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Re: anyone heard of "Ilko" or "Hylko"
Change the character encoding of your browser to Cyrillic Windows-1251 (in Firefox use the "view" menu). But it doesn't say anything else about it beyond being a form of Iliya.
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I was looking at the arriving passenger list for my grandfather's brother-in-law. He traveled with his son Ilko, a name I had never heard before. So I did some googling and learned that it was the name for Elijah or Elias, and is a name used in Ukraine. Then I remembered that Ilko was always called Eli during his lifetime. Makes sense. My grandfather, his family, and his brother-in-law were from a village called Dębno near current day Leżajsk Poland. The church was Greek Catholic and they all identified as Ruthenian.
Now my big question is whether Ruthenians were/are Ukrainians. Grandpa spoke Ukrainian, German, and Polish.
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actually the name "Ilko" is an English speaking census taker's attempt at recording my great grandfather's name yet a ship's passenger record shows his name as "??lko" where the first two letters are undecipherable but could well be "Vi" -- i'm now deducing that it might be "Vilko" which is consistent with my uncle who was nicknamed Bill (Vilko is showing in Behind the Name as a variant/diminutive of William in Slovenian) but my great grandparents were born in Ternopil Oblast Ukraine of Polish/Ukrainian descent under the Austro-Hungarian empire. Ternopi(NW corner of currently defined Ukraine) which borders on current day Slovakia -- so now I'm trying to see if "Vilko" might be Slovakian -- Slovenian is too far away doesn't make sense -- am getting closer to solving this -- if anyone knows if "Vilko" is a SlovaKIAN name would appreciate hearing about it -- THanks!
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Coincidentally, I am looking into my great great-grandfather who spelled his name like this prior to anglicizing his name to Alex/Alec. I also just got my 23andMe results and a highly likely match that I had family come from Ternopil Oblast in Ukraine (being this side).In his marriage license he spelt it Ilko or Iko.
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I think I just found a marriage record for my great grandfather
My grandfather told my cousin that his name was Alex
I have found him listed as William in two censuses
I think I just found his marriage record under the name Ilko FiegaNot sure anyone is reading this
michaeldfigo at gee mail dot com
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I've been trying to figure out an ancestor Ilko from Galicia (border town between present-day Poland and Ukraine). I believe it's equivalent to Elias. However, I haven't been able to confirm this 100%.
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I'm also doing research and my great great grandfather was buried in cohoes ny and the papers called him Alex. Census data has his name as "Ilks" and wwi draft card has him down as "Ilko". His wife was from Galacia her name was Anna Kowal, both arrived 1899. He is from somewhere that I can NOT make out! Looks like "lubvo" or something like that. It's definitely not Lviv. Trying to decrypt this is very difficult. They also crossed out their mother tongue language. It said Ukrainian but has a like through it and above that "OL" old language maybe? Not sure. If I don't get back my email is amnatale89@gmail.com
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Angela, we might be researching the same family. I am trying to figure out who Ilko Lepak was in later census documents. I have Kowals in the tree, also. He made several trips to the US, and was Galician.
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Kowal is a Lemko surname. (Many Lemkos would describe themselves as an ethnographic group belonging to the Ukrainian nation. Others believe they are an ethnic group distinct from Ukrainians. Galician just means from Austria Hungary's province (before 1918) - the Lemko settlement area is in the Carpathian Mountains of southeast Poland) If you look it up, you might open a whole lot of information for your research. :)
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I also have a great grandfather with the name Ilko, from Mycow area of Galacia (present day border of Lubelskie, Poland and Lviv, Ukraine). He most definitely identified himself as Ukrainian. I have records which show his name as Elko, Ilko, Ilza and Elias. His marriage record, which appears to be in his own writing, shows his name as Elias. None of my relatives ever recall his name being Elias. Ilko is possibly a short form of Elias?
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I am also searching for my grandfather who I had always known as Alex, but I appeared to find him on a ship manifest under the name Ilko. He is also from Galicia and of Polish/Ukrainian extraction like many in this thread. Just trying to figure out if anyone found out if it was short for anything
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The most authoritative sources I’ve seen say Ilko is a variant of Elias/Eliasz/Eliyahu in the Suwalki/Podlaskie region of Poland (under Russian Empire in late 19th C). I have an ancestor shown as Ilko in most birth records of his children (in JRI-Poland database), and once as Icko (which is usu. a variant of Isaac). To add to the confusion, I had hoped both were variants of Hillel, which is the name of a person who would be a critical missing link between my line and others I know of in the Suwalki/Wizajny/Przerosl area. Happy to hear from anyone who’s seen that Hillel/Ilko or Icko variant, or has other info: andem at earthlink.net
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