VISIT TO UKRAINE by Kath Harpley, Sept 2019

KATH AND JIM HARPLEY

VISIT TO UKRAINE

SEPTEMBER 2019

On our second visit to Ukraine we flew into Lviv and again hired a car from Hertze. Due to the lack of rubber that they like to have on their tyres, if we go again I will probably try Avis or one of the other companies.

We exchanged our currency at Lviv airport and this time we bought Vodaphone 'national' (not regional) sim cards at the airport costing just £4 each which gave us unlimited access to the internet, phone calls, text. This proved to be invaluable with Google Translate which enabled us to have long detailed conversations, in short sentences with relatives, museums, restaurants, hotels etc and enabled us to translate documents which was reasonable enough to give us the general gist and restaurant menus enabling us veggies to keep off the meat.

Just to briefly recap on our visit last year:- September 2018 was much warmer than this year so our packing for this visit could have been less sandals and more shoes. Last year I had paid a research company to find family and we met our translator, Oksana in Luboml (Le bom l). She was excellent and had phoned ahead of our visit motivating the local school, priest and village head lady-Lillia. By searching the local church (Nudyze pronounced Nu dee sia) records, door knocking and asking all the old folk of the local villages, we eventually poll up at a detached, brick built house in the nearby town of Kovel where there was Michalel(Meesha)-husband to Olga (nee Rabyj) his elderly mother (Mama) and 85 year old Pawel Rabyj who proved to be uncle Mietek and my father, Mark's cousin. On this visit we met one young daughter, Natatlie who was leaning English but was a reluctant speaker. By 2019 she had matured and was confidently speaking with us aided by Google. We visited our fathers village Zablocie and grave yard at Nudyze with Oksana, Meesha and Pawel and went to the wooden village farm house at Zoblocie where Pawels' son, Leonid lives. He had inherited it from Pawel and the plot where our father lived with his mother and grandfather was in the field opposite but the house had long since gone. Most of the village is still detached wooden houses as in our fathers time and they all have reasonably large gardens where they grow fruit and veg and have chickens. I considered that a very rewarding visit and quite overwhelming at the time, as, had I just found a grave I would have been happy, but to find living breathing family was exceptional. We then took a leap to try and find grandpa, the mill owner who might or might not be a noble. Well a friend of the Rabyj's just happened to be the 90 year old Ivan, who's father Josef had the nearby large flour mill. This no longer exists but we have seen how close it was to Zablocie. Without wishing to tarnish Josef's good reputation (as of course he may well have not been involved with Iryna at all), we now either have a candidate for grandpa or we are on a wild goose chase.

Ivan left, Pawell right

Nudyze church

Onto our 2019 visit:-

Having landed and picked up our car with border line tyres!! we headed north to Kovel to stay with the rellies. We had expected to be staying with Olga (whom I have spent the last year building a FB relationship with), Meesha (also originating from the villages), Pawel and their family but we went on to meet the English speaking lawyer Vasily. He is the son of Anastasia and Vasily (same name) and practices business law. At this stage I should say that uncle Mietek's and my father Mark's cousin Pawel was married to Anna (deceased 3 years ago) and they have 6 children, my second cousins – in order of age-oldest first: 1.Valentina (Vallier-lives in Kovel, has three daughters and one son), 2.Anastasia (Kovel, two sons-inc Vasily and Sergie who also has two young sons called Laddie and Mark), 
3.Leonid (Zablocie-dad's village, one daughter Halia, husband Roma whom we call Tyrone after Tyrone on Corrie-they have two young children), 
4.Vladimir (Lukov), 5.Galina (Slovakia. I talk to her daughter Oksana on FB)  
6.Olga (Kovel, three daughters, Oksana, Masha and Natalie).

So we ended up spending a couple of very pleasant days with Anastasia, Vasily snr, Vasily jnr, Sergie's (he was away working in Slovakia) wife Tatyana and their 2 sons Mark and Ladi. Second cousin, Anastasia was so pleased to see us, her face was beaming when we arrived. We met the chickens-egg layers and meat and looked around the large veg and fruit growing garden. The house amply accommodates all the family and they like to retire to their own rooms in the later part of each evening to chill. We drank vodka with each meal (not breakfast-thankfully) and had many toasts. Vasily snr was knowledgeable on the war period and interesting to speak with, via Google Translate. It was good to hear his take on the situation at the time which really confirmed what I had already researched. He showed great interest in Mark and Mietek's war records. Anastasia cooked the hugest breakfast for us on day one and we had to plead for a smaller breakfast on day 2. Her house has 2 kitchens and all the smelly cooking is done in the basement where she also has a large sewing room with 2 industrial sewing machines where she makes leisure cloths and sells them on the local market. We instantly hit it off as we had textiles in common.  There is also a large pantry where home made pickles and preserves are stored. They were very hospitable and welcoming and we had a lovely time getting to know them. We spent the next day exploring Kovel which has its share of industry but also some pockets of loveliness.

