December Genealogy Forum News

AN ANCESTRIAL SEARCH
MY TRIP TO UKRAINE

I recently returned from a researching trip to Ukraine. I spent three weeks visiting with relatives, researching family history, and doing a bit of sight seeing. The trip was very successful in that I was told wonderful family stories, and found many documents, some from archives and other from my relatives.

I went with my cousin Katherine. She is a member of the Church of the First Nazarene in Ft. Lauderdale Florida where she lives, and the church has a chapter in Kiev, which would be a great help to us. Katherine contacted the Kiev church and asked if they would help us with arrangements for our trip. They were most accommodating. They arranged for us to hire one of their church members to be our interpreter, and we rented the church van with a driver. We brought with us 16 large navy style duffel bags filled with used clothing for our families in Ukraine, and we made arrangements with Lauda-Air to allow the extra baggage for humanitarian reasons.

Our Lauda-Air flight NG032 was long and for me uncomfortable. I cannot sleep on a plane, and finding a comfortable place for my body is just impossible. Airline seats are not meant for any human body for more than one hour and this would be a 7-hour flight! We were served a nice dinner and then the movies began. Not bad until about midnight, but then I was ready to roll over in bed... No bed? Gosh!

As time flew by, my back gave out. I was glad I had the isle seat so I could move about when I needed to. The flight was not full, but not empty enough to use several seats to lie down. Breakfast was being served before I knew it...but it was the middle of the night for my body. We arrived in Munich at about 1:30 am Florida time for a one-hour layover. I was exhausted. The plane had emptied out and I quickly laid myself out over several seats in the middle section of the plane for a quick nap.

We arrived to Vienna at 11:50am (Vienna time), and were met by Elfie and Fritz Hinterschuser. It was nice to see friendly, smiling faces even if I didn't know who they were. My cousin had made arrangements with this family for us to stay over night at their home. They were Nazarene church members in Vienna.

I was beat and needed a bed, but it was morning in Vienna and Elfie and Fritz were ready for the day ahead. A lunch had been prepared. After lunch we did some sightseeing. Then it was back to their "flat" were we relaxed for a while. At 5:30pm we went out for a wonderful dinner. We then drove to their "garden home" outside of Vienna where we would spend the night. The home was wonderful and comfortable, and I enjoyed a HOT BATH!

I woke at 3:30am I was still on Florida time!

Thursday already, September 28th, and I was tired from missing a night sleep somewhere. The day would seem even longer and the problems worse. We had a wake-up knock at the door at 7am, but I had been awake for a long time. We were served a breakfast of cheeses, ham, sweat breads, fruit, cake, juice, and tea. I had a shower, washed my hair, and had the luxury of a hair dryer. We were packed and ready to go by 8:30am. The airport was an hour drive away. Check-in was easy. We said our thank yous and good-byes and off we went. The Austrian Air flight OS-615 left at 11:00am for a 1 ½ flight to Kiev, Ukraine.

And now a day's horror began.......

After arrival, we made our way to Passport Control. We picked a line and waited, and waited. It would take us 2 hours to get our passports stamped! We were finally through Control and now had to find our 16 bags of luggage. Not as easy as it would seem. After two hours of waiting to get through Passport Control, a few other flights had come in, so there were hundreds of pieces of luggage all over a room. We began our search. It would take us 2 ½ hours to find all 16 pieces of luggage, which were scattered all over the area. We then paid for 4 carts to carry the luggage to the next area. We pushed the carts to a conveyer belt where we had to unload them to be x-rayed. All 16 bags, lugged onto the belt, as heavy as they were, I thought I'd die. Then off the conveyer belt they came and had to be put back on the 4 carts.

Next stop was the Custom Control. A woman then checked my entrance papers and looked at my bags. "How much do you have to declare", she asked me. It was only used clothing in the bags, which couldn't be worth more than $100. So I told her "$100". She looked at me with a question, "Just $100? What is in those bags." I told her "Used clothing". "There are to many bags there to be just worth $100", she told me. The women then asked me to open the first duffel bag on top of my cart. And so I did...there was just used stuff animals in it. The women looked at strangely. Then she asked me to open the second bag. I did. Used clothing. She then told me, "OK, it is worth $200, OK?" "OK, yes", I said. Then the women said, "OK if you pay $50 in duty?" What did I know.... "Sure" I said. I was tired and wanted out of this darn airport already! So I went to the cashier and paid what came to $48. I then took my stamped receipt and gave it to the women, "OK?", I asked. "Yes, you can go". WOW! I was being let out of that airport!! My cousin had to pay $138 for her bags. It took us 6 hours to be free of the Ukrainian airport authorities.

