Mr. Thomas A. Peters is a certified professional genealogist who specializes in, among other things, Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry and the history of Carpatho-Rusyns in northern New Jersey. He was interviewed in March 1995 by Susyn Y. Mihalasky, a staff writer with Karpatska Rus', the Yonkers-based Lemko Rusyn newspaper. This article is copyright © 1995 by Carpatho-Rusyn American Magazine and S. Mihalasky. Any unauthorized use is prohibited.
Mr. Peters, please tell us something about your own ethnonational heritage and how you first became interested in genealogical research.
On my father's side, I am Acadian French, Irish, and Scottish. On my mother's side, I am Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn. I have been able to trace my Acadian ancestry to the early 1600s; my Scots ancestry to about the late 1700s, and my Irish ancestry to about 1830. With the assistance of the archive in Prešov, my Hirkala/Kaámar Slovak ancestry has thus far been traced to the early 1800s. My Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry is stalled with the names of my great-grandparents: Vasyl and Hafija (Geggyo) Kovach, both from Packan'ovo in the former Bereg county, Transcarpathia. I expect records to be available for Transcarpathia within the next few years as a result of recent microfilming in Ukraine by the Genealogical Society of Utah (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormon Church).
Actually, I got started in genealogy by hearing stories about my wife's ancestry from her late grandmother. She was always telling stories about her grandfather who was an early iron miner in Morris county, New Jersey. I decided one day to try to find out more about these miners. I used the United States Federal Censuses to verify their occupations, the names of children, birthplaces, etc. I soon knew more about my wife's family than they did. My wife, Jessica, became interested as well. This all began in 1980. We are now both professional genealogists. I work as a freelancer specializing in German, Slovak, Polish, and Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry. My wife works for the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark as the staff genealogist. Of course, both of us are so involved now in helping others that we rarely get time to work on our own family histories.
Tell us something about genealogy, your methodology, and the tools you use as a genealogist. If I come to you with a confused "not-this-not-that, Carpathian-something, Russian-but-not-Russian" heritage and one or two family or place names on an old yellowed, illegible letter, what do you do? How do you start?
First of all, if you come to me bearing tales of a confused or a negative identifier heritage (not Polish, not Slovak), then I know that you are Carpatho-Rusyn. I have helped hundreds of individuals with their genealogical research as a volunteer librarian at the Family History Library of the Mormon church in North Caldwell, New Jersey. The only persons that relate to me a sense of confused heritage are the Rusyns. Hopefully, after I have cleared up their sense of confusion, we can proceed with identifying sources of information to assist them in their research.
Initially, I ask people to provide me with the vital statistics on themselves. You should always begin research with yourself and work backwards. I would of course, ask his/her birthdate and birthplace; the names of his/her parents, including maiden name of the mother; their places and dates of birth; their marriage date and place; their places and dates of death and places of burial. I continue this process until we reach backwards to the immigrant ancestors.
The more information that the person has, the easier it is to do the research. It is very important to have the names of the places where the immigrant and his family lived. Records in the United States are generated in these places. I will check the United States Federal Censuses taken in 1920, 1910, 1900, and 1880. Our Carpatho-Rusyn ancestors began coming to the United States about 1880 or later. Sometimes, I will check the New Jersey State Censuses taken in 1885, 1895, 1905, and 1915. New York had censuses as well in 1905, 1915, and 1925. These censuses place our ancestors in their ethnic neighborhoods, particularly in the industrial cities of the northeastern seaboard.
I also ask if the immigrant male became a U.S. citizen, since this engenders naturalization records which can provide an array of useful data including birthplaces, birthdates of the immigrant, his wife, his children, when he/she came to America, and the name of the ship and date of arrival.
If the immigrant was in the U.S. prior to the First World War, I check for a World War I draft registration card. At that time all males, whether citizen or alien, were required to register for the draft. I check Passenger Arrival Records in the port of New York, especially in the period 1897-1943, which has an index. Depending upon the time period, the manifests can list the last place of residence in Europe and/or the birthplace, age, sex, marital status, personal description, place of settlement in the United States, and names of next of kin in Europe.
Byzantine Catholic or Russian Orthodox registers almost always give the ancestral village in Europe in marriage, baptismal, and death registers. They are the best record source in the United States for determining ancestral village names. I check the civil registers of births, marriages, and deaths in New Jersey, New York, or wherever the persons lived. I bear in mind the fact that many immigrant births were unrecorded. That is why ethnic church records are so important in chronicling our ancestry in the United States.
