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| Ruthenia - Brenzovich Homeland |
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| View from Uzok/Uzsok, Subcarpathian Oblast, Ukrinne. Enlarge, click on picture |
| Ruthenia - Brenzovich Homeland |
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| View from Uzok/Uzsok, Subcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine. Enlarge, click on picture |
As I was growing up I gave little thought to
my heritage or ethnic background. I knew my surname was of Slavic origins and my father was Russian, Czech or some
thing like that and my mother was Polish. After becoming involved in genealogy, I began to learn more about my
families roots, and the fact that there was more to the Brenzovich surname than just being of Slavic origin. First,
I found that the heritage of the Brenzovich surname makes us members of a little known but distinctive ethinic group
of people within the Slavic family. I grew up thinking
the ethnic origin of the Brenzovich surname was Russian, or Czech and even Slovakian. But I've learned that
the Brenzovich roots go back to the Carpathian Mountains of East-Central Europe and a region once called Ruthenia (pronounced Roothn) also called Carpathian Rus'. The people were called
Rusyns or Carpatho-Rusyns (pronounced Kar-PAY-tho ROOS-in). Today the land of the Carpatho-Rusyns
is divided between Poland, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
| Geographic Location of Ruthenia/Carpathia Rus' |
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| Enlarge, click on picture |
| Uzh/Ung County Emblem |
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| Kingdom of Hungary |
Ruthenia or Carpathian Rus' as it was also called,
encompasses the territory located along the southern and in part, the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountians. It
formed the north-eastern border of the Hungarian Kingdom/Austria-Hungary Empire from the 12 century until 1920. The
area that comprised then the county of Uzh [R]/Ung [H] within the Kingdom of Hungary is the ancestral homeland of the
Brenzovich surname.
In my research I found many spelling variations
of the Brenzovich surname. These spellings come from vaious officialdocuments and most likely the result of mis-pronunciation
and the translation between the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. It is important to note, that the spellings are not far
off from what I consider the original name spelling BRENZOVICZ. This is the oldest spelling
variation that I have found, dating back to July 1662. The most common spelling that I have found is BRENZOVICS.
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