There are so many tasks to be accomplished when conducting researching into ones family history. I have confirmed the names of my father’s parents’ names, I have also confirmed the names of my mother’s parents’. I have filled in the gaps of family members within the family tree. I have confirmed the death of my paternal grandfather in 1919.
So, now I’m trying to address certain mysteries that I have no details pertaining to them. I’m going to expand on one of those family mysteries here. Back in the early 1960’s my family packed up the car and drove about 6 hours to Detroit, Michigan to attend a wedding of a bride who was named Iwaniw. That’s all I remember from that time (I was between 7 and 10 years old at the time, I think). My father, at that time, said that the bride and her family were not related. If true, then why would my parents undertake such a long trip to attend a stranger’s wedding in Windsor, Canada? What’s the connection with my family? If not relatives, are they close friends? I’ve never heard my parents speak of friends named Iwaniw in either Detroit or Windsor.
My mother spoke of a childhood friend who lived in Detroit (we stayed with them while there for the wedding) but never about any Iwaniws that ere close family friends or relatives in that area. I remember travelling with my parents to visit family friends in Toronto Canada, Troy New York, Kingston Canada, but this was the first (and last) time we travelled to Detroit Michigan/Windsor Canada. My mother had brothers living in New Jersey. All the information that I have from that trip is that the bride’s last name was Iwaniw, her parents were divorced, and there seemed to some drama that the bride’s father was going to walk her down the aisle. I remember that we crossed the US-Canadian border multiple times that weekend. We stayed with family friends named Andrijyashko <sic> in Detroit, who had 2 boys; one was close to my age and the other one was considerably older. That was the last time we ever visited them or ever heard of the Iwaniws in that area.
What I’m trying to do is fill in the details in my family narrative.