Ivan Kiebuzinski (b. ca. 1823)

Ivan (Johann) Kiebuzinski is my great grandfather’s uncle. He was the son of Oleksandr and Maria (née Dombrovska) Kiebuzinski of Nehrybka. He studied at the Przemysl Gymnasium in 1837, then worked as a Ukrainian parish school-teacher for the Lviv Ukrainian Catholic Consistory, a cantor for the Greek-Catholic church, and farmer, first in Holyn (from 1846), and then in Tuzhyliv (Tuzylow) (Zahl der Schulbesuchenden 27) (from at least 1859 to 1874). The villages Holyn and Tuzhyliv are located southeast of Stryi in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. The school in Tuzhyliv was visited on average by 30 students, almost exclusively males. For his services, Ivan was compensated yearly by 105 guldens and 4 fathoms of wood. (Sources: Szematismus des Lehrpersonals der dem Lemberger gr. kth. Metropolitan-Conistorium unterstehenden Volksschulen (Lemberg: 1859-1864); Handbuch der Statthalterei-Gebietes in Galizieni (Lemberg: 1860-1864, 1866); "Tuzhyliv: vid istorii do sohodennia").

Ivan married Halyna (b. ca. 1832, née Kolej / Kolejow, daughter of Kataryna, a free property owner in Holyn) on 22 October 1846 in Holyn. Their witnesses included his older brother Andrei, at that time a priest in Poliana, and Joseph Rzepecki, a nobleman in Holyn. Ivan and Halyna resided first at 189 in Holyn and then at 127 in Tuzhyliv. They had the following children: Vitaly, Julianna (Julia), Iosyf, Anna, Anna, Mykhailo, and Vasyl:

Vitaly Kiebuzinski (b. 15 July 1849, Holyn). He, together with his wife Halyna, were forced to hold an estate sale and sell off their properties located on lots 178 and 179 in Tuzhyliv in April 1894 to make up for debt owed to a bank in Lviv (Gazeta Lwowska (1 Mar. 1894)). By October 1894, the District Court in Kalush declared the whereabouts of Halyna (Helena) Kiebuzinska unknown, and she was stripped of her rights (Gazeta Lwowska (4 Apr. 1895)).

Julianna (Julia) (b. 18 Jan. 1852, Holyn). She married Mykola Senkowski (son of Stefan and Anastasia Baran of Perekosy, a village north of Kalush). Her husband was probably connected with the saline in nearby Bania. The couple had at least six children, all born in Stryi: Fedir (b. 20 March 1880), Alexiy (Oles) (b. 26 March 1883), Cyril (Kyrylo) (b. 1 April 1886), Joanna (Ivanna) (b. 6 July 1889-d. 16 June 1898), Maria (b. 29 April 1896), and Ivan Iosyf (b. 17 June 1900-d. 27 June 1903).

Johann Kiebuzinski (1892-?)

Iosyf (b. 22 July 1854, Holyn) married Rosalia (b. 23 Sep. 1862, Stryi-d. 29 March 1923, Stryi; the illegitimate daughter of Maryna (Rosalia) Iwanowska (variant name Barbara Iwanowicz of Bilche)). He worked as a laborer and porter for a wood manufacturing factory in Stryi (1892-1895), and also as a constable and civil servant there (1887-1888 and 1896-1904), likely associated with transport. He and Rosalia had the following children:

Halyna (b. 30 May 1887, Stryi); Volodymyr (b. 24 Dec. 1888, Stryi-d. 19 May 1929, Stryi); Vasyl Kiebuzinski (b. 23 Jan. 1891, Stryi, house no. 180); Ivan (b. 22 Dec. 1892, Stryi, house no. 177); Stefan (b. 8 Feb. 1895, Stryi-d. 11 Apr. 1910); Oleksandr (b. 23 May 1897, Stryi, house no. 140, Rynok Square); Maria (b. 29 Apr. 1899, house no. 237, Lwiwska St.-d. 27 Aug. 1899 in Stryi); the twins Mykola (b. 3 Oct. 1900, house no. 100a, Panska St.-1 Sep. 1901 in Stryi) and Mykhailo (b. 3 Oct. 1900-d. 23 May 1902 in Stryi); and Maria (b. 21 May 1904-d. 4 Sep. 1919 in Stryi).

