Project Status

As of late Autumn 2021, my fieldwork task list includes the following.

• The parishes to whose metrical records I am still trying to arrange research access are:
• Saint Clair - St. Nicholas and (now closed) Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic;
• Berwick - Ss. Cyril & Methodius Ukrainian Catholic;
• Lykens - Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox (recently closed);
  
• Philadelphia - St. Andrew Russian Orthodox;
• Chester - St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox;
• Bethlehem - St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox;
• Jerome - (the former) St. Mary Russian Orthodox;
• McKeesport - St. Mary Russian Orthodox [the pastor agreed but I have not yet been able to schedule a visit].

• I anticipate a return trip to an archive in New Jersey (Woodland Park) I’ve previously visited.
• There are two county courthouses (Allegheny, Westmoreland) from which I hope to get copies of church and organization/lodge charters.
• There are a few extant photographs in various people’s possession I hope to scan.
• I am reviewing the body of Rusyn/Ukrainian/Russian immigrant newspapers I have gathered from microfilm or in hard copy and sorting articles/letters from them as much as possible into the appropriate community.

I'm now building an archive of photographs from my digital scans so as to be able to edit/process them and catalog them for search and selection purposes. I am also continuing to build a database of fraternal benefit society (and similar organization) lodges. I also started creating a database of immigrant businesses so as to be able to "reconstruct" (map) the local Rusyn / East Central European immigrant neighborhoods. And with the help of two research assistants, I've got a still-growing database of information from naturalization documents to aid in mapping and chain migration analysis.

Nearly two years after the start of the pandemic, whether because of or despite it, it's surprising to me how little the above has actually changed.

How can you get involved?

Anticipating that the above tasks and the writing itself may take several more years, I need to accelerate the search for several individuals who will be key to producing the best book possible.

• Cartographer: to prepare maps of Pennsylvania, especially very localized maps showing the main settlement and associated locales with important geographic and transportation features, as well as homeland maps showing the villages/village clusters represented in a given community.
• Graphic designer / page layout & publishing specialist: to design the basic page format and then to lay out the text and images to create proofs; to prepare additional non-photo images where needed.

If you are one of the above and want to be a part of making this project into something real, please contact me at rusynsofpa (at) gmail (dot) com. (There is no funding available to begin working now, but there should be at some point in the future. Expressions of interest now are welcome!)

Several individuals have already graciously volunteered their time and talents to assist me when the time comes:

• Two professional writers/editors have volunteered to read and review the manuscript.
• Two individuals, one a subject matter expert and another an American of Pennsylvania Carpatho-Rusyn heritage, have volunteered to read and react to the manuscript.
• A photographer/photo editing specialist has volunteered to prepare photographs for publication.
• A cartographer/GIS specialist has expressed interest in the above map creation work.
• Two research assistants have entered data from several thousand naturalization documents into a spreadsheet. Another research assistant is entering data from deceased member listings of several fraternal organizations.
  

For these and others who have come forward with assistance, I am very thankful.

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And of course, how to pay for all this? I hope to write at least one set of grant applications to assist with the production and publication, but I also hope to find additional funding to assist me to complete the research and writing.

In September 2015 I received a Seton Shields Genealogy Grant, administered by renowned professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak. The grant funding supported a week-long research trip to several archives and libraries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to gather some additional materials for the book. Many thanks to Megan and her excellent grant program!

After assisting two individuals with their genealogy queries after my recent presentation about my book at the CGSI conference, they sent me donations toward my book in appreciation.

If you can assist with further funding in some way, please contact me at rusynsofpa (at) gmail (dot) com.

As things progress and the above-mentioned tasks are completed, this post will be updated.
(Last update: 12/8/21)

Original material is © by the author, Richard D. Custer; all rights reserved.