Miss you Grandma!

It is always tough to lose a loved one, especially so close to the holidays. My grandmother Mary Ann Melnick died on December 18, 2016. We laid my grandmother to rest on December 22, 2016 next to my grandfather, Joseph.

Mary Ann was born on February 4, 1931, the youngest of five children. She was not the youngest by much, she had a twin sister, Helen. She had three older brothers, Arseny, Alexander, and John. Her father, Arseny Melnick, a native of Staraya Ushitsa, which is now present-day Ukraine, immigrated to the United States in 1916. Her mother, Rose Patek, a native of Cajla, Pezinok, Slovakia, immigrated in 1920. Her father, Arseny, died when she was only eighteen months old.

Mary Ann's mother, Rose, never remarried. All the kids helped to contribute, including Mary Ann and Helen. By age twelve, they became the first female news carriers for the Youngstown Vindicator. Since, girls were not allowed to be newspaper carriers at that time, they worked under their older brothers name.

The family lived very frugally and Rose also sent money home to her mother in Pezinok, Slovakia. The money sent to Slovakia allowed the family there to live a bit more comfortably, buy allowing them to buy a second home which they rented out for additional income.

In 1949, Mary Ann graduated from The Rayon School and went on to attend two years of college. During the Youngstown bus strike, she met my grandfather, Joseph. Mary Ann and her sister were dropped off at Idora Park Ballroom. In those days, the Ballroom was the place to be; however, when they got there the place was practically empty due to the bus strike. Mary Ann turned around to leave when a Youngstown patrolman stopped her and convinced her to stay, saying you never know, you may meet your future husband here tonight. Well she stayed, Joseph asked her to dance, and they danced the night away.

On June 16, 1951, Joseph and Mary Ann married at St. Patrick's Church in Youngstown, Ohio.

Mary Ann worked as a pharmacy technician at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown up until she was seven months pregnant with her first child. My father was born just over a year after their marriage. His younger sister was born ten years later.

Mary Ann devoted her life to her children and her family. She was an amazing cook and seamstress. She was a loving mother, aunt, great-aunt, great-great aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother.

Joseph, her husband of 45 years, died on June 22, 1996.  She continued to live independently for another thirteen years until she moved into an assisted living facility.

I am so grateful that I had so many years to spend with my grandmother. I started researching my family history in 2010. Unfortunately, my three other grandparents died by the time I was eighteen - about 20 years ago. Long before I was interested in recording their stories.

When I heard the news, I had a good cry and a good soak in my tub. Then I decided to go through all the photos and create a photo slide show for the funeral. I was still sad but the process of scanning, editing, and labeling the photos was therapeutic for me. I saw most of the photos previously, but this time I really looked at them. I realized what a long and fulfilling life my grandmother had. Her family was her life and it showed in all of her pictures.

I am also blessed to have some audio recordings of my grandmother. I did not have the opportunity to interview my other grandparents. Much of my adult life I have lived across the country from where I grew up, which is also where my grandmother lived. Every time I came home for a visit, I would try to have a list of questions to ask her or photographs for her to identify. I made sure not to overwhelm her with questions. I also wanted to just enjoy our time together.

If you perform a Google search you will find a lot of sample questions to use to conduct oral interviews of family members. The most comprehensive list that I have found is located in the book, Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy, by Sunny Jane Morton. I highly encourage you to interview as many relatives as you can and answer the questions yourself. Everyone has a story to tell.

I will miss you Grandma!  Thank you for all the love and support you have given me through the years.  I especially appreciate you being so supportive of my genealogy research and even agreeing to multiple DNA tests.  I love you!

навчання українською мовою

This fall I decided to register for Ukrainian classes through the University of Arizona's Critical Languages Program.  The University offers traditional language courses for the community, but they also offer small group or individual tutoring sessions for members of the public.  This semester, the University is offering the following languages:

Cantonese, Chechen, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, Modern Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Norwegian, Polish, Scots-Gaelic, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.

I am meeting with Oksana Lisetska, who by the way is a fabulous tutor, once a week.  The University also produces its own interactive language software.  The Ukrainian language is very challenging, just like I thought it would be, but I am also pleasantly surprised that I am actually retaining a lot of what I learn.

Why Ukrainian?

