SARASOTA, Fla. – June 2016 marked a first, and it was big. First cousins of the Baranowsky clan dreamed up and organized a wonderful family reunion.
E-mail addresses were compiled, a committee was set-up, cousin Marko Pilecky (Mr. IT and photographer extraordinaire) set up an interactive family/reunion website, a keynote speaker was arranged with cousin Renata Holod agreeing to take on that task, surveys and questionnaires were sent out.
Cousin Oresta (Pilecky) Fedyniak, continuing her yearlong research, dug deep into the distant past and her memory to track and record ancestors and fill in the family tree, as cousin Lev Wolansky did the same for his branch of the family. Then, cousin Lunia Poluchowicz scrambled to computerize all this data, and the planning was just beginning.
Four root “clans” – the Nestajko, Ficalowych, Baranowsky and Wolansky families – over 70 relatives, from California to New York, and from Canada to Florida – came together in the Ukrainian Village section of Chicago to honor and celebrate our common ancestors and our heritage, and to have fun. It was a manifestation of the eternal pull of first cousins.
At the Toronto family reunion in 2018.
Next, in Toronto on June 22-24 of this year, came the second family reunion. And it was bigger. To our North American relatives we now added Sydney, Australia, as cousin Mary (Baranowsky) Balak and her husband, Ihor, international trekkers, impressed all with their effort to attend.
The Toronto committee of first and second cousins certainly did work – the Canadians nailed it for our second family reunion. Working for more than a year via e-mails, meetings and calls, they put together a family reunion of almost 100 relatives. The ages of those attending ranged from 12 to some approaching 100.
Families get together for a variety of reasons: weddings, graduations, holidays, funerals. At our reunions, we celebrate our families; honor our past relatives; meet second and third cousins, aunts and uncles; share our successes and accomplishments; network; and have a good time in a happy place.
We know our brief time together has made an impact on some of the younger generation, leaving a mental imprint of who we are and where we and they all came from. Their takeaways from the reunion were also significant and inspiring. Some of our relatives, both past and present, have made and are making a significant difference in this world.
The Toronto family reunion was spread over three days. On Friday at 6 p.m. we started with our meet and greet, held in an elegant meeting room of the Old Mill Place. A few hours of this family socializing with wonderful food and libations, provided by local relatives, served as a very lively way to re-acquaint ourselves with more distant relatives and meet new ones. The younger folk extended their evening with a pub crawl.
On Saturday morning we attended a liturgy in St. Josaphat Cathedral celebrated by the Rev. Volodymyr Yanishevsky to honor our past relatives and to sing thanks to the Almighty for all our good blessings. The liturgical songs and responses were done beautifully by the Naberezhny and Wolansky clans.
The family group photo session with a professional photographer always tests everyone’s patience, but it’s during this interaction that we learn about each other. The family smiled and all looked good.
The Canadian sun-god was not smiling at us during the Toronto Harbor cruise, and the Toronto cityscape along with the CNTower were in the lowest hanging rainclouds we have ever seen. But for this boatful of relatives it really didn’t matter – the cruise was just a continuation of our Friday’s meet and greet. The three hours before dinner were a welcome break, especially for our seniors, to recharge.
Our evening dinner banquet was masterfully emceed by cousin Ada (Goshulak) Murphy, and the organizer of this wonderful feast, cousin Myrosia Baranowsky, could not have made a better choice. Opening the programs of both reunions, in Chicago and in Toronto, Oresta Fedyniak not only shared her rich and meaningful recollection of our family life, but focused her attention on the common thread of all our related clans: we’re all proud descendants of many generations of priests. In our collective ancestry dating back hundreds of years, many of these priestly families were prominent spiritual, cultural and intellectual leaders throughout Ukraine. This is the rich legacy that we celebrate at these reunions. Ms. Fedyniak encouraged the younger generation to continue this tradition of remembering our forefathers and to pass on our Ukrainian heritage.
The kitchen of the Old Mill Hotel lived up to its five-star rating. The introductions of all the out-of-towners, the individual commentaries and stories, the sharing of greetings from relatives not able to attend (Nestajko cousins from Kyiv, Hrabec cousins from Boston), the interactive slide show so interestingly presented by Dr. Lew Wolansky of many of our long-past ancestors (photos more than 100 years old) and more recent relatives rounded out the program for the evening. To illustrate our common ancestry on charts and graphs, our Chicago cousins Oksana and Lunia Poluchowicz diligently laid out charts and graphs on tables for all to examine and study.
The younger crowd needed to expend more of their energies, so the reunion committee organized (Mike Appleby and Anna Iwanyshyn, take a bow) a rock-and-roll show at the Cadillac Lounge, one of Toronto’s trendy music clubs. Musical entertainment was provided by our talented cousins Michael Iwanyshyn and his band Mikey Manville, and Chris (of the Naberezhni clan) Dobby’s band Piffbreak Arcade. The music was amazing and everyone rocked into the wee hours.
The reunion action continued on Sunday, with two families (Myrosia Baranowsky and Charytia Holod) graciously hosting an open house with sumptuous feasts in both houses. Much of the family was still around and enjoyed the very warm atmosphere of the Toronto family.
We hope that these family-immersive festivals continue every two years in the same spirit of sharing and discovery of our families’ heritage and history. We hope to inspire other families to consider similar endeavors.