I studies some Ukrainian in college, and recall when showing some letters that my great aunt wrote me, that the professor said it seemed that her Ukrainian had lots of "Polonisms". Years later, it is pretty clear that my father's side of the family was Lemkos, but got involved in churches that sort of embraced (on one side) Ukrainian and on the other Russian identities. Would Rusyn look like a mixture of Ukrainian and Polish to someone not familiar with it? It does seem in my family we have some customs traditions that are Ukrainian and others are more Polish.

Hello I hope all is well. I did 23andme and IllustrativeDNA and used Vahaduo and while 23andme didn't show it too much, for Vahaduo and IllusstrativeDNA my closest populates are Ukraine (Zakarpattia) and (Lviv), after that is Czech and weirdly Croat and Sllovene. Sometimes I'd get Croat at the top, the reason it's weird is that my family overall is from Poland and I'd get Polish quite lower on all the distance markers.

Consistently I would get Croat as my closest population. I have no idea how as my father, from the little I know is from Southern Poland so I thought that is why the Ukrainian bit made sense but the close distance to Slovene and Croat, along with IllustrativeDNA showing historically Paenonian and later Illyrian/Pannonian ancestry, makes no sense as I don't know any Balkan descent in my family, at least on my mother's side. The high Balkan percent, looking at the different stages, along with the closest distance being the Carpathian Ukraine region, made me get into the research of the Rusyn people. Besides being very fascinating (and tragic) could someone help me figure out if there's a chance I may be Rusyn.

From my little knowledge of how Vlachs(from my research who did come from the Pannonian Plain, and the White Croats influenced the region, becoming the eventual Rusyn people, is there a chance I'm making any sense in being possibly Rusyn? Please let me know sorry for the dumb question but I don't know anything about my paternal side and this doesn't add up.

I have no idea if it's Lemko, or if it's another Rusyn group but I have no clue and I'm trying to piece my history together thanks.

Ps. I know Rusyns are NOT Ukrainians in any sense but I say Western Ukraine as I refer to the DNA stuff I got being from there. Unfortunately, no Rusyn populations are represented. If a photo of my results would help I shall post. Also, I hope you guys get proper recognition and some type of autonomy one day as deserved.

In his recent op ed, Petro Medvid discloses a source privy to the Ukrainian FM's visit in Budapest, where he allegedly told his Hungarian counterpart that matters regarding Rusyns were off limits. The author of the op ed, as well as of this post, is not surprised.

What Petro Medvid's piece does stress is the hypocrisy of the west for not calling out Ukraine on this issue publicly. This should be a call to action to all Rusyns. No one will just give us our rights.

https://www.lem.fm/pamyat-akvarijnoj-rybky/

Question in the title; it’s usually rendered in English as “Rejoice in hope!”

Thanks for your time!

Hi! First, I want to say thank you to everyone who posts on this sub for the information sharing and for being one of the few places I could find other rusyn descendants posting. I now understand my dysphoric cultural upbringing is not unique to me and there are people out there like me, who also grew up with a lot of this hidden from them. A few years ago I discovered on ancestors who came over that they put down Austria, bc the empire, and they put they were born in Galicia. I didn’t explore this enough initially looking at other family lines. My mother’s side, her maiden name is Smarkola. I recently via translation was able to discover our original name is Smakula, a church in Philadelphia made sure to write down grandpa Basil’s decision to change it to Smarkola. I now understand his mother’s last name is Zagurska, his wife’s maiden name is Kobasa, all link to Mecina Wielke, all families by the time operation Vistula happened were forcibly displaced from the mountains (I read this the other day and it was very devastating). I feel so many emotions bc I grew up loosely understanding we were “slavish” possibly “Ukrainian” or “russian” and now I grasp that when my family came over in 1905 they were very aware of being carpatho Rusyn. My direct grandfather (the grandson of the family that immigrated) left orthodox to marry an Irish Catholic woman, so my family became Anglican. I now grasp if I had grown up Orthodox I would have known I am Rusyn. I called the Father of the church my family is associated with, he was so kind and confirmed my family helped found St Andrew’s in Philly and were Carpatho Rusyn. He knew it like the back of his hand. I guess hello, I am learning the Rusyn language now and looking for any connections to the Smakula/Smarkola/Zagurski/a/Kobasa families. My family became the Smarkola family so any Smarkola(s) in the US are of Rusyn descent but the Philly side of things. I especially would like to know what happened to the families who were displaced, as I feel my family was long disconnected and I want to know those family members are okay or were okay, or if they weren’t I want to know too. I keep finding stuff about them in old Rusyn diaspora newspapers. Thank you all for your time, acceptance, and any info 💓🌻

I’m trying to do research into my family tree. Is Zemba a rusyn last name? It’s my grandmas maiden name and she said her family came from Czech Slovakia before it split.

Just wondering where I could physically visit and potentially speak to random people in Lemko and / or Rusyn.

