Shadows of a Forgotten World

I love to post about ghost signs and fortunately I've come across quite a few more of them in Lviv since I wrote my first post about them almost three years. Here's more from my collection. Some have already been painted over but others are still being liberated from the covering plaster. "Maka Grys i Owies" (Flour, Grits, and Oats) Probably says "lakier(y)" (varnish) On one of the buildings that used to comprise Jan Lewinski's factory.  Sadly, this is one of the one's that has been painted over:       Wekslarski Sq.  (the name of the square before 1939 - currenty Koliyivshchyna Sq.) probably "fasola" (beans) These two are located in entranceways:   A lovely ghost sign on a beautifully dilapidated house "Fryzjer" (hairdresser) Stripes designated stores run by Ukrainians or Jews   Ghost sign liberation (progress over the course of the last fe...

Old photos are windows to the past, to a forgotten world. I'm fortunate to have quite a few old family photos, which allow me to get a glimpse into the lives they led . I decided to share some of these photos with a correspondent from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who traveled around Ukraine collectin material for her project "My Ukraine: Memory and Identity." My story can be found here . 1936 - Brody, Ukraine

  The oldest Ukrainian-language grave that I found of an ancestor is my great-great-great grandmother’s grave. She died in 1883 and is buried in the village Luchkivtsi, about an hour north east of Lviv. Anna’s husband was a German man named Venceslaus (Karlo) Kuhn. The etymological spelling used is called Maksymovychivka . It was introduced in 1827, and in Galicia and Bukovyna it was used in schools until 1895 (and in Russophile press and books until the 1930s).   Анна Кинъ зъ Давидовичêвъ упокоилася 28 серпня 1883 въ 64 р. житя вѣчная ей памятъ Equivalent in modern Ukrainian orthography: Анна Кин зі Давидовичів упокоїлася 28 серпня 1883 в 64 р. життя Вічная їй пам’ять Anna Kuhn Of the Davydovyches Died 29 August 1883 At 64 years of age Memory Eternal  *** This grave from 1906 (in the village Tsishky) of one of my great-grandmother’s siblings uses the  zhelekhivka  orthograpy (used around 1875-...