RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Europe => Topic started by: Jinxy on Saturday 05 April 08 07:37 BST (UK)
-
Hi
My step dad Michajlo (AKA Michael) left the Ukraine when he was 16 ( around 1940).He never went back. :( Lockerby (spelling) was one place he mentioned.
How do I go about finding out where he first came to and other places he stayed at? ???
I would like to piece together a few 'Whys' and 'Wherefores' for my brother in the main but also out of interest to myself. :)
-
Hi Jinxy,
Keep checking out this site:
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ukraine
it's a new FamilySearch which is still being worked on.
the Ukraine page is mainly a skeleton of how it will be one day,
but there is at least a page with various Ukraine links.
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Ukraine_Websites
Is Michael naturalised ??
If so, you may find his papers at the National Archives in Kew.
see Topic: RootsChat Topics - Naturalisation and Internment
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,157691.0.html
Good luck,
Bob
-
Hi Bob
Thanks for info will have a look.
Yes I think he was naturalised.
He was a very quiet man and it was always hard to pry info out of him.
Interestingly, i went on Cindyslist and infoukes and found that he would have been about 8 or 9 at the time of Stalins enforced famine on the people of the Ukraine. Michaels father was a farmer, so one can only guess at the trauma.
one other piece of info which I cant verify was that when I asked him what he did during the war, he said he was in Andersons Army.....wouldn't expand. But the info I found on Anderson's Army' didn't seem to fit with dads dates... ???
-
You mean Anders not Anderson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Army
-
oh so glad i am not the only person searching in Ukraine!
-
You mean Anders not Anderson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Army
Thank you for the link Grey Squirrel. This makes much more sense.
It also fills in one of the many blanks.
Being born in 1924 in Ukraine he would have been 15/16 at the start of the war and this was the age he said he was when he left home never to return.
Many thanks again
Jinxy
-
Where are you both looking in Ukraine?
"Lockerby" does not look possible in Ukrainian. Do you know roughly where in Ukraine? One key point is whether the place of origin was in that part of today's Ukraine which was in Poland (known as Galicia or Halychyna) between the two world wars, or that part to the east of this.
It's also useful to know the religion -- was the family Greek Catholic (Uniate) or Russian Orthodox?
-
Hi Grey Squirrel
LOL...( Lockerby- Scotland, was one of the places he came to first when in the UK.)
As for Ukraine dad was from the Galitia region... Rava Ruska I seem to recall.
Dad was Russian Orthodox (non-practising).
Any use?
-
Jinxy, my grandfather was Greek Orothdox religion, during the war it was 'illegal' for him to practise it in the Ukraine and then when he was 'dispatched' other here he simply took on our way of living etc.
Grey Squirrel my grandfather was from Kyiv (Kiev) any ideas for me ?
-
Hi Toni and Grey Squirrel
Another piece of info I remember.... dad used to say that he had at one time been captured and was being taken by an SS guard to the gestapo, in the blokes motorbike and sidecar....on the way the bloke met his girlfriend who persueded him to let my dad go, He then took dad to the Swiss border and let him go.
Dont know what year this was but it was obviously before he came to the UK, and probably during his time in Anders Army?
Its amazing what bits of info come to mind eh?
-
JInxy, my gradfathers family too were caputred, my grandad was made to work on a farm he didnt see his family again he presumed they had been killed,
he came to the UK in 1948, he married my nan in 1955 he later found out that his parents were still alive and sent wedding photos but heard nothing back.
he did also have a niece, she came to the UK looking for him in the 90's
he received her letter the day she was due to leave back to the Ukraine and aftera rush up to the airport i belive there was a reunion but they did not keep in contact.