The Genealogy of the Kleviak-Koshuba Family

The Kleviak-Koshuba family came from Ozernaya, Tarnopol Region, Ukraine.  The town was called Jezierna when it was part of Poland and appears as Jezierna on immigrant ship's manifests. In 1900, the town had a population of 1095.  It is 14 miles west of Tarnopol, Ukraine, in Galicia, or Halachyna, in Ukrainian.

John Koshuba and Family, Stephen and Helen Koshuba 1924

Feodor (Fitko) Kociuba was born around 1858. Fitko married Maria Kleviak around 1878-1879.  Neither Feodor or Maria immigrated to the United States.
The surname Kocuiba was Americanized to Koshuba. Feodor and Maria had six children.



John (1880-1940) and came to the Boston MA area around 1908.  He married Pauline Rychlyj (1898-1997) in 1916, in Minneapolis MN. They had three children: Walter Joseph, (1917-2002,)  Julia Mary, (1918 -2007), and Joseph Fred, (1920-1957). He owned several businesses in St Paul MN, including  a window washing Company and  a restaurant in downtown St Paul.  He was a founding member of St Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Minneapolis, MN, and was active with his wife, Pauline, in the Ukrainian community in the Twin Cities.

Teckla (Maria) Koshuba Wons

  Teckla (Tillie), also known as Maria, was born in 1883, married Peter Wons in Ozernaya sometime in 1906, and came to the United States in 1906,  also to the Boston MA area.  She died in St Paul MN, in 1976. Peter and Teckla had five sons: Fred, (1907-1960); Michael (1909-1981);  John W. (1916-1973); Nestor (1921-1986); and Joseph T., (1926-1988). 

 





Joseph was born in 1885, came to the US around 1906, and died in St Paul, MN, in 1919.  He married Florence Holmberg (1894-unknown) in 1913.  They had three children: Frederick, (1914-1941),  Catherine Florence (1915-unknown); and Marie Olga (1917-1993).  Joseph also owned a window washing company in St Paul.

Peter Wons, Joseph and John Koshuba c.1915

Anna was born in in Ozernaya in 1897, came to the United States with her brother Stephen in 1914.  She married Joseph Grashkow (1893-1975), Americanized from Greskiw, around 1917-18. They had two children, Paul Nestor (1919-2002) and Eugenia (dates unknown). Anna died in Minneapolis MN in 1977.  

Anna Koshuba Graskow

Stephen, born in 1899, came to the US with Anna in 1914.  He married Helen Rychlyj in 1924, they divorced in 1932.  He married Sally Popko, in 1932-33, they later divorced.  In 1947-8, he married Eugenia (maiden name unknown).  Stephen and Helen had one child, Evelyn Eve (1925-1976) . Stephen was a businessman and owned, a bar and restaurant, in downtown St Paul, with his brother John; and later owned a hotel and bar near downtown St Paul.  He retired to Wheat Ridge CO, and owned a liquor store in Golden Co.  He died in Colorado in 1982.  He was very active in the Ukrainian community in Minnesota.

Stephen and Eugenia Koshuba

Stephen and Sally Koshuba

 Michaylo, birth and death dates are unknown, as is his immigration status.

Decoration/Memorial Day

Memorial Day was celebrated on the 30 of May when I was growing up.  We had the day off from school and would go to downtown Evanston for a Memorial Day parade, which involved marching bands and marching Scouts. Veterans groups went to cemeteries and left small American flags on the graves of war veterans.

Sometime in the 1970's Memorial Day changed into the Memorial Day weekend, and becoming a three day weekend with Memorial Day celebrated on the last Monday in May. The parades disappeared, and the Memorial Day Weekend became the unofficial beginning of summer.  Many of people went out of town and those who stayed celebrated summer with barbecues and parties. 
Memorial Day changed again when the United States became involved in the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Patriotism is stronger, the parades returned, and the observances have a more serious tone.

When I was a little girl, I remember my grandmother talking about Decoration Day.  She called it that up through the 1960's and maybe even longer than that.   For her, the purpose of that day was to go to the cemetery, clean up a bit and decorate the graves of family members with flowers, usually geraniums, which could survive the summer.  My mother told me that all the family graves were visited and decorated, and it was a process that might last several days since there were many cemeteries to visit.  When my grandmother  and her sisters became old, her nieces who lived in the Minneapolis area took over the job.

