INTERVIEW WITH FATHER BASIL JULI
Date of Interview: 7 December 1993
Interviewer: Henry Hmieleski
Transcriber: Sarita Jones

Edited by Pam Hodgkins & Jeanne Sojka, May 30, 2025

Begin Tape 1, Side 1

Hmieleski: Good morning Father Juli. Ah what was your father’s name?
Father Juli: My father’s name was Vasyl. His first name was Vasyl. That’s VASYL and his last name was Juli, but they spelled it ah DZULIA and it was changed to DZULIJ and then the whole name was anglicized to William Juli, JULI, but Vasyl does not mean William in English, Vasyl means Charles, ah, but at that time in the 1910’s 1910 1911 they just gave names out, they sounded like Vasyl, William.
Hmieleski: Was that done, ah where came in like Ellis Island or Baltimore or wherever he came into the country.
Father Juli: Well we’re not quite sure where he came ah we, we thought he came to Ellis Island, but ah I learned recently that because he was a miner in Pittsburgh he most likely had come to the United States via Baltimore. Ah many of the miners came through Chesapeake City, or Baltimore, Maryland at that time and that was in ah 1908 1909. He had lived in Pittsburgh for 2 years as a miner and ah he supposedly had a brother there in Pittsburgh too, but we’re not sure. We haven’t heard anything about that since ah, since he moved from Pittsburgh. Ah he bought a farm and then ah a little 6 acre farm in Auburn, New York. How he bought it I don’t know, where he got the money I have no idea, and why he moved to Auburn, New York I have no idea.
Hmieleski: What was your mother’s name?
Father Juli: My mother’s maiden name is Kanij in Ukrainian. Ah, her full name is Dorothy Kanij. Ah, ah that’s spelled KANIJ and that was anglicized KANY. And my mother’s family came directly from ah what is present day Ukraine ah the village of Zbarazh which I just found out recently, ah to Auburn, New York my grandfather or Thomas Kanij and ah was look looking for work and then his wife ah Teodosia came later with 2 of the children (Pavlo Alhad), (Paul Anduchi)
Hmieleski: So your parents met in Auburn.
Father Juli: My parents met in Auburn during World War II. My grandparents came over between 1908 and 1911. Ah my mother’s parents came over in 1910 moved to 
Auburn, New York. Why? I don’t know. Who sponsored them? I have no idea. Ah, the fact that she wanted to go back to Ukraine, ah but the war broke out, World War I broke out in 1916 and she was unable to return so she ended up being trapped, so to say in the United States.
Hmieleski: What happen to your grandparents?
Father Juli: My grandparents met in Ukraine. They were married in Ukraine.
Hmieleski: Oh, they were married in Ukraine?
Father Juli: Ukraine was under the ah, ah, I at that time I think it was under the Austrian-Hungarian Empire that territory of Ukraine in Galicia. And they had married in Ukraine and after the first 2 sons my grandfather came to the United States and then bought his wife and the 2 sons over in 1911 or something. But my parents were born here in Auburn, New York both of them, and they met after World War II or during World War II through mutual acquaintances and ah married in 1946.
Hmieleski: You don’t know where your grandparents embarked from? Where they left . . .
Father Juli: No, I don’t. Most likely if they were like many of the others they probably went to Hanover, Hanover, ah Germany, [likely the port of Hamburg, Germany] ah but I have no recollection, I, I tried to ask others, no one seems to know.
Hmieleski: You don’t know the name of the ship?
Father Juli: No.
Hmieleski: Were there others from the same region or town or village on that on that ship? No?
Father Juli: I, I, I really don’t know. I learned when I was first ordained in 1977, ah I was in Philadelphia after a baptism I met a, an elderly woman who lived with my father’s parents in Auburn. Ah, in the teens 19—something. She had come over, and she had mentioned that there was a connection between 3 cities in the United States: Ansonia, Connecticut; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Auburn, New York, and she mentioned that the people were related and they were from the [Lemko] region which is now southern Poland. So it seems that families brought over families, or relatives, or people of the same village came together. Ah, she had mentioned that I asked her why she stayed with my parents and she said they were relatives of some sort. But that’s as far as that went. I don’t know who she was and I don’t remember her name, I just found it interesting that she remembered my grand my mother’s excuse me, my father’s parents. That was the first indication of anybody remembering them.
