Researching at NARA Archives II in College Park

NARA II holds documentary records which are referred to as textual records from the following categories:

• Army records from WWI 
• Navy records from WWII 
• Federal agency records 
• Still pictures
• Motion pictures, sound, and video
• Maps

Note that military personnel files and civilian personnel files are kept at the National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri. Archives II has military records at the unit level that include historical reports, after action reports, unit journals, and general orders.

Research hours are Monday through Friday 9 AM to 5 PM.

NARA II is located at 8601 Adelphi Road in College Park, Maryland. You can reach NARA II by either taking taking a bus from NARA I Archives located at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (first priority goes to NARA staff and researchers can ride on the shuttle if space is available), driving and parking onsite, or taking the Metro to the College Park Metro Station and then taking a 30 minute bus ride on the C-8 Metrobus or grabbing an Uber from the metro station.

Requesting Records

It is important to do as much research as you can before you go. I found information about my grandfather who served in the Army and great uncle who served in the Army Air Corps, in WWII. 

I had a copy of my grandfather, Joseph Caccarozzo's DD-214 separation papers from our family collection. This listed him as serving from March 14, 1941 to July 12, 1945 in the Headquarter Battery, 1st Battalian, 16th Coast Artillery.

I found specific information about my great uncle, John Volpe's WWII serving in a Missing Air Crew Report on Fold3. It indicated that his unit was 20th Air Force, 43rd Bomb Squad, 29th Bomb Group. It also listed his aircraft name and serial number, which could be helpful with later research.

Prior to my trip to NARA II, I created an Airtable database using a Research Like a Pro Template that I tweaked to fit my needs. It contained all the basic information I would need to request both my grandfather's and great uncle's military unit records at NARA II. I also uploaded family documents and other research that I performed prior to my visit, in case I needed to refer to them for additional information.

In preparing for my trip, I looked for the records I wanted to request in the NARA catalog. I first decided to search within Record Group 407 - Records of the Adjutant General's Office 1905-1981. This is the large record group which contains records created by the Department of the Army.

Then I decided to click "Search within this Record Group." The first sub-group that came up was World War II Operations Reports. This subgroup contains unit histories, after action reports, intelligence reports, combat interviews, maps, and military intelligence reports. I wrote down in my table what materials I wanted to request and where they would likely be located.

When you enter the College Park location, you will go through security and your belongings will be scanned. If you do not already have a researcher card you must obtain your researcher card before you can look at any records. The room to obtain your researcher card is right next to security. You must watch a short video and take a quiz online. You will be issued a certificate of completion. You can either print out your certificate or take a photo and present it when you go. You will have to show a photo ID and they will take a photo of you and give you a card with a barcode. The researcher card is good for one year at any of the NARA facilities and can be renewed.

After you go through security you have to go to the basement to leave any bags, purses, notebooks, coats, etc. in a locker. You must bring a quarter to lock up your valuables and your quarter is returned to you automatically at the end of they day when you retrieve your belongings. The rules of the Research Room is located here. Basically you can bring a laptop, your phone (silenced), a pencil, and your chargers. You can place your chargers in a clear gallon plastic bag.

The Library on the third floor has a number of Finding Aids in 3-ring binders to help you find the correct box or boxes where the unit histories are located. On the third floor you will have to consult with one of the employees there and they must sign off on your pull slip. When I was there, they only had one employee for military and one for civilian records. Even though I made a research appointment online, consultations were first-come first-served and there were several people in line ahead of me.

Below is what a blank pull slip looks like. It has three layers - white, pink, and green. You need to fill out the date, your first and last name, your researcher card number, the collection name, entry number box, stack, and row, and any other information to help find the records you are requesting. One of the employees on floor three in the library/consultation area must sign the pull slip and then you must go down to the second floor and drop it at the front desk in the Research Room. You also need to scan your research card when you turn in your pull slip.

Usually it takes 45 minutes or longer for materials to be pulled. I submitted two pull slips and it ended up taking almost one and a half hours for the first pull. There is another large desk, farther into the Research Room on the left where you pick up your pulls. Right before the desk is a small television screen where your name will be listed when your pull is ready. This screen was not working while I was there and they set up a small table with a notepad and wrote your last name down when a pull was available. By the time my pulls were ready, I only had one and a half hours before I needed to leave on the 5pm bus back to the main archives. 

Once my pulls were ready, I presented my researcher card to the employee at the desk in the Research Room and they had me sign a copy of the pull slip with the time and date. They wheeled out my pulls on a cart, even though they were only a couple small boxes that could be carried.

