Cyril genetics

Cyril Genik (1857-1925)

Cyril Genik (* 1857 in Nyschnij Bereziv , Galicia , Austria-Hungary , † February 12, 1925 in Winnipeg , Canada ) was an agent of the Ukrainian-Canadian immigration authorities and a person of historical importance for the immigration of Ukrainian immigrants in Canada.

biography

Cyril Genik was born in Nyschnij Bereziv (Ukrainian : Нижній Березів ) in 1857 in what is now Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , Ukraine . His father was Ivan Genyk, the mayor of a village, his mother's name was Ann Pertsovych. He graduated from high school in Lemberg (Lviv). Then genik began his studies in Kolomyja near Ivano-Frankivsk , where he was transferred to Nadvirna as a teacher after graduating in 1879 . In 1882 Genik returned to his home village and founded a school. During the 1880s, Genik founded a flour mill company and a producer cooperative, which he called the “Carpathian Shop”. In 1890 he was elected to the Kolomyja City Council.

Joseph Oleskiw (1860-1903)

During this time, Genik met Joseph Oleskiw, a man who mediated the immigration of Ukrainians to Canada. Oleskiw asked Genik with his second contingent to accompany the Ukrainians on their trip to Canada and to help the immigrants so that they could gain a foothold. Genik started the trip with his wife and four children together with a group of 64 Ukrainians; on June 22, 1896, they landed in the city of Québec . Genik took the group first to Winnipeg and then to Stuartburn, Manitoba , a city that is now considered the first Ukrainian-Canadian community in western Canada.

Cyril and Pauline Genik and Children, and the Jones Family, 1906

In August 1896, Genik first settled himself in Stuartburn near Manitoba, where he owned his own farm. A short time later, however, he moved to Winnipeg. That same month, Oleskiw recommended that the Canadian Department of the Interior hire Genik as an immigration agent. In September 1896, Genik was employed by the government for interpreting and translation, initially on a part-time basis. In his job as an immigration agent, Genik met many new Ukrainian-Canadian immigrants in the city of Quebec . He encouraged them to use the English language and give up their traditional Ukrainian customs. He also served as an advisor, depending on how he was needed.

His workload increased dramatically due to the surge in Ukrainian immigration to Canada. The work became so complex that Genik became a full-time employee of the Canadian government in 1898. He was the Canadian government's first full-time public servant in Ukraine.

In 1899 Genik founded the “ Taras Shevchenko Reading Hall” in his house and in 1903 the first Ukrainian newspaper in Canada, the Canadian Farmer (Канадійскій Фермер). Although Genik itself was not religious, he believed that there should be an independent Christian denomination for Ukrainians in Canada that should be independent of Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox norms. Between 1903 and 1904 he founded the "Independent Orthodox Church" in collaboration with the Presbyterian Church of Winnipeg . In this context, the church of the "Seraphimites" , the so-called "scrap iron cathedral" (English Tin Can Cathedral or Scrap-Iron Cathedral , Ukrainian Бляшена Катедра ), the "Bishop Seraphim" supported by Genik was built. After the general election of 1911 for the Canadian House of Commons , in which the Liberal Party of Canada favored by Genik did not win, he subsequently lost his job. As a result, he withdrew from the public. He lived in the United States for a while but later returned to Winnipeg, where he died on February 12, 1925.

At the time of his death, Genik was known in the Ukrainian Canadian community as the "Tsar of Canada".

bibliography

• Dictionary of Ukrainian Canadian biography, pioneer settlers of Manitoba , 1891–1900, VJ Kaye, author and translator (Toronto, 1975).
• Oleksander Dombrovsky, Outline of the history of the Ukrainian Evangelical-Reformed movement (New York et Toronto, 1979) [text in Ukrainian].
• A heritage in transition: essays in the history of Ukrainians in Canada , MR Lupul, editor (Toronto, 1982).
• J.-P. Himka, Galician villagers and the Ukrainian national movement in the nineteenth century (New York, 1988).
• VJ Kaye, Early Ukrainian settlements in Canada , 1895–1900 Dr. Josef Oleskow's role in the settlement of the Canadian northwest (Toronto, 1964).
• OT Martynowych, The Seraphimite, Independent Greek, Presbyterian and United Churches, umanitoba.ca/...canadian.../05_The_Seraphimite_Independent_Greek_Presbyterian_and_United_Churches.pdf -
• OT Martynowych, The Taras Shevchenko Reading Club / Educational Society for ... umanitoba.ca/faculties/.../04_The_Taras_Shevchenko_Reading_Club.pdf -
• OT Martynowych, Ukrainians in Canada: the formative period , 1891-1924 (Edmonton, 1991).
• MH Marunchak, Studies in the history of Ukrainians in Canada (5 vol. Published in Winnipeg, 1964–) [text in Ukrainian].
• N. Mitchell, The Mythology of Exile in Jewish, Mennonite and Ukrainian Canadian Writing in A Sharing of Diversities , Proceedings of the Jewish Mennonite Ukrainian Conference, “Building Bridges”, General Editor: Fred Stambrook, Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1999.
• OI Sych, From the "new land" letters of Ukrainian emigrants from Canada (Edmonton, 1991) [text in Ukrainian].

Web links

• Hryniuk, Stella : Cyril Genik . Dictionary of Canadian Biography . Retrieved January 20, 2013.
• Martynowych, Orest T., The Seraphimite, Independent Greek, Presbyterian and United Churches (PDF file; 4.8 MB)
• Martynowych, Orest T., The Taras Shevchenko Reading Club (PDF file; 185 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hryniuk, Stella : Cyril Genik . Dictionary of Canadian Biography . Retrieved January 25, 2011.
2. ↑ Mitchell, Nick. The Mythology of Exile in Jewish, Mennonite and Ukrainian Canadian Writing in A Sharing of Diversities, Proceedings of the Jewish Mennonite Ukrainian Conference, “Building Bridges”, General Editor: Stambrook, Fred, Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1999, p 188.
3. ↑ Orest T. Martynowych: [The Taras Shevchenko Reading Club / Educational Society The Taras Shevchenko Reading Club / Educational Society] (PDF; 184 kB), University of Manitoba
4. ↑ Orest T. Martynowych: The Seraphimite, Independent Greek, Presbyterian and United Churches (PDF; 4.78 MB), University of Manitoba
5. ↑ Martynowych, Orest T. Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Period, 1891-1924. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1991
6. ↑ ^{a b} Forging Our Legacy: Canadian Citizenship and Immigration, 1900–1977 . Citizenship and Immigration Canada. 2000. Archived from the original on July 22, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2011. 
7. ↑ Family of CCT (Con) Genik: Obituary for CCT (Con) Genik . Passages MB. 2010. Retrieved January 25, 2011.