Click here to subscribe today or Login.
If you’re researching Carpatho-Rusyn ancestors, there’s an event coming up that you won’t want to miss.
It’s “Celebrating Our Past, Understanding Our Future,” set for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Oct. 3 at St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Church, 205 N. Main St., Pittston. It’s free, but advance registration is requested.
The program, with expert speakers, is a project of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society.
The speakers will focus on “history, traditions and life in the Northern Anthracite Coal Fields of Pennsylvania,” according to its sponsors. The program is as follows:
Dr. Michele Parvensky (9 a.m.-10:30 a.m.) will speak on “Stari Kkraj – the Old Country.”
Richard Custer (10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.) will speak on “The Greater Pittston Area and St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church: A Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrant Hub of the Wyoming Valley.”
Dr. Peter Yasenchak (1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.) will speak on “The Richness of our Coal Fields and the Ancestors who Toiled in Them.”
A light lunch and a tour of St. Michael’s is available. Register by phone at 570-654-4564 or online at stmichaelsbcc@outlook.com. Include the word “register” in the message or subject line. List your name, the number of people who will attend and a contact phone number.
Ellis Island Update: The long-awaited return of immigrant artifacts to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum began last week, three years after Tropical Storm Sandy devastated the entire New York City area in 2012.
The removal took place after the storm because the Ellis Island infrastructure – including heating and cooling systems – was demolished and delicate materials could not be properly protected. They have been held at a facility in Maryland since then.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Museum staff returned between 50 and 75 artifacts to their exhibits Wednesday, said Judy Giuriceo, the museum’s curator of exhibits and media. The rest of the 2,000 artifacts, most donated by families from around the country, should be on display by December,” she said.
While the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, in New York Harbor, has many attractions, one of the most beloved is the collection of thousands of artifacts the immigrants brought with them. Recorded stories tell of the immigrants’ experience and what their everyday possessions, now historic, meant to them.
An estimated 12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. The museum opened 25 years ago.
Hint: if you visit the museum, do not try to package it with a visit to the nearby Statue of Liberty. Each of those attractions requires a full day.
Genealogical Society News: You can access microfilms from the vast genealogical storehouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints through the Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. For a list of those microfilms, go to www.familysearch.org. For a modest fee, the microfilms may be shipped to the society’s library, in the caretaker cottage of the Hanover Green Cemetery, Main Road, Hanover Township. All microfilms must be used on site, however. Printouts may be made.
Suggestion: Do you have some old local high school or college yearbooks in your attic or storage room? Donate them to your community historical organization or library. If there is no such group, try the Luzerne County Historical Society, in Wilkes-Barre. Yearbooks can be vital in developing a portrait of an ancestor – as well as providing a very youthful photo.