Hello. I’m trying to get some opinions on my dna results and was wondering if it’s Rusyn dna
On paternal side, my great grandparents were from Velyki Luchki in zakarpattia Ukraine
On maternal side I have great grandparents from Ternopil Oblast Ukraine - I met my grandma who said “we’re Ukrainian “
My dna results kinda seem off. There’s a little polish and tons of Slovakian but hardly “Ukrainian” dna
Any thoughts appreciated
Hello all,
Growing up, I was always taught by my grandfather that we're of Ukrainian and Slovak descent baptized in the East Catholic Church. My grandfather's father was a self-identified Greek Catholic from Galicia from Western Ukraine right by the border of Slovakia. My grandfather's mother identified as a Slovak Eastern Catholic who came from the border near Ukraine.
Now I was taught all my life that we're of Ukrainian/Slovak ancestry but looking at the map, it seems as if both my great grandpa and great grandma came from Rusyn dominated regions? My grandfather identified his ancestral language as a dialect of Ukrianian. He once told me how Slovak and Ukrainian languages are so similar and he can understand both languages.
My grandfather is no longer alive and I have no idea where in Ukraine or Slovakia they are from exactly. All my life my grandfather identified as a proud Ukrainian-American. I never even heard of the term Rusyn. Is this a common issue among the older generations of Rusyn to not identify as Rusyn? It's confusing to me personally. My father's side was always proudly Ukrainian while my mother is of Russian descent so this is more of a cultural awakening for me personally if my father's side was actually Rusyn. Any help is appreciated.
Thought this sub might be able to help the most since I am looking at Rusyn ancestry!
I know his mother and himself are listed as coming from Poroshkovo, but I'm not sure what "Mukaczev" is supposed to refer to. With my extremely limited knowledge, the only place I can come up with is Mukachevo, but as far as I know, that's an entirely separate town and not a district/county designation.
Any help clarifying this?
Bonus question if it catches your eye: His mother's last name is listed in a couple transcription-only records as: Kirchen, Karacun, Kerecan. Any clues as to the actual surname this might be?
I dabbled with a free version of claude to write a research paper comparing modern Slavic languages with Proto-Slavic and found that Rusyn (I sued, both, the Pryashiv and Subcarpathian varieties) was the closest one, retaining most of the 30 features I studied. Now, full disclaimer, I did find mistakes in AI data. However, I'm not as well-versed in other Slavic languages, so I know the limits of this research, but I was hoping that there are some linguists out there who would be able to do something with it.
Any takers?