How this all started?

Few years ago during my study in Canada I ran into the name of „Kotelko” in the Toronto phone directory. There was only one entry with this name, but still I was quite surprised by the fact that I have even found that one. I had always thought that my name is very rare.

I did not know by that time, that Canada is a strong centre of our family. Of course I called the given number and found out – from a very nice conversation with Mrs. Milie Kotelko – that she is Ukrainian from the town of Horodenka (ukr. Gorodenka).

My father bears the same town name as a birth place on his ID, so this name immediately pushed correct buttons and this was, how it all started...

What was known earlier?

Wait, wait... we have to go back in time a little bit so that the whole matter remains clear.

The roots of the masculine part of my father’s family were always a little mysterious to me. My grandmother did not want to speak of it, because it involved a horrible tragedy from World War II: my grandfather, her new husband – Nikolaj Kotelko from an Ukrainian family, was murdered (mysteriously) in Horodenka in 1944 (together with my grandmother’s younger sister).

It was told between the lines that the whole murder had some national*** background but, as I said, my grandma did not want to speak of that story, tired to close that period of her life and any contacts with that part of the family (well, no wonder, right?). She also discouraged my father of any attempts of going to Horodenka (nevertheless he tried but it was USSR).

Time for some action

Nevertheless the events from Toronto brought one idea to my mind: „There have to be more Kotelkos in this mysterious Horodenka – I have to examine that”. I decided to act more systematically: I registered the kotelko.com domain put a web site there (both in Polish, and in English) which was telling a short, know to me, story of my family. I waited patiently what will happen then (besides I did not have much time to devote to this project). The web site was properly indexed by all the search engines and from time to time people from over the world begun to seek contact with me or with somebody from Horodenka. This way I could keep in touch with some people (mainly from Canada) interested in their roots (many Kotelkos were born there). All of Kotelkos from Canada told me that somehow they all come from Horodenka.

At some point I have been given a link to a jewish cementary site, where the details of Miroslav Kotelko, main architect of Gorodenka district, were given. Bingo – I thought! It should not be a problem talking to this man and get him to help me somehow... At the same time one of the Kotelkos from Canada began talking about going with his father back to Horodenka for a trip. So there was a chance for a Kotelko reunion in their hometown.

I have talked my father into calling Miroslav the architect, who was a right man on the right place. He had did some local research and the next day located a cousin of my father (Orysia Kotelko)!  Next phone call directly to Orysia was a hit: she had a photo of my father when he was 10 (my grandmother had sent it from Poland just before she settled back again with a new family here). Orysia told my father that there is a tomb of my grandfather there in Horodenka, which she takes care of. That there is a Rather great number of my father cousins (All from my grandfather’s side of course) who would really like to meet a long lost (almost legendary) grandson of Great grandmother Warwara, an informal family head at that point of time. A grandson who was taken from Horodenka in the last days of war and left for Poland with his mother (my father was a little more than a year old then) ... and there was almost no sign of him then. My father was told that there was even a search conducted by the International Red Cross – until my grandmother had finally sent the letter with the picture. So mainly everybody in the family knew there lives a cousin somewhere in Poland but they didn’t know where. And there he called! A story like in the Hollywood movie...

So finally my father took my mom, a huge notebook family tree drawings and they went there to visit a newly discovered relatives. It was in the summer of 2005. The trip turned out to be a major success. The chain of visits, welcomes, dinners and suppers lasted unbreakably for four days (there is a lot of my father’s cousins there). There was even a meeting with Perry and Bill Kotelko from Canada who managed to get to Horodenka at the same time to seek their roots as well. It turned out unfortunately that, although they are also from Horodenka, they are not directly related to our part of the family.

So next year there was another trip to Horodenka and this time I came along. The reception was really great, the family very, very nice and the dinners and suppers full of delicious stuff. I had put a little story of that trip in my blog (but it is only in Polish). Here I would like to tell some more about Horodenka and our family.

The Little Town of Horodenka (in Ukrainian language: Gorodenka) is a quite a small city set upon the Hill over a small River. On the other side of the river there is a village/quarter or neighborhood called Kotelkivka – and it is there where our family comes from. There you can find a lot of people of the same name. I made some pictures of the local phone book – it looks funny for someone who is accustomed to the fact that his surname is rather rare.

blazej@kotelko.com

Thank you.