HUSBAND Maxim Romanick
DATE - M/D/Y | CITY | COUNTY | STATE (COUNTRY) | |
Born | 8/25/1881 | Snietnica | Poland | |
Married | 11/7/1910 | Brooklyn | New York | |
Died | 1/6/1937 | Brooklyn | New York | |
Buried | 1/9/1937 | Plains | Pennsylvania | |
FATHER Jerzy Romanick | Other Wives: | |||
MOTHER Makryna Kaniuk |
WIFE Mary Symochko Romanick
DATE - M/D/Y | CITY | COUNTY | STATE (COUNTRY) | |
Born | 2/1/1889 | Hanczowa | Poland | |
Married | 11/7/1910 | Brooklyn | New York | |
Died | 10/2/1963 | Wilkes-Barre | Pennsylvania | |
Buried | 10/5/1963 | Plains | Pennsylvania | |
FATHER John Symochko | ||||
MOTHER Anastasia Cap | Other Husbands: |
Children | Birth date | Birthplace | Date of Marriage | Date of Death |
In order of birth | M/D/Y | City State Country | Name of Spouse | City, State |
Anastasia Romanick | 9/20/1911 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 7/1/1939 Joseph Wimmer |
|
John Romanick | 7/23/1914 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 11/19/1976
San Leandro, CA |
|
Mary Romanick | 8/5/1916 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 9/17/1994
New York City |
|
Frank Romanick | 6/11/1918 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 12/23/1944
Frances Kleine |
|
Joseph Romanick | 8/18/1920 | |||
Anne Romanick | 6/25/1922 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 2/4/1950
Philip Drago |
|
Olga Romanick | 6/7/1924 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 6/2/1951
Simon Fusiak |
|
George Romanick | 8/4/1925 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | n/a
Wilma Cummings |
1988
New York City |
I | ||||
Harold Romanick | 8/20/1929 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 5/5/1962
Bessie McVey |
My father, Maxim Romanick, on his Petition for Naturalization for U S Citizenship showed as being born August 24, 1881, in Snietnica, Galicia, Province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While we visited Poland in June 1990, we found out that Galicia became part of Poland under the 1919 Versailles Treaty.
WHY THEY CAME TO AMERIKA
For hundreds of years, Lemkos people have suffered persecution
in their native homeland, Galicia (Poland). Lemkos are Carpatho-Russians
that lived on both sides of the Carpathian Mountains. My parents were Lemkos.
Even though the country of Poland in which they lived
was removed from the map of Europe as a sovereign nation in 1795, the Lemkos
continued to be downtrodden because Austria-Hungary, which took over as
sovereign, permitted the local Polish gentry and the Catholic Church to
continue to suppress the Lemkos people and the Eastern Churches.
Many people from this area emigrated to the United States
in the late 19th century. Why did people leave Galicia in great numbers?
Between 1870 and 1910, the population of Carpatho-Russians in Galicia increased
over 50%. This population explosion created a food shortage because there
was too little arable land. Famine and poverty were always camped on their
doorsteps. They were basically in servitude and trying to survive was foremost.
If they were forced to borrow money, they were forced to pay excessive
interest rates. They could seldom repay the debt; at best they paid the
interest. Their housing consisted of a one-room house with a thatched roof.
In cold weather, humans and animals shared the room,
To escape this intolerable situation, over half a million
Lemkos came to Canada and United States up to 19 10. Most of them
were between 14 and 24, single, in good health and with only a rudimentary
education at best. They sailed to the United States in steerage class.
Upon arrival in Amerika, they gathered in areas where heavy industry and
mining were the main places of employment, which required endurance rather
than technical skills. One came and soon others from the same village joined
them.
The church was the center of the faith and of people's
activities. Because of language difficulties, the parish priest often represented
his flock in legal and civil matters. The priest backed by the church was
a "culturization agent" for the immigrants.
At the churches, these immigrants soon formed brotherhoods
for social, psychological and informational purposes. Many of these became
lodges when mutual help or insurance was added. These lodges became the
foundations of many parishes.
Young women came to escape the poverty and many worked
in New York in Jewish households. They met the young men who came to church
services, married and left with them to their place of work and residence.
