Hello everyone,
My name is Christopher Worrall and I have discovered the Bukovina region in researching the family history of my wife Nathalie Zabizewski.
Nathalie’s grandfather, John Zabizewski, was an ethnic Pole, who came to Canada from Bukovina with his parents, August and Mary Stefanyszyn, when he was young.
August Zabizewski had two siblings who also came to Canada named Casimir and Adela.
Casimir is the only one who married in Canada and on his marriage record his place of birth is given as “Voloeau” or “Volocau”, while his wife, Ellen or Helena Dembski, also an ethnic Pole from Bukovina, has “Coushenara” given as a birthplace.
Casimir’s marriage record is also invaluable as it contains the names of his parents : ‘John’ Zabizewski and Cecilia Paszkiewicz.
Adela married a German from Molodia named Anton Baumgarten. They moved to Bayard, Saskatchewan, which was one of many German Bukowinan settlements in that province.
We think that “Volocau” is Voloka (Woloka in German, Voloca in Romanian) and that “Coushenara” is Velykyi Kuchuriv (Kuczurmare).
We have also discovered through DNA testing many matches with the name “Hennick” who also have roots in Bukovina.
Through research we have discovered that the Hennick line to which my wife is related anglicized the spelling of it’s name from Hönig to Hennick.
Just recently, we learnt how the Zabizewski and Hönig families are related. Thomas Hönig was the 1st cousin of August, Adela and Casimir. Cecilia Paszkiewicz had a sister named Marya Paszkiewicz who married a man named Michael Hönig.
By knowing that the Hennick name was originally Hönig, we were able to discover a set of DNA matches in the States who had a documented Hönig line that lived in Bukovina until WWII, arriving in the States in the 50s.
The family in the States has also identified its Hönig line as being from Voloka as well.
This seems to confirm our research that the Zabizewski family was based in Voloka, Bukovina.
What I know about Voloka is that it was overwhelmingly populated by Romanians and still is today even being part of Ukrainian Northern Bukovina.
There was apparently not a Catholic Church in Voloka and the small Polish population would go to Chruch in Kuczurmare.
Anyhow, nice to meet everyone.
– Christopher