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September 1891: what the documents confirm about this date
Ivan Pylypiw and Wasyl Eleniak of the village of Небилів (Nebyliv) are considered the first Ukrainian settlers in Canada. We tested our method on their story: passenger lists, the ship’s schedule, the village’s parish registers. Every document is named down to the frame, so it can be opened yourself.
Five claims about September 1891
| Claim | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ | The Dominion Line’s Oregon left Liverpool on 28 August 1891 and reached Quebec on 6 September | confirmed by the ship’s schedule |
| ✓ | The surnames Pełypiw and Jeleniek appear in the Nebyliv parish registers of 1858 to 1860 | confirmed on frames 5347 to 5364 |
| ~ | Ivan Pylypiw was born on 28 September 1859 | a document for this date exists; that this particular child is him is not proven |
| ? | Both men arrived in Canada in September 1891 | no record naming them was found; they are not in the LAC index |
| ? | The “SS Oregon” of the retelling | a ship by that name sank in 1886: the retelling names the wrong ship |
Library and Archives Canada lists for 1891
The lists of arrivals held by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) cover 1891:
| Port | Lists from | Scans |
|---|---|---|
| Quebec and Montreal | 1865 | 1865 to 1918 |
| Halifax | 1881 | 1881 to 1918 |
We checked fifteen spellings of both surnames: Eleniak, Elyniak, Ilyniak, Pylypiw, Pylypow, Pilipow, Pylypiwsky, Filipow and others, and the village name in Latin script (Nebyliw, Nebyliv).
| What came back | Result |
|---|---|
| Plausible surname matches | all of them arrived in 1905 to 1922: a later wave of migration |
| Records dated 1891 | two: “Pylypiwsky, I.” and “Elyniak, W.” |
| What these records actually are | MG31-D69, Volume 25, book 2, page 1: the personal card catalog fonds of historian Wolodymyr Julian Kaye. Not an immigration record |
The LAC search on the surname field does not work correctly: the query LastName=Eleniak returns 0, while a full-text search on the same word finds the record. So we write only that the surnames are not in the name index. A page-by-page reading of the September 1891 manifests would show whether they are there.
Two ships named Oregon: one that sank in 1886, one that sailed in 1891
The retelling names the “steamship SS Oregon.” Such a ship existed: a Guion Line liner, later Cunard, on the Liverpool–New York route. It sank in March 1886, five years before the crossing.
The 1891 crossing was made on the Dominion Line’s Oregon, which sailed to Canada: departure from Liverpool on 28 August, Quebec on 6 September (one report also gives 5 September), then up the river to Montreal. “6 September” and “7 September at Montreal” describe one crossing. The schedule does not confirm the versions naming Halifax or 19 September.
The schedule names no passengers.
The Nebyliv parish registers, 1858 to 1860
The Nebyliv parish registers are held by TsDIAL (Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv) and open in ARCHIUM for free, with no registration.
This is a volume of certified copies that the parish sent to the consistory in Lviv. The surnames are written as «Pełypiw» and «Jeleniek», neither matching the modern spelling. A search for «Пилипів» or «Pylypiw» does not find these entries, so the book is read straight through.
| Year and place | Images |
|---|---|
| 1858, Nebyliv | 5347 to 5349 |
| 1858, Sloboda | 5351 |
| 1859, Nebyliv | 5354 to 5356 |
| 1859, Sloboda | 5356 (right) |
| 1860, Nebyliv | 5361 to 5362 |
| 1860, Sloboda | 5364 |
| 1860, Nebyliv, June to July | 5363 |
| 1860, Nebyliv, September to December | 5365 (left page) |
| Marriages, Nebyliv, 1860 | 5365 (right) to 5367 |
| 5366 | an archival duplicate, margin stamp: «ДОКУМЕНТЫ НАМЕРЕННО ПОВТОРЕНЫ» |
A book of marriages inside a book of births
The catalog calls this file a register of births. On frame 5365 the birth entries break off, and a certified extract from another book begins: the Nebyliv marriages of 1860, running to frame 5367. The catalog description would send a search for the 1860 marriages somewhere else.
The surname is on these same frames too: Alexius Jelenick, father of Magdalena, born 2 December 1860, house 13; and Anna nata Jelenich, mother of the bride at a wedding on 19 February 1860. One surname, two spellings, one priest’s hand.
The same marriage extract has two more people named «nata Tetenick», who at a quick reading look like a third Eleniak. But in «Jelenick» the loop of the letter runs down, and in «Tetenick» the crossbar is straight, and on frame 5367 this surname is written a second time, without doubt. Taken as one’s own, it would add someone else’s family to the tree.
Joannes, son of Gabriel Pełypiw
Natus 28, baptisatus 29 September 1859, «Joannes». Father: Gabriel Pełypiw, agricola. Mother: Maria, daughter of Basilius Kułka. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine gives Ivan Pylypiw’s birth date as «7 July 1859, (28 September according to other sources)». The entry matches the second date.
We found no document linking this child to the emigrant. The same book has two boys named Basilius Jeleniek, born in 1859 (one out of wedlock, 24 August, house 131; one legitimate, 22 December, house 132). We do not merge namesakes into one person without a third record. The mark ~ means a lead still to be proven.
Marks in your tree
The September 1891 arrival is not confirmed by a document. We mark facts in your tree the same way: ✓ a fact checked against a frame, ~ a lead: a document exists, the identification is not proven, ? family testimony: no document yet.
A search of your own locality follows the same path: descriptions and catalogs, then frames. A report naming the files arrives within five days after the questionnaire, if you ask to start right away.
Method · Sample report · A proven “no” · Rights to documents and images