Anastastia

Anastasia with Jim

Olga with her smoke house

Next: Off to stay with Olga, Meesha, Pawel, Mama, and the English speaking Natalie. I have to say that the anticipated language barrier really was not a problem. Vasily and Natalie/Natasha did their best and for the rest we simply used Google Translate. We all got very proficient at using it and whilst sometimes the translation was not quite right it proved humorous and broke down any barriers. Meesha's vodka eased the way and we had quite a laugh. He really is a lovely chap with the hint of a cheeky grin every time he says “Kat, just one more, just a little one”. All the fruit and veg in both homes comes fresh from the garden. The pickles are home made and the mash potato and cabbage divine. We had lots of different fish, mostly smoked which was excellent. The family have a smoker in their garden, as well as chickens and pigs. On introduction to the pig and piglets we were told that mum was being killed the next day when all the family would arrive.

Oksana with child  and hubby, Jim, Kath(me), Valier, Olga, Mama and Pawell

The pig that is now pork

When Jim asked who was killing the pig we were told that Meesha would do it and they butchered it themselves. As veggies, we chose to stay clear of this event but we saw in the background many hours of chopping and the dog was well fed that day, even turned his nose up at my well thought out dog treat pressie!

Arriving that day from Lutsk for the weekend and for the slaughter was daughter Oksana with hubby and toddler son and the third daughter Masha who lives locally. So it was a big family feast and yes, more vodka. We had a really good time with this lovely family.

Olga, Valier and Vasily - The Research Team

The next day we (Olga, a hung over 19 year old Natalie from a night out, Jim and myself) hooked up with Vasily jnr and with Olga's oldest sister Vallier who, prior to moving to Kovel had lived in the villages the longest and knows a lot of people. We headed off to Nudyze where our friend from last year, the village priest who reminds me of the burly Orthodox priest from Fiddler on the Roof, greeted us warmly. Olga and Vallier went through the church records with the priest and they discovered things about their family that they never new. The priest's pretty young daughter had practised her English with us last year and this year she showed great enthusiasm to practice again, fetching her book and learning words from us. She gave me a tour of some of the village and endeavoured to converse. She was charming and quite delightful.

Orthodox village church

We then visited several villages and elderly people, picking brains. The mission of the day was to learn more about the Gigiera's and about Josef Dudek or a potential grandpa. My thinking being that if we got a link to Zotik Gigiera or found out anything about the third brother-Gieorgij, to Mark and Mietek then it might give us a link to mystery grandpa. Olga took some extensive notes. We had amazing experiences seeing the old people on their original land and it was exactly how it would have been in our father's day. We also visited another Orthodox village church and as it was Sunday morning we were invited in. These are all genuine experiences that you don't get when you go on holiday. Nothing touristy, just normal everyday people doing what they do.

We were shown where the windmill near Zablocie stood. It no longer exists but was only a short walk from the village of Zablocie, easy to get to for the young boy Marko when he made visits to what could be his father on several occasions. As things stand at the moment, Josef Dudek the mill owner and father of Ivan the 90 year old we met last year is in the running for the title of grandpa. Ivan has a daughter Nadia, who again this year was away working in Poland on the mushroom farm and a son. Nadia is a good friend of Olga's and so there is a chance that the dna test kit I left behind might get done and you never know!! I must emphasise here that this is pure speculation and we are not out to tarnish any ones reputation or cause distress.