I'm already living in Poland and speak Polish to a decent degree, but part of my ancestry is Lemko and I'd like to learn it and eventually make a visit to the villages my ancestors lived in. Although I'm not sure the people there now are Lemko speakers or even Rusyns in the first place.

Much attention is given to the threat posed to Rusyns by Ukraine and Hungary throughout various periods of our history. Apart from Akcia Visla, Poland's role in the destruction of Rusyn nationhood is often ignored.

Upon reading this piece on Polish annexation of Zaolzie region from Czechoslovakia (part of the larger Munich Pact events in 1938) I was stunned by the level of nationalist propaganda. The website that published it, Institute of National Remembrance, is not some far-right dark net blog post, but a government portal tasked with shedding an objective light on Polish history. This is what that means:

^("In the political situation prevailing in Europe at that time, there was a real threat of applying "Munich methods" in relation to Gdańsk, Polish Pomerania or Silesia.)

^(For this reason, on September 30, 1938, Poland issued an ultimatum to Prague, expecting the constituencies of Cieszyn and Fryštát to be included within the borders of the Republic of Poland within ten days...")

^("The entry of Polish troops into Zaolzie should be interpreted as an anti-German step, aimed not only at emphasizing Poland's political subjectivity, but also at occupying an area important for economic reasons.")

So Poland's annexation of Zaolzie, which was preceded by a non-aggression pact with Germany (Neurath-Lipsky), was in fact anti-German, hence anti-Nazi, hence the good guy move. The fact that Poland continued to undermine Czechoslovak statehood together with Hungary by sending out terrorist groups into Subcarpathia, killing civilians and policemen, destroying property and attempting to sow chaos is conveniently ignored by the authors. (You can read more detail about Hungarian and Polish terrorist actions against Czechoslovakia in an article written by Igor and Mykola Vehesh, but do subtract their nonobjective Ukrainian nationalist slant and complete absence of any mention of Rusyns. Here is the article: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_15407_mzu2022_31_130/c/articles-2153598.pdf.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjYi4v-9teIAxXhzAIHHf3EITIQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2JExvh-EKEbE8sbtQCpsEJ

This propaganda piece written by a Polish government agency reads like any of Putin's musings about Ukraine or Danylenko's or Plokhy's "academic work" on Rusyns. Trash.

What does this have to do with Rusyns?

About a year ago there was a big uproar in the Rusyn community about comments of one Polish government official who said that Akcia Visla was to the benefit of our people. Petro Medvid wrote a reaction to that.

It is clear that beside the Ukrainian problem there is also a big Polish problem that our community needs to remain vigilant against.

Rusyn.fm is an internet radio completly in rusyn language. It's made by slovak rusyns specifically but they also do reports/stories about rusyns in America and ukraine. Plus their news segments are often also in Lemko I emigrated from Slovakia to Denmark and I listen to it when I feel homesick. They also share recipes btw

I'm considering to study Russian.

How similar is it to Rusyn and Church Slavonic?

Can you easily understand the aforementioned?

If not, what's the differences?!?

I've noticed that Transcarpathia's population growth is, unlike the rest of Ukraine (save for Kyiv), not in outright decline and that the overall development has been vastly different than it. Also, I've noticed that the fertility rate of Transcarpathia has been hovering around the replacement level for a long time, whereas Ukraine's has mostly been vastly lower. How come?

I came across the historic German name for Lviv/Lwów, and immediately thought of the connection of Lemberg to the word “lem” that gives Lemkos that exonym. Anyone familiar with the history of the German-language name of the city and whether it’s related?

Otcuznyna magazine now publishes English translations of select articles.

This first one is an interview with a prominent Subcarpathian Rusyn activist Jevhen Župan. Inside are retrospective insights into the “Third Rusyn Renaissance” period of the Carpatho-Rusyn movement in Subcarpathian Rus', the Červena Ruža festival, the current situation regarding Rusyns in Ukraine from the perspective of a FUEN representative:

https://otcuznyna.com/a-conversation-with-jevhen-zhupan/

Those who can read in Rusyn might be interested in checking out Otcuznyna's latest issue in the PDF format (older issues are also available): https://otcuznyna.com/digital-otcuznyna/

I came across an article written by Robert Goodrich about Rusyns pre-WW1 and thought it was so good that it would be a crime not to share it here. Please spread it far and wide.

https://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=upper_country

After about a year of genealogy research that got me not-so-far, I've finally found an answer!

I had a feeling my great-grandparents were Rusyn as I had done a lot of research and it made a lot of sense, but I finally found the elusive bible my family had packed away. It appears to be in the Rusyn language, which I unfortunately do not know. I tried to use Google Translate for some of it, but it comes up as Polish and Ukranian, but can't translate all the words.

