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???