Decoration Day

I never gave a thought to what Decoration Day really was, learning later that it came about after the Civil War in the 1860's. People would go to cemeteries at the end of May  and decorate the graves of the soldiers who died in that war.  Over 600,000 men died in the Civil War, so there was a lot of decorating to do.  In the Southern states, the graves of Confederate dead were decorated on another day.

Qing Ming Festival, China

The idea of going to cemeteries on a specific day is an ancient one. The Chinese have  the Qing Ming or Tomb Sweeping festival, celebrated  April 4 and 5 in 2013. Families go to cemeteries, clean up the family tombs, decorate them, and leave offerings for their ancestors. 
In Mexico, The Day of the Dead is celebrated on October 31.  Families go to the cemeteries, bringing food and flower offerings for their ancestors, and have a  picnic in the cemetery. Memorial altars called offerendas are set up in their homes.  These Mexican customs predate the European conquest of Mexico in 1519, and were practiced by the Aztecs. 

Mexican Cemetery on the Day of the Dead

My most memorable Memorial Day was in 1984 when my son David was born.  We brought him home from the hospital on Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend. The whole family came over to see the baby.  So every Memorial Day weekend, I think about David's first Memorial Day weekend.

Recipe Wednesday-- Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Biscotti are Italian--right?  So why is a Ukrainian-American girl putting a recipe for biscotti on her blog?
Well, I love chocolate especially if it is combined with hazelnuts.  This recipe is from Giada De Laurentis and the Food Network.  I made it and loved them, especially since this recipe avoids the biggest problem in making biscotti, slicing them after they are baked.  These biscotti come in  a round cookie format, which is easy to make and dunk in your coffee.  Best of all, they contain Nutella!

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Makes 36 cookies.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour  (I use unbleached flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, softened ( use unsalted butter)
1/2 cup  chocolate hazelnut spread  ( Nutella recommended)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped and toasted hazelnuts (be careful when you toast the hazelnuts, you don't want to burn them)


Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.
2.  In another medium bowl, combine the butter, chocolate hazelnut spread, sugar, and brown sugar
3.  Using an electric mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 4 minutes.
4.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
5.  Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
6.  Add the hazelnuts and stir until just combined.

Cover the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Using a tablespoon measure, spoon out the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, spacing the  dough about 4 inches apart.
Use the tines of a fork to flatten the cookie dough.
Bake until golden around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.
Use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Notes:  Nutella is available in most grocery stores.

The Genealogy of the Monkovsky Family

Beile Monkovsky

Chiam Pesach Monkovsky Family. First row from left: Udis, Mrs Monkovsky, Chaim Pesach Monkovsky. top row from left: unknown, Lachie, unknown woman, unknown man, Esther, unknown girl.

Some of Rose Krause's family
 members in Poland.

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My mother-in-law, Lillian Krause Gerstein, was a member of the Monkovsky family.  Her mother, Rose (Karbovsky) Krause was born to Beile and Velvil Monkovsky in Szczuczyn, Poland, The town was known as Shtutzin in Yiddish. When she was born, it was a part of the Russian Empire, added to Russia by the third partition of Poland during the reign of Catherine II (The Great). That was the end of the Kingdom of Poland, and it disappeared from maps until after World War I. Rose was a member of the Stuchiner Society in Chicago and is buried next to her husband Avrom, in the Stuchiner section in Jewish Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago.

Szczuczyn was a town of 3,336 people in 1900, shortly before Rose and her husband immigrated to the United States.  It is about 45 miles northwest of Bialystok, the town which gives the bialy its name, and about 60 miles due west of the present day Russian border.
Velvil and Beile Monkovsky had six children, of which four immigrated to the United States; one to Tel Aviv, Israel, and one to Argentina. Rose Monkovsky was born in 1887, Fanny in 1890, Jacob (Jake) in 1891, Eva in 1912, and a daughter, name and birth date unknown.  I do not know anything about the children who did not move to the United States. Velvil had at least one sibling, Chiam Pesach, and he had seven children.  I do not know the history of this branch of the family.

