FAMILY NAME :KAPEC  
GIVEN NAME : Helen Maria 
BIRTH DATE: 1963 
BIRTH PLACE: Canada 
FATHER’S NAME: Andrzej KAPEC (1926 – 1994)

PATERNAL GRANDFATHER: Andrzej KAPEC ( born around 1890-1900?)

PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Olena CIUCIURA (born around 1890 – 1900?)

MOTHER’S NAME: Evenlyn GIBSON 

MARIA’S STORY

Though I was born in 1963 in Canada, I feel the Second World War is an important part of the unanswered questions about my roots.

My father Andrzej Kapec had come as a DP to Canada in 1950. He met and married my mother in 1958. Together they had four children. I am the youngest. Shortly after I was born, my family fell apart and my father disappeared.

The next time I saw my father, I was in my midtwenties and felt much resentment towards him because he had left us and never enquired about us. I met him once more before he died in 1994.

Now, when the pain of this is not so strong any more, another feeling comes up – curiousity about my Polish roots.

Who was this man who became my biological father?

Will knowing his lifestory help me understand more his behaviour?

Who are my other, unknown relatives from my father’s side?

I want to know more about my KAPEC and CIUCIURA roots, but also in general about my Polish roots. Those roots are 50 % of my DNA!

CHOLHANY , Ukraine

My father Andrzej Kapec was born June 7, 1926 in what was then Czolhany near Stanislawow, Poland. Today this place is called Cholhany, and is situated near Dolina in the Ivano-Frankovsk district in the Ukraine.

In 1929 there were 1852 residents in Czolhany.

Just before WWII there seem to have been 1899 residents - 1730 Ukrainians, 59 Poles and 131 Jews.

My KAPEC family would then have been in the minority of Poles living there.

What happened to my relatives and to my father during World War Two when the relationship between Ukrainians and Poles often became violent?

Did my KAPEC and/ or CIUCIURA relatives leave Cholhany then?

THE BORDERS OF POLAND CHANGED

When the Second World War was over, Poland’s borders had changed, and Cholhany was no longer Polish territory, but part of the Ukrainian part of the USSR. In 1945 and 1946 many ethnic Poles left their homes and moved westwards to settle in what had become Polish territory after the war. Did my KAPEC and CIUCIURA relatives do so too, if they had survived the war? 

DP IN GERMANY

My father was a Refugee and Displaced Person in 1950 in Ludwigsburg, Germany, then part of the U.S. Zone. How long he had stayed in Germany before that, I do not know.

Perhaps he had been sent to Germany as a forced laborer during the war?

Or had he managed to flee westwards towards the end of, or right after the war?

His DP number was probably NO. HG 5354/63935 (perhaps some numbers missing at the end).

TO CANADA IN 1950

My father was given the Visa number L.M 2628 on May 3, 1950 and by May 28th he arrived as an immigrant in Halifax Nova Scotia. I do not know where he lived in Canada from 1950 till he met my mother in 1958.

MY KAPEC AND CIUCIURA RELATIVES

Who was my aunt Helen KAPEC that my father told me I was named after?

Who was my grandmother Olena KAPEC nee CIUCIURA?

And my grandfather Andrzej KAPEC?

Did I have other uncles and aunts, in addition to Helen?

Will I one day be able to look at family photos of my KAPEC and/or CIUCIURA relatives?

Perhaps you can help me?