Hmieleski: Was that from the Krakow region by any chance?
Father Juli: No, No, Lancustina is south of Krakow. Ah, it is a mountainous regions beginning of the ah Carpathian Mountains and it is ah, always ah between conquered either by the Austrian-Hungarian Empire or during the Polish occupancy, and so but the people there the Lemkos always considered themselves connected to the Ukraine and would call themselves, some would call themselves Ukraine and some would call themselves Lemkos whatever, but they are Ukrainian. In fact if you were to to go Poland today in southern Poland you would find many of the ah churches, the wooden churches some are being destroyed mercilessly, but ah the wooden churches belong to the Lemkos; in fact we had a an apostolic administrator of the Lemkos ah ah in 1940, 1944, but he was murdered.
Hmieleski: So I’m gonna try and retrace the steps of your grandparents now ah you’re not sure where they landed, but you think it was Baltimore”
Father Juli: I think it was Baltimore.
Hmieleski: ‘Cause they went into . . . .
Father Juli: They went to Pittsburgh to be miners.
Hmieleski: To be miner?
Father Juli: And ah. Now I don’t know if my father’s mother came with his father or his father came first and then brought her over, I don’t know if she was there in Pittsburgh with him, I don’t know if she came over when he had already bought this small farm in New York. I would like to know this questions – this answers to these questions, but I just don’t.
Hmieleski: Then ah that probably answers the next question that I was going to ask you. Did you ah ever hear any stories about the life as a coal miner: Ah, did you hear anything about this?
Father Juli: No, the only thing my father would mention about his father is the statement that my grandfather mentioned that my grandfather wanted to die above the ground and not in the ground. He wanted to be buried in the ground, but not to die in the ground so he left after 2 years. He always said that it was two years that he stayed there, before he moved north. But there seemed to be no interest or continuing interest of their history. We don’t know why.
Hmieleski: In your immediate family are you one of several children?
Father Juli: I am one of seven.
Hmieleski: And how do you stand in terms of age:
Father Juli: I’m third oldest.
Hmieleski: Third oldest. I was just wondering if you were one of the eldest if you hadn’t heard the tales/ That’s the source of information in my immediate family is the oldest children, and they heard a lot more than I ever heard.
Father Juli: No the interesting thing is about my personal family was that, um after World War II my parents left ah Auburn, New York and my father and his brother, my uncle John bought a farm in ah what is now Niles, New York outside of Owasco, New York which is between two lakes ah Finger Lakes, Skaneateles Lake, and Owasco Lake, and ah they sort of cut themselves off from the community. Ah, at that point it was 20 miles from Auburn and um so there was no really visitation of uncles, and aunts or my grandmother would come out but she spoke Ukrainian with my mother and there, there, was never a sharing of a, of where they came from or ideas about the old country and.
Hmieleski: Ah, when did you get to come to Franklin County?
Father Juli: Well, I’ve been in Franklin County now for about ah, six years, it will be six years on March 1. Ah, although I had been here earlier when the parish of the Holy Ghost Descent of the Spirit Ukrainian catholic church ah, celebrated ah its renewal 1981 or 82 there was some sort of accident in the parish and the interior of the parish was destroyed and so they ah renovated the interior of the church to the eastern Christian tradition by building the icon screen and putting up the icons and, I was asked at that time by the Father Alexi to conduct a parish mission. So I came here in 19… I think it was 1981 or 82, I had a three day mission. I, I loved the parish then they sing beautifully. Ah, and then, ah, I returned permanently in ah 1989, 88 the year our millenium . . .

