#9
About Maria's Cousins

About Maria’s Family 

     According to the information Rosa received from my cousin Pearl Maxnuik,(who likely got the information from my mother’s cousin, Harry Nikiforuk), my maternal great grandmother was called Iona (Ee-wan-na).nee Yurko.  She married my great grandfather Nikolai Niikiforuk. 

          Iona was widowed in Romania , then traveled to Canada with her children.  She lived to the age of 102 years and four months.  She was buried in the Boian Cemetry.  A quote from my cousin Pearl Cucheran Maxnuik: “I remember seeing her.  I was only six years old.  We went to see her before we came to B.C. (Vernon).  She was bent over and very old then”.”
   The couple had five children:  Lazur, Todor,  Serafina (Sanfira), Maria, and Stefan.

Information on Todor and Stefan is unavailable but a few details are known about the other three.
 
   Sanfira(born in 1873) married Stefan Seminovich.  They had five children:  John, Nikolai, Maria (my mother), Helen and George.  She died in Glendon and was buried at the Malin Romanian church in the Kaleland-Shepenitz area.

   Maria Nikiforuk married Stefan Kelba.  They had two children; John and Anne (Ungaran?) and lived one mile north of the west end of Hairy Hill.

  Lazur and his wife had three children: Aurel, later called Harry,  Profira, later called Lavina and Marie, later called Ellen Marie.

          The story of Lazur’s family is a sad one:  Times were difficult.  Homesteaders needed strength, energy and endurance to survive.  Lazur and his wife, however, were not well and had difficulty caring for their family.  According to a moving and emotion-packed article written by Sandra Pope to the Sedgewich Press on May 18, 1977, the girls were put in the Childrens Shelter in Edmonton and later adopted.  Harry stayed in Hairy Hill with a neighbor and then was in the care of the Salvation Army and sent to a school for the deaf.  The three had lost track of one another, but remembered that they had siblings and wished to see them again.  The years rolled by.

          In 1977, Harry who resided at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island and Lavina (Hopfe) Hodom from Forestburg made contact but they could not find their younger sister, Marie.  After many attempts and failures and with the help of many people and services, Ellen Marie Norden was located in Mervin, Saskatchewan. 

So, 59 years after the three children had parted, they had an emotional and happy reunion.

          Other tidbits:
My grandmother, Serafina (Sanfira)  - b0rn in Romania in 1873.  Married Stefan Seminovich.  Had five children:  They crossed the Atlantic in the ‘Colberg’ and entered Canada in Halifax.  They settled in the Shepenitz area.  Sanfira died in 1905 after only a short time n Canada.  She was buried in the Boian cemetery.
Lazur – Had three children, Harry, Lavina, and Ellen Marie.
Todor – According to John Kelba, Toder was buried on his own farm near Little Boian (later known as Shalka, I think)
Maria –Married Stefan Kelba.  Had two children, John and Annie.  They lived one mile north of Hairy Hill.  Died in 1962(?) 
         
My memories of my mother’s cousins.
   In 1977 I was at the Biodulock farm when Lavina came to visit her cousn (my mother).  She was happy that she had finally found her siblings and was now making contact with more family.  I remember her as a pleasant and chatty lady.
 
In the 1980s while we visited Dave’s parents in Parksville on Vancouver Island, I drove to Lake Cowichan.  Harry and Dora who were both deaf and mute welcomed me with open arms.  However, before one of their daughters came to their house to translate through sign language, Dora and I communicated with pencil and pad.  Dora was a delight.  Harry was most interested in his past and I lent him a copy of “Our Crossing”. We have exchanged Christmas letters over the years. But I haven’t received anything from them in the last few years.

John Kelba married Gwen, a Welsh war bride.  Gwen was delightful and bubbly.  What she lacked in height (she was short), she made up in spirit and love.  One day she introduced us to ‘Welsh cakes’ – thick cookies cooked in a pan on top of the stove.  Delicious!  They had three daughters.  I would like to contact the daughters but if they married their names would be changed.  They were young when I last saw them.

Marie Kelba was elderly when I saw her.  At that stage in her life she seemed always to be reading her Bible.
When I began my high school in Hairy Hill, the house that my father built for us was not yet ready.  So Lucille and I stayed at Anne Kelba’s place for the month of September.
 
Several members on my mother’s side were gifted in the art of carpentry; making furniture and building.  My grandfather Stefan Seminovich, his son, (my uncle, John Seminovich,) and  Mother’s cousin, John Kelba all enjoyed working with wood..

George Seminovich, my mother’s youngest brother became a parapelegic after a farm accident.  In spite of his misfortune, he was a always pleasant when I visited him at hospitals.  Strangely, I would leave the hospital feeling happy.

Helen Cucheran, my mother’s sister met an early death due to tuberculosis.

P.S.  I have a copy of the Sedgewich article.  The print and photo is very poor and I do not know how to send it to you or even check to see how it would reproduce.  Help!  My helpers, Dave is in Brazil and Natalie is rarely available.  Sorry!

God Bless
Love Pearl