# data[].attributes.body
Here is a photo of me and my Baba Helen that was taken very recently. I am very close with her and treasure our relationship.

# data[].attributes.body
Here is an image of my Baba Verna and Gido Mike (grandparents, dad's side) and my siblings and I and my cousin Emmy after a dance recital. I am now Emmy's dance instructor.

# data[].attributes.body
My full name is Madelyn Sophia Josephine Rawlyk. Sophia, is my Baba Helen's middle name which I received to preserve her legacy. Similarly, Josephine came from Josephine Kurant, the backbone of my dad's side of the family.
My brother Nick's full name is Nicholas Peter Michael Rawlyk. He was named after our two gido's: Peter Sopotyk and Michael Rawlyk. What's funniest about these names to me is what happened with my sister: they ran out of grandparents for her so my parents went with Rachel Sherry Rawlyk, after my mother. Not quite as grand, but still cute. Here is a picture of my immediate family.

# data[].attributes.headline
My mother when she was young; in a Ukrainian dance costume

# data[].attributes.subject
My mother when she was young; in a Ukrainian dance costume

# data[].attributes.headline
Me when I was younger; in a Ukrainian dance costume 

# data[].attributes.subject
Me when I was younger; in a Ukrainian dance costume 

# data[].attributes.headline
Pauline Prebushewski holding daughter Pat Prebushewski in 1947

# data[].attributes.subject
Pauline Prebushewski holding daughter Pat Prebushewski in 1947

# data[].attributes.body
An image of an old family tree compiled by a relative of mine 1976, showing some relatives of the Sopotyk family.

# data[].attributes.headline
Gido Pete: My mom's Dad, the Gido I never met

# data[].attributes.subject
Gido Pete: My mom's Dad, the Gido I never met

# data[].attributes.headline
Pauline and Bill Prebushewski: Wedding Photo

# data[].attributes.subject
Pauline and Bill Prebushewski: Wedding Photo

# data[].attributes.body
On my dad's maternal side of the family, the man that came from Ukraine and began our lineage in Canada is Stefan Lozinsky. Stefan was born in Ukraine but moved to Austria when he was young and departed from Austria to Canada at the age of 28 with his wife Evanka in 1899. He then settled in Saskatchewan near Laniwci and helped to found a Ukrainian Catholic church. Stefan gave birth to four children in Canada, one of them being Josephine in 1903. This Josephine married Charles Wozniak in 1919 at the age of 17 and had children Anne, Francis, Olga, Veronica, and Eugene. Though she later remarried to become the esteemed Great Baba Kurant I have always known her as, her maiden name was Lozinsky and first married name was Wozniak. This woman is one of the great Ukrainians in my family I am named after; my second middle name, Josephine (Madelyn Sophia Josephine Rawlyk) comes from her. Click on the image below to get a better view of my dad's side of the family!

# data[].attributes.body
Leonora Lozinsky was one of Josephine's siblings; here is a newspaper article that was written about her long and fulfilling life as she lived past the age of 100. She would be my great great aunt.

# data[].attributes.body
Baba Verna's (my paternal grandmother's) biological father, Josephine Kurant's first husband before she re-married Alex Kurant.

# data[].attributes.headline
Josephine Lozinsky: Certificate of Marriage to First Husband

# data[].attributes.subject
Josephine Lozinsky: Certificate of Marriage to First Husband

# data[].attributes.headline
Josephine Lozinsky: Certificate of Birth and Baptism

# data[].attributes.subject
Josephine Lozinsky: Certificate of Birth and Baptism

# data[].attributes.headline
Stefan Lozinsky: Born in Ukraine, came to Canada

# data[].attributes.subject
Stefan Lozinsky: Born in Ukraine, came to Canada

# data[].attributes.body
Here is the documentation showing Stefan Lozinsky, my great grandfather (Baba Verna's Gido), was a passenger on a boat or transfers of a boat going to Canada.

