WW2 Ukrainian/Russian refugees after arrival in NSW/Victoria, Australia

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I'm trying to research Volodymyr Markovich Mosyn (1908-1988), a refugee from Ukraine/Russia/Poland (which country depends on where you draw the lines at any given time) via East Prussia, who emigrated from West Germany to Australia in 1950. His first wife and children died during or immediately following WW2, but on the transit ship he is listed with a wife and child whom I suspect to be 'temporary' (i.e. the dates don't add up).

Once they reach Australia, I have found a few records via Trove and BMD in Victoria and NSW - including some naturalizations, some residential records, several deaths including this individual, his father, this 'wife' (who does not seem to have lived with him for long: I've also found her subsequent husband, and potential information on yet another husband), that of a subequent wife (and her sister), and so on. Surprisingly, despite the various spouses listed on gravestones, and changes of surname etc., I found only one single marriage record.

And that's all - there's no substance, i.e. no indication *what* any of these people were doing, be that work, leisure, social groups, or anything else. Maybe the refugees/immigrants kept largely to themselves? It's still surprising to find *nothing*, though. For example, their first host in Australia was Carmody-850 (Herbert Patrick Carmody, 1917-2008) and I was easily able to find numerous mentions of his family, his fishing exploits, and so on.

I have found some of the names at https://russiansinaustralia.info/ ('Russians In Australia'), but this is a Russian-language site and although I emailed them in Russian jointly with English, I received no response - it's quite possible the site/group is no longer active. Maybe finding further records would require locating and asking Orthodox churches, community centres, etc.?

Any hints for how to expand this beyond what I currently have - or actual collaboration on the WikiTree entries, of course - would be appreciated. N.B. there is one 'living' descendant listed, although the last known trace of them is 1960 so that is another mystery I would like to solve. One further note: I know some of the entries I have made are not that well formatted yet, but that's something that can gradually be tidied up.

WikiTree profile: Volodymyr Mosyn
in Genealogy Help by Ben Jones G2G1 (1.9k points)

1 Answer

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Best answer
Hi Ben. Ancestry has electoral records for a Woldymyr Mosyn. For example, in 1968 he and Maria Mosyn were living at 70 Cary St in "The Warren" in the Watson electorate. I think the suburb was Marrickville NSW. He was a process worker and her occupation was given as home duties.

If you think this is a match for the people you are interested in, I could look at other years. 1963, 1972, 1977 and 1980 are available.
by Jim Richardson G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
selected by Oliver Stegen
Thanks, Jim - those are indeed the right people. On Ancestry, I too found the basic info on electoral records, but not being a paid member there (at present) I was unable to see further - so any details you can extract such as those above would be helpful. There are similar records for Oksana (WM's previous wife) and Peter/Petro Didyk (her subsequent husband) which I've also been unable to view in detail. And there is also a "Mosyn family tree" on Ancestry (separate from the one I created myself, with 48 members) - this other one has just 3 members, but again I'm unable to see any details or get in touch with whoever created it, due to not having paid Ancestry membership at the moment. (I have found a Mosyn tree on MyHeritage too, where I am a member, but it is from 5 years ago and the person who created it has not responded to my message).
Ok, Ben, I'm glad they match. The 1972, 1977 and 1980 electoral records are the same: 70 Cary St, Marrickville; Woldymyr process worker; Maria home duties.

Can you let me know the URL of the three-person tree? I'll have a look.
Thanks Jim for following up the URL (which I sent privately, in case such things are frowned on inside G2G) - sadly it's no one connected with the family, but was created for research by a local person I'd asked for information.

Thanks also for the details from the electoral records - they do add a little 'flesh to the bones', although it would still be nice to find someone who actually knew the family, or some written records (correspondence, etc.).

I've meanwhile found some older records relating to the family, thanks to a blog at https://lostrussianfamily.wordpress.com/ and links from there. Older records are of course in Russian/Ukrainian, and I suspect further research in Australia too will require looking into resources in these languages - for example, there seems to be a magazine "Australiada: Russian Chronicle" with 80 issues produced between 1994-2014 in Sydney, containing memories, obituaries, etc. - but as my ability to read Russian is very limited, that's beyond reach; it would probably require asking someone to visit the library of the 'Russian House' in Melbourne. That institution seems like it could offer a way to contact the local community too, so in the long term it may be the best way forward.

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