Re: [Cz-L] The purpose of this list (obtaining documents from the Chernivtsi archives)

Dear Vicki,

I think that you should be able to find out more
about your paternal grandfather and grandmother.
The archives in Chernivtsi are very extensive and complete.
If you cannot get any information from the archives by mail or Email,
you may have to personally visit the archives, or make arrangements
with someone in Chernivtsi to get them for you.
Last summer when I was in Chernivtsi, I wanted to obtain
the birth certificate of one of the members of the list.
I made an appointment at the archives, telling them what I wanted
to see and obtain a copy of. At the appointed time, I went to the
archives,
was given a form to fill out and told to go to a nearby bank to pay
a small fee for being allowed to look through the appropriate files.
At the bank, I received a receipt, which I took back to the archives
and was then allowed to search through the files.
Later they made a copy of the Birth certificate I wanted and sent it
to me.

Mimi
On Feb 3, 2014, at 8:19 AM, The Mom wrote:

> In answer to your questions, Hardy:
>
> My grandmother's other two children were fathered by her Ukrainian
> husband. His surname was Bresciuc / Breschuk. He was killed in 1937
> in a train mishap only a year after my father and his sibs were
> shipped off to Canada to join their mother and father. My
> grandmother's maiden name was Pavlovic / Pawlowych / Paulovici.They
> would have been married about 1924. Whether in a civil ceremony or
> Greek Orthodox I know not.
>
> Neither my father nor grandmother spoke to me of his true parentage in
> their lifetimes. I only found out what little I know in a brief,
> covert conversation 35 years ago when my mother "let the cat out of
> the bag". I suspected at the time that I was being told something I
> was not intended to know about and never dared to bring the subject up
> again. I have a vague, possibly inaccurate memory that she told me
> that this Jewish man's name would have been Anglicized as "Max Drake
> (Drach?). She further added that he was "assassinated" sometime
> during the WWII era.
>
> When my grandmother passed away in 1980, I observed my father slip a
> small, headshot photo of a fedora wearing man into her hands just
> before the casket was to be sealed for the final time. This past
> summer, when I came into possession of the family photos that belonged
> to my grandmother, I found not only a copy of this same casket photo,
> but a handful of others of this man. One depicts her formally posing
> in "Western" dress (as opposed to traditional Ukrainian peasant
> attire) with this man. The photo was taken in a Cernauti studio. One
> other is a passport-style photo of this same man on which is written
> in ball-point pen "Emil's dad" (my father). Also scrawled on the back
> in faded lettering is a phrase in Roumanian that translates to "never
> forget me". There is also a formal photo of this man in WWI military
> garb. Whether these photos were brought over to Canada by my
> grandmother when she emigrated in 1934, or were sent to her later is
> unknown to me. There must have been some communication for her to
> learn that he had been "assassinated".
>
> I have correspondences dating to the 40's that show that my
> grandmother attempted to obtain some birth documents for herself and
> my father, but they were not able to be found by the then-governing
> USSR authorities. I also attempted to obtain the same and never got
> any response.
>
> My Canadian-born mother is of Ukrainian ancestry with her parents
> originating in the Ternopil region. I regard myself as a contemporary
> Canadian of Ukrainian ancestry. I don't speak or understand Ukrainian
> and was raised in an areligious home (ie. we practised and bought into
> no system of faith or religion), therefore my genealogical research is
> more of a mechanical undertaking of putting names, dates, and
> hopefully faces to a family tree. The only 'spiritual' aspect of
> learning about my past is the nagging sense that I would want any
> living family of "Max" to know that my father grew up to be an
> honourable man, and that the end of his line of descendants are 6 fine
> great-grandsons. For all I know, "Max" may have fathered no other
> children besides my father.
>
> As for decency being transmitted by genes, no, I don't believe so,
> though the recent debates would lead me to believe that others do.
>
> Thank you for your interest in my search for "Max's" identity.
>
>
> Vicki
>
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Received on 2014-02-03 08:34:58