The Carpatho-Rusyns of Pennsylvania

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Press Coverage of October 2015 Presentation in Pittston, Pa.

"The steady morning rain on Saturday, October 3rd did not stop those wishing to learn about their ancestry from attending a very special program hosted by St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church, 205 N. Main Street, Pittston. In fact, quite a few participants made the journey from neighboring states in spite of the weather, including from New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and even Florida. Many came from other parts of Pennsylvania for the program that was held 9 am to 3 pm in the church hall.

Entitled “Celebrating the Present/Understanding the Past”, three speakers were featured. They were sponsored by the Eastern PA Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society: Rich Custer, Dr. Michele Parvensky, and Dr. Peter Yasenchak. All three captivated those in attendance with their expertise of Carpatho-Rusyn history. But they also entertained with their lively presentations."

The Eastern Catholic Life newspaper of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic included a detailed writeup of the program, including some information about yours truly's presentation. (The presentation will be published in online form on this blog in the near future.)

Click to display the complete article.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Johnstown Slavic Festival Presentation: “From the Carpathians to the Alleghenies: Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the Greater Johnstown Area”

The first Johnstown Simply Slavic Festival was held Saturday, September 19, 2015 at the Heritage Discovery Center in Johnstown, Pa. The Carpatho-Rusyn Society provided a Rusyn genealogy/culture display and sales table.

The festival included a speaker program as follows:

Connie Martin: Genealogical Research in Slavic Countries;
Dr. Michael Kopanic: The History of Slovakia;
Susan Kalcik: Kroje Slovenska: Folk Dress and Slovak Identity in the Old and New Worlds;
Bob Rychlik: Demonstration of the Fujara Flute;
Bob Dvorchak: Mike and Annie: A Family History;
Steve Purich: My Experience as a Serbian Immigrant to Johnstown;
Richard Custer: From the Carpathians to the Alleghenies: Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the Greater Johnstown Area.

My presentation was primarily visual, numbering over 180 slides used to tell the story of the development of Carpatho-Rusyn community institutions in the area of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, including northern Cambria County, Somerset County, and parts of Indiana County. Here I present a synopsis of the presentation, and of necessity only a selection of the slides, briefly annotated for the online viewer's aid in following the presentation without my original verbal explanation.

Synopsis:
Carpatho-Rusyns first settled the Johnstown area in 1887 and began to establish their own churches and other institutions. Other Rusyn immigrant centers quickly developed: Barnesboro, Patton, Windber, South Fork, Conemaugh, Portage, and beyond, with thousands of Rusyn immigrants making this area their home, and making up a strong part of the workforce of the local steel mills and coal mines.

The Kubek Project & the first West End Walking Tour of Mahanoy City

A new website is the home of The Emil Kubek Project, "a scholarly resource dedicated to researching and publishing the history of the Slavic and Eastern European communities in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region. ...The project is named in honor of Father Emil Kubek (1857-1940), a resident of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, who was an amateur agronomist, accomplished lexicographer, beloved priest, and prolific writer of journalism, poetry, short stories, and the first Carpatho-Rusyn novel... As a prominent cultural and spiritual leader of the Carpatho-Rusyn community in Mahanoy City, Father Kubek exemplified the qualities of a humanist in every sense of the word. As such, the Emil Kubek Project embodies the spirit of its namesake by providing insight into the art, economics, history, literature, and religion of the Coal Region’s Slavic and Eastern European immigrant communities and their enduring legacy today."

The Kubek Project invites the public to join them on November 22, 2015 for the first ever West End Walking Tour of Mahanoy City:

Monday, October 19, 2015

"Independent" Rusyn Cemeteries

On a seasonal theme... (Happy Halloween!)
Rusyn cemeteries provide some of the most lasting and informative evidence of the characteristics and personalities of a given Rusyn immigrant settlement. In Pennsylvania, the large majority of Rusyn churches have their own cemeteries. In urban areas like Philadelphia, Erie, and Johnstown, large Catholic or nonsectarian cemeteries serve alongside or instead of parish cemeteries as the final resting place of many Rusyn immigrants. And parish histories typically describe the establishment of a cemetery, or at least the year the land was purchased.

However, there is a third category of Rusyn cemetery whose history can be difficult to document. These are "independent" cemeteries founded by Rusyn immigrants and/or their children, usually in rural areas not directly served by a Rusyn church, but not exclusively so.

