Anastazia Kondratiuk

Biography

Anastazia Kondratiuk was born in Uhrynów, Galicia on November 19, 1892. She was the first child of Prokop Kondratiuk, a farm labourer, and Anna Sul. Anastazia’s sister Pauline (Pelagia) was born in 1897 and her brother Sam (Semen) in 1902. The family was Orthodox Catholic and spoke Ukrainian.

In 1906 the Kondratiuk family emigrated to Canada. They travelled aboard the SS Mount Temple from Antwerp to Montreal. According to the passenger list Anastazia, then 13 years old, had not learned to read. The family arrived in Montreal on May 22, and travelled on to Winnipeg where they settled. Shortly after they arrived Anastazia’s sister Anna was born in Winnipeg.

Eighteen months later, on November 4,1907, at the age of 14, Anastazia married Martin Bobowsky in what was probably an arranged marriage. The couple were married at St. Nicholas Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church in Winnipeg. Martin, who was 26 years old, had also emigrated to Winnipeg from Galicia.

On August 15, 1909 at the age of 16, Anastazia gave birth to a daughter Aniela in Winnipeg. Martin and Anastazia then relocated to to Coleman, Alberta in the Crowsnest Pass where Martin found work as a coal miner. Baby Aniela died in Coleman on August 1, 1909 shortly before her first birthday. Anastazia blamed herself for Aniela’s death, saying later that she was too young to know how to care for a baby. Anastazia’s mother, Anna Sul, died in Winnipeg a few weeks after Aniela died in Coleman. Anastazia must have learned of her mother’s death while she was still mourning the loss of her child. Six months later, in January 1911, Anastazia’s father Prokop remarried and his second wife, Julia, became stepmother to her younger siblings Pauline age 13, Sam age 7, and Anna age 5.

On December 4, 1910 eighteen-year-old Anastazia gave birth to her second daughter, Olga, in Coleman. The 1911 census taken in June shows Anastazia, Martin and Olga were sharing a house in Coleman with five boarders. Martin and all of the boarders were employed as coal miners.

Sometime between June 1911 and August 1912 the Bobowsky family moved back to Winnipeg where Anastazia gave birth to a son, Paul on August 23. Anastazia had four more children in Winnipeg over the next dozen years: Angela (Aniela) in 1914, William in 1916, Millie (Amelia) in 1920 and Alice in 1924. During the same period Anastazia lost her father Prokop who died in 1920. Her brother Sam died of tuberculosis in a Winnipeg hospital in 1924 at the age of 22.

Martin, Anastazia and their children lived in a succession of two or three bedroom rented houses in North End Winnipeg, moving every two or three years. The houses were small, with no electricity or running water and heated by wood stoves or coal fireplaces. Normally the family would occupy one or two rooms with additional rooms rented to boarders to generate extra income. The Winnipeg directory lists the family at 932 Burrows Avenue in 1915. When the 1916 census was taken the family was living in a two bedroom house at 866 Redwood Avenue. Directories for 1918, 1919 and 1920 list the family at 625 Flora Avenue, 305 Selkirk Avenue and 568 Selkirk Avenue. From 1921 to 1924 the family lived at 576 Flora Avenue where they were enumerated in the 1921 census. Circa 1924 they moved to 747 Burrows and in 1926 to 864 Pritchard where they were enumerated in the 1926 census and remained until about 1929.

Many decades later Anastazia’s daughter Angela described Anastazia’s life raising children in North End Winnipeg.

At a very young age my mother had complete responsibility for their home, children, and money matters. She was a great cook, loved gardening, preserved fruit and vegetables every fall. She always made a barrel of sauerkraut for cabbage soup, pierogis, and other sauerkraut dishes. On weekends she baked bread and made extra bread dough for doughnuts, filling cartons that we soon emptied. She never baked less than three pies at a time. There was never a limit to the amount of food we ate except when she baked cakes. She always tried to hide one for the following day, but we always found it. She would just laugh and say there wasn’t a good hiding place anywhere in the house…My mother was very active outside the home as well. She sang in a choir, acted in plays, occasionally gave eulogies at funerals and attended school to brush up on her English. She also hosted socials in our home to raise money for programs at the Ukrainian Hall or whatever was needed.

As the Bobowsky children grew older and found jobs the family income increased. Circa 1929 the family had enough savings to buy a relatively new house at 733 Boyd Avenue. The two-storey house had a basement, central heating and hardwood floors. The eight members of the Bobowsky family lived in five rooms on the ground floor. The upper floor was a self contained three room apartment that the family rented to a Polish couple. When eldest daughter Olga got pregnant and married in 1932 Anastazia offered the young couple the apartment.

Unfortunately the Great Depression ended the family’s brief period of home ownership. The older Bobowsky children lost their jobs and left Winnipeg in search of employment. Olga and her family moved circa 1934. Paul left about the same time. Angela and William followed, one by one. Around this time the older children changed their surname from Bobowsky to Bobbs to help improve their employment prospects in the face of employer discrimination (we have found no records of legal name changes).They eventually ended up in Toronto. As the children lost their jobs and scattered money ran low and the family could no longer afford the mortgage payments and the mortgage lender eventually took the house.

Circa 1931 Anastazia and Martin ended their marriage. Under the terms of their separation agreement Anastazia had custody of the younger children and Martin continued to support the family financially. Their youngest children at that time would have  been Millie and Alice ages13 and 9. Martin moved out of the family home and lived in boarding houses. Most Winnipeg directories from 1934 onward to not record where Anastazia and her children were living however the 1938 directory shows them at 780 College. Sometime in the mid-1930s Anastazia began working as an office cleaner at the Medical Arts Building to supplement Martin’s support payments.

In late 1938 or early 1939 Anastazia, Millie and Alice also moved to Toronto. Around the same time they all adopted the surname Bobbs. Martin remained behind in Winnipeg and did not change his name. Daughter Angela, who was already living in Toronto, moved in with her mother and sisters. According to Might’s Toronto Directory Ananstazia and her daughters lived initially at 284 Crawford Street, then 195 Beatrice Street and finally settled circa 1941 at 501 Markham Street where they occupied unit number 6 for many years.

When she arrived in Toronto Anastazia first worked as an office cleaner. In 1944 she found work in the textile industry where, according to Angela, “she was very happy at her job and enjoyed working in the company of other women.” The directories for 1944, 45 and 46 show Anastazia working at Billie Burke Sportswear, initially as a “finisher” and later as an “examiner”.

In July 1946 Anastazia died of a heart attack while on vacation in Wasaga Beach with Millie and her family and daughter Alice. Anastazia was 53 years old. Subsequent family medical history suggests that Anastazia might have been genetically predisposed to cardiovascular illness. At the time of her death Anastazia had four grandchildren with two “in the oven” and many more to come in later years.

Anastazia is buried in Prospect Cemetery in Toronto alongside her eldest and youngest daughters, Olga and Alice.

Research Notes

Anastazia went by many different nicknames at various times in her life. On Olga Bobowsky’s baptismal certificate she was Nathalia. In the 1911 census she was Natta. In the 1916 census she was Annastasia. The headstone on her grave identifies her Nettie Bobbs.

Source Documents

• Death Certificate of Anastazia Kondratiuk (1892–1946)
• Grave Marker of Anastazia Kondratiuk

Footnotes

Winnipeg directory listings are from Henderson’s Winnipeg Directories which are available online from the University of Alberta Libraries. Toronto directory listings are from Might’s Toronto Directories which are available opnline from the Toronto Public Library