Their families were large and always struggled financially.
The sons left home to serve in World War II and never
returned to settle in the same town since they went where they could find
work or they took advantage of the GI Bill.
Before our visit to Poland, We did not expect to find
any information on the family name Romanick and my mother's maiden name,
Symoczko, because we were informed that the Russian Communists destroyed
the church and civic records.
Much to our surprise, our interpreter/translator, Jacek
Krecina, a Polish historian in Uscie Gorlickie who worked in Krakow, was
able to get the civil records from the City Hall in Uscie Gorlickie and
the church records from the Orthodox Church in Hanczowa for the period
from 1815 to 1980.
The earliest date for the Romanicks was recorded as 1815
when Frank's Great-Great-Grand Father Pantelemon was born in the village
of Snietnica, some six miles from the village of Hanczowa in southeast
Poland. All the Romanicks were born in this village. Only two of them came
to the United States. Frank's Father Maxim and his Uncle Aleksander (Prokop)
in 1900. The last of the Romanicks left Snietnica in 1936. And today there
is nothing left of the house where Frank's father spent his childhood.
WE FOUND OUR ROOTS IN POLAND
Discovering our ancestral heritage was not as difficult
as we had thought. While shopping for Christmas gifts, we found the origin
and history of our family name Romanick at the Citadel shopping Mall in
Colorado Springs. There was a vendor in the mall doing business in family
name histories. This vendor, Ezell Enterprises, receives his computer information
from a European Historical Research Center.
We wish you could have been there, standing next to me
at the shopping mall, and seeing the expression of happiness on my face
when I saw the name "Ramanick" come up on the screen. The family name of
Romanick was registered among the aristocracy of Galicia (Southern Poland)
in 1782. For $20, 1 was able to get a complete history of the family
name Romanick.
From the same vendor, I was quite surprised to learn
about an authentic ancient coat of arms for the family name Romanick that
was documented in the archives. For $44, I received in the mail the "Romanick
Coat of Arms". What a shopping day! It was just unbelievable.
Our good luck continued. For $30, I was furnished with
the addresses of 171 Romanick families living in the United States and
Canada. The Halbert's Family Heritage Company of 3687 Ira Road, Bath, Ohio
44210, used a highly sophisticated network of computer sources. Over 150
million records were searched to find all the names and addresses listed
in the "World Book of Romanick". The data banks searched listings from
electoral rolls, telephone directories, and automobile registrations and
cross street directories.
Tracing my family in the United States was challenging
because of the name changes of families and villages. At Ellis Island,
the entrance to "Amerika," Polish family names and village names, unpronounceable
to non-Poles, were changed phonetically to the way they sounded to the
immigration officials.
To meet naturalization requirements, my father Maxim
Romanick filed the Declaration of Intention or first papers, June 24, 1919.
He filed his final papers or "The Petition for Naturalization" on June
21, 1921. He was sworn in and became a US citizen on October 7, 1921.
In both papers, the place of birth and the family name
of Romanick were misspelled. But we were all smiles when we received a
copy of my parents' wedding certificate, which was recorded in the Russian
language when they were married on November 7, 1910, at St Vladimir Russian
Orthodox Church, in Brooklyn, New York. After the translation, we found
the correct spelling of their surnames and the Polish village where they
originated.
Mary Durniak, my second cousin who lives with here husband
in Flushing, New York, was kind enough to share some background information
on Frank's father, Maxim Romanick. The mother of Mary Durniak had taken
in boarders to supplement her income. My father and his brother Prokop
(Aleksander), unknown to me, were boarders at this home in 1903. His two
sisters, Irena and Fotina, remained in Poland.
In addition we have the names and addresses of the following.
No doubt some of these are our relatives. They are:
Romanik 150, Romaniak 115, Romaniuk 105, Romanek 263,
Romanczuk 106, Romanowicz 148 and Romanuk 14.
My brothers and sisters 1963 (left to right) Anastasia, Frank in my naval uniform, Olga, George, Mary, Harold in his army uniform, Ann and Joseph. Not present, my oldest brother John. | |