Eugen-Jan "Gene" Dubovik
Message from Stanislav 18 February 1998
Reply from Eugen-Jan 18 February 1998
Message from Stanislav 19 February 1998 Reply from Eugen-Jan 19 February 1998 Message from Stanislav 23 February 1998 Reply from Eugen-Jan 23 February 1998 Personal web-site of Eugen-Jan Obituary on Eugen-Jan. Provided by Andrea Belokopitsky-Medard.
18 February, 1998Dear Mr. Eugen-Jan, It is my second letter to you. The first was two days before, on February 16th. I was in a hurry (the Internet on-line sessions are expensive in Russia) trying to formulate in a few words the reasons of my calling you. It seems to me I made too many grammar mistakes. Luckily you indicate your e-mail address on your Home-page so I can now send a letter in off-line way.As far as I know you are the historian. If you allow, I wanted to ask you what do you know about your ancestors by the line of your father. The reason of my addressing to you is as follows. I am investigating the history of my family. I collect the information from my relatives, archives, and books. My relatives and ancestors by my mother's line are the Duboviks. Now I have the archive documents according to which I have restored the genealogy of 11 generations of my forefathers ascending to the 1660 year. The 4th of April 1660 is the date when Kazimir Filipowich Dubowik, the ancestor of our family, signed his testament. He and 8 generations of his descendants lived in the territory of present Bielorus' (the documents mention such cities as Novogrudok, Vil'na, Oshmiany, Vitebsk, Mogiliov). In the middle of 19th century many representatives of the family lived in Minsk. One of them (my blood ancestor) Boleslav Dubowik was charged with participation in 1863-1864 insurrection against the Russian tsarist autocracy and send to Syberia. Some years later he was rehabilitated but was not permitted to return to Minsk region and even to Central-European part of Russia. That's why he settled in the Syberian city of Irkutsk and lived there until he died. After the Second World War his descendants settled in Moscow, Leningrad (present St. Petersburg), Kazan' and other cities of Soviet Union. When I was born I was named Stanislav in the honour of my Polish-Bielorusian ancestors. If you don't mind I will correspond to you once more tomorrow. Good luck, best wishes. Sincerely yours, Stanislav Ekzempliarov. St. Petersburg, Russia.
Re: St.Petersburg, Russia 18 Feb 1998 у. 18:51Hello on this Wednesday evening (your local time).I did receive your first communication on Tuesday and decided to wait since I do not repond immediately to all messages sent me. Your second message is far more detailed and interesting to me and leads me to conclude that we may be distantly related. There was an oral history in our family which indicates that some paternal ancestors were shipped to Siberia following the insurrection in the 1860's around Vilnia. However, contact was lost. More recently, paternal relatives were shipped to Kazakhstan during the Soviet "liberation" of Eastern Poland/Western Bielarus' upon the German/Soviet partition of Poland in 1939. You have been doing exceedingly well in your ancestral research. Unfortunately, on my part I can only trace back to my paternal great-grandfather, one Stepan Dubovik (Dubowik), who was a Uniate, a member of the Greek-rite Catholic Church, apparently coming from Hlybokie, by the present Latvian border, to the area of Vialejka (Vileika, Wilejka) in Vilnia Province. Stepan arrived prior to 1887 bringing with him a Uniate Bible - for that was the year of birth of my paternal grandfather, Ivan (Jan) Stepanovich Dubovik (Dubowik), around Vialejka to an unknown Eastern Orthodox woman. By-the-way, where did you pick up my name of "Auhien?" Have a productive workday. " First say to yourself what you would be, then do what you have to do. " - Epictetus, via Wordsmith. A Belarusan in America http://www.netcom.com/~homan/bielarus.html