If anyone has any information about this, or what dialect of Rusyn it's in, please let me know! We're still trying to figure out where my family was from, but the information is different on every document we find, so I'm hoping something with the dialect might be a missing piece of the puzzle.

https://preview.redd.it/tzvuwqlr82md1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f4c52a333c84576b6dfa2f47b6803a4100bff4c

https://preview.redd.it/u36fyslr82md1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a892fa752d56cca89fcee767b4b148433de046d

https://preview.redd.it/3tf7islr82md1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19232d5d7f533d494b36ca713fb2d74691d2f64b

https://preview.redd.it/a3nrnqlr82md1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4c9e4f7e3915982dfb810b16359fc877b46e5ee

My great-great-grandfather was from Transcarpathia region he went to Canada for work. I know his name and possible last name. I also know the possible city where he worked (he worked in a church). He never returned from Canada, and no one has heard from him since. The question is, where can I find records or mentions of him, any information, and what resources are best to use?

https://preview.redd.it/jvtcqsdqqwfd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2774c136c3523279cc85c6bd5abb0e0b0e2fc041

This is a photo of him taken around 1902 when he had just recently enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army. I've been trying to find out what rank he is, and I believe he is a Private, since he seems to have no collar insignia, but I do know that certain regiments had different insignia. Also, what is that white thing sticking out of the center of his uniform? I thought it was an award or something, but no Austrian medals at the time looked like that. Also, what is that little thing dangling on his chest? I can't find any info anywhere else, so can anyone help with this?

(Also, sorry about low-quality, the frame is almost as old as the photo and I didn't want to take it out)

Hello Rusyn subreddit, happy to be here and hope this finds you all well. Im 32 and I grew up thinking I was just Czech on my dads side and just Ukrainian on my moms side but I got a dna test in 2020 and ancestry.com told me I was Rusyn with family essentially from both sides east/west of the mountains. I got a free trial to ancestry last year and made some progress on my research but have been at a crossroads for a little bit now and am looking for some suggestions of where to continue my search. My mothers side of the family was religious so I’m going to try and start with the churches for them and try to hammer down the town they lived in before immigrating to coal country pa around 1905.

My great grandfather on my dads side immigrated to Chicago just during ww1 but his family was not religious to my knowledge but my great grandfather was in the Austrian cavalry according to his naturalization papers. I was wondering what suggestions you guys had for military archives accessible on the internet or perhaps anywhere in the PNW.

Thank you for any help and guidance.

I’m also curious about the possible Americanization of my last name. Safranek. Would it be safe to search that in databases you’d think? My grandfathers name was Premsyl and his brothers Ottokar so it’s hard to think they’d lose their surname from the homeland. Lol but who knows.

Thanks again

My great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Francis Risko, was born in the Rusyn village of Drahova in 1883. At the time, Drahova was controlled by Austria-Hungary and in 1902 he joined the Austro-Hungarian army. We don't really know what he did in his military service or how long he served, but we do now that at some point after his village became a part of Czechoslovakia he and his wife moved to the United States, where our family still lives. A while after he died, our family reached out to family members and friends in the old country, which at that point was part of the USSR, and learned that our extremely close relatives had married into a family which seemed to be very well-known in the area, based on the context given in a letter from them, called the Sucharas, though we can't find much info about them other than that our family knew them quite well.

So, my questions are: Which Rusyn group/tribe (I am unfamiliar with the accepted terminology) are we most likely a part of? Do any of you recognize any of these names and might be able to tell us things we don't already know? And what is the general view on Rusyns who served in the Austrian military? Are they considered traitors, considering the genocide the Austrians committed against us?

I was born and raised in the US SW, but my mother’s family originally hailed from Porac, in the Spišská Nová Ves District (Wrabely/Vrabel and Hanuscin families). They came in the years 1885-88 and traveled fairly restlessly to coal mining camps across the US, particularly the Midwest and southwest. My great grandparents/grandparents identified as Hungarian if pressed, but miners first and foremost. Only recently, after they’ve passed on, did the family learn more about the Rusyn connection.

I now work in agriculture in a region that is known for their mines/mining camps, and am writing an article about turn of the century mining camp food. Many of the camps here boasted a running water spigot every few houses to help water the gardens, as well as offering barrels from the company store for water catchment. The individual families, most of them recent immigrants (from dozens of countries!) like my family, grew comfort foods from the old country in addition to whatever grew well enough to help feed them in their new homes in their front gardens. As time has passed, more and more of the recipes grew somewhat homogenized/Americanized, particularly post WWII and into the 1980s as the mines shut.

So I had a general curiosity about what Rusyn “home cooking” would have looked like in the Porac area around 1850-1900/traditional Rusyn foods/even popular foods in the area today, as a way to look at how food culture evolved, in context of my own family as it’s what I know! Kolache with whatever fruit we could forage we’re always popular when I was a kid :)

Whatever anyone would be willing to share would be excellent, thank you!

TLDR: Looking for traditional Rusyn recipes and/or historic to the Spišská Nová Ves District circa 1850-1900 recipes and/or Rusyn foods today.