In the research room there are two different desks at the far ends of the room with employees. I brought my pulled materials with the cart to one of the desks. I then asked permission to take photos of the materials I retrieved. They gave me a red card to take photos. Once I found an empty table, I placed the red card in the plastic sleeve hanging from the light over the table, to identify that I was given permission to take photos of the records.

In addition, most of the records found at NARA II were previously classified military or federal records. I also had to ask permission to take photos of these declassified materials. An employee at the same table will review the records to determine if you can take photos of the formerly classified documents. I was given permission, and they gave me a piece of paper that said declassified and it contained a letter/number sequence. I had to sign and date a book they had at the table with my name and researcher number allong with the declassification number I was given.

Finally it was time to review the information I had pulled. I took a photo of the green copy of the pull slip I filled out to help me write a citation later and it also helps to keep the materials I take photos of separate on my camera roll.

I also take a photo of the box I am reviewing and a photo of the folders in the box. NARA has large laminated cards available to use to keep your place while reviewing files.

Every single photo you take of the records must have the declassified piece of paper somewhere in the photo.

Unfortunately, I did not find anything directly on my grandfather's unit that remained at Pearl Harbor during WWII, but there was information on some of the men that were transferred to the Pacific during the war. I also could not find any information specifically on the 29th Bomb Group located in the 20th Air Force. I did pull boxes on th 20th Air Force and found some general information but nothing specifically covering the missions for the 29th Bomb Group or my great uncle's specific plane. I did find very detailed plans about the 20th Air Force's bombing missions and target maps.

I also spoke to one of the military consultants who said that the 20th Airforce did not have the same reporting structure as the rest of the units and directly received its orders from Washington, D.C. so the records may be in a different area. I will need to do more research to locate them before my next trip.

NARA is also digitizing records - some in partnership with FamilySearch or Ancestry.com, and some on their own. I did just find a photo showing the planes of the 29th Bomb Group located at North Field Guam that has been digitized and can be found in the NARA Catalog here.

My advice in researching at NARA II is to plan ahead and research their catalog. If you do find something you want to review at the archives, copy the NAID number located in the catalog this will take you back directly to that record in the catalog without trying to replicate the search. Also, contact them by email at archives2reference@nara.gov before your arrival and they will give you some general guidance where you may find the records you are looking for. They will not pull any records for you before your visit, but they will typically keep the receords available for three to five business days in the room behind the desk where you pick up your pulls. The amount of pulls you can have at any one time is discretionary.

My grandmother and my great aunt served as Navy WAVES in Washington, D.C. during WWII. I wrote to the email listed above and this is the information they provided me with.

Thank you for your recent inquiry to the National Archives regarding the Navy WAVES. We hope you enjoyed your visit.

When it comes to WAVES, we have a variety of records with information pertaining to them. Some of these include:

• Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Entry NM-74, General Correspondence, 1942-1946 (Box 13, Folder 144)
• RG 24, Entry A1 3, World War II Casualty Reports (Box 50)
• RG 24, Entry PI-123 445, General Records of the Physical Fitness Section (Box 59, 68)
  
• Record Group 428: General Records of the Department of the Navy, Entry P 3, Subject Files (Box 168)

We regret that we are not staffed to conduct the extensive research necessary to identify all pertinent records relating to your request within the suggested record groups and their record series. We would be happy to make them available to you or your representative in our research room. Should you be unable to return to the National Archives you may wish to hire a professional researcher. Here is a list of some of these researchers.

Hope you have a successful search. I hope to have time in the next few years to spend several days at NARA II. However, first, I want to pull my family's individual military personnel files at NARA St. Louis before I go back. Their personnel files may mention specific events that I can cross-reference with the specific unit histories or morning reports located at NARA II.

Researching Catholic Church Records in Loreto, Italy

It is often very difficult to access Roman Catholic church records throughout Italy. If the records have not been destroyed by war or natural disasters, access to the records depends on if the local priest has time or desire to open the records to you. Sometimes a second copy of the parish records may be located in a diocesan archive, but I have personally not found that to be the case for my ancestral lines that I have researched so far. If the records are kept at the diocesan archives, you are lucky. Diocesan archives are open one or more days a week or by appointment only. If they have open research hours, it is still a good idea to call or email ahead of time to make sure they have the records you are looking for and they will be open during your visit.

