ask!) I don't know...just hoping more will be revealed as the research unfolds.
What do you think?
Post a Comment