My great-grandfather Arseny Melnik was born on February 28, 1895 in Stara Ushitsia, Khmelnitskiy, Ukraine.  His parents were Stah Melnik and Marja Jaroshevska. On June 11, 1912 he traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.  I have not yet found any information on what he did during his three plus years in Canada.  On January 29, 1916 he arrived in the United States through the Port of Entry in Buffalo, New York.  He indicated upon his arrival that he was to join his cousin, Isidor.  His daughter my grandmother, told me that her father had a cousin which they called вуйко for uncle, but she did not know his true name.  Possibly вуйко could be Isidor?

Arseny married my great-grandmother, Rose Patek, around 1925.  Rose was also a recent immigrant from Slovakia.  So far I have not been able to locate a marriage record either in the civil marriage records for Mahoning County or church records. Supposedly they married at a Russian Orthodox church located on Arlington Road in Youngstown, Ohio.  The church was torn down many many years ago.  My aunt, Olga, suggested that I try the Nativity of Christ Orthodox Church in Youngstown.  She said that my great grandmother Rose also made something that was hanging on the wall near the front of the church.  I left a message and the priest personally called me back. He had recently transferred to the parish and he said that he could not find their marriage record.  He said the records were in disarray, so that did not mean the church did not have the records.  He told me he believed that my great-grandmother had sewn a burial shroud that was still hanging in the front of the church.  I stopped by the church while I was in Ohio last month, but unfortunately, it was closed at the time.  I hope to stop by when I am in town again next summer.

Arseny and Rose had five children - Arseny, Alexander, John, and twins Helen and Mary.  He worked at a steel plant in Youngstown, Ohio like many other recent immigrants.  Arseny naturalized on February 2, 1928.  He died on August 30, 1932 at the age of 37.  His youngest children, the twins, were only 16 months old at the time.  This photo is both amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. This was a photo taken at Arseny's funeral.  My grandmother is the little blond girl in her mother's arms behind the casket.

My grandmother has no memory of her father.  Arseny's wife Rose, raised her kids alone.  She raised them Roman Catholic and passed down some Slovak traditions.  I do not recall any Ukrainian traditions being passed down in the family. However, my extended family did keep in touch with some relatives that remained in Ukraine.  Last year, I had the privilege of meeting my third cousin who lives on the East Coast.  He immigrated from Ukraine to the United States several years ago.  I had a wonderful time exchanging old photos and stories.  He is approximately the same age as me and we both have kids of similar ages.

When I started working on my family genealogy six years ago I did not know much about my Ukrainian roots.  Now, after learning some of the language, speaking to my relatives, and reading about the history of the region, I feel much more connected to my roots.  I hope to continue to become more proficient in the language and someday visit my great-grandfather's hometown.  

Who is the barber?

In July 2014, on one of my trips home to Ohio, my mom's first cousin, Noel, gave me an envelope of old pictures that supposedly belonged to my great grandparents Nick Volpe and Rose Apone.  One or two photos were marked, but the majority of them were not.  One intriguing photo was a picture of a young Italian barber.  I did not recall any family members ever having an occupation of a barber.  I scanned the photo and emailed a few relatives to see if they could identify him and unfortunately they could not.

Then one day as I was reviewing my family tree online on Ancestry.com, I noticed there was a gap or lack of information on the Carano family.  Nick's sister, Angeline married Andrew Carrano January 26, 1907 in Agropoli, Salerno, Campania, Italy.  On May 25, 1912 she immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island with her three year old son and joined her husband who had previously immigrated a couple years before in New Alexandria, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.  I have not found a death record yet, but I believe this son died at a young age, because I could not find any reference to him after his arrival.

I did not realize that Andrew and Angeline had another son until Ancestry added the database - Pennsylvania Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966.  On this database I found an application for Constabil Rudolph Carrano with a date of birth as June 4, 1913.  On the application he listed his parents, wife, and children.  I researched Constabil a little further and found him listed on Find A Grave.  Not only did it have a picture of his headstone but someone also attached his obituary.  BINGO - It listed he was a barber for the past 70 years in East McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

So could Constabil Rudolph "Speedy" Carrano be my mysterious barber?

I found someone on Ancestry.com that had Constabil Carrano in their family tree.  Lucky for me that person responded and told me he was the son of Constabil.  I emailed him the picture of my mysterious barber and he confirmed it was a photo of his father as a young man.  He said his father began cutting hair at age eleven and continued until he was 89!  He had never seen that picture before.  I am so glad I was able to figure out the mysterious barber picture and share it with his family.  I will keep working on the rest of the stack...