Historical information, finds, and locations concerning Galicia’s different nationalities, famous figures, movements, and institutions, as well as some of my personal experiences and discoveries as I continue to research my ancestors who lived in this region and the context of their lives.
By Eugeniusz Misiło for Nasze Słowo In April 2019, the entire Christian world was shocked by the fire in Notre Dame — the Gothic cathedral in Paris. From everywhere came words of compassion and solidarity with France and the French. Including from Poland and Ukraine. The calculation of losses and […]
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This post kicks off a series of articles Forgotten Galicia will be publishing about Ukrainian societies and cooperatives in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The natural place to begin is with the Prosvita society — the oldest civic organization in Galicia that was created to spread education and […]
After coming under Austrian rule, Peremyshl (Przemyśl) became a major Ukrainian political, cultural, religious, and education center. By the 1880s the city had become the second-largest center (after Lviv) for Ukrainian secondary education in Galicia. It was home to a number of vocational, elementary, and boarding schools as well as […]
By Andriy Dorosh for Dorosh Heritage ToursDid our Ancestors Drink Alcohol? Time Capsule Blog, Dorosh Heritage Tours *** Have you ever heard about the so-called Propination Laws? The name comes from Latin “propinare,” which means “to treat,” “pour out.” Propination was a privilege given to landowners from the supreme authority […]
To get a feeling of what Brody’s cityscape and residents looked like at the beginning of the twentieth century, we can glimpse through the postcards produced by Władysław Kocyan. Kocyan created one of the largest collections of postcards of the town and today they serve as invaluable documents of a […]
By Chris Wilkinson Austrian architecture and culture is often equated with magnificence. Anyone who visits Vienna cannot help but marvel at its many beautiful Baroque buildings, the grandeur of the Hofburg palace, the exquisite culture that gave the world Mozart and Strauss. An air of refinement is pervasive. Conversely, Austrian […]
While today the term “masochism” is widely known, few know its origin, let alone anything about the man behind the name—Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. A while back I posted about this Lviv native’s childhood experiences in the Galician capital (found here), but now I’d like to share a few curious, lesser-known facts […]
The small city of Przemyśl (Peremyshl in Ukrainian transliteration) now lies a few miles west of the Polish-Ukrainian border. Under the Austrian Empire, Przemyśl was one of the major Galician towns. Like nearby Lviv, the city’s population consisted of many nationalities, including Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Germans, and Czechs. According to […]
One of the most interesting revelations for me in researching my family history has been discovering ancestors of different ethnic, religious, and linguistic backgrounds. Growing up in the Ukrainian diaspora, I had always assumed all of my ancestors were Greek Catholic Ukrainian-speakers, but the more I have learned about my family, […]
A look at early twentieth-century life in Bila (Polish: Biała), a village bordering Ternopil in eastern Galicia. The description is from the autobiography of Katherine Rychly Pylitiuk, who was born in Bila in 1904, grew up there, and immigrated to the United States in 1922. This post is taken from […]
By Chris Wilkinson At the intersection of Shevska and Teatralna Streets in Lviv’s Old Town is Stefana Yavorskoho Square. It does not strike a visitor as a particularly historic place. The square has a couple of cafes, eating establishments and a boutique store. Across the street is the St. Peter […]
