Canada
we begin with…
John and Sophia Zeilinski had four sons, Szczepan (also spelled Szchipan), Tom, Jan, Joe and one daughter, Francis. We don’t (yet) have a lot of information about the siblings of our Grandfather. We know that Jan was born in 1871 and married Katerina Drychak. They had a daughter Mary who came to Canada in 1901. Mary went to Shoal Lake, Manitoba to join her mother’s parents and relatives who had moved there earlier.
This story, however, is all about our Grandpa, whose name was spelled Szczepan in the land document of 1918. However, that was done by an official and may not be correct. Grandpa “signed” the documents with an X. The official application lists grandpa as “Steve Zilinski” but notes that “Steve and Szczepan are one and the same person”.
to the New Country…
Szczepan (Steve) Zelinski (1858 – 1934) was born in Austria-Hungary and married Francis Sobel (1864 – 1952). He came to Canada with his son Stanley in 1910 to homestead. They lived in Manitoba for a year before moving to Saskatchewan where they settled on the present-day farm south of Wynyard.
Each of them took a quarter section homestead (160 acres), and after building a house on Grandfather’s land, began farming the Zelinski farm. Francis initially remained in the Old Country with the other kids until the new home was established.
1. Nick Zelinski (1883 – 1949) was born in Austria-Hungary. He was married to Annie Litwin (1889 – 1913) and they had one daughter Katie (Perehuda). Nick’s family moved to the Wynyard area. Ann died when Katie was only two years old. Nick was re-married to Mary Hawryluk (1896 – 1964) and they had three daughters and one son: Josie, Mike, Mary and Helen.
2. Anton Zelinski (1884 – 1956) was born in Austria-Hungary. He homesteaded a quarter section of land adjacent to Grandfathers farm. He married Clara Chipka (1887 – 1950) and they had three daughters and five sons: Mary, Mike, John, Annie, Joe, Paul, Peter, and Lena.
3. Stanley Zilinski (1891 – 1966) was born in Austria-Hungary. He was married toSarah Leschuk (1901 – 1976) and they had seven daughters and four sons: Francis, Pat, Mary, Carl, Annie, Frank, Steve, Ester, Josie, Kay and Helen. After getting married they stayed with Stanley and Pete for a while. Sarah’s parents then gave them a quarter of land near Bank End where they settled.
4. Pete Zelinski (1896 – 1970), was born in Austria-Hungary. He married Barbarah Hyrciw (1903 – 1985) , and then he emigrated to Canada with Francis, his mother in April 1921. Peter and his mother joined Grampa on his farm in the Krasne chuch area and Pete went to work with the CPR.
A year later, his wife Barbara came to Canada, too. They settled in the Dafoe area living in a railway car and just before Olga was born they moved across the highway into Dafoe where they lived for three years. Barbara always said she was quite happy in the little house they had in Dafoe. They had six daughters and seven sons: Olga, Frank, Gregory, Mary, Vera, Kasmir, Jean, Victoria, Walter, Helen, Eddie, Leo and Victor.
5. Mary Zeilinski, their sole sister, remained in Austria-Hungary (and later Poland) with her family. After World War I, Austria-Hungary was dissolved by the Allies and a number of new nations such as Poland were created. Poland was invaded in 1939 and suffered six years of Nazi occupation. After World War II (1939-1945) nothing more was heard from this part of the family.
this page info supplied by Victor Zelinski c. 2004