LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter June 2010

Coming Events

Saturday 12th June

St. John the Evangelist Church, Lancaster City Centre. Digital Projects Seminar

Resolve to Photograph Gravestones in 2010

A friendly practical day for society members who are interested in saving our valuable gravestone memorials for the future on the internet. The day will start at 10.30am. Tea and coffee are available all day. Bring sandwiches or visit nearby cafes for a lunch break.

This FREE informal seminar will finish at 4.00pm. Presented by Tony Foster and Peter Joslin Further details from Tony, email Ga.foster@btopenworld.com and Peter, email peterjoslin@btinternet.com

Don’t let our valuable family history information disappear for ever. The Rossendale Branch doesn’t have a Projects Coordinator but it would be wonderful if someone could organise the photographing of the many gravestones at St. John the Evangelist Church, Bacup.

Saturday 26th June

The LFHHS will be represented at the York Family History Fair, which will take place at the Knavesmire Stand, York Racecourse. The opening times are 10.00 am to 4.30 pm

Sunday 4th July 2010

LFHHS Annual Dinner

Lancaster & Morecambe Branch are hosting the Annual Dinner this year. It will take place at The Midland Hotel, Morecambe. The hotel is situated on the front, facing the Lake District. It is a well known Art Deco hotel which has recently been refurbished.

Arrive for 12.30, Luncheon will served at 1.00

Visit the Lancaster and Morecambe website www.lancasterfamilyhistory.org.uk for a Booking Form and Menu. There are also details of three interesting activities which you may care to undertake after lunch.

Full information will also we in your May copy of "Lancashire".

The LFHHS Resource Centre. Extension of Opening Hours. We are pleased to announce that the Society’s Resource and Research Centre at 2 Straits Oswaldtwistle, BB5 3LU is open every Thursday from 1pm – 5pm. and the Centre will now open on the 1st Saturday of each month 1pm – A catalogue of the resources available can be viewed or downloaded from www.lfhhs.org/download/index.htm  

Research and Advice Sessions: at Rawtenstall library every Tuesday 1.30 – 3.30

Rossendale Branch has a group of members who are on hand very Tuesday, to assist members of the public with their Family History enquiries. You will find us upstairs in the library adjacent, to the new Community History facilities. When contacting us with an enquiry, please include your membership number. Not a member? Then see the Benefits of Joining on our Home Page

Manchester Archives & G.M. Record Office Central Library Temporary Closure

Whilst the Central Library is closed, Greater Manchester County Record Office (GMCRO) will continue to provide its current levels of service until late June 2010. Customers of Manchester Archives and Local Studies can use the premises to access key sources – especially Ancestry.com and Find My Past online family history sources. In late June the Central Library’s Archive Service will reopen in its temporary home at GMCRO. If you wish to view archive materials it will be necessary to book a place in advance. The most important and regularly used original archive collections from the two services will be stored on site – these include, church, court and hospital records, Manchester City Council & Committee minutes, Local Studies Broadside collection.. Other archive collections will be available upon two weeks’ notice. From late June the GMCRO’s key original sources will be available in the Local Studies Library in the new City Library at Eliot House, 151 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WD rather than at GMCRO. These include GRO microfiche of births, marriages and deaths; Electronic resources such as Ancestry.com, Find My Past, Manchester Burials OnLine and CD-ROMs. For further information, look at the library website www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries

Greater Manchester County Record Office is situated at

6 Marshall Street,
New Cross,
Manchester
M4 5FU
Tel. 0161 832 5284

Email: archives@gmcro.co.uk

Website www.gmcro.co.uk

Rossendale: News Notes and Querie

Last month we were unexpectedly left without a speaker. However, the evening developed quite well. I told the meeting about the early days of the society, which was then known as the Rossendale Society for Genealogy and Heraldry. I described how joining the society had changed the course of my life. I was joined by John Dalton and there was then a general discussion about the society and the many changes that had taken place since those pioneering days.

Michael Hiluta told us how he had developed an interest in historic Haslingden after finding rolls of census microfilm in Haslingden library. It was in 1994, when the Society was celebrating its 21st anniversary that I encountered Michael in the library. I encouraged him to be become a member and he soon became a stalwart of the branch. He has indexed the burials at Haslingden cemetery and at Rawtenstall cemetery. He is our collector of miscellaneous data. This is despite of the fact that Michael has no Lancashire ancestors, in fact he has no British Ancestors.

"Then shall Two be in the Field…"

When Michael’s mother died the church was packed with relatives, friends from St. Mary’s church, neighbours, residents of the Lindens Care Home and many others. Michael gave the eulogy based on a text from Matthew’s Gospel, Ch24 vs 40-41: "Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding in the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left".

Michael’s Story

My mother‘s name was Catrina Lubchek, she was born 10th March 1922 in south western Ukraine. She was the second of two daughters. However both her parents died shortly afterwards, so both children were brought up by her uncle on a rural farm and as a result never attended school. She was never able to read nor write. Just before the war her sister was married. Then in 1941, the Germans invaded Russia and swept through Ukraine. For a year my mother tried to keep one step ahead of them by hiding in the fields, to avoid capture. However one night there was a heavy thunderstorm and as a result she had to take shelter in the house. She was unaware that there were Germans in the building; it was as if she had walked into a trap. From that moment her life changed for ever. In 1942, she was taken to Germany (leaving her sister behind) where she was used as slave labour on a farm.

My father’s name was Paul Hiluta. He was born in December 1899. His home town was Kovell in western Ukraine. I know from some documents that my father too was a prisoner during the war and worked in a munitions factory. After the war, he met my mother in a refugee camp and they were married on the 10th July 1947. My father was much older than my mother and I believe that he had been married previously. At that time the British were allowing a number of displaced persons into the country. Rather than go back to Communism, my parents took advantage of this opportunity.

My parents first short stay in England, was in Rawtenstall. I was born on 29th December 1949, followed by my two brother, Roland (now living in Melbourne, Australia) and Joseph who lives in Chelmsford, Essex.

Our family home was 47 Hudrake, Haslingden, where my mother lived for 44 years. I was 5 years old when on the 5th April 1956, my father died of a heart attack, My mother had to bring up her 3 very young sons alone. Scarcely speaking a word of English she had to point for the things she wanted from the shops. She had many part time chores until in 1960, she obtained a full time job with Ervin Russell at Rossendale Plastics, Blackburn Road. It was Ervin who helped her to get a mortgage on our house at Hudrake. In 1983 she became a cleaner at Rossendale General Hospital where she stayed until she retired in 1983.

Over the years mother stayed in touch with her sister who had settled in Poland, always finding someone who could write for her. In 1996, her sister was bedridden and very frail, so I took her to Poland where they met for the first time in 54 years, Six months later her sister was taken into eternity. My mother died on the 16th May 2007.. aged 85. Both my parents are now together again in Holden Hall cemetery, Haslingden. I have had the Ukraine flag inscribed on their gravestone.

My parents have a family they can be proud of, - 3 sons, 6 grandchildren, 3 great grandsons and a great grand daughter.

Michael Hiluta email michael.hiluta@virgin.net