Anyhow, the name Dudek rang a bell with me as it has cropped up before, in Mietek's war records. Zofia Dudek is listed as the mother to Mietek. My mother recalled that Mark had told her that Zotik Gigiera had remarried, probably after the death of Iryna in 1931. At this time Mietek, who lived with him would have been 10 and so it is quite likely that he would call a second wife to his father, ‘mama’. So my guess is (but not proven) that Zofia Dudek was his step mother. Coincidence! Should the dna kit prove a positive (don’t forget, this is a real long shot), then it would mean Mietek probably has a step mother from the Dudek family and Mark had a father from the Dudek family. Should this be the case then there are obviously several possibilities on the Dudek relationships, brother-sister, cousins, husband-wife!!!.  (15/7/20 update:  Zofia Dudek is not Zot's second wife. See details on Mietek's life story for more info.   I do not now know who Zofia Dudek was - mystery to be solved)

On this year's visit to Ivan with Olga and Vasily we established the background of Josef. The old man was quite chatty as he knew Olga well. We confirmed his surname is Dudek or something similar. Bare in mind names changed due to illiteracy. Misspellings occurred. As a young man Josef was in the Army (Conscription at the age of 18 for 3 years or more means they all were and very often they were sent to the furthers reaches of eastern Russia meaning there was little chance of getting home during this time). Josef worked in East Russia/Siberia on border control. Then he was a Cooper, learning his carpentry skills before building the mill. He started building the large mill in 1925 and started milling in 1928. The old man Ivan who was telling the story was coherent and quite positive with his answers. I acknowledge that some things that several of us remember don't concur, like Mark's father being a Cavalry Officer in the Tzar's Army (was there a bit of embellishment or maybe he just owned or rode a horse and riding in the army constituted cavalry in the young boys eyes) and the mention of a Count which I recall as does Boris who tells the story of meeting a lady in the Ukrainian club. She came from the same area and also knew of the Count, and Jim the last of us to hear Mark's stories and clearly remembers the Count being talked about (Is it possible that Joseph was just more wealthy than the rest of the village so they called him the Count). 

Research; About 10-12% of the population at that time were from noble families. A few were very rich, even richer than the Tzar, but many were people who had been given titles and maybe some land for supporting the Tzar or for some good service. The Tzar would no doubt give titles for favours building a class of people to underpin his position. Given the size of Russia and the spread out population he would need a vast number of people to control the underclass. This compared to other European countries where the percentage of nobles was more like 2%. So being a minor noble was not exceptional and it is most probably, given that high percentage of nobles, that there would have been a noble or three of some sort in the area. There is certainly a documented long history of nobles in the nearby town of Luboml i.e. The Count Branicki's and the Kampyoni's who were very wealthy land owners in the town before WW2 and who lived in the Branacki Palace which still exists today, although somewhat the worse for wear.

Our next excursion was a trip to the Museum at Luboml. This is the closest town/city to Mietek's and Mark's villages of Humencie and Zablocie. A little geography and history first: The villages are maybe 5 miles north out of Luboml on dirt roads. Until the end of WW1 the town of Luboml belonged to the Ludmir region, included in the district of Zhitomir, the capital of the Volhynia region (Oblast-like a County). The estimated number of residents until WW1 was 6000, 50% Jews, 45% Ukraines, 5% Polish. It was an important place with its beautiful huge synagogue. A town located on a broad flat plain which spread for miles, covered in thick forest and the lakes in the north bordering on the swamps and forests of Polesia (south-western Belorussia). About 7-9 miles from the city lay the Bug River being the border between Western Ukraine and Poland.

This is the Jewish perspective, pre WW2: Small time farmers came to town, especially on Fair Days to sell produce and the craftsmen in the town sold their wares. The state of farming was backward and primitive compared to other areas of the country. Many villages with smallholdings too small and poor to make a living from, had to take other work and especially so at harvest time when they would travel to other areas to bring in the crops. Much of the village population was illiterate . The city folk, both Jewish and non Jewish saw the farmers as inferior and oafish.

This seems a little harsh. The village folk may not have been scholars but it seems that they were at that time surviving in a very harsh world. Whilst on the surface the various factions appeared to get along with one another, trading and meeting, underlying that we can see the tensions among the different nationalities and religions. When WW1 ended in 1918, fighting broke out between Poland and Soviet Russia. This caused destruction, poverty and ruin. What with war and famine it was not an easy place to live and survive in and even today, having travelled around Ukraine we can see that farming in the south is on a more industrial scale whereas the north appears to be smaller self sufficient farmers and small holdings. However, life in the north is perhaps the way we should be going, with a very healthy and enviable self sufficiency and a different uncommercialized way of  life if our planet is to survive, but alas that's a different avenue and not one I am going down.

