ukrainian immigrants in canada
The first and largest wave of Ukrainian emigrants to North America took place between 1891 and the outbreak of War in 1914. These were almost exclusively economic migrants and, of course, chain migrants: both pioneers and those friends and family who followed them learning of their success. To generalise, these Ukrainians emigrated to rural regions of Canada (an estimated 171,000 to the lands of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) and urban centres of USA (maybe 250,000 in number).
It is important to understand that these early Ukrainian Canadians came from the most distant provinces of Austro-Hungary – from Galicia and Bukovina. On contemporary records – pre-War passenger lists, immigration records, land settlement records and censuses – they are therefore likely to be described as Ruthenians from Austria. Galicia is now split west-east between Poland and Ukraine, while Bukovina is now divided north-south between Ukraine and Romania. Almost without exception, therefore, these Canadian immigrants hailed from what is today western Ukraine, not from the central Kyiv area or eastern (so-called Left-Bank) Ukraine. They were unRussian.
Ruthenians from Galicia were invariably Greek Catholics and, where literate, wrote using the Latin rather than the Cyrillic alphabet found in eastern Ukraine and Russia. There was no tradition of the use of patronymics now common throughout Ukraine. Their names may have been recorded in parish registers in Latin or Polish spellings: you can safely assume that Latin Joannes and Polish Jan was known to his nearest and dearest as Ivan. Of course, he may also show up as Iwan, reflecting Polish orthography, and once arrived in North America is likely to have become John.
For Canadian descendants of this first wave of immigrants (which had started as early as the 1870s but gained real momentum in the closing decade of the century), there are some tremendous ready-made resources available. Among these are the compendiums of Vladimir Kaye known as Dictionary of Ukrainian Canadian Biography. Mr Kaye produced three of these: Alberta and Manitoba were published, while (as far as I am aware) the volume for Saskatchewan remains in manuscript only. There are 941 entries in the Manitoba book. Here is an abbreviated extract from one:
YASKIW, Maksym, born 1853 in Rostayna, district Yaslo, Galicia, Austria, died 7 September 1911 in Rossburn. Wife Eudokia (Dora) born 1856 died 6 February 1942 at Rossburn. Children on landing: Vladimir 10, Yurko 16, Petro 8, Hanka 14. Arrived in Canada on SS Phoenicia, landing at Halifax 21 May 1899.
Rostayna and Yaslo are respectively Rostajne and Jasło in Polish and are situated in the far SE of the country. In 1900, the year after Makysm sailed to Canada, Rostajne comprised 63 houses and an almost exclusively Greek Catholic population of 366, according to the official Austrian gazetteer for Galizien.
Another excellent resource for Canadians beginning their Ukrainian family history is Ukrainians In Alberta, published in 1975 by the Ukrainian Pioneers’ Association of Alberta, which gives fuller biographies, often one or two pages’ long and with accompanying family photographs.
Bluebird Research is happy to offer assistance with family history research in both Poland and Ukraine and would be delighted to help and advise you investigate your family’s Galicia roots.
[...] of published sources, such as those for the prairie provinces of Canada mentioned in an earlier Bluebird blog. Another good source for the earliest immigrants is the cemetery [...]