Friday, March 30, 2012

My Family

One of my all time favourite shows right now is 'Who Do You Think You Are?'  I have always been interested in geneology and learning about my family, where I came from and what struggles my ancestors had to overcome.  Here is a little picture tribute of my family.  My family heritage is Ukrainian, each of my 4 grand-parents were born and raised in various parts of Ukraine.  My maternal grandmother was from an area of Ukraine that was on the border between Ukraine and Poland - her village is now in Poland and I have never had that feeling of 'I'm Home' until I visited her village.  My paternal grand-father is from the Tyrnopil area of Ukraine, near the town of Kozova and when I met my family in the village of Teofipilka, I found out that my parental grandfathers side of the family was originally from Hungary - I've always been interested to find out more about this - who exactly came from Hungary?  Why did they move to Ukraine?  I find the whole concept of putting your family tree together so fascinating.  I have some pictures of my family and I wanted to do  little 'picture tribute' to them!

My Paternal Family:
THis is a photo of my great-grandfather Antin Dmytrasz (his father Martin Dmytrasz apparently came from Hungary to Ukraine)



This is another photo of Antin Dmytrasz with his family.  His wife (my great-grandmother) was Polish and I believe that her maiden name was Maria Uchmanovich.  They had three children - in this photo, you can see my grandfathers two sisters (Veronika and Stanislava) and his brother-in-law.



This is another photo of my great-grandmother Maria Uchmanovich





These three photos are of my grandmother Anastasia Dmytrasz (her maiden name was Riznyk).  My grandothers family was also from the Tyrnopil area of Ukraine!  I wish I had some photos of her parents, so I could see what my great-grandparents looked like!

Maternal Family:



I am lucky enough to have some photos of my grandmothers parents - Maxsym and Maria Bazarnyk (my great-grandmothers maiden name was Novocad).  Here is an even earlier photo:


Here is a photo of grandmother Olga (Olya in Ukrainian) Duma:



My grandfather was Nicholas Krushelnycky and his childhood was quite sad - he was orphaned at just a few months old and lost his only brother during the first world war - I really wish I had more photos from his side of the family, but here is a photo of him that I really like - he looks so distinguished:



I admire the stories and the history that I know about my grandparents and great-grandparents - I really wish I knew more.  I also wish I knew who I look the most like - learning where I come from is so important and has always interested me.  Every Friday I get excited to watch 'Who Do You Think You Are' - seeing people discover the stories of their ancestors past is such a life-altering experience for many.  I enjoy seeing people finally undestand "thats where I get my strength from" or "thats where the sense of humour comes from" etc - I hope to get an opportunity to discover more about my family.  I cherish my Ukrainian upbringing and traditions, yet I am equally proud to have family with Polish and Hungarian roots -  I've always been told that I have more of a Meditteranean look, so who knows, perhaps there is some other influence that I don't know about - but I'd 'love' to find out!!!  I've included a photo collage of my photo next to the faces of my ancestors and would love to hear your opinions - who do you think I look like the most in my family???




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

love this post--You most resemble one of your paternal great-grandfather's sisters (the one behind him). I wonder if she looked more like their mother or father.

Anonymous said...

Nice post. Honours your Family and shows some of their history.

Renata said...

Thank you so much for the lovely comment! Much appreciated!!!