Oksana, Kath, Jim

Our translator and friend Oksana from last year also happens to be a historian working as a lecturer along with her husband at Lutsk University and she is the Director of  Tourism at Lutsk. We were so lucky to have her on our side. She knows Yura Finikovsky the Director of Luboml museum and gave me an introduction, so when we turned up, again using Google Translate we were given an old map of Marks and Mietek's villages, some postcards depicting the villages pre WW2, a whole load of text information of Nudyze church and village and there was lots of pictures and interesting information in the museum. He took our photo in the museum and I was able to contribute to the museum with Mark and Mietek's war records and promised to send more info to him. He took us on a guided walk of the town, showing us the site of the castle, the Counts Branicki Palace-still standing but not in good condition, and the site of the old Jewish Synagogue which was in its day a spectacular building but was destroyed by the Russians in WW2. Yura was so helpful. We are now connected by FB which gives me access to the many local photos he publishes, many from pre WW2. On return to Kovel, Pawel and mama were delighted with the postcards and the whole family gathered round to listen to the reading of the village information. Olga was mightily impressed that we had found so much and things that the family did not know even though it was their birth place.

So, have we found out any more over what we discovered last year. Well, we have met and stayed with family that we never knew existed, we have experienced the Ukrainian way of life and seen how it would have been in my father's day and we have discovered more about the local mill owner Josef. We have asked questions and there are notes to follow up on and I have left 2 dna kits behind.

One DNA kit for Nadia, the daughter of Ivan Dudek who is the son of Josef-the mill owner. If she does it then it will prove one way or another whether we are related and if so, what the potential relationship could be. Another interesting thing I discovered from my Ancestry account is that there are a few Dudek's linked to us by DNA who's family originated from Eastern Europe. Now that is interesting although I have been told it is a common name.

One DNA kit for Olga or Anastasia. So, if the dna kit from Nadia proves a negative then we are no further on. But if we have dna from the Rabyj family then we can eliminate anyone related to them on my dna profile. A dna test from one of our relations in Argentina would do this job equally well.

Secondly, if we get dna from Aunty Margaret or even a cousin then we can eliminate anyone related through my mother's lineage i.e. the Folwell's or Thompson's.

So by the process of elimination, this then leaves only those related to us on Mark's father side. A long shot as it relies on the right people having been tested and on them loading their family trees up to Ancestry or another genealogical web site, but its a start. Over time more and more people get tested and even if nothing happens now, there is a hope for the future.

Apart from my paternal Grandmother's family, the Rabyj's whom we now have good family links with and Mark's father's family still being explored, that leaves the Gigiera's. We have proven by dna  that Mietek and Mark had different fathers. It is not conclusive  that Zotik Gigiera was Mieteks father but we have to believe that is true as both Mark and Mietek believed it so and Zotik Gigiera took Mietek to be his son. I can confirm that there are Gigiera's alive today in and around the Luboml and Kovel area's (these can be found on Facebook) and we met an old man who knows some things of them. (15/7/20  update: I have now found and spoken to Zot's grandson in Kovel and he has a granddaughter in Zappillya).  Should my half cousin and his children in Argentina be interested in their family history, then there are definitely Gigiera’s and family history in Ukraine to be discovered.

So back to our trip. We had a fantastic time with our 2 families in Kovel and left with an invitation to Vasily's wedding (when he finds a bride), which if invited at the time, we will go to. Hopefully we have inspired the Rabyj family to research some more and hopefully (keeping my fingers crossed) they will do the dna tests I left behind which is the way forward in my quest to find grandpa. We of course left many invitations for them to visit us. Its possible that some of the younger members might come over, but it is expensive for them. Recently married, (the other) Oksana from Slovakia (second cousin, once removed) has a brother in law in Manchester whom she visits. So Andrew, get ready to touch base with her.

Next off to Lutsk where we had an enjoyable day staying at the Noble Hotel which did a stunning egg florentine breakfast. It was fabulous to meet up with Oksana from last year who had helped reunite our family. She is up there in my list of friends. She greeted us warmly and both Jim and I were really pleased to see her and we were able to fill her in on how far we had got on with our research and thank her for the introduction to Yura from the Luboml Museum. Lutsk is another town steeped in history. It has many churches, catacombes a lovely tourist area, river, park and traditional market. We enjoyed mooching around the untouched parts exploring the older buildings

We made several stops on our way south to the Carpathian Mountains. Each of them bringing new experiences, excellent Ukrainian Beer at £1 a pint and vodka. We had some really good nights out for less than a tenner. A good room in a good hotel, evening meal and breakfast rarely costs more than £30 in total (outside of the major tourist towns), enabling us to stay in some stunning places. Travel by car is difficult at times on dirt roads and I would not go without a good map and a sat nav. However, the challenges add to the journey.

The next major event was at Koropets, a village just east of the Carpathians where Jim's old colleague's family comes from. They lost contact after his father died and he was left with a name and an address but not sure if they matched up. Up a 7 mile dirt road in the middle of nowhere lies this village. Housing an army cadet centre with around 200 cadets, a village school and the locals. To cut a long story short, after calling at the local shop, visiting the village museum and interrupting an English lesson in the school where we were the focus of attention talking to the students and generally rousing the village we met his cousins Meesha and Maria and were invited to their home for a lunch. Another family reunited. Stephan and his brother now have a reason to visit and they are already making their plans for next year.

Koropets

Meesha, Maria, Jim and Museum man

Jim and Meesha

Palace of Count Badeni

We had 3 further stops at Ternopil where we had a fantastic night enjoying good food and sampling different vodka's, Ivano-Frankivs'k and Kolomyja where we had exceptional Ukrainian beer and enjoyed suchi and pitza. Not two things that we would generally put together, but it is standard eating out fare in Ukraine. Cities and towns are all well and good and there's certainly history, local beer and plenty of vodka to be found. But alas, its the mountains that call. These deeply forested hills in the Carpathians have a charm, driving through wooden housed villages. But everywhere there is evidence of expansion. Mountain biking and ski resorts are shooting up and what is now quaint will be lost to tourism and a new wealth. Along the border with Romania evidence of this new wealth with extremely large castle like houses being built. None of them seem particularly lived in or finished off and having asked why they are there and being told its people who live abroad our guess was dodgy money, people needing bolt holes and needing to spread their money about.

Extremely large castle like houses on the border with Romania

Where there's a mountain to climb (metaphorically or in reality) man will climb it and that's why we went up Hoverla. Ukraine's highest mountain. It was a bit of shall we, shan't we as we had been told that snow had arrived and we were ill equipped but then the fabulous hunting lodge we stayed in just happened to be next to the gate to the NP and the way to the bottom of Hoverla. In the morning, the weather was bright and sunny as it had been for the previous few days. The ground was dry so it seemed we had no excuse and although excruciating and slow at high altitude with thin air, walking poles came into their own and actually we had a fabulous day and the views from the top made it the climax of the holiday.

Memory boards from Sybirak's

It was then back to Lviv for a day of tourism.  Having been there last year we chose to do something different and off the beaten track.  I took Jim to a prison where deportees were held prior to being shipped to Siberia.  Very poignant given that this was Mietek's and Marks fate.  In one cell they showed where they had measured, weighed and taken all the details of the deportees.  In another cell there were memory boards from deportees who had survived and who had spent a long time in Siberia (Sybirak's) before being released.  I had read these types of things before in my research.  For Jim this was the first time he was confronted with real live accounts and pictures of people who had endured the horrors of Siberia and who would have been the same age as Mietek and Mark when they were deported.  It was so sad and it brought it home to both of us just how horrific it was.  

So to summarise our trip:  Visiting family was absolutely awesome and I am still blown away by the fact that we have living, breathing family in Ukraine.  Our stay with them was absolutely delightful and I hope to stay in touch with them and you never know they might come here.  Ukraine is a great country to visit.  At the moment it is unspoilt by tourism and so you see it as it has always been. Things are changing and gradually the pretty wooden houses in villages, especially in the south will be replaced with brick and the horse and carts that you spasmodically see will vanish. Big farming is overtaking the small strip farms further south although there is still strong evidence of the strip system especially in the north. Hotels are popping up anywhere that could be remotely touristy and ski villages are emerging in the mountains led by some big corporate names like Hilton. The dirt roads which though challenging lead to remote untouched villages but even here there are the hints of modernisation. Wifi for communication and internet is very good and dare I say it, better than ours in the UK in remote area’s. You can see masts everywhere so coverage is good. I can see that if Ukraine gets into the EC then it will emerge as an inexpensive tourist spot with its beautiful town of Lviv and Kiev both having international airports and the Carpathians being only a couple of hours out of Lviv. Maybe the lakes of Shatsky National Park just a few short miles north of our families villages will bring wealth as well as rapid change. This area already attracts Ukraines who prior to Russian hostilities, used to holiday on the Crimea coast and now choose Shatsky as a holiday destination. Vasily tells me that there is still much corruption and it is this that is holding it back. But, come the EC and things could rapidly change.



Kath Harpley
September 2019