(this section updated 10/20/15)
I'm aware of at least 7 independent Rusyn (/Russian/Ukrainian) cemeteries that exist apart from any church, in Pennsylvania:

Ss. Peter & Paul Cemetery in Duryea, Luzerne Co.
(chartered as St. Peters Russian Greek Catholic Cemetery Association of Duryea in 1914)
Ss. Peter & Paul Eastern Greek Catholic Cemetery in Freeland, Luzerne Co.
(chartered as St. Peter & St. Paul Eastern Greek Catholic Cemetery of Freeland in 1935)
St. Nicholas Russian Greek Catholic Cemetery in Nicholson (Starkville), Wyoming Co.
St. Mary's Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Pittsfield, Warren Co. (mainly Ukrainians are buried there, though)
Carpathian Russian Greek Orthodox Cemetery in Pleasant Mount, Susquehanna Co.
St. Mary's Russian Cemetery in Thompson, Susquehanna Co.
Saints Cyril & Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery of the Postupack Families Association in Weatherly, Carbon Co.

Also in Edwardsville (Luzerne Co.) and Catasauqua (Lehigh Co.), there were de facto Russian Orthodox parish cemeteries actually owned by fraternal lodges, not the parish, that were eventually sold to the local parish. When ownership was transferred, the name of the Edwardsville cemetery (located in Pringle) was actually changed -- from St. Nicholas (the name of the society that owned it) to St. John the Baptist (the name of the parish).

Despite dwindling attendance, area Ukrainian Catholic churches vibrant (news story)

Despite dwindling attendance, area Ukrainian Catholic churches vibrant
By Paul Golias, Correspondent
Citizens Voice (Wilkes-Barre, PA), October 5, 2015

At 8 a.m. every Sunday, Mickey Kmietowicz of Glen Lyon unlocks the doors to St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, nestled at the base of a mountain at the entrance of the Glen Lyon section of Newport Township.

Parishioners begin to trickle in and soon the pastor, the Rev. John Seniw, arrives following a drive from Berwick where he also serves as pastor of SS. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church.

By 8:30, Kmietowicz has lighted the candles and some 45 parishioners celebrate the Divine Liturgy. A choir of four people sings a cappella. As per Ukrainian tradition, there is no organ.

Within minutes of the service ending, the collection is tallied in the church hall. The pastor meets briefly with a few parishioners. By 10, the church is closed and it will remain closed until the following Sunday, barring a church event or a funeral.

This is life in a small Eastern rite parish. These churches remain viable and even vibrant with diminished numbers because the faithful refuse to quit.

“The church has been our whole life. As we grew up, it was all based on that,” Kmietowicz said.

Author Receives Seton Shields Genealogy Grant to Support Research

Renowned professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak administers a grant program, the Seton Shields Genealogy Grant. I am thrilled to say that I am one of the grantees for Q3 2015:

Rich Custer has invested a couple of decades traveling around gaining access to Rusyn records that would otherwise vanish, so he’s an amazing gift to the Carpatho-Rusyn community. The grant will assist with costs associated with a week-long research trip to archives in eastern Pennsylvania and northeastern New Jersey. Rich’s aim is to provide detailed accounts of the development of all Carpatho-Rusyn (and related) immigrant communities in Pennsylvania, based substantially on primary sources, and to describe the patterns of chain migration in each place (and by extension, within the state and in other Rusyn communities in the U.S.), thus aiding genealogists to trace the movement of their families and relatives or fellow villagers.

I hope to make this research trip in November, if all the pieces fall into place. The trip will include 1-to-2-day-long visits to these institutions:

Eparchy of Passaic Heritage Institute (Woodland Park, NJ)
Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center of New Jersey (Somerset, NJ)
St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary Library (South Canaan, PA)
Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

Many thanks to Megan Smolenyak and the Seton Shields Genealogy Grant program for helping to make this possible! Folks undertaking all kinds of genealogy-related work can apply for this grant at Megan's website.

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

Friday, September 25, 2015

Author to speak in Pittston, Pa. on Saturday, October 3, 2015

On Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015, I will be on the speaking program when the Carpatho-Rusyn Society's Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter holds a day-long seminar at St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in Pittston, Pa.

“Celebrating Our Past, Understanding Our Future” will run from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Church, 205 N. Main St., Pittston. It’s free, but advance registration is requested.

Presentations will be as follows:

9 a.m.: Michele Parvensky, "Staryj Kraj – the Old Country;"
10:45 a.m.: Rich Custer, "The Greater Pittston Area and St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church: A Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrant Hub of the Wyoming Valley;"
1:30 p.m.: Peter Yasenchak, "The Richness of our Coal Fields and the Ancestors who Toiled in Them."

A light lunch and a tour of St. Michael’s is available. Register by phone at 570-654-4564 or online at stmichaelsbcc@outlook.com. Include the word “register” in the message or subject line. List your name, the number of people who will attend and a contact phone number.

Links: