she resided until her sudden demise in October, 1968 .
She left an infant son, Rodney.

Mike first started to work for Mr. Prygrocki in
Fisher Branch in 1930, loading cordwood into box
cars for fifty cents per day. These early days in
Canada were very trying, mainly earning his keep as
he worked for various farmers and business men
peeling pulp certainly was not an easy task! Mike
went to work for Elsie’s parents as a hired hand in
1933.

 

Mike and Elsie Chmil and family.

Mike married Elsie in 1935 in the Fisher Branch
Ukrainian Catholic Church and they have lived in the
Kilkenny district all these years, where Elsie’s par
ents first settled in 1915. They have nine children,
five girls and four boys.

Mary married William Shewchuk of Sylvan and
still resides there. They have no children.

Peter and Annie are twins.

Peter married Janice Kowalchuk of Foam Lake,
Sask. They have two children, Shawn and Shannon,
and live in Winnipeg.

Annie married Ted Kori of Kilkenny and resides
in the Kilkenny area. They have eight children:
Joyce, Lucy, Kenny, Ronnie, Karen, Debbie, Allan,
Elaine; and three grandchildren: Marcel, Michelle,
and Derry].

William resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

Joe lives in Winnipeg and is self-employed.

Olga married Leon Twerdun of Shoal Lake, Man.

106

They live in Winnipeg. They have two children,
Jeffrey and Valerie.

Pauline married Daniel Byra of Arborg and re—
sides in Winnipeg. They have three girls and a boy:
Yvonne, Tracey, Daniel and Angela.

Nellie married Murray Milligan and resides in
Winnipeg.

Michael married Carol Lopatynski of Edmonton,
Alberta, and resides in Winnipeg.

Mike and Elsie have lived through many hard-
ships. Living through those dirty thirties , and raising
such a large family was not easy. They also had their
home destroyed by fire in 1937. This made life even
harder to cope with because at that time they did not
have their house insured. They had hydro service in
1958 and the telephone in 1964.

All in all, Mike and Elsie survived, leaving the
past as just a memory. They have been married for
forty-seven years and are still in good health. They
have nine healthy children, seventeen grandchildren,
and three great-grandchildren, and still live on the
same homestead that was started by Elsie’s parents in
1915.

JOHN CHOPEY FAMILY

John came to Canada in 1922, from the village of
Duha in the Ukraine. With him came his stepsister
Mary Melnyk, who in 1924, married Paul Kolbuck.

In 1910, John’s sister Anne came to Canada with a
friend, and in time she married Peter J uryn in Win—
nipeg, where they lived all their life. Anne and Peter
had three sons; Bill, Frank and Michael, and three
daughters; Pauline, Ollie and Vickie. Anne was born
in 1892 in the Ukraine, died in 1972.

 

John Cheney’s 75m birthday in 1976.