•eu- good/well
•dokeo - to think, to judge, intend
•Eudokia (in Polish) Dunja, Dosja and Jovka are popular diminutive forms in Polish
•Ewdokia (Ukrainian), Evka is diminutive form
•Yevdokiya (Russian)
Photo taken in 1986
Ewdokia Wachalivska Kaczmar was born in Javirnyk (Jawornik in Polish) near Sanok. This was in the great Austrian province of Galicia. After WWI, this territory was given to Poland. The major part of Galicia was Ukrainian. Great, great, great grandpa, Ivan (or Stephen Wachalivski), was mayor 3 times because he was smart, and probably, because he founded the village. I speculate that he was on good terms with the nobility or rulers, that he was allowed to pick his land. There was hunting in the woods, the water was clean and delicious; and he decided this was the perfect spot to build his home. Thereafter, the house was always numbered 1.
It was a big house; the roof was thatched with straw. Ironically, other wealthier homes with tin roofs were the first to be appropriated by the invading armies for their own homes and offices. Ivan (or Stephen Wachalivski) had lots of fields which provided him a wealthy lifestyle.
The Wachalivskis bred too many children and with each successive generation, the land kept getting subdivided until each parcel became too small to support the growing families. Wachalivski forefathers
Ivan Wachalivski, born 1754
Stefan Wachlivski, born 1790
Joseph Wachlivski, born 1812
Stefan Wachlivski, born 1859
Nicholas (Mikolay) Wachlivski, born 1891
About
Ivan Wachalivski
Ivan
(Iwan or Johannes) Wachalivski/Wachalowski was born in ?1754 in Javirnyk, married
to a Maria ? Bojilko / Boitki/ Bojoka / Boitko / Borielbi / Boriellei from Komancza.
Ivan died in 1796 at age 42. I believe he was the one who founded Javirnyk. In
house #1, Ivan & Maria
had the following sons:
Joannes (born 1786); Theodor (born 1789); Stefan (born 1790); and maybe more.
About
Stefan Wachalivski
Stephanus was born
in house #1 in Javirnyk on 1790. Stephan married Maria Medwid / Medwidivna (of
Dolzyca) on 1812. He was a large landowner and a molinaris (a miller). He died
in 1847 at 57 years old in house #59.
His wife, Maria Medwid, was born in 1794 in Dolzyca, Austria (daughter of Fedor) and died in 1842 at 48 years old. Together, Stefan and Maria had 10 children:
Joseph (born 1813); Theodoro (born 1815); Basilus (born 1819); Onufrius (born 1821); Anoseas (born 1826); Theodora Fenna (born 1828 - a New Year baby); Michael (born 1831); Anna (born ?); Magdalena (born 1835) and Joannes (born 1840).
Born 1813 in house #1, Joseph married at age 20 to Tecla Chalupa (age 14, born 1818 daughter of Elias Chalupa and Maria Kocan Ferenica). Joseph and Tecla had the following 10 children:
Stephanus (born 1839 - died at 5 months); Maria (born: 1840); a second Maria (born & died same day 1843); Anna (born 1844); Catharina (born 1848); Ewdokia (born 1850); Katharina (born 1853); Anastasia (born 1856); a second Stephan (1859); and a third Maria (born 1864)
About
Stefan Wachalivski 1859
Stefan Wachalivski was born 1859. He married
Maria had a son Nicholas. Stefan died approx 1905.
About
Nicholas / Mikolai Wachalivski
Mikolai, Ewdokia's father was born in 1891,
married to Maria Hrychko/Hryczkow (born 1883; died in 1920 at 37 years old).
Nicholas and his family were victimes of the Operation
Vistula evacuation / ethnic cleansing in Poland in 1947. All the people from
Galicia, who didn't die in WWII, were relocated to northern Poland, to originally
bombed out Prussian villages. The Prussian people were chased into Germany, under
another vast evacuation. A lot of pain and suffering was endured under Operation
Vistula, in a time of so-called peace.