Hmieleski: Um, I gonna go back to your grandparents. Do you know ah, the years that they were naturalized?
Father Juli: My mother’s mother was naturalized in 1960. Although she had lived here for 50 years, and the reason why she was naturalized in 1960, she wanted to vote for John Kennedy. Ah, but before that she taught herself English, ah she didn’t go to any schools at that point. She lived in Auburn among the Ukrainians in Auburn so, but it was interesting when John Kennedy ran for presidency she went as far as my, my grandfather’s, and my father’s mother, my grandmother on my father’s side I don’t know when they were naturalized or if they were naturalized.
Hmieleski: Did you ever hear any stories about why your grandparents left the old country?
Father Juli: No
Hmieleski: And you probably didn’t hear any anecdotes about what your grandparents life was like when they came to America.
Father Juli: No, unfortunately I didn’t hear any of that. Ah, I ah, we’re not a close family so I think that when my parents moved down in the country that was severing some sort of relationship so were not very close with the other members of the family. Now, it’s too late. My father is gone and there’s only one aunt left and she’s not really interested with anything to do with the past.
Hmieleski: Is there anything else that you would like to mention, we’re coming to ah the end of the questions that I’ve got prepared here on my list and ah I can’t think of anymore specific questions? Do you have anything else that you would to comment on?
Father Juli: As far as my family background?
Hmieleski: Yes.
Father Juli: No, I really don’t have much to comment on I I just want to express um the sorrow that I feel that I don’t have more information about my grandparents, and my parents as far as the relationship with the old country. Ah, I think I’m a product of what is traditionally that first generation born ah in the United States ah where the expectation is to become an American, ah which to my mind meant to become an Anglo, and then ah forget the past, and lost much, much, much of the treasures, either in books or stories, writings, or documents. Ah, and then the second generation comes along and says, “who am I – where did I come from” and that’s where I am at this point and I don’t, I can’t find that information.
Hmieleski: Isn’t that due to some extent to the fact that they did have, uh a language barrier. Ah, as we were talking your grandparents probably kept up the Ukrainian language more than they spoke English.
Father Juli: My fa-a, my mother’s father spoke seven languages, including English. He was known as the professor in Auburn. That’s all I know about him. Ah, he spoke Polish, Russian, Czech, Ukrainian, German, English, ah what other language, I forget, but anyways it was a Slavic language. Um, but the interesting this is I know they got caught in the United States. I really believe that between the two wars there was an intensive Anglo, what is call the Americanization of this country which was really Anglicizing it and they got caught in that because they were not of the western European, ah even we could say that the Irish had a rough time. So if the Irish were our cousins English had a rough time than the Slavic people would definitely be on the bottom of the ladder, and I know my mother’s father had a very rough time finding work and finding fulfillment in the United States according to all his talents. Ah, my father’s family were farmers. So they lived on their six acres and that was that. And like most farmers they were very reclusive so ah whether they spoke that side of the family spoke English or not I don’t know. But, I know my mother’s father did speak English. My grandmother spoke a little English she taught herself how to read English. She would read the newspaper everyday. She knew what was going on, but she had difficulty speaking ah speaking.
Hmieleski: I was just wondering if ah any of them ah kept an English diary or would you have any idea if there was much communication in the form of letters.
Father Juli: My mothers my my mother’s mother my mother my grandmother on my mother’s side was um used to um, write to Ukraine quite a bit. She.
Hmieleski: In Ukrainian.
Father Juli: In Ukrainian and she had a sister who remained there around the Zbarazh area and ah when she died the communication ceased. I guess my parents did not write Ukrainian they spoke Ukrainian, ah of course we never learned Ukrainian at that time.
Hmieleski: I can’t think of any more questions for you.
Father Juli: You know the interesting thing I find is that I am finding more information now than I ever did before. Ah for instance I have some school records from my mother’s oldest brothers from Ukraine from 1906 and 1908 and that’s how I found out the village that they were from. I have those in my study here. Some day I’ll frame them. I have the prayer book that my grandmother had, It was printed in 1914 from Ukraine, but that’s a prayer book, it has nothing about her in it just maybe it was given to her when she left, or she may have purchased it here when, when she first came to the United States. One of the interesting things I have to note is that the Ukrainians when they came, whether they called themselves Poles or Hungarians, or Slovaks or Austrians they always went where there was a church, an established church and ah, or where there was a brotherhood a bratstwo where a group of men would gather together and they would establish an organization and then a church would follow immediately upon their organization. So, if I look back and remember my my my grandfather’s were, had already, were deceased before I was born so I did not know them at all. My father’s mother died when I was three, so I don’t remember her, but I remember my mother’s mother quite well, and she was a very pious woman and she was very much involved in the church. The church was everything to them, so it seems that they everything revolved around the church and the community the social community was around the church, different organizations ah it functioned around the church whether it was a national organization or a religious organization, or spiritual organization. The church was . . .
Hmieleski: You don’t happen to recall any traditional greeting that your grandmother would speak say to your mother. You don’t remember
Father Juli: Oh, I learned that when my brother and I went to the seminary that we were not taught this as children that this was the traditional greeting that I I’m sure my grandmother and my mother exchanged. Because it was so inbred in them.