I also ask my clients if they have any documents which their immigrant ancestors may have brought with them to the United States. Frequently, these documents are abstracts of baptismal and marriage records given to them by priests before they left Europe. Many immigrants also wrote home to their priests to obtain these documents. Often descendants do not realize that these precious papers contain information that is vital to them in their ancestral search. These documents can be written in Latin, Hungarian, or Slavic Cyrillic. They are important to your research because our ancestors sometimes came from small villages that did not have their own parishes. In such circumstances, our ancestors were likely to have worshipped at the next largest village.
Once I have ascertained the following information, I can begin to perform research in European records (provided that they are available to me):
1. The full name of the immigrant ancestor that he/she received at birth. For example: Vasyl Takach, not "Bill" Takach.
2. The religion. If we are dealing with an immigrant born prior to 1900, this will always be Greek Catholic. If we are dealing with a 20th century birth, the person could be Orthodox as well.
3. An approximate date of birth—at least the year.
4. The name of the ancestral village. No research can be performed without the village name.
5. The names of the immigrant's brothers and sisters. A surname may be very common in the ancestral village and the siblings' first names might be the only way of distinguishing a particular family from related families of the same surname.
Can you share with us any "good stories" of a particular genealogical search that called for especially challenging or improvized "detective work"?
Most immigrant research of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is straightforward. My clients may already know the ancestral village name. This is the most critical piece of information that I need to begin a European search. The only problem that might come up is the fact that a particular immigrant ancestor may have been illegitimate.
We should remember that those who came before us were not always saints and may have lived in crowded homes while serving as servants. Temptation was always there! If you are pursuing your family history, you must be prepared for this eventuality. Few families can escape this problem. You are no less a person because of something your ancestor did!
What special difficulties or unique aspects are there that set genealogical research on Lemkos and other Rusyns apart from research on other groups?
If you are researching your Lemko heritage, it can be simple or it can be quite complex. Greek Catholic Church records were maintained in Galicia from probably the early 1700s. Copies of church records were maintained from 1784 on and served as civil records of birth, marriage, and death. The problem is that no one seems to have definitive information regarding the location of church records maintained by the Byzantine Catholics and the more numerous Orthodox churches.
Operation "Vistula," the forcible relocation of the Lemkos to western and northern Poland, is the culprit. The people of an entire region were physically uprooted. Where were the church records sent? Some may have been taken to the new localities by the priests. Some may have been turned over to Roman Catholic priests in Poland for safekeeping. Perhaps some are in church archives such as in Przemysl.
Additionally, civil records offices called USC (Urzád Stanu Cywilnego), have vital statistics for each town. There should have been records from at least the mid-nineteenth century down to 1947, at the time of the relocation. I would think that these records should have been sent to a Polish archive or some other type of repository.
The Mormon Church has microfilmed Greek Catholic church records for about 60 Lemko villages out of a possible 300 or so. These 60 villages may have a partial series of records. For example: Komancza has excellent records from about 1764 to the 1880s. The town of Tylawahas birth records only for the period 1831-1855. They are quite remarkable birth records, though, in that they give information on up to four generations!
To use these records, you would probably have to know the name of your great-grandfather born prior to 1855. More records are constantly being "discovered" in archives and local registry offices. An inquiry to the Polish State Archive in Warsaw can be made to determine what, if any, records are available for research on your Lemko families. I suspect that Greek Catholic records for the Lemko Region may be found among the holdings of the Ukrainian State Archives in L'viv or Kiev. This will become known in the next few years as microfilming in Ukraine proceeds. There may be census or other records that can be consulted in local Polish archives—particularly the archive in Rzeszów. An inquiry there can determine their record holdings.
Descendants of Rusyns from the Prešov Region in Slovakia have an easier time in researching their ancestry. As far as I am aware, all Rusyn parishes there have at least some records available. These records may begin as early as 1727 in Kojsov or as late as 1885 in Miková, the birthplace of Andy Warhol's parents.
These church records are housed in the state archives in Levoãaand Prešov and have been microfilmed by the Mormon Church. They should be available to the public sometime this year. You will have to go to a Family History Library of the Mormon Church. For instance, there is one located at 125 Columbus Avenue, opposite Lincoln Center, in New York City (telephone: 1-212-873-1690). Mormon or LDS Family History Libraries are also located in many other cities in the United States. Check your yellow pages under Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Anyone can use their libraries. You can order microfilm at a cost of $3.00 per roll. Most records will be in Latin with occasional entries in Hungarian or Slavic Cyrillic.