Mr. Bob Skinner from the Kiev Church, and two of his staff, were waiting for us. They loaded up our 16 bags into the church van. Mr. Skinner had arranged for us to stay at an apartment owned by Doctors Sergey and Nataliya Andrienko. They rent their apartment to the church from time to time making more money on renting than the salary they would receive as doctors! This would be home for a while. It was not a bad apartment, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, toilet, and a tub! Hot water!! I was in desperate need of a hot bath. It would be midnight before we went to bed.

Friday morning I slept until 9:30am. I was beginning to get adjusted to the time change. We were now 7 hours ahead of the US East Coast. We then spent most of the day walking around Kiev. We stopped at one of the local markets where tent shops had been set up to sell everything and anything you can think of. Items such as, used clothing and shoes, vegetables and meats, nuts and bolts, electronic items, flowers, and arts and crafts, and other stuff. We took a look around and I found an interesting piece of art. It was the replica of a staff for a king, called a bolovar. It was about 2ft long, had a round ball with spikes at the top. I liked it. At 5pm we met with our translator, Svetlana at McDonald's for dinner. She was a member of the Nazarene church in Kiev. (Oh yes, there are 40 McDonald's in Ukaine.) We were back in the apartment by 7:00pm, and to bed by 11.

Saturday I woke at 7:00am to a much colder morning than the day before. We had a TV and turned it on out of curiosity. There was a program that was just like "Do you want to be a Millionaire?" It was from Moscow. The show "set" was just like the one at home, and the man was dressed all in black, sort of like Regis. It was funny. At 10:30am we were picked up with the church van by our driver Vitaliy, and a young man called Pasha who understood English. We were taken to the tourist market by Andreas Street. All kinds of Ukrainian and Russian arts and crafts could be found here. We shopped! I bought a black plate that had a very decorative and colorful bird painted on it. Found a pipe with the face of a Cossack, a clay figurine of two Cossack beer buddies that I just couldn't resist, a chicken with several decorative pysanky eggs surrounding it, Ukrainian dolls, books, table embroidery, and who could leave without Matryoshka nesting dolls? I bought several....Gosh shopping was fun, and the prices were great!

In the afternoon we took a walking tour and saw the beautiful St. Sophia's Cathedral constructed from 1017-1031. The gold domes were aglow in the sunshine. It was just beautiful inside with ornate gold gates and embellished with colorful religious wall paintings. We visited Sofiyivska Square where the Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument (from 1888) stood. In Ukraine, as in Russia, brides and grooms present flowers to various monuments and have their pictures taken. I watched many come to do just that.

The afternoon sightseeing had to be kept short because at 3pm we were to have dinner at the home of Katherine's cousin Nada Kalenvck. She lived on the 14th floor of an 18-floor apartment building. We entered the apartment and were greeted by several "cousins". We were then taken to a table completed covered with food. It was a most decorative sight of foods in reds, oranges, greens, and yellows that I had ever seen. There was cabbage, fish, kovbasa, mushroom salad, borsch, chicken, cheeses, vegetable salad, and several things I had no idea what they were. After dinner I took out my family group sheets for this family and we discussed names, births, marriage, and deaths. I was shown lots of pictures. We stayed until 9pm. My head was spinning with information, and I was ready for bed.

Monday, October 2, we would drive 8 hours to L'viv in western Ukraine, Galicia. Most of my relatives were from this area. Our driver Vitaliy arrived with Svetlana our interpreter at 7am. They helped us pack up the van with our luggage and gifts. It was a cold morning and I was bundled up.

Lunch was at noon with a stop on the side of the road. We broke out our sandwiches and juice bottles we had bought the day before for our trip. To our surprise the juice turned out to be spiked with Vodka...now that would have warmed us up! Our break was about 25 minutes, just enough time to enjoy our sandwiches. The trip would take exactly 8 hours. I enjoyed the landscape along the way. Autumn was just beautiful with trees glowing in colors of red and yellow. We past several gold dome churches and a few cemeteries over-grown with weeds. Every village we passed had a monument to commemorate the soldiers of the Second World War. We passed fields and fields of agriculture, filled with workers still bringing in the harvest of sugar beets. They worked by hand, pulling up the beet and throwing them in large piles to be picked up later. Old women and old men bent over pulling up the beets. Hard labor!

(A note here, you must hope that you don't have to make a bathroom stop along the way. Bathrooms are nonexistent in gas stations. They have outhouses and most of them are just a hole in the ground that you'll have to try and hit!!)

