Maria Ripan, the daughter of the native sister Martha and the goddaughter of His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar), is working with archival documents to investigate the genealogy of her great relative.
She is visiting the regional archives of Ukraine in order to leave for the descendants some documentary evidence of the origin and activities of the Husars family.
RISU correspondent Natalia Paliy met with Ms. Maria, when she worked with the documents in the State Archives of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. And the latter shared her plans.
“Here, in the archives, I am seeking for documents to supplement my own genealogy and that of His Beatitude Lubomyr,” Ms Maria said. “I want to have the accurate data about the family collected. It was in this city, which was formerly called Stanislaviv, that the father of His Beatitude Lubomyr - Jaroslav, brother Alexander, sister Martha, grandmother, grandfather, great-grandfather were born.”
As Maria Ripan told, there were many priests in their family. They served in various parishes – in Ternopil region, where she investigated the Zavaliv branch of their family, about which she has recently presented the book. Father Dmitry Husar - great-grandfather of His Beatitude Lubomyr had been a rector for many years there. And the family of his mother, Rostislava Demchuk, lived in Kalniy, because her father, Luka Demchuk, was a pastor there. Father Luka was born in Novyy Vytkiv near Radekhiv, Lviv region. And the mother of Rostislava - Olena Bilinkevych was the daughter of a priest – Fr Iosyp, who served as the church rector in Tysmenichany - now Ivano-Frankivsk region and Ternopil region.
“So, it is difficult to say that we are from one particular area, because the children were born where the father served as a priest," says Maria Ripan. “As soon as I saw the archival books, which outline the direct dynasties of the pastors who served in Tismenichany. These are all Fathers Bilinkevychs. Two years ago I was there. I was led to the church and showed a document with a list of the church rectors. Among them were my direct ancestors. The remains of the monument were found at the village cemetery, only one of them - to Father Sylvester.”
Ms. Maria has found a lot of familial documents in the Ivano-Frankivsk archive and has planned to work in those of Lviv and Ternopil.