Shadows of a Forgotten World

My great (x5) grandparents Feliks and Tekla Lipiński moved to the village of Koltiv (Kołtów) from Lviv in 1811. Feliks was invited by Count Józef Baworowski to his estate in the countryside to conduct his court orchestra. The former landlords, the Starzeńskis, built a beautiful garden house on a high hill where the court orchestra would often play. Feliks and Tekla's son, the famous violinist and composer Karol Lipiński , often visited them in the village. Nothing of the garden house, the palace, the graves of the noblemen or my relatives, or any other traces of these times remain. Much was destroyed during WWI, and in WWII Koltiv found itself on the front. While Brody is remembered for the "Brody Cauldron" when in 1944 the Red Army encircled Brody and destroyed the German forces, the neighboring region was called the "Koltiv Corridor," due to the fact that the German front in the Koltiv area was shattered by the Soviet army, which broke through a narrow gap i...

Lviv has always felt like my native town; however, in recent times none of my ancestors were from here. But in the last few years I discovered that my direct ancestors on two sides of my family (Polish and Austrian) did live in Lviv, but over 200 years ago, in the early 1800s. The Lipińskis My great-great-great-great-great grandfather was Feliks Lipiński. "Born in 1765 in Zakliczyn near Tarnow, his life had presumably followed a course similar to that of other talented peasant children. He may have been educated in music in one of the numerous monasteries and then probably took up a teaching career at aristocratic courts where he tutored his charges in playing several instruments." "The end of the 18th century saw Feliks Lipinski in the estate of the Potocki family at Radzyn near Lublin. His first born was the son Karol Jozef who came into the world on 30 October 1790." Potocki Palace (built 1750-1759) in Radzyn, Poland Karol Lipinski It was this s...

  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-...

In the 1800s and early 1900s (and probably earlier), many of my ancestors lived in Brody, including some Polish and German ancestors. However, since Brody was severely destroyed during the wars of the last century and because many of my relatives were forced to flee, very few traces of their lives remain, and other traces have been all but forgotten. Only the school where my grandfather was the director and a former Greek Catholic (now Orthodox) church that some of my relatives attended still stand.   The locations of a couple of graves are known, but they are inaccessible now because the cemeteries are overgrown. left picture taken 5 years ago, right picture taken this year where some ancestors' graves are buried But many of the houses, other graves, and other traces of their lives were destroyed, forgotten, lost... Few collective remnants remain as well. I only found a couple of ghost signs and a few other relics from before the wars. I'm glad at least a fe...