We entered the city of L'viv passing dirty looking concrete apartment buildings. The roadway was filled with small cars spitting out smoke, but there were a few BMWs with black windows that raced past us. The center of the city was certainly much nicer than the outskirts. The old buildings were just beautiful in a Baroque style facade. We pulled in front of the Grand Hotel at 13 Prospect Svobody. It was definitely an international hotel. The doormen welcomed us. We registered and had to give up our passports. Our room, number 201, was actually very comfortable, a full size bed and a sitting room with sofa bed. There was even a bottle of Champaign to welcome us! No wonder the room cost us $180 a night. The bathroom was large and very modern, even had a hot rack for towels.

L'viv is a wonderful city, the Jewel of Ukraine. The beautiful old Baroque style architecture decorates buildings throughout the city. There are magnificent cathedrals and churches everywhere. It was easy to walk around the city, and I felt very safe, but of course my cousin and I were never alone as the interpreter and driver were always with us.

Prospekt Svobody Park was just across the street from the Grand Hotel. It's a large square lined with benches mostly occupied with men playing chess. At the end of the square is the Ivan Franko Theater of Ballet and which is not to be missed. We walked the length of the square. Just to the right of the Theater there is an outdoor souvenir market. Traditional Ukrainian embroidered table clothes and table scarves, paintings, ceramic works, and many crafts. We didn't buy anything this time. We finished our tour around the square and went back to the hotel at 5pm for a wonderful roast pork and dumpling dinner.

Tuesday I was up by 7am and ready for the day. We went down for our buffet breakfast, included with our night stay. In the center of the dinning room, several large tables were filled with pastries, cheeses, fruits, breads and rolls, and meats. At a table in the corner, a cook stood and would prepare you pancakes and then fill them with a jam of your choice. Yummy! I enjoyed it.

At 9am, Svetlana and I left the hotel and set out to find the State Historical Archive of L'viv. We took a few wrong turns, but after asking several people we found our way. The Archive was an old building with a sign to the left of the doorway that read 3A Soborna. The heavy door entrance looked like mid-evil metal armor in dark green. I stepped into the dark hall and saw nothing.... just a dark hall. There was a staircase on the right so I climbed up. At the top was another dark heavy door, I push it open and saw a long corridor with many doors. I entered the first office with a receptionist on the right. My translator explained that I was there to find information on my ancestors. At that moment, Diana Pelts, the Director of the Archive, entered the room. She asked if she could be of help... this was my chance!

"Yes, please", I said and she then took us to her office. She was a wonderful woman, very professional, friendly, and most accommodating. I knew right away that she would do all she could to try and help me. I first thanked her and her staff on behalf of all U.S. genealogists for the very professional and helpful job she was doing. I told her I had written many archives in Ukraine asking for researching help, but it was only the L'viv Archive that answered my letters. She was surprised and smiled. She then asked me how she could help. I pulled out my three ring binder which had my notes, family group sheets, and old family pictures. She took a look at the book and said she liked it very much. I then told her I would like to find records for my Basumak family from Horodysze-Koroliws'ke and showed her what I had on them. I said I would also like to find a birth record for Ivan Klimkovych, 1898 in Otynevychi. Any land records for both villages under Basumak and Klimkovych would also be desired. She called an assistant into the room and gave her my list of requested information. She directed me to look in the county archive in Zhidachiv for the 1898 record and gave me the address. She said they had land records as far back as the 1700s. I then asked about records for Slavuta, particularly for my Paliy side in Marachevka, Khmelnytska Oblast. She said she would contact the Slavuta Archive. I talked with her for two hours, she then asked if I could come back on Friday for the information. I could hardly contain myself, this was exciting! I would come back if I had to crawl. I had accomplished what I wanted and thanked Ms Pelts very much for her time and help, then said goodbye.

My next stop was at the RAHS, the L'viv Civil Registry Office. We asked for directions and found the building easily. Again it didn't look like an official government Registry Office. I entered the building and went to the second floor. There was the Registry Office and many people waiting in the entrance room. It didn't look promising to get in. Again my translator went to the receptionist and explained that we were looking for information on my ancestors. Did they have any records for between 1898-1935? "No", they only had records from 1945 and they were not open for public viewing. Special proof of who I was and why I wanted the documents was needed. Well, this was not going to be an archive I could easily use. So we decided to head back to the Grand Hotel. It was almost noon and my Ukrainian cousins would be waiting for me at the hotel to take me to my Grandmother's village, Otynevychi.

Sure enough when I got back, my Ukrainian cousin Katerina and husband Styopa were sitting in the lobby. I rushed over to greet them with a hug and kiss. My translator Svetlana helped me tell them how good it was to see them. I explained that I had been at the State Historical Archive, met with the Director, and had high hopes for finding records. I then checked out of the hotel and packed up my things. We all pilled into the church van for our trip out to Otynevychi.