Before he died in 1963 at the age of 72 in Poland, Mikolai had a total of 12 children. He had 5 girls and 2 boys from the first marriage to Mary Hrychko. Maria's parents were: Vasyl Hrycko & Ephimia Maykowicz. By his first wife, Maria Hrychko, Nicholas had the following children:
Anna (born 1913); Ewdokia (born 1916); Tekla died at 7
years old (born ?); Julia (born ?) died in the Poland bombing
1931?; and another Tekla (born ?).
When Maria Hrychko died, Mikolai remarried another Maria. By his second wife
Maria ?, Nicholas had the following 5 children:
Wasyl (born 1931); Michael (born ?); Anastasia (born 1937); Dimetro (born 1940) and Theodore (born 1949).
JAVIRNYK / JAVIRNIK (Ukrainian) / JAWORNIK / JAVORNIK (Polish) 'Yavir' means maple in Rusyn. Reply from Halina: Hello, We are sure the name of the village is from many maple trees in close proximity but now it is not special with this any more, the surroundings is still changing. Best wishes, Halina7/17/09 Witaj Olga,
Jawornik is a Sycamore Maple tree.
Photo
of St. Dymitri church in Jawornik Ruski, Explanation in Polish: cerkiew pw.
sw. Dymitr
http://www.stepow.pl
http://pl.wikipedia.org
History
of the community of Jawornik Polski in Polish:
http://gmina-jawornik-polski.republika.pl
Jawornik Polski and Jawornik Ruski are 28 kms - 30 minutes apart. Jawornik Ruski is south of Jawornik Polski, you have to pass Dynow and Bartkowka to arrive to Jawornik Ruski.
Careful with your research. There are eight
Jaworniks:
1. Jawornik Polski is south-east of Rzeszow and north of Dynow.
2. Right beside Jawornik Polski there is a Jawornik Przedmiescie (suburbs/outskirts)
3. Jawornik Ruski is south-east of Dynow, the closest towns are Huta Poreby
and Borownica.
4. Jawornik - north of Lancu
5. Jawornik - south-west of Rzeszow, other side of the road is Neibylec
6. Jawornik - north-east of Przeworsk - near Bialobrzegi
7. Jawornik - south of Sanok - between Rzepedz and Komancza (I think this
is Olga's.)
8. Jawornik - west of Zywiec - north of Ustron, near Wisla, close to the
Czech border and Slovak border
Pozdrawiam, Danuta
There were seven places called Jawornik.
one Myslenice district
one
in Sanok district*
one in Pilzno district
one
in Strzyzow district*
two
in Rzeszow district*
one
in Dobromil district.*
*Rusyns
(Ukrainians) resided in the ones in Sanok, Strzyzow, Rzeszow and Dobromil
districts.
Lavrentiy
The house on the right is typical of the dwelling the Wachalivski's lived in. Click photo of house to visit the SANOK MUSEUM to se
e
houses and churches in the villages.
On the main road south of Rzepedz is a road sign with the name Jawornik. Before the Second World War there was a large Lemko village here, which stretched up the stream by the same name. Now only a few houses remained. The attraction of the place is annual musical workshop organized in summer by 'Orchestra of St Nicholas', helping the visitors to learn about the culture of former inhabitants.
In Javirnyk, there was no schools, however education was a very important status symbol so Ewdokia was sent to the nearest town, Sanok, which had a school, and she had three years of formal education. She continued to read all her life, keeping up with the historical and current events of her ancestoral country.
The stepmother was harsh to the original family; making Ewdokia the head housekeeper, thereby making life easier for herself. Ewdokia recalled, there were too many children for her to take care of. In addition to housework, she had to cultivate the fields. It was a very difficult childhood for the older children. Her older sister, Anna, also worked with her in the fields and took care of the cows.
During Operation Vistula in 1947 Javirnyk was destroyed. Two times the Polish took the houses apart. When Marijka's father left, only two house were burned when Germans were fleeing as the Russians were coming in. With no advance warning, in two hours, the Polish soldiers round up all the families out from the village. They took people to Komancza and put them on a train with their cattle and took them north to the burned out Prussian territories given to Poland. This was called the "voluntary evacuation" of Lemko people. The church was taken down approx. 1953. Now they have fenced in the cemetary that is in my gallery and the cross that was blessed over 100 years ago still stands and is now being also fenced... wooden cross. The priest Dmytro Savichkyj was buried behind the church in 1942. Marijka has photos and stories on her website: http://www.pbase.com
To see photos of the present day area around Yavirnik / Javirnik / Jawornik in Lemkivshchyna territory...