I did not realize my Pierluca ancestors were from Loreto, Ancona (province), Marche (region), Italy. My grandfather left Italy in 1934 with his mother, Emelia, and siblings to join his father who was already living in the United States. I had always known that he was born in Porto Civitanova, Macerata, Marche, Italy. He talked about it and kept his passport. Years ago, I found his parent’s 1914 marriage record on FamilySearch in the Tribunale records for Civitanova Marche, Macerata, Marche, Italy. This record gave me the names of Emelia’s parents as Luigi Pierluca and Giovanna Martellini. After continuing to research the Tribunale records for Civitanova Marche, I found Luigi Pierluca’s death record in 1916. I thought the record indicated he was from “Porto.” Meaning Porto Civitanova.[i] However, if I had read the record more carefully, I would not have been searching for years for the Pierluca family in Civitanova Marche. I still may not have figured out that his city of birth was Loreto based on the record below, but at least I would have asked fellow genealogists or friends and relatives who read Italian to take a look at it to help me decipher his birthplace. A professional genealogist, Mirella Ammirati, founder of Southern Italy Travel, pointed out my mistake in 2016 when I hired her to do some research into my family tree before I traveled to my grandfather’s birthplace. Loreto is only approximately a twenty-five minute drive from Civitanova Marche. I had no idea that my Pierluca ancestors had such deep roots in Loreto.

[ii]

 March 2023 was my second time researching the archive and library in the Santa Pontificicio della Santa Casa Di Loreto. In 2016, the first time I visited the archive, I spent hours asking people where I could find the archives, until finally I asked a monk who took my father and I, through the gift shop up the stairs to the second floor to the research room. When I finally arrived, I only had time to review birth records from the 1840s-1850s. I found the baptismal record of my second great-grandfather, Luigi Pierluca, and his two siblings. I also found a few other Pierluca baptism records, but I did not know how they related to my Pierluca family. Through the years more and more records have been added to the Antenati website, which contains mostly civil records kept at the state archives and that were digitized through a partnership with FamilySearch and placed online for free to researchers. The records vary by province and some state archives have not been digitized yet. I have been able to slowly piece together the Pierluca family and other collateral lines from Loreto, Italy found on the Antenati website.

Fast forward to March 2023. I returned to Civitanova Marche to visit cousins and research my family. On my first full day, my cousin Maria from Chiavari, Italy,  and I traveled together to Loreto, Italy to continue researching the Pierluca family and collateral lines. I vaguely remembered how to find the archives, but I was not positive of its location. We asked a priest and right away he brought us to the archives and library on the second floor. To find the archives, instead of entering the basilica near the gift shop, turn left and go up to the top of the stairs. If you turn left, you will see a set of large wooden doors, go through them, and then the archives will be on your left. The archives are currently open Monday through Friday 9am to 12pm. You must press a buzzer and wait to be let in.

Access the archives by going up the stairway located here.

The archives are run by Father Andréa. He speaks Italian, English, French, and Arabic. He expects to remain at the archives in Loreto for another two years before he is moved to a different location. Every day he meticulously reviews the sacramental records and inputs them into a searchable Word document. He hopes to make a fully searchable index while serving at the basilica. The records available are as follows:[iii]

Baptisms 1568-1880

Marriages 1568-1900

Deaths 1566-1920

Stato di Anime 1800-1865, 1896-1902

Before you begin researching you must fill out a form with your biographic information, the reasons for your search and agreeing that the images are for your own use and not to be reproduced. Yes, you may take digital photos with your camera. You must wear gloves. Latex gloves are available if you do not bring your own. Father Andréa will assist you, but he expects you to do your own research. I did have numerous questions, which he patiently answered.

If you are unfamiliar with the Stato di Anime records, they are similar to census records, but collected by the church. They were lists compiled infrequently by the priest that showed the head of household, their birth and sometimes death dates, their parents’ names, their birthplace, what sacraments they celebrated, and sometimes helpful notations that the parishioner went to live in another city or immigrated to another country. Just like census records they can give us a lot of information at a glance. However, you must realize that the record consists of copied information from other records, so there could be errors or inconsistencies in the records.

Marriage records prior to 1767 and baptismal records prior to 1787 do not have indexes. I did not have a chance to look at death records in the 1700s, but I am assuming they also did not have indexes. The records are kept in chronological order, but they are very difficult to read. All the records are in Latin, most of the pages have bled through, and in some cases the ink has faded. I would call myself an intermediate level researcher. I can read the records, but it takes me a while. I wish I could research all day, but having the archives open only three hours a day forced me to take breaks. I found my body does need a break. Not only was my back hurtingfrom hunching over the large record books, but my eyes were also fatigued from reading the records. I do not typically wear reading glasses, but I did need to consistently use them while skimming the sacramental record.

For the books that did have indexes available, I thought the most time-saving method was to write down the surnames I was looking for in my notebook (in pencil of course, as pen is not allowed near the record), go through the Index first and write down the page number where I could find the surname, and I would turn to the page and take a picture of the record. I did not spend time translating the record in the archives, because with so little time to research, I determined that when I returned home, I could always go back and fully translate the document and figure out how that person fits into my family tree.

It will likely be several years before I have the time to go back to Italy and continue my research into my Pierluca and collateral lines. I hope that Father Andréa may have a completed index by the time I return. Until then, I plan on slowly going through all the records I collected, log them, and add them to my family tree. I told Father Andréa that I would email him a document containing my research, in the hopes that he or the archive staff can share it with others who may come along inquiring about the Pierluca family in Loreto.

A big shout out to my cousin, Maria, who traveled a long way to meet me and helped me research.

---

[i] In 1938, Porto Civitanova and Civitanova Alta, the old town, were combined to form one municipality of Civitanova Marche.

[ii] "Italia, Macerata, Macerata, Stato Civile (Tribunale), 1866-1929," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9W2-MPQ?cc=2043838&wc=MCRB-8NL%3A350209001%2C350233001%2C350235401 : 22 May 2014), Macerata > Civitanova Marche > Morti 1911-1929 > image 591 of 2000; Tribunale di Macerata (Macerata Court, Macerata).

[iii] More recent sacramental records are available in the rectory.

Вінок (Vinok)

A Вінок (Vinok), or Ukrainian wreath or flower crown, is traditionally worn by girls and unmarried women at festivals, on holy days, and during their wedding ceremony. Originally it was made by weaving together grasses and flowers (fresh, paper, or waxen) and decorated with bright ribbons.  Each flower had a symbolic meaning – roses for love, lilies for purity and innocence, daises for peace and tenderness, and sunflowers for faithfulness and loyalty. The types of herbs and grasses used as well as the colors of the ribbons all had distinct symbolism. During the Kupalo festival, a pagan holiday which marks the end of the summer solstice, young women would place their wreaths in the water with a lighted candle.  If the wreath floated it would float towards the man they would marry (or sometimes a man would retrieve the wreath in the hopes of winning the young woman’s affection).  If the vinok stayed in one place, the woman would never marry. If either the candle blew out or the wreath sank, she would suffer misfortune or even death.

Rachkov, Nikolay. (bef 1895). Ukrainian Girl [Painting].  Chernigov Museum, Ukraine. Digital image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ukrainian_girl_by_Nikolay_Rachkov_(2nd_half_19_c.,_Chernigov_museum).jpg

Today, the vinok has become a symbol of Ukrainian pride and often women will wear them in everyday life.  I noticed on Facebook, a number of genealogists of Ukrainian descent making their own vinok and displaying them on their front doors or gates as a symbol of Ukrainian pride and support of the Ukrainian people during this war.  For approximately $30, I was able to design my own vinok from materials found at Michaels, Amazon, and Walmart.  I am not a crafty or creative person, but after a few hours and burning my fingers several times with a hot glue gun, I managed to piece together a beautiful wreath which I am proudly displaying on my gate.

Have you made any crafts lately that is unique to your ancestry, or have you displayed or shared your family history in a creative way?  If so, please send me your ideas and photos.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2017/10/06/the-ukrainian-wreath-interweaving-beauty-and-tradition/

https://www.postmarkukraine.com/post/traditions-wedding-vinok

https://natgeotraveller.in/spectacular-flower-crowns-rule-in-ukraine/

We Arrived - Civitanova Marche

L'Aeroporto di Ancona-Falconara was small, but really convenient.  There was only one baggage claim and the rental car kiosk was right past security.  Having a GPS in this area is a must.  I purchased a Garmin Italy maps SD card and brought my GPS from home.  The toll road was easy, but as soon as I took the exit to Civitanova Marche, it was one traffic circle after another.  

Standard B&B

We are staying at the Standard B&B on Corsa Dalmazia.  It is a three room B&B right in the heart of town.  For dinner we ate crescia (Umbrian cheese bread sandwich) at B.A.C. Cresceria a couple of blocks from the B&B.  My sandwich had prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, and a hint of lemon. 

Letizia one of the owners of the B&B made us a delicious breakfast.  We ate so much that we did not eat lunch.

After breakfast we headed to the beach and the port which was only a few blocks away.

