[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Ukranian immigrants calling themselves Russian

[Jerry Frank]

Jan,

You have already received some advice pinpointing the locations.  There 
is no issue regarding Ukraine vs. Russia as this region was under 
Russian rule prior to WW I and under Soviet rule after.

This region is not generally covered by our Society but there are 
probably readers on this list who can point you to more fruitful 
resources.  For example, someone else has done some research on another 
branch of this family with the listing at 
http://www.ahsgr.org/gedlist/Geor-Getz.htm .  You could try writing to 
AHSGR to see if they would give you the name of that researcher.

Though that info is with AHSGR, the region is covered in more detail by 
GRHS - see http://www.grhs.org .

Though the name may sound Slavic, it could still very well be German.  
Many Slavic sounding surnames - such as Girschewski, Kowalski, etc. - 
are used by Germans.  Some are derivations like Gershewski from Gersch 
while others are translations like Kowalski from Schmidt. 

Was the family Catholic?  I do not see the name in Lutheran records from 
that region.


Jerry Frank
Calgary, AB



Jan Hemmings wrote:
> I may be totally looking the wrong place by asking your group, but I am
> looking for information for my stepfather, Alfred Gerlinsky, whose
> grandfather, Jacob Gerlinsky (or then sonetimes, Gerlinski), immigrated to
> Canda, to Saskatchewan. He arrived in Montreal in 1904, and settled in
> Saskatchewan by 1905, with his wife Barbara and several children, Matilda,
> Martin, Valentin....
>
> Jacob said in the census that they were all born in
> Russia, but Alfred says, Ekatarinslav, Mariopol. All I can find is Mariupol
> in the Ukraine, and of course, Gerlinsky is a Slavic name. Is there any way
> of finding anything more about this family before they went to Canada?
> Thanks,
> Jan Hemmings
>
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