Father Juli: It was the greeting, Slava Isusu Khrystos, which means glory to Jesus Christ. And the answer would be Slava Na viky, glory forever and ever, glorify him forever and ever. I’m sure that was the greeting that my mother would always greet my grandmother with during most of the year.

Father Juli: Then at Christmastime, the greeting was Khrystos Rozhdayet’sya, Christ is born. And you would answer, Slavite Yoho, glorify him or give him praise. At Easter time, it was Khrystos Voskres, Christ is risen.

Father Juli: And the answer that the person would give was Voistynu Voskres, truly he is risen. Now these were cultural and spiritual traditions that were inculcated. It was almost like a greeting hello.

Father Juli: You would immediately say these greetings.
Hmieleski: But the first one you said was common to use all the time.
Father Juli: All the time outside of a religious period.

Father Juli: Like the Christmas period is 40 days from Christmas to the feast of the presentation of February 2nd, presentation of the Lord in the temple. So for 40 days you would say Christ is born, Khrystos Rozhdayet’sya. And after Easter, from Easter Sunday to Ascension, you would say Khrystos Voskres, Christ is risen.

Father Juli: Then the other times you would say Slava Isusu Khrystos, glory to Jesus Christ.
Hmieleski: So it’s one very similar design approach. I didn’t know that.

Hmieleski: Yes, and the response is Slava Na viky. And they sound, that is the English meaning is very similar to what you said.
Father Juli: Oh yes, yes.

Father Juli: I think this is where the intermeshing of the cultures took place over there. Between the Poles, the Ukrainians, the Jews, the Hungarians, Slovaks. That goes along fast.

Father Juli: Yes, yes. I think this is the, we see the result of losing our traditions. What does it mean to be an American? Does it mean we give up our traditions and become nothing? Or what are we developing as an American culture? That’s the thing.

Father Juli: Can we retain these traditions from our ancestry legitimately? And can they possibly become part of the American culture? I remember when I was in grammar school, I used to hate the term melting pot. Because nobody knew who we were. I’ll give you an example.

Father Juli: In the sixth grade, we had a teacher. Her name was Miss Beverly. She used to teach, she used to tell us she taught at West Point.

Father Juli: Sometimes acted like she was at West Point. But one time, she would say to us, I can tell every nationality by your facial features. And so we’d have to stand up in front of the class and she would try to guess what nationality everyone was.

Father Juli: Well, when she came to me, she’s standing up in front. She said, well, you must be French. I said, no, I’m not French.

Father Juli: She said, oh, you must be, well, you can’t be Irish. You don’t have an Irish name. She couldn’t guess.

Father Juli: But it was always Western European. French or English or Irish. And when I mentioned to her, no, I’m Ukrainian, she had no idea what I was talking about.

Father Juli: And she said, well, you look French. I said, no, I’m Ukrainian. So we had to do a whole investigation of what is Ukraine.

Father Juli: Of course, at that time, it was under the Soviet Union. So right away, there was suspicion. Somewhat un-American.

Hmieleski: Pain. Pain.
Father Juli: And I remember the only time my father ever showed any emotion about Ukraine was when my brother and I, I have a twin brother, and we were in class together.

Father Juli: And we made a flag of Ukraine, but it was the Soviet Ukrainian flag. And we brought it home, but, of course, we didn’t know that there was another flag. This wasn’t taught us.

Father Juli: This was in the sixth grade. We came home and we were showing him our article on Ukraine and the flag, and he got furious. This was not the Ukrainian flag.

Father Juli: The Ukrainian flag was blue and yellow, and this was a communist flag. And, of course, I remember saying, I said, how were we to know? He didn’t tell us. But I think it was a fear in this country, which is not being addressed, and has to be for all the immigrants, that there was a concerted effort in this country to make everyone one.

Father Juli: That was the melting pot, and I think that has failed and failed miserably. But it was so forceful between the wars, and especially after World War II, that it’s only now with the rising of the African-American consciousness, the refusal of the Hispanics to learn English, the immigration of the Oriental Americans, the Asian Americans, now we’re being forced to say that America, the United States, is more than British or Anglo-Saxon. That we can be a melting pot of nations, but we don’t have to become one, or whatever, melted into some amorphous substance.

Hmieleski: I think that’s what this series of interviews is all about. I think people need to realize that we better learn something about these people before it’s too late.
Father Juli: And I think the younger generations are losing it quicker.