# data[].attributes.headline
Marriage Certificate for my maternal great grandparents, Pauline and William Prebushewski

# data[].attributes.subject
Marriage Certificate for my maternal great grandparents, Pauline and William Prebushewski

# data[].attributes.body
Gido Pete, my mom's dad, was born in 1922 in Canada. His father, John Sopotyk, was born in a village in Ukraine, Toprorecy Hirodenka, in 1869. He moved to Canada with his first wife, Helen Welykochy, and three children Anne, Dora, Dmytro, and Pearl in 1901.
John and Helen set up a homestead near Prud'homme and had eleven more children on the farm. Peter being the youngest, was born in 1922. He married Helen at the age of 34 in 1956 and had three daughters, as explained above.
I have been told stories that Gido Pete did not like to lose; whether it was a came of cards or anything in life, he had a fierce drive to win and would sacrifice anything to make sure his family had what they needed.

# data[].attributes.body
My Gido, Michael Rawlyk, was a founder of the Boyan Ukrainian Dance Association in 1967: a Ukrainian dance group that started out of the St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church basement in 1967. Back then the founders had no idea the club would amount to so much. Michael taught dance for a number of years to many young children who then went on to teach my dad, Ron, among others. My dad taught dance when he was older as well and it was his exact students who now teach myself and my siblings how to dance. Now, Nick and I are instructors with Boyan as well. Nothing feels more right to my roots and tradition than keeping up with Ukrainian dance and loving everything I learn with such pure passion. Below is an image of the group I taught this year.

# data[].attributes.headline
Museum of Pysanky I visited in Ukraine (building shaped like Pysanka)

# data[].attributes.subject
Museum of Pysanky I visited in Ukraine (building shaped like Pysanka)

# data[].attributes.body
The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs is an ancient tradition; usually done around Easter, the eggs are decorated with elaborate patterns and motifs that are meant to glorify God and symbolize the tomb from which Jesus rose. Included below is a picture of a pysanka that one of my relatives created (the egg has been preserved for generations, we do not know who it belongs to), and attached is an image of an egg I made myself. Here is another example of how I keep culture and tradition alive in my family and take pride in my roots. The hours of careful wax application and dying can be strenuous and particular but I love it.

# data[].attributes.headline
Generation of Culture: My trip to Ukraine

# data[].attributes.subject
Generation of Culture: My trip to Ukraine

# data[].attributes.body
Currently, I dance with the Ukrainian dance group, "Boyan on Tour", an extension of the Boyan Ukrainian Dance Association meant for higher level dancing and tours. This past summer in 2018, I traveled with my dance group to Ukraine. It was an amazing trip - I could fill this entire project with images of cities we visited and stories to share. Included below are images I felt worth sharing. The first is a picture of me at a famous monastery in Kyiv, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. We had to wear head scarves during the excursion; I felt right at home feel I looked like I belonged there. The second photo is an image of an actual sunflower field we saw (there were many) and that is the reason I chose sunflowers as the background for this project! They are my favorite flower and a symbol of the journey from Ukraine to Canada. Furthermore, they symbolize joy and beauty in farming too: important elements of my history that I like to remember. The final pictures are images of myself and my brother in Lviv in our dance costumes, and me, my brother and my mother at a Hutsul wedding in the town of Kosiv, in the very same region from which my mother's family hails.

# data[].attributes.headline
Prebushewsky - Sopotyk:  Ukraine to Canada 

# data[].attributes.subject
Prebushewsky - Sopotyk:  Ukraine to Canada 

# data[].attributes.body
Sam Prebushewski was born on September 2, 1883 in the village of Wohochi, now known as Selo Holhoche, Pidhaytsi raion, Ternopil oblast. He was 23 years old when he left Ukraine with his parents, brothers and sister. Sam established a homestead in Saskatchewan in 1907 and officially registered it in 1912. Sam married Helen Kalinka in 1910 in Alvena. Sam and Helen lived on their homestead and had a son, Bill (William) Prebushewski born in 1911.
In the coming years they left their first farm, bought some land near Dalmeny and made enough money to retire in Saskatoon. Over the course of their lives they had five daughters and four sons; Bill, Dan, Mary, Mike, Sophie (died in infancy), Harry, Fred, Joyce and Annie (also died young). Helen died on January 31, 1943 at a hospital in Sasktoon. Sam died at the age of 20 on March 22, 1953 in the hospital as well. Sam would have been my great great grandfather.
Bill, the firstborn son, worked in the Meacham area where he met and married Pauline Weselowski om July 19, 1937 (see their wedding photo, left). Their first born child, Helen, was born in 1938 and is my maternal Baba, still alive today.

