My family surnames are Harmagyi, Polyak, Lyuteran, and Uhrin.  I can go back to great grandparents or great-great grandparents only. My grandparents came to the US separately between 1888-1898. His job was in mining and then he switched to steel-making in western Pennsylvania. He was one of the founders of St. Michael Byzantine Catholic church in  Farrell in 1905. My mother was born in Sharon PA.

Wow, thanks so much Petro for all of this wonderful information. Yes, my parents decided to put the double "ss" in my name before the "t" so that Canadians wouldn't call me "Natasha" - they thought the double -s before the -t would make the pronunciation more clear! Unfortunately it was all for nought, as people continually mispronounce my name!

Yes, Naziriy Yaremchuk! I am basically 100% certain we're related. he looks so much like my father and grandfather it's uncanny! My grandfather and father are both singers too, and have a very similar singing style as Naziriy, down to the style of vibrato. Everyone from my family are singers and musicians, so I don't doubt we're related to Naziriy. And what a great coincidence that your wife is a Yaremchuk too!

Petro Z wrote:

Hi Nastassia,

Thanks to Tom Peters right to the point finding it looks like your ancestors originating from (todays name) Нижні Синівці village, Чернівці province in Western Ukraine - small village of less than 1000 some 70km south of Chernivtsi, next to Porubne/Seret boarder crossing. It is a geographic  Bukovina and historically mostly Rusyn populated region. There're two small next Synivtsi villages: Lower and Upper. 

RE your question about "czuk/chuk" family suffixes:

Your last name rooted from Yarema(Jarema) male first name (EN: Jeremy). The [pronounsed: chook] suffix means "son-of" like Scandinavian "-sson".

There're different spellings because of various legal authorities during centuries: Austrian, Polish, Romanian, and different ears of Canadian immigration officers (how they heard it then - so spelled it).

Yaremchuk (Jaremchuk, Yaremchouck, Jaremczuk etc) are pretty common last name in Western Ukraine, some in Eastern Poland. Please google for Ukr singer Nazarij Yaremchuk. And my dear wife's maiden name is Yaremchuk, from Lviv (former Lemberg) vicinity.

My grandparents helped to found St Nicholas in Cohoes . One of my grandmothers was from Lipna also. She was a Haschytz. My grandfather was from Mustova region . He was the youngest of 7 boys but when they came thru Ellis Island the spellings of the last name were all different. I would like to connect with anyone who could help me find connections.

Tom, 

Thank you for the reply. 

That Mochtyak surname appears in many forms and spellings on many documents. It's so muddled. 

I typically use FamilySearch for my research, so I'm limited in some record collections--and I don't foresee a trip to Salt Lake City in my immediate future. I'm not sure if Ancestry is any better when it comes to records of the former Austria-Hungary. Then again, one should get something for one's money. 

Years ago, I wrote a letter to the mayor/administrator of Drahnov to inquire if he was aware or had record of the Draveczky family that resided there around the turn of the century. Unsurprisingly, he didn't. 

I've never traveled there, so I'm wondering what the cemeteries are like. Were they largely destroyed during the wars? Were most people buried without headstones? When power shifted from the Hungarians to the Slovaks, were Hungarian cemeteries neglected? 

So much history has been lost. Much of it deliberately. When my grandmother, who has been dead for 20 years, asked her father about his family history, he looked at her and said, "We're American," and refused to share anything more. 

I get the impression that things in the Old Country were not very good and, when they left, they never looked back. 

Cheers, 

Cody 

Anonymous wrote:

Cody,

The Draveczki/Mochtyak problem is quite difficult.  The baptism that you cite indicates Istvan Draveczki is Roman Catholic and Erzsabet Mochtyak is Greek Catholic.  The Porostov GC records begin in 1876.  If they married there, you are out of luck.  The Mochtyak name is pretty rare.  You might try to search GC parishes in the Porostov area for the surname.

The RC records of Drahnov are in Zemplinske Kopcany.  Here is a link to those records:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/727739?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Unfortunately, they are digitzed but not available because some of the dates fall into the privacy area.  The only way to view them is in the library at Salt Lake City or hire someone to view and copy the relevant entries for you.  The death of Istvan Draveczki will probably be found there before 1911.  The records pertaining to Istvan Draveczki Jr and wife Helena Balaz will be there as well as Maria Draveczki who married Ferencz Hartman.  Their marriage records may shed some light on where they were born.  You will need every bit of info that you can lay your hands on to ccrack this case.

Good luck!

Tom Peters

Hello!

I was hoping that someone would be able to tell me whether my great-great grandmother's surname is Hungarian, Slovak or Rusyn. All that we were ever told is that side of the family is Hungarian. 

While living in the US, she went by Elizabeth Draveczky and resided in Cleveland, OH.

The oldest record of hers that I have been able to locate is the Greek Catholic Baptismal record  of her daughter Maria from 1878, which lists her maiden name as Erzsa Mochtyä. The baptism occurred in what is now the village of Porostov, Sobrance, Slovakia. 

Elizabeth immigrated to the US in 1911 and listed on her last place of residence as Deregnyo, which is now Drahnov, Michalovce District, Kosice, Slovakia. She is listed as being Magyar. 

Depending on the record, however, some subsequent records listed her as being Hungarian and some listed her as being Slovak. 

To make things more confusing, her death certificate, witnessed by her son, lists her maiden name as Moztyak. 

With her daughter being baptized in the Greek Catholic Church, I'm thinking that she was Rusyn. That theory might be supported by my DNA profile, which listed Hungary and the Podcarpackie Vovoidship region of extreme southeastern Poland as my ancestral hotspots. The Hungarian DNA, I believe, comes from her husband, Istvan Draveczky. 

If anyone has any information about her surname, I would greatly appreciate it. This is the one line of my family for which I hit a brick wall.