Radoszyce village burned during the 1947 Operation Vistula evacuation. At present the road is being built from here to the planned border checkpoint. Turn right at the only crossroads in the village. After a few minutes drive there stands a wooden Greek Catholic parish church of St Demetrius, built in 1868.
Inside, there is an iconostasis of the same age and a small rococo altar. Unfortunately, the so called "feast icons" "prazdniki" were stolen from the iconostasis in 1991. On the gallery some interesting paintings can be found, showing scenes from everyday life of the villagers. One shows Lemko women going to church, the other one presents a Lemko man in a folk outfit, sowing grain. There is also a stone bell-tower in front of the church and an old cemetery around.
The keys to the church are deposited with Mrs Zofia Gusztak, who lives in the house closest to the church - Radoszyce 12, but it is best to make an arrangement with the priest who lives in Komancza (Czeslaw Dec, Komancza 88, phone number 46-25-211 ext 81) and is very keen on showing round the church himself.
Recruited by Germany Newpaper ads, such as this one that ran in Kiev on Mar 3, 1942, appealed to Ukrainians to come to Germany: "Germany calls you! Go to beautiful Germany! 100,000 Ukrainians are already working in free Germany. What about you?"
Nazis Recruit Ukrainians:
Here is poster calling Ukrainians to come work in Germany for the war effort. It
wasn't so difficult for Ukrainians to work for Germany because they hated
Stalin. Previously in 1932-33 Stalin killed off 10 million Ukrainians
in the orchestrated Famine-Genocide, denying the famine and not allowing
food to come in. Nazi's promised them an independent Ukraine. The posters
shows the Nazi army pushing back the Reds.
Ewdokia and Anna voluntarily went to Germany to work in 1940. Because the Germans considered the Ukrainians Untermensch (sub-humans), they were treated as "inferior humans" who had to be kicked, beaten, terrorized and killed at their least transgression. But as word got back of the slave conditions for Ukrainians in Germany, it failed to attract sufficient volunteers. Forced recruitment and forced labor were needed. Ewdokia's childhood friend was kidnapped right off the street and sent to Germany to work. Others tell of soldiers coming to the house and selecting one family member from each household. They were forced to wear a badge OST (East) on their clothes, that meant the German population was not to socialize with them. Starvation rations and primitive accommodation were given to millions of unfortunate slaves in Germany. My cousin's mother, a slave worker in an airplane factory, recalls she was given to eat only one piece of bread and one cup of soup per day. Many died in Allied bombing raids, while others died on the factory floor from starvation and were carted out. The German orders were to work them to death and recruit more.
Finally, the Americans came and freed them from their bondage. The UNNRA fed them and housed the millions of slave labor in camps. When Ewdokia lost her meal ticket (which was probably stolen by some other starving worker), she went a full week without eating, getting only a cup of coffee (or liquidy soup) if there was any left after everyone else was fed.
According to FDR Yalta agreement and Stalin's dictates, most were sent to Ukraine (then under Communist rule) for further slave labor in the mines and Gulags of Siberia. Many Ukrainians committed suicide rather than go to USSR. Many (from Galicia) claimed Polish citizenship and were routed to northern Poland. Ewdokia, with her husband and children, found a slim mousehole that led them to a ship in Bremen and freedom in the United States. Barely on their feet in the US, the Kaczmar family imported Ewdokia's sister, Anna and her son.
Hi Olga,
I am researching my grandfather, Alexander Warchalowski. Saw you posting.
He came from Poland about 1899 and married Paraska Ratko (known as "Frances" in
the US). They had 13 children. The eldest, Aunt Mary, married a Stanley
PITULA, a name also on your list. I know grandma was a Lemko and from
the Ukraine. Does any of this sound like your family? They settled in
Bergen County, New Jersey. They were Greek Catholics. Let me know if
this is any of your relations. Maureen Baldassini
Links:
Hrychko page
Maykowicz / Majkowich page
Poem by John Guzlowski What the War Taught My Mother