The Rusyns of Transcarpathia, Ukraine will have a chance to research their ancestry within the next year or so. Microfilming of church records is a priority. You can also visit the archives in Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and attempt to do the research yourself.
Are people with a more complex heritage or who are often confused about their heritage—like Carpatho-Rusyns—more likely to become genealogists?
There is no doubt in my mind that doing one's genealogy enables one to understand oneself better. I did an oral history interview with my aunt who is now 81 years old. The more that I learned about my Slovak grandfather, the more I felt that I really had many of his characteristics. He was very soft spoken and calm. He did not raise his voice often. He left the children's disciplining to his wife. He was a man of few words. He knew who he was. His daughter in anger once said to him: "Papa, who do you think you are?" He said: "I'm me. Who are you?" Today everyone is looking to discover who they are, but he already knew.
The descendants of Carpatho-Rusyns are starting to discover that they can learn much about their family heritage. They are discovering that not all of the records were lost during World War II. They are seeking their heritage along with other "ethnic" Americans.
Would you tell us about any research projects you have undertaken which were/are specifically related to Carpatho-Rusyns?
I am always working on some type of Rusyn project. I have compiled a partial list of Rusyn and Slovak residents of Passaic, New Jersey who registered for the draft during World War I. I noted only those who cited a specific village of origin. This list comprises about 300 men.
I am working on three projects now: the first is a listing of all of the residents of Passaic county, New Jersey who came from Austria-Hungary and who became citizens during the period 1875-1906. In this survey, I will identify Rusyns who became citizens during this time period and should find Slovaks and Jews, as well.
I am also compiling a list of all Christian given names that appear in Rusyn or Rusyn-American church baptismal records. Most of these names are in Latin. I will attempt to provide Rusyn Cyrillic cursive script examples as well as printed Cyrillic transcriptions and English language translations. Some of our Rusyn given names are unusual and are not found in any standard texts. Of course, this will be most helpful to those doing genealogical studies, particularly those of us who do not know the language.
I have also been transcribing the baptisms and marriages from the registers of Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church in Passaic. This church was established by former members of St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church in Passaic who were dissatisfied with the actions of their priest. The parish was Greek (Byzantine) Catholic from 1902-1909. In 1909, it became an Orthodox Church as a result of parishioner dissatisfaction in connection with the trusteeship struggle with the Latin-rite hierarchy as well as the celibacy issue. The parishioners of this church were Lemkos from Galicia and Rusyns primarily from the Prešov Region. Occasionally, there are entries for Transcarpathian immigrants and also people from the more southwestern counties of Borsod and Abaúj. I intend to transcribe the period from 1902 to maybe 1915. The families will be reconstructed from the registers. I may also write a short history of the church along with the family data. I have newspaper articles pertaining to the church as well. Eventually, I hope to elicit the cooperation of St. Michael's Byzantine Catholic Cathedral in allowing me to access data on their early families, particularly for the period 1890-1902.
In this manner, I will have accumulated data on the early Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants in the city of Passaic. I will then be able to illustrate where in the homeland these immigrants originated, how they were related to one another, and so on.
Finally, what kind of assistance or advice can you offer Carpatho-Rusyn root searchers?
You must be persistent in your search. You must seek alternative record sources if the church books are "lost." You can always research your entire family, that is, not only your grandparents, but their brothers and sisters, and trace their families down to the present. This is your extended network of families.
Last but not least, you owe it to your children and grandchildren to put down in writing or on tape your own memories of your childhood, stories about your parents, grandparents, and other relatives. This is not difficult to do. If you do not write down these thoughts for your offspring, our culture will eventually be totally assimilated. Perhaps you are aware of your heritage, but are the younger members of your family aware of it? Be proud of your heritage! You are truly one of the unique ethnic groups in the United States and the world!
Mr. Peters offers a slide lecture, "Researching the People From 'No-Mans Land': The Carpatho-Rusyns of Austria-Hungary," which he is willing to present to any group that requests it. The lecture covers basics, including an introduction to the Rusyn people themselves and to record sources in the United States and Europe. Readers interested in arranging for a presentation, or in procuring Mr. Peter's genealogical services may contact him at: Thomas A. Peters, C.G.R.S., 59 Tracy Avenue, Totowa, New Jersey 07512-2041; tel. 1-201-790-5053.
Susyn Y. Mihalasky, Clifton, New Jersey
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