After many years of researching my roots in Halychyna/Eastern Galicia and
using genealogical software programs to do so, I have come up with a structured
technique. Of course, you do not have to use my technique in order to keep
track of your own records and genealogy. However, I do ask that you do the
following three things:
- Choose a technique that works for you. Most likely, you will develop
a system over a period of time.
- Whatever technique you choose, make sure that you follow it throughout your
project. So long as there is order and consistency, both you and your
readers will be able to follow your work.
- At least read through my page below. Even if you do not adopt each and
every step, you will get ideas and thoughts that will help you. I
include not only my preferences, but also many variations, from which you can
decide.
First Names
I’d like to use the full name in the native language of the ancestor. Since
my family is of mixed ethnicity and religion, I have adopted the following
naming scheme.
For those baptized Roman Catholic, I give Polish first name.
For those baptized Ukrainian Catholic, I give Ukrainian first name.
I know that there were Ukrainians who considered themselves Roman Catholic
(called latynyky) and Poles who considered themselves Greek Catholic.
However, without proper documentation regarding the individual’s ethnicity, I
use this general rule.
In my software, program, I’ve assigned Alternate Name Fields for the Latin
equivalent. This way someone without a foreign language background or someone
who was not aware of the policies of the record keepers would be able to
identify the correct person in connection with the correct Latin language
document.
Whenever I produce a report of my data for someone not familiar with Slavic
languages, I give them a brief explanation of the Slavic sound systems in the
case of Polish and Ukrainian. This helps them read and correctly pronounce
such names as "Szczepan", "Krzysztof" and "Kayetan".
Visit my page on Common First Names for a list
of some names translated from Latin into Polish and Ukrainian.
Other methodologies
Below are some other methodologies that you may consider. Please note
that I have pointed out these methodologies' disadvantages.
Using the Latin name:
Although this would make your listing consistent with the Latin language
document, it loses the realistic point of our ancestry. Latin was used in the
records since it was the language of the predominate church of the empire. The
forms and language was made consistent by the multinational Empire to avoid
nationalistic disturbances and expand on the readability of such documents
throughout the Empire. These Latin spellings of the names carried no
significance in the day to day life of your ancestor.
Using English:
This method may appear to be the easiest because the names would be familiar
and easy to pronounce (at first, you know). However, like with the case with
Latin, these ancestors, including the record keeping priests, would not have
known the English equivalents. Many names don’
Last Names
Last names are more difficult to resolve than first names. I’ve personally
chosen to use the Polish spelling. This was done for the following reasons:
- I avoid confusion of various Ukrainian transliteration schemes:
Matvijchuk, Matvichuk, Matviychuk
- Most of my ancestors were Polish, about 65%.
- The parish priest, though assigning Latin first names, used Polish spelling
for last names.
- I’ve chosen the proper Polish spelling for my software program. If the priest
used a variation spelling, I put that in the Variant Name Field
Majewski (proper), Majeski (variation)
Drabczak (proper), Drapczak (variation)
- I started to use the same methodology adopted for First Names for the Last
Names. However, I immediately came up against serious problems and
complications:
Daughters raised the faith of the mother carried a different last name than
the father if the parents were of mixed faiths.
Father Ivan Havryshko (Greek Catholic) and wife Anna Hawryszko (Roman
Catholic)
daughter is Maria Hawryszko, (Roman Catholic), so last name is Polish
spelling
This caused confusion in searching the database for the individual by
surname. Every time I had to search for someone, I had to look up by both the
Polish and the Ukrainian spelling rules.
Examples:
Baluczynski and Baluchynsky
Olejnik and Oleynyk
Of course, if you’re family is predominately either Polish or Ukrainian, you
can settle on one of the languages and simply make an Alternate Name Tag for
those not following the normal pattern. For my family, which is so mixed, I’ve
adopted the above system that may work for you too.