Rose married Avrom Karbovsky, a baker, in Szczuczyn in either 1902 or 1903 and immigrated to Chicago in 1903.  She and Avrom had six children, Mollie, William, Paul, Florence, Lillian, and Jack. Jack served in the army in World War II, participating in the Battle of Saipan. The best known person in this branch of the family is Jerry Krause, son of Paul.  He was the General Manager of the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era and was honored as the NBA Executive of the Year.

Fannie married  Abraham Center, a tailor,  in Chicago, and had two sons, William (Red) and Eddie. Red and Eddie were in the coffee supply business.

Jacob, known as Jake Markin, married Sarah and had two children Betty and Victor Markin.

Eva married Joe Krause,  and had two children, William (Vee) and Beverly.  Joe, born in England, was a cousin of Avrom, Rose's husband.  Joe was a jeweler and Eva worked at Marshall Field's in Chicago, in the department that made chocolate candy. Beverly was a model and a buyer for Marshall Field's.
One of unknown children was a daughter who married Yankel R__.  The surname was changed to Ross. I do not know anything about this daughter, and Jack Krause, who gave me information about the Mankovsky family, could not remember her name.  There were three children, Libby (Lillian), Velvil and Paul.  Libby served in the US Army in World War II as a Private First Class. Jerry Fretzin, her husband also served in the Army in World War II.

Family reunion--1950's.  Front row from left: Fannie Center, Mrs Velvil Ross, Esther Center, Estelle Center, Libby Ross Fretzin, Lillian Gerstein, Rose Krause.  Top row from left: unknown woman, Abe Center, Velvil Ross, Eddie Center, Red Center, Jerry Fretzin, Beverly Krause Miller, Herb Miller, Dave Gerstein, unknown woman.

Wedding of William Krause and Muriel Friedman.  Rose Krause is to the left of the bride,  Avrom Krause is behind Rose and the bride, and Lillian Krause is in the second row on the left. 

In closing, I would like to share an article I found in the Chicago Tribune on May 14, 2013.  It explains so poignantly why I research my roots and study genealogy. Click on the following link to read the article. Remembering the Blessings of Our Ancestors.

Information for this entry came from my research, Jack Krause and Libby Ross Fretzin, who identified some of the people in the oldest pictures.

More Recent History

 Pictures are from Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and the Yangtze River. 

Old  British Stable Kowloon, Hong Kong

Restaurant in the Produce Market, Kowloon

Kowloon

Kowloon skyscrapers, seen from Hong Kong Island

 

 

 

Hong Kong traffic--and it's not rush hour

Buddhist Temple, Hollywood Road, Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong and Kowloon from Victoria Peak

Shanghai from our Hotel window

New skyscrapers in Shanghai

The Bund--British Shanghai

Old Town, Shanghai

Yu Gardens, Shanghai

Restaurant in a former home in the French Concession, Shanghai

Monkey, Tribe of the Three Gorges Theme area

Tea Shop, Yi Chang

Tribe of the Three Gorges Theme Area, Yangtze River

Food Stand, Tribe of the Three Gorges, Yangtze River

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Tai Chi in the park, Beijing

Some Very Recent History

Rooted in Eastern Europe Blog  is back. 
I been traveling for the past three weeks in Hong Kong and mainland China and haven't worked on genealogy at all.   The next posts are an exception-I will illustrate/write about the very recent past and about my own activities.  One of the most interesting things I saw  in China was the juxtaposition of the old and the new, which I will try to show in the pictures below. More on Wednesday.

Peapod boats in the Shendong Stream of the Yangtze River

Fengdu, "The Ghost City"

Giant Panda in the Chongqing Zoo.

Yangtze River cruise boats, Fengdu.

Chongqing

Li River, Guilin.

Guilin, view from Shangri-la hotel

 

Pizza Hut lunch, Xian.

Terracotta Warriors Museum, Xian

Din Sum lunch, Xian

Xian, the old and the new

Terracotta Warriors, Xian

Artist and calligrapher in his Hutong courtyard, Beijing

Pedi-shaws and car, Beijing

 

Gate of Heavenly Peace, Tienanmen Square, Beijing.

Great Wall, Badaling.

Dr Sun Yat-Sen, Tienanmen Square, Labor Day holiday, Beijing