Father Juli: The intermarriages and the lack of the accentuation of our national backgrounds and the traditions. I think about the loss in many of our families around these spiritual traditions of our culture. The Christmas dinner or the Easter celebrations.

Father Juli: They were family-oriented. They were deeply religious and spiritual that gave meaning to life. Now with the intermarriages between different cultures, instead of having all the cultures come together, we’re sort of losing everything.

Hmieleski: At Christmas time, did Ukrainians have a wafer-breaking ceremony?
Father Juli: No, no. What we had was a special meal. It was called Svyata Vechera, Holy Supper.

Father Juli: And there were, say, 12 courses. There were 12 courses representing each of the 12 apostles. And in the middle of the table was the kolach, which was a symbol of Christ, the bread of life.

Father Juli: And in the kolach was a candle, placed a candle. And the supper would begin by either the matriarch or the patriarch of the family lighting the candle and saying, “The light of Christ enters the world.” And they would light the candle, place it in the kolach, so you would have a symbol of the presence of Christ around the table.

Hmieleski: Was the kolach a manufactured article or a loaf of bread?
Father Juli: It was a loaf of bread, specially prepared loaf of bread with braids. Some put flowers on it, some put birds on it. But it was a specially made loaf of bread for the Svyata Vechera.

Father Juli: And usually the center would be, there would be a hole placed in the center for the candle, which would burn from the beginning of the meal to the end of the meal. And the interesting thing about the candle was, and we did this once in a while in our home, a little bit of the tradition of Svyata Vechera. The tradition was that at the end of the meal, when everything was finished, you would blow out the candle, the youngest one would blow out the candle, and you would hope and pray that the smoke would go straight up to the ceiling.

Father Juli: Because the superstition was that if it flowed towards any one person, that that person would not be there for the next year. Very sloppy, you know, always got to end on a very somber note. But I remember that.

Father Juli: Although we had a Sviatvechir, it would be the traditional Ukrainian lenten, non-dairy, non-meat. There would be no meat, no dairy products in this meal, so you had a 12-course vegetarian meal, which is very apropos for today for all the vegetarians. And there would be, usually around the table, you would sing the hymns.

Father Juli: And then after the meal, everyone in the villages in Ukraine would then go to the church to celebrate the vespers and the liturgy of the Nativity of Christ. And then after the celebration of the liturgy, which was done late in the evening, the young people would then go around caroling to the homes. But of course, that was done in a village.

Father Juli: And in the United States, this practice, the Sviatvechir, became a very family-oriented vocation. And so people would visit either the grandmother or the grandfather or go to the eldest son or daughter’s house, and they would have the Sviatvechir. And then perhaps the next day, go to church.

Father Juli: And then there would be a 12-day period of visiting family and friends and caroling. And then the Nativity would end on the great feast of the baptism of Christ in the Jordan on January 6, or the Theophany, when we would have the solemn blessing of water. And then that water would be taken to bless the homes.

Father Juli: And I remember my father always going and taking the water from the blessed water and taking it home. And before he went into the house, he would go and bless the barn and the cows. And then he’d walk around the property and bless the property or just with the holy water.

Father Juli: And then we’d wait for the priest to come and bless the house. So that was a tradition that we retained, and I remember that.
Hmieleski: Did they have a tree?
Father Juli: No.

Father Juli: The tree in Ukraine, it’s called yalynka. The yalynka was more in the Carpathian Mountains or in Poland, the Polish section of Ukraine. No, the yalynka came much later as an influence from the West.

Father Juli: Well, there is a tradition that there were certain decorations made out of wheat, the stalks of wheat. And that’s an art form, a very folk art form. And they would make them, they would call them spider webs.

Father Juli: They’d be made into stars and things of that nature because it was a tradition that the house was cleaned thoroughly for the nativity. And if on Christmas morning, the 25th, if there was a spider web in your house, that meant good luck. So they would make the spider webs and put them on trees or decorate them.

Father Juli: But I have to find out more about that.
Hmieleski: But they didn’t have a Christmas tree.
Father Juli: No.
Father Juli: The older people did not. The younger ones, we did at home. I mean, the tree became a substitute for the other traditions.

Father Juli: It was the American thing to do. But the older Ukrainians did not. Some Ukrainians, more staunch Ukrainians today do not have them.

Father Juli: Because the tree is, I don’t know what the tradition of the tree is. I think it comes from Western Europe. It’s not traditional.

