Happy Easter

So every Easter Dad would say to me in Russian...  "Christ has risen", and he always wanted me to be able to say the correct response back to him in Russian, "Truly Christ has risen."  and every year.... I wouldn't remember how.  He would teach me again and then next year..... I would have forgotten again.  I wish he were here so I could finally get it right this year, for once.

I tried to figure out how to post this but alas.... a link will have to do. 

http://listen2russian.com/lesson05/d/index.html


С Пасхой!

Христос воскрес!

John Berech Sr. Post 7

So why do I think that Iwan Biricz is John Berech? Well.... several reasons.

1. On the Petition of naturalization it says that these documents will be attached.
2. The date of arrival, the manner of arrival and the location of the arrival support what he has written in other documents.
3. If you follow the format of the book these documents are in This is exactly how each persons documents are laid out.
4. The name previous has it's own documents support his name (Can't mess that up the name Thomas), so this one must belong to John unless there is some huge error.
5. The Russian name for John is Ivan.. Well this documents say Iwan. Doesn't the letter V usually has a W sound when speaking Russian. So, It could have easily been written down wrong because that what the official heard.  (Update - I spoke with Uncle Bill after this post and he told me that you pronounce Iwan - Eve-ahn  The " I " is pronounced with a long E)
6. Biricz just looks like I could very well be right. (not very scientific but it works for me)
7. Finally.... If you go to the actual ships manuscript and read the information about him. It supports on several accounts...

• His Fathers name is Victor... (This is true)
• He's from Minsk Russia (Again True)
• Listed with Minsk Russia is another name spelled - Raczkowiczy (which I can't find anything about, maybe a county, district or providence??? Need to dig further into this. ) But anyway...this name is also listed alongside Minsk Russia on his Declaration of Intention, which links the two documents.

NOTE-- Uncle Bill says his Dad says he was actually from Pinsk... which I did find on a map and it's located SW of Minsk) Need to look further into that as well..... if I can.

Below are several links to see the manifest. I can only include links because the right click is disabled to copy the documents. Ellis Island would like for you to purchase copies. So... there ya go... Got an extra $40 hanging about?! Wanna send a copy to your amazing cousin/niece! Lemme me know! ;o)


This should take you directly to the transcribed passenger list of the Russia on the Ellis Island website.

You may have to sign in to see it.

Line number 68

http://www.ellisisland.org/search/ship_passengers.asp?letter=r&half=2&sname=Russia&year=1913&sdate=12%2F12%2F1913&port=Libau%2C+Russia&page=2

-------------------------------

This is the left side of the ships manifest (again.. you may need to be signed in to see it)

Follow line 15

http://www.ellisisland.org/search/shipManifest.asp?MID=08844045490919726816&pID=100816230165&lookup=100816230165&show=%5C%5C192%2E168%2E100%2E11%5Cimages%5CT715%2D2238%5CT715%2D22380080%2ETIF&origFN=%5C%5C192%2E168%2E100%2E11%5CIMAGES%5CT715%2D2238%5CT715%2D22380079%2ETIF

-------------------------------

This is the right page of the document - (are you signing in yet? haha)

Follow line number 15

http://www.ellisisland.org/search/shipmanifest.asp?pID=100816230165&fromShip=y&letter=r&half=2&sname=Russia&year=1913&sdate=12/12/1913&port=Libau,*Russia&page=

So yeah..... This is him... I'm sure of it.

PS - I know the links look funny on the blog page but they work so I'm not messing with it.