Our drive out to Otynevychi was about two hours. The countryside was mostly treeless, flat green farmland. The roads were fairly good all the way to the village. I noticed many police cars along the road, not just going to Otynevychi but all the way into L'viv. They had pulled cars over to the side and were checking them. I asked Svetlana if they needed a reason to pull someone over, she said no. They were probably checking for drugs, alcohol, and insurance papers, she said. As of October 1st liability insurance was needed for a car.

I spent a week with my Ukrainian family in their home in the small village of Otynevychi at 49º, 26' north latitude, and 24º, 19' east longitude, in the Zhydachiv district of L'viv Oblast, Ukraine. A large town near by is Khodoriv, which was established in 1394, and Otynevychi dates back to 1515.

We stayed in the house that my Grandmother was born in, 1889, renovated of course. The family land goes back to 1775 (as far as I can determine). There is no grass yard as we are used to... just dirt and animals running around. The well was in the courtyard, and in the morning I would pull up a bucket of water to heat up for washing. The outhouse is just a walk out back. I learned from my first visit to Ukraine some years ago that their toilet paper is like sandpaper. Not recommend use. So I DID bring my own!! Along with a flashlight for those late night walks out back. (a pail was provided inside for the night, but I just decided to make the walk).

The house had two large rooms with two sofa/beds, and one small bedroom. One large room had a table and chairs for dining. The rooms were decorated with Ukrainian embroidered scarves draped over religious and family pictures. They also had large decorative rugs nailed to the walls to help keep them warm. There was no running water. A stove in the wall heated the house. The kitchen was in a separate building, sort of the barn-house with a gas stove, and a wall oven. Again there was no running water. Large wash tubs were used to clean the dishes. A cow and her calf had a room in the barn, and there were geese in a pen. Lots of turkeys, chickens, and ducks ran about. One dog, one cat.

My Ukrainian family didn't have much, but food was plentiful. They never stopped feeding me. A cold salad of cabbage and carrots, sliced kovbasa and cheese, hard boiled eggs and tomatoes covered with a thin mayonnaise sauce, mushroom salad, dark bread, borsch, varenyky, mushroom soup, lots of fish, cooked cabbage, and much much more.

That night was like Christmas as we opened the bags I had brought for my family. Candy, school supplies, and toys for the children. Pocketbooks, perfumes, makeup, hair accessories, scarves, and jewelry for Katerina. And, lots and lots of clothing, coats, sweaters, shoes and boots for everyone. The kids ran around in excitement showing off the things they had gotten, and Katerina cried. I cried too! I was so happy.

The following morning Svetlana, Vitaliy, Styopa, and myself left for the county archive in Zhidachiv about an hour drive from Otynevychi. We thought the office would open at 9am, but to our luck, this was the only day it opened at 10. The sign outside the door was the only indication that this was a "county office". A woman opened the door at 10 and the office filled up quickly. We waited another half-hour before we were let into the Director's office. Svetlana, the translator, knew the routine by now and told the Director of my researching. The Director asked me if I was trying to "claim ownership to some property?" "No", I told her, "I'm just doing family history researching for knowledge of my family." I showed her my three ring binder. She took great interest in it especially the pictures I had intended to give my relatives of my son's recent wedding. She loved the wedding pictures and called her assistant over to see them. Then she told me that she had never seen such a book containing so much detailed information about one's family history. (She should have only known that this was just a summary book and that I had 12 large books at home with considerably more information!) She then said, "How can I help you?" This was terrific!! I explained what I was looking for. Within 15 minutes books after books were brought out. She said, "you may look for what you need." I died and went to heaven!! I spent two hours in that room searching page by page of books from 1896. I could have spent the whole week right in that room with those books. And there they were, my ancestors, just falling right out of those pages. I couldn't believe my eyes. Copies were made for me of many records, even of many I had not yet made connections to (I took any and all records with the family names I knew.) I asked how I could pay for those records, and I was told if I could just make a gift to the Archive. I did with joy.