Father Juli: I don’t think. So, again, it goes back to the, around the church, the religious traditions. And that’s another thing that in the United States, when people are leaving a particular religion, say, for instance, if people leave the Ukrainian Catholic or the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, they leave those traditions, basically.

Father Juli: The other thing I remember as a little boy of our spiritual traditions is the preparation for the resurrection. Again, there was a 40-day fast that was very important. It was called the Great Fast.

Father Juli: We all had to fast. And Holy Week was a very somber time. And one of the things I remember doing every year was in our church, we would have what is called the plashchanytsia, or the grave, with this huge icon of Christ’s body taken down from the cross and placed in this grave.

Father Juli: And we still do this here in South Deerfield. And we decorate the grave with candles and flowers. And people would come from Holy Friday to Resurrection Sunday morning and venerate the icon of Christ.

Father Juli: And we would do that. We’d walk up the whole church on our knees and venerate the icon and then pray for a while. And then we’d have the blessing of the Easter food.

Father Juli: And that would take place either on Saturday afternoon because of the huge population. Usually it was the tradition to bless the food after the Easter resurrection services as a continuation of the service. But in the old tradition, because of the amount of people and because there were several liturgies in many of our parishes, people brought their food on Easter, Holy Saturday, had it blessed and taken home and eaten after they went to church on Resurrection Day.

Father Juli: So the food, the blessed food, again symbolizing many things like the things you did not eat during the great fast, became a continuation of the celebration of the resurrection.
Hmieleski: Would you say that Easter was a more important holiday?
Father Juli: Yes, more important than Christmas. In this country, it’s changed because of the influence of Christmas being the major holiday in the West.

Father Juli: For instance, it was our tradition that gifts were not given on Christmas Day. They were given on the Feast of St. Nicholas, which is December 6th. There was a whole tradition around that too, that the children would come home and they would wait for the visit of St. Nicholas, and somebody in the parish would play St. Nicholas, and he would visit each of the homes.

Father Juli: And he would bring them an apple or an orange, but the parents would try to buy a gift for their children and they would leave it under their pillow. And so when the child would go to bed at night, he or she would try to find their gift under the pillow or under the tarina, the blanket, the nice blanket they would have, and that would be a gift from St. Nicholas. Gifts were not given on Christmas Day as they are here in the United States.

Father Juli: Christmas Day was a family day. You visited your family, you had a family meal, you visited your family, you celebrated in song and dance, but the gifts were something else. Easter, because in the Eastern Christian tradition, it was always the most important day and the most celebrated day. It was prepared for Easter with a 40-day fast.

Father Juli: You relived the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem and the whole passion and the death, and then you relived the resurrection. It was very much a part of one’s being, more so than the nativity. And that is still to this day in the parishes.

Hmieleski: It’s still celebrated?
Father Juli: In the parishes, definitely. But Easter is the most important day and celebrated as the day of new life. But again, it’s difficult when you live in a Western world and the Western approach is Christmas.
Father Juli: Everyone thinks Christmas is the important day, but in our tradition, Christmas is even one of the lesser feasts. It’s resurrection and the theophany and the transfiguration and then Christmas. Because in the Eastern approach, you celebrate the theophonic feast days, which are the feast days that reveal the Trinity.
Father Juli: And the nativity doesn’t reveal the Trinity, it reveals Jesus Christ being the Son of God. So it pertains only to the Lord Jesus. But it has a bit of theology and spirituality to it.
Hmieleski: Do you have any other comments?
Father Juli: No, about my family.
Father Juli: No, I don’t.
Hmieleski: I think we’re all beginning to realize that we didn’t. I wish that there was more information available about my family.
Father Juli: I know I had an aunt. She’s the last one of my father’s family alive. I had an Aunt Helen who was a teacher in Rochester, New York, and she was a spinster.
Father Juli: She had many, many records. But I was in Europe at the time she died, and I don’t know what happened to all those records and books and things that she may have had from her parents. Because my father used to say, if you want to know anything, ask Aunt Helen.
Father Juli: But Aunt Helen died unexpectedly of cancer, and I don’t know what happened to all that information. I mentioned it to the last surviving aunt maybe ten years ago, and I thought maybe she had those. She doesn’t have them either, so they just disappeared.
Hmieleski: Well, thank you very much.
Father Juli: Thank you, Henry, for the interview.
Hmieleski: It was a very interesting interview.