Discovering My Roots

The Importance of Using Gazetteers - Part Two

12 February 2009 - More on 2009 Tour

How I Describe My Father’s and Grandfather’s Village, as Gleaned from the Gazetteers

My Grandfather, Stepan Ihnatovich Onyschuk , was born in the village of Szydlowce (today called Shydlivtsi), on December 9, 1869. My Grandmother, Teklia Petrivna Szklar was born in the nearby village of Sydorow (Sydoriv) on February 17, 1874.

Stepan’s village of Shydlivtsi in 1880 had 1,012 inhabitants living in 178 houses built alongside the Zbrucz River valley. There was a manor estate with 37 inhabitants living in 5 buildings. The river served as the border between Russia, on the east bank and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the west bank. On the river was a water-mill. The village also had a one-room public school serving the elementary school years.

One household (the nobility in the manor estate) owned 92 morgs (122 acres), which was 49.8% of the arable land; 26 morgs (35 acres), which was 25.7% of the meadows and orchards; 10 morgs (13.25 acres), which was 38.5% of the pastures and 457 morgs (606 acres) forests, which was 100% of the forests. The remaining 975 peasants, living in 173 peasant households shared 93 morgs (123 acres), which was 50.2 % of the arable land, 75 morgs (100 acres), whch was 74.3% of the meadows and orchards and 16 morgs (21 acres), which was 61.5% of the pastures.

Stepan’s share was that he owned 1.1 morg or one-quarter of an acre of land and along with the other peasants would have to buy all his firewood and lumber off the nobleman at the manor estate.

Stepan was one of the 928 Ruthenians (Ukrainians) living in the village. There were also 121 Poles. The Greek Catholic Church in Shydlivtsi was called St. Nicolaus and had 782 parishioners. It also served as the parish for the nearby village of Zielona. The 242 Roman Catholics parishioners would attend the Roman Catholic Church in nearby Sydorow. This church was erected in 1784. The Synagogue in Husiatyn would serve Shydlivtsi’s 21 Jews.

The nearby village of Husiatyn, 7 kilometers to the north, served as the powiat (county capital). In Husiatyn there were the district court, the railway station, and the post and the telegraph offices. To the west and the north-west of Szydłowce lay Sidorow, to the north lay Trojanowka (part of the village Suchodoł), to the east and the south lay Krykow.

My father, Antin Stepanovich Onyschuk was born on February 13, 1912 in house #16 in Shydlivtsi. He was the second youngest of seven boys, born to Stepan Onyschuk and Telia Szklar. The seven brothers from oldest to youngest were Semko (Sam), Ivan (John), Mykhailo (Michael), Petro (Peter), Pavlo (Paul), Antin (Tony) and Mykola (Nicholas).

In 1907, when the Onyschuk sons were growing up, the village would occupy 122 hectors (305 acres) of land. There were 213 homes (up from 178 in 1880), a Greek Catholic Church and an elementary school. From 1880 to 1907, the population had slowly grown from 1,012 to 1,135, consisting of 554 males and 581 females. The colloquial speech was 239 Polish-speaking (up from121 in 1880) and 893 Ukrainian-speaking (down from 928 in 1880). There were 207 Roman Catholic parishioners (down from 242 in 1880), 901 Greek Catholic parishioners (up from 782 in 1880) and 27 Jews (up from 21 in 1880). The village had five constables to keep the peace, among the about 220 adult males.

In the village and surrounding farmlands there were 170 horses, 372 cattle, 19 sheep and 214 pigs. There were, on the whole 468 hectors (1170 acres) of land with 431 taxable hectors (1078 acres), 312 hectors (780 acres) of fields, 0.07 hectors (2 acres) of meadows, 16 hectors (40 acres) of gardens, 44 hectors (110 acres) of hills and 52 hectors (130 acres) of forest. There was 1 greatland property and no factories.

The postal, telegraph and telephone office was in Husiatyn. The railroad station was a distance of 9 kilometers in Husiatyn. The nearest bus line was 10 kilometers distance in Husiatyn-Kopyczynce. The city court was in Husiatyn and the district court was in Czortkow(Chortkiv).

During this period, the County of Husiatyn had a population of 98,196. There were 93 German-speaking; 39,198 Polish-speaking (40 %); 58,881 Ukrainian-speaking (60 %) and 24 Other-speaking. The total population by religion was 93,854 of which, 24,649 (26 %) were Roman Catholic; 56,596 (60 %) were Greek Catholic; 12,573 (13 %) were Jewish and 36 were listed as ‘Other.’

By consulting these gazetteers, I now have a general description of the village in which my father and his parents lived

Part 3—Questions That the Gazetteers Raise

The material gleaned from the Gazetteers answer a lot of questions and gives a demographic description of the village. The material also gives rise to many questions, which were not covered. The next time I visit the village I will be asking a lot of questions, the answers to which will give me a much better idea of what it was like growing up in Szydlowce (Shydlivtsi).

Religion-based questions

• Was there any tension between the Greek and Roman Catholics and Jews?

• How many attended each church?

• Was there much intermarriage between the religions?

School-related questions

• Where was the school situated?

• Up to what grade?

• Up to what age was it compulsory?

• What curriculum was taught and in what language?

• Was there a library?
  

Military-related questions

• At what age were many they conscripted?

• Could some be exempted?

• Did many villagers become casualties?

Who was the manor head?

• Was he Polish or Austrian?

• What would he charge for purchasing wood?

• How were field workers paid?

• Did he treat people well?

Were there tradesmen? Doctor?

• Were there tradesman who made shoes, tailored, black-smithed?

• Was there a doctor available?

• Where was the nearest hospital?

Crops grown?

• What were the main crops that were grown?

• Were any sold outside the village?

• Who ran the mill? What villages did it serve?

Age demographics

• What were the main age groups?

History of the village

• Has a history of the village been written?

• What were key events for the village?

• Was there a store?

• Was there a tavern?

• Who owned it?