19 February, 1998Hello, Mr.Eugen-Jan, Thank you for your time and wishing me a productive workday.First of all the home task - I answer your question. Collecting information about Bielorussia genealogy, I found the address of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Home Page in Minsk (http://www.bas-net.by). Visiting it in the middle of December 1997 and travelling along it, I saw the chapter about some people, the participants of this project. I didn't even read it to the middle, simply copied to my diskette. Later at home I began studying it thoroughly and found that "Auhien (Gene) Dubovik" is mentioned as one of the "Friends of the Virtual Guide to Belarus" and his home-page refference presents. Oh, what a pity! Seeing it earlier, during my Internet session, I could immediately address to you. But as we say in Russia "the train has gone..." There also was the e-mail address of Academy of Science. On the 8th of January I send them a message asking to re-send it to your mailbox, but still today there is no respond. All I was to do that is wait for another chance to vizit Internet. It happened on the 16th of February. The rest you already know. Now I am going on with my (or our?) story. Here I want to say that my forefathers were the Catolics and their native language was Polish. Boleslav has left several note-pads of his memoirs in Polish to his senior daughter Elena. She could understand and translate from Polish. To great regret his memoirs were destroyed and I don't even know the contence of them. All the descendants of Boleslav including Elena were Ortodox and their native language was Russian. I have started studying Polish and think about Latin because many documents regarding my relatives supposed to be written in this languages. And what about you. Do you yourself speak any of the Slavic languages now: Russian, Bielorussian, Polish? Is there any information about what was the native language of your ancestors? About our relationship. The family tree reconstructed by me, encounts in first 9 generations 80 men and 3 women (without wifes, who also are sometimes mentioned in documents). All of them lived or could live in Bielorus' or near it. Only one was named Stepan (in 3rd generation, the grandson of Kazimir) but he died before 1740. The destiny of almost all of persons (exept two or three) who were born in the second part of 19th century (about 20 men) is unknown to me. Other 4 generations known to me are the descendants of Boleslav, they were born and lived in Siberia up to the period of Second World War. One book (The History of Russian Noblemen Clans, published by P.N.Petrov in St.Petersburg in 1886) tells only about the clan of the Duboviks who lived in Malorossia (the present Ukrainia) and were the military or state officers. There is no one reffered to among them bearing the name of Stepan. Also I have seen the archive documents about some other Russian Duboviks. Today it is wide-spread sir-name. Only in the city of Moscow (exept of about ten of my relatives) there are more than 120 Duboviks (according the 1997 phone-directory on CD-ROM). Though the names of your ancestors are unknown to me, and so are the names of mine - the oral history of your relatives shipped to Siberia in 1860's - it is very serious. I also think that it is more than chance coincidence. That's all for today, Bye-Bye Stanislav
Re: St.Petersburg, Russia 19 Feb 1998 у. 17:31Dobry dzien' spadar Ekzempliarov.Unfortunately, few documents remain with me of our life in Bielarus' and fewer living links. When I was younger I had much less interest in my parents' family histories, and considered oral statements by relatives as merely inflated talk to be ignored. However, now that I will be 54 in March I am more concerned in writing a family history for my descendants to come - although I am very short on written documentation. The additional problem is that my English and Spanish fluency is much much better than my fluency in Belarusan, Polish or Russian, although my first remembered (childhood) language was Polish. I would suggest to you that the Dubovik-Dubowik clan name can be stretched to include Ukrainian ties as well (Dubowijk/Dubovijk) in the distant past, and perhaps the Dubovik clan originated in what is today Slovakia. Additionally, some of the Dubovik clan in Moscow trace a grandfather to the Mahilou area of Bielarus'. We came to America in part sponsored by an elderly relative by the name of Anton Dubovik who left Vialejka-Vileika area before the first world war. I recall he stated that he and my grandfather were cousins and that his grandfather originally had two sets of families because the first wife died. For a bit of ethnic chauvinism, I would suggest to you you read up more on the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania - you will find that the Dubovik/Dubowik clan was neither Polish or Russian but "Licvin/Litvin/Lithuanian" Balto-Slavic ethnically - not the present-day non-Slavic Lithuanians - and