After the beach we attended mass at San Pietro Apostolo in Piazza XX Settembre (the main square). This was the church my great grandparents were married in 1914.  It was built in 1841 and was the only church in Civitanova Marche for a long time, so it is likely that generations of my family were married in that church.

Outside the church in Piazza XX Settembre there was an outdoor market.  I bought a couple small souvenirs for my daughters and my mom and sister.

After the market.  We visited the last address my grandfather lived at prior to immigrating to the United States.  I found the address on the family's Italian identity cards.

Via Cesare Battisti, 55, Civitanova Marche

After all that walking, we decided to treat ourselves to a little gelato - yum!

On Sunday afternoons, the main street, Corso Umberto 1, closes to traffic and the locals walk up and down the street and window shop.  There are a lot of young children riding their bikes and teenagers on skates.  A few shops are open, but mainly it is a chance for the residents to socialize.  Since we wanted to do what the locals do, we walked for a couple hours up and down the main road.

For dinner, we went out for pizza to Il Segreto di Pucinella on Via Regina Elena.

Finally, we had some take out dessert from Pasticceria Bar on Corso Umberto 1. My desert was layered with three different types of cream - pudding, whipped cream, then a stiff meringue on top.

Very excited to meet up tomorrow with the genealogist I hired to help me research my Cacarozzo line in Fermo.  

My Long Awaited Adventure

I am sitting at the Denver airport waiting for my overseas flight to Italy.  My paternal grandfather’s family is from the Le Marche region of Italy.  Most people have never heard of it.  In fact, it is one of the least visited areas by American tourists.

Le Marche, is a region in eastern Italy between Apennine Mountains and the Adriatic Sea.  Le Marche is divided into five provinces: Ancona, Pesaro, Urbino, Ascoli Piceno, Fermo and Macerata.  The largest town is Ancona and it houses the regions airport and it is home to the second largest Italian port on the Adriatic Sea.  The region boasts several beach side towns that draw many Italian vacationers in the summer months.

My great-grandfather, Mariano Cacarozzo, was born in the city of Fermo, which was back then a town in the Ascoli Piceno province, in August 1888.  His only sibling that I am aware of, was his sister, Adelina, who was born in 1893 in S’Elpidio a Mare, another small town in the region.  Mariano died long before I was born.  Growing up I do not recall any family members mentioning he had a sister.  I knew that he and my great grandmother, Emelia Pierluca, were married in 1914 and I knew that they immigrated from Porto Civitanova or now called Civitanova Marche .  When I started to delve in to genealogy and I found out about the free website Family Search, I discovered that the most the civil records from Civitanova from 1860s to the 1920s were on that website.  They have not been indexed, so they are not searchable, but you are able to browse the records here.  I browsed the marriage records for Civitanova for the entire year of 1914 and that is how I discovered Mariano had a sister named Adelina. 

Here is a photo of Mariano, his wife Emelia, and his first child Nella in 1915.

I asked my Uncle Lou whether he had remembered if his father had a sister named Adelina, since he lived in Civitanova until he was approximately 13 years old.  He did remember her and he believed that his siblings and parents lived in one house, his grandparents next to them, and Adelina’s family lived on the end.  He said although the homes were connected to each other they lived in separate homes.

I now know the exact location of where they lived in Italy.  Luckily, my uncle and my grandfather saved their identification cards which lists the address they were living at when they were issued.  Google maps show that there are still three homes right next to each other at that location.  I cannot wait to check them out in person.

55 Cesare Battisti, Civitanova Marche, where my grandfather lived in Italy.

The reason why I have anxiously been awaiting this trip, is because I exhausted my research in the United States.  I successfully requested a couple documents from the local town archives and my grandfather’s military records from the state archives by email.  However, I made additional requests and my requests have gone unanswered for years.

There is a major mystery as to my family’s surname.  Supposedly our true name was Pietracci and the family lore was that my grandfather changed his name to Caccarozzo prior to immigrating to the United States.  In my research, I found on Mariano’s birth record, his father’s name was listed as Raphaele Cacarozzo detto Pietracci.  So there is some connection to the Pietracci name.  It could be a nickname, or maybe he was a foundling, I am not sure, but I really want to know if any of the stories I heard as a child were true.

Since I exhausted my available research that I can do from the United States, I needed to either hire a professional or go there in person.  I decided to do both.  I hired a professional genealogists through the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).  I asked her to help me get over my speed bumps, local any living relatives, and assist me gaining access to the various archives in that region to research on my own.   

I know I will not find out answers to all of my questions, but I know I will be cherishing every minute of walking in my ancestors footsteps this week.

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.