The rest of the week was spent visiting with relatives all around Otynevychi. My father's first cousin Olga Klimkovych Darmitz' lives in Czercze so we all went there for a family party. The house was filled with relatives I did not know I had. The table was covered with food, and they fed me and fed me!! I was given old family pictures, shown documents (I took pictures of them), and listened to family stories. I learned about the life of Olga who was arrested by the NKVD as a member of the OUN, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist. Olga was part of the OUN-B, the group in the OUN known as the Banderites, named after their leader Stephan Bandera. The Banderites were an underground movement made up of Galician youths. She had been sentenced to 10 years and was sent to a Gulag prison labor camp in Kingir in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. I listened to her story in amazement and felt admiration for the strength she had to live up to her beliefs and survive the prison camp. After the family stories, I gave out my bags of gifts to everyone. Excitement filled the room and happiness was had by all. The following day I visited with more relatives from Burshtin. The day was the same as my other visits; lots of pictures, documents, stories, gifts and food!!

Finally my visit in the southern part of the L'viv Oblast had come to an end. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone and tears were shared by all. But I needed to move on and visit with another branch of the family in the Khmel'nyts'ka Oblast.

Before I left I made a stop at the L'viv State Historical Archives. Ms Pelts was glad to see me again and ushered me into her office. On her desk was a folder with my name on it. It was filled with copies of documents!! She had found my Basumak family. She told me that the land records were still being researched but there was information that she could give me. She asked if she could mail the information when it was completed. She also told me she had contacted the archive in Slavuta and I could go there and pick up records for my Grandfather, Piotr Paliy. I almost cried with excitement!! She understood my joy. Our meeting was short this time. I thanked her, paid for the documents, and we had our picture taken together. Then I was off holding the folder of documents near to my heart with joy.

Our drive to the Slavuta area was only 4 hours. Here again I would visit with several different families, one of which was my Grandfather's family. He came from the small Selo (village) of Marachivak (50º22' north and 27º01' east) in the Slavutskiyj Raion/Region of Ukraine in Khmel'nyts'ka Oblast (once called Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast). Again we had no problems traveling.

I stayed a week with family in Ploska, Slavutskiyj region. The house was much the same as in Otynevychi. The kitchen in a separate building, and attached to the kitchen building, a place for the animals...this time two cows, three pigs, rabbits, ducks, chickens, and turkeys. No running water of course. Again my relatives provided me with many old pictures of the family, lots of stories, and tried to answer all my questions. They could not do enough for me. I was welcomed into their homes, taken to their churches, shown their cemeteries, and met all the neighbors. I was treated to feeding chickens, turkeys, ducks, and milking the cows. They never stopped feeding me! Borsch, varenyky, mushroom soup and salad, kovbsa and cheese, lots of fish, and a duck was killed for a special dinner... I didn't enjoy watching a duck lose it's head with an ax for my soup!

My relatives knew that I wanted records from the archive in Slavuta. They made a visit there before I arrived. Because of Ms Pelts, the records for my Paliy family were ready and waiting to be picked up. After a dinner of non-stop food, the family went over the records with me. Seems the family name is Paliychuk and not Paliy. Wow, this was new information and probably the reason I have not been able to locate any records for my Grandfather's family. It was very exciting to hold the birth record of my Grandfather in my hands; born 10 July 1888 in Marachivak.

One afternoon, my relatives took me out to my Grandfather's village of Marachivak. The Germans had burned the original family house. The family farmland had been a major battleground during World War II. In the backfields there were 5 Russian cement bunkers. Just the month before I arrived, I was told that a rocket had been found in the field and authorities had to be called it to remove it. There was history here!

My cousin Katherine also had relatives from Slavuta. In one day we visited 5 different family homes and had 5 meals! The homes were filled with cousins and just keeping all the names straight was a major effort. I did get to fill out and complete page after page of family group sheets, and took pictures of everyone.

My trip had been a total success!! Now it was almost over, I had to return to Kiev.

Before leaving Kiev, Katherine and I made a last visit with our relatives there. We took them to the Circus one night. That was another experience because our tickets had been oversold and we wound up sitting in the executive box for the show.

The weather was just beautiful the three weeks I was in Ukraine. Autumn is a magical time with the trees afire in red, yellow, and orange. The temperature the first two weeks was comfortable, about 65-70F, and cool at night. But the last week it got cold in northern Ukraine...and I was sure glad I had a good coat and gloves.

Ukraine has not yet learned the value of developing free enterprise. It is a country in distress and some of the towns are close to falling apart. A newspaper there recently reported that it is the third most corrupt country in the world. Money is not being passed down to help the people. A sad fact.

As for my going back, Well, if I do, I'll give myself and Ukraine some time. Although meeting and staying with my relatives was wonderful, and finding documents more exciting than I could imagine, conditions all over the country were tough. I had to try and look past it all and understand it. I do all I can to try and help my relatives, but there is a limit to what I can do and how much money I can give them. They all wanted me to bring them to America so they could become rich! Forgetting my many trips to an outhouse... my trip was just wonderful. I certainly came home with much more than documents!

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