citizens of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania (today's Poland, Bielarus', Ukraine and present-day Lithuania.) Oh well, just bits-and-pieces are left of vanishing remembrances. We are related however - I see we are both creatures with brains, hearts and curious natures. I like that! (:-) By-the-way, my first/original first name was "Henadzy" (Greek - Gennadios) and has undergone many changes since we left Vialejka for another life and "planet." Again - good fortune on your path spadar Dubovik "Gene" Dubovik White Plains, New York U.S.A. http://www.netcom.com/~homan/ http://www.netcom.com/~homan/bielarus.html http://www.mindspring.com/~dtata/journey "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - Saint Augustine
23 February, 1998Dzien' dobry, Pan Eugen-Jan, I have said already that the ancestor of our branch was Kazimir Filipovich Dubovik. Here I must say that "Kazimir" is his first name, "Filipovich" is not the patronymic, it is the part of surname, so called "przydomek". "Przydomki" were wide spread in Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, as well as they were used in Russia at that period. So the son of Kazimir was named Dmitry Filipovich Dubovik, the son of Dmitry was named Stepan Filipovich Dubovik.The documents I saw (in the Russian State Historical Archive in St.Petersburg) and maintained heraldical examination concerning to their coat of armes called "Pobug" (Coat of Arms Collections of Potocki (1696 year), Niesiecki (1740 year), Kuropatnicki (1789 year) and Gorzynski (about 1990) ) make me able to conclude that the Filipovichi Duboviki (Polish - Filipowccy Dubowiki) were not of course Russians, but nor they were Lithuanians. I suppose they were the old Polish noblemen (szlachticzi), possibly relative to the other Polish clan - Filipovichi. For example, one of the Kazimir grandsons was the member of Polish King Court. I have no information that they originate from another Slavian country. Is your supposition based on any facts or documents? As regards Anton Dubovik, there are two brothers Ivan and Anton, on my family tree scheme, the sons of Adam, both born in the middle of 1860's. Later on in 1902 they both lived in Vil'no. And the city of Vialejka is also mentioned in one document concerning to one of them. I think that some data may be found in Miensk and Vilnius archives, in Hodnasc issues. The Polish genealogists seem to be well informated. Did you communicate with them? Do widzenia, Stanislaw
Re: St.Petersburg, Russia 23 Feb 1998 у.Hello to you sir! Obviously, you are doing much more "homework" than I on the Dubovik/Dubowik clan. I still don't know our relationship, if any, however, your research is fascinating. I would suggest to you that the word "Dub" is not Polish. In Polish it would be "Domb". And since the Dubovik clan was not Russian or "Zhmudz" I would think they were Slavic descendants of the Krivichi tribe which settled those parts and mixed with the Zhmudz/Balts. Have a good week ahead. Gene Dubovik
Dubovik, Eugen-Jan "Gene"
Eugen-Jan "Gene" Dubovik of White Plains, NY, died
January 13, 2000, at Calvary Hospital in Bronx, NY. He
was 55. Beloved husband of Larysa. Loving father of
Erik and Aleks. Devoted brother of Elizabeth Ciappa of
Old Greenwich, CT.
Born on March 4, 1944, in Belarus, Gene came to this
country in 1949 via Boston, MA, and moved to White
Plains in 1958.
After graduating White Plains High School in 1961, he
earned his Bachelor of Arts at the City College of New
York in 1965, and his Master of Science in Special
Education from the College of New Rochelle in 1977. He
also served in the U.S. Navy from 1965-67.
Gene "Mr. D" or "Papa Smurf" cherished his 27 years as
a White Plains Special Education teacher motivating
students to set and achieve their goals.
He will be remembered as a human being who treated
everyone with respect and was always eager to know
one's background. His love of learning intersected with
his passion for computers in 1995 leading to his Web
site -- http://home.att.net/~Homan2/ -- a source of
tremendous joy and gratification for him.
Those who met him will never forget him.
Calling hours will be at Ballard-Durand Funeral Home,
White Plains, Saturday 7-9 pm and Sunday 2-4 and 7-9
pm. The funeral service will be held at Church of Our
Saviour, Rye, on Monday at 11 am.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the
Gene Dubovik Scholarship Fund
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