Halyna married Illia (Elias) Zwarycz, a local bricklayer, (b. 18 July 1887, son of Anton and Anastasia Hutnikiewycz) on 19 February 1911 in Stryi. Witnesses to their marriage were Demetrius Zwarycz and Vasyl (Basil) Kiebuzinski (presumably brothers of the bride and groom). They had two known children: Stepan (Stephan) (b. ca. Dec. 1913-d. 20 March 1915, Stryi) and Ievstakhii (Ostap, Eustace) (b. 15 Oct. 1919, Stryi-?). The family resided at 180 p. Targowica.

The oldest son, Volodymyr (Wladimir), was a locksmith. He married Antonina Erlich (Antonie Ehrlich) (b. 21 Nov. 1865, Miechocin, Tarnobrzeg county-24 March 1924, Stryi) in the Greek Catholic Church of St. Barbara in Vienna on 9 December 1917. The groom was 28 and the bride was 52. She was born in the Roman-Catholic parish of Miechocin in Tarnobrzeg to Johann Erlich (Ehrlich) and Viktoria Peters. Her occupation was circus owner. She had previously been married to Jan Pokrowski (son of Alexander and Maria Rymanowa), an acrobat. Antonina and Jan had at least one daughter: Helena Pokrowska (b. 21 May 1893, Stryi-?).

Their second son, Ivan (Johann), also worked as a locksmith in Stryi. Ivan was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic, spoke some German, and attended a Polish school. He spoke Polish and Ukrainian at home. His address was house number 180 in Stryi. Ivan married Stefanie Spiess on 4 February 1922 in Bolekhiv (a town just south of Stryi in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast) in the Roman Catholic Church. His wife (b. 24 Dec. 1897) was from Wełdzirz (present-day Shevchenkove). Her parents were Ludwig (b. in Bolekhiv) and Julie Kudelowicz (b. in Drohobych). They lived at house number 145 in Bolekhiv. Stefanie was German on her father’s side, and Polish on her mother’s side. She spoke some German, and was fluent in Ukrainian. She was unschooled. At the time of Ivan’s and Stefanie’s German naturalization application, January 1940, they were living in Stryi, and planning on moving to Pabianice (just southwest of Łódź). They were classed in Category III (persons of German descent who had become partly “Polonised,” e.g. through marrying a Polish partner or through working relationships). Ivan was working as a locksmith in Zgorzelec (Görlitz) by 1946. 

Iosyf's youngest surviving son, Oleksandr, may be the same Oleksandr Kebuz who taught at the Piotr Skarga Polish State Gymnasium in Rohatyn during the 1930s and 1940s. He attended the gymnasium in Stryi in 1910 and 1913. According to the series Rohatynska zemlia (New York, 1989-1996), he taught Latin there (v.1, p. 346), and in late June 1941 was arrested by NKVD agents in advance of the German occupation of the city. However, he was able to escape from the "clutches" of the NKVD (v.2, p. 544).

Anna (b. ca. Apr. 1857-d. 20 Jan. 1859, Tuzhyliv).

Anna (b. 20 May 1860, Tuzhyliv).

Mykhailo Kiebuzinski (b. 21 Dec. 1862, Tuzhyliv). A Mykhailo Kiebuzinski served as a godfather to Ivan Czomko (son of Vasyl Czomko and Kateryna Jandoszak) who was born on 11 June 1905. The 1905 baptismal register lists Mykhailo's occupation as a railroad worker.

Vasyl Kiebuzinski (b. 26 May 1865, Tuzhyliv-d. 13 July 1934, Ivano-Frankivsk) was a railway engineer; and, from circa 1921, former head of the Prosvita Society in Knihynyn (a suburb of Stanyslaviv or, now, Ivano-Frankivsk). He was involved in the workers' movement, and participated in many Ukrainian societies. Besides Prosvita, Vasyl was assistant director of the Ukrainian orphanage, and a member of the cooperative "Buduchnist" (1922-1926) and the local church's building committee. He married a woman named Maria. They were living in or near Knihynyn by 1902, as both served as godparents to children born there (Ivan Petrowicz (b. 1902) and a cousin, Vasyl Kolejiw (b. 1907)). Their home in his later years was located at 5, ul. Szaszkiewicza. Vasyl's funeral in 1934 was presided over by Rev. Medvetskyi, and he was eulogized by Dr. Iurii Olesnytskyi. Vasyl was buried in the city cemetery of Ivano-Frankivsk, but his grave no longer exists (see: Dilo (19 July 1934), and Karas, Hanna et al. Ivano-Frankivsk: entsyklopedychnyi slovnyk (Ivano-Frankivsk: Nova Zoria, 2010), p. 217).