Growing up on the farm in Meacham, Helen had two younger siblings; Michael, born in 1939 and Victoria, born May 24, 1942 but she died in 1944 from a fever. One day when Helen and Michael were playing in the yard, Helen noticed Michael began seizing. She quickly ran inside to tell her parents but by the time the right people were contacted a car from a neighboring farm was used to get Michael to the nearest clinic, he had died. The doctors suspect he had an enlarged heart and other conditions which triggered his illness. My Baba says going to school was not the same after that; she missed her brother, who was always her companion, too much to continue using the same route there and back.
In 1947, the family moved to a new farm in the Prud'homme area where siblings Pat, Allan, and Sonia were born. Because Baba Helen was so much older than her siblings, she says she remembers taking care of them for most of her youth while her parents were busy working the farm.
Helen met Peter Sopotyk at a funeral in the area and married him on July 11, 1956. Together, they moved to a new plot of land around Prud'homme and had three daughters, Delores, Darlene, and my mother Sherry. Peter died in 1996 at the age of 84, before me or my siblings had a chance to meet him but we hear I play kaiser with his same wit.
Baba Helen remarried to Joe McLeod, an Irish man, in 2007. To this day, he is the only one who would rather sing a shanty than play kaiser at family gatherings.

# data[].attributes.headline
Dad's Maternal Side: Baba Kurant and Resilience 

# data[].attributes.subject
Dad's Maternal Side: Baba Kurant and Resilience 

# data[].attributes.body
Josephine Lozinsky and Charles Wozniak knew each other during the time of WWI and the first time conscription was introduced in Canada. Having set up a farm to look after for themselves and preparing to be married, the couple was devastated when Charles was conscripted. Not wanting to leave the farm and the life unfolding before him, Charles fought conscription and was imprisoned for it. Though he was not in prison for many years, when he came out he was a different person. He married Josephine in 1919 as evidenced by this marriage certificate, received a plot of land from family near Laniwci and tried his best to resume life where it left off.

Josephine had daughters Anne and Francis and later Veronica in 1931. The women and Charles lived through the years of WWII on the farm and Josephine had Olga and Eugene in this time. Tragedy struck when Charles caught tuberculosis and died in a sanitarium in 1952. Josephine, resilient and strong, carried on looking after the farm with her children and eventually remarried to Alex Kurant.

In her lifetime, Josephine experienced profound loss. After Veronica was born, Josephine had to watch a small baby, Olga, die just a few years after birth because she fell out of her crib and broke her back. Years later once her children were moved out, she witnessed her daughter Anne die giving birth in the hospital to baby Leonard Wyotowich. Years after that, she had to watch Francis die from kidney failure in the hospital though she suspects her complications were caused by overuse of anesthetic by a dentist a number of years previous. Josephine also buried Eugene, her last born son, who died of lung cancer in his 50's. Veronica was the only surviving child of Josephine Kurant and was there to bury her when she passed at the eleventh hour of November 11 in 1998.

All my life I have been told of Josephine's resilience. She lived through the deaths of two husbands and four children; still managing to be there for all her living relatives in spite of it all. I have been told that there were times in her life when she was so poor she had to walk miles to church in socks because she did not have shoes. I find these stories so inspiring and it makes me proud to come from the family I do.

Veronica, now more commonly known as Verna, grew up to marry Michael Rawlyk, a fellow Ukrainian living on the prairies. Michael's parents were Anne and Dmytri Rawlyk; Dmyrtri was also born in Ukraine. Michael and Veronica (Verna) are my current paternal grandparents, still alive today.
Verna and Michael had six children: Joanne, Donna, Michael, Nadine, Marlene, and my father Ron; all who lived to start their own families and continue raising them today. Baba Verna and Gido Mike have lived to see their great great grandchildren (my cousin's children) and are still enjoying their lives as grandparents, starters of a legacy.

# data[].attributes.body
3 generations:
-myself, siblings, cousins
-my parents, aunts, uncles
-my grandparents (maternal and paternal)
A basic summary!
These are the people I see at family gatherings; the most relevant family in my life. There are also over 30 cousins not included; many people in my generation now have their own kids!

# data[].attributes.headline
Sopotyk Farm: Where Peter and Helen lived

# data[].attributes.subject
Sopotyk Farm: Where Peter and Helen lived