This page has been migrated my new website.

This page has been migrated to my new website.

This page has been migrated to my new website.

This page has been migrated to my new website.

This page has ben migrated to my new website.

This page has  been migrated to my new website.

This page has been migrated to my new website

In 1935 a dance troupe in Kayville called Arcaşul (The Archer) was keeping Romanian music, dance and dress alive.  People had to make their own fun in the early days of prairie life.  Joining into community activities and contributing to enriching the lives of others was just good fun.  I imagine these young people entertained at many celebrations around the region!

This photo was taken in 1928 and captures what is described as a Kayville and Avonlea drama company.  Maybe you can tell me more but I have to go with that simple description and assume that these people performed Romanian music and dancing.  What fun!

In 1935 a dance troupe in Kayville called Arcaşul (The Archer) was keeping Romanian music, dance and dress alive.  People had to make their own fun in the early days of prairie life.  Joining into community activities and contributing to enriching the lives of others was just good fun.  I imagine these young people entertained at many celebrations around the region!

Inside the bell tower at the original Saint Peter and Paul Romanian Orthodox Cemetery northeast of Kayville, Saskatchewan there is a binder that contains information on the burials at the Lutheran Cemetery just west of Kayville, south across the road from the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church.  Detailed in the document are 13 burials.

Alex Trofim was born in the Ciucurova (Çukurova) commune, Tulcea County, Romania but was Russian by heritage.  He immigrated to Canada in 1914 when he was about twenty-nine years old and began homesteading one mile north of Kayville on SE-23-09-24-W2 that same year.  By coincidence, or on purpose, one of his neighbours, Estafi Ritzko, was also a cultural Russian from Romania.  Two years later, in 1916, he married his neighbour's daughter Katrina, ten years his junior.  Together they farmed and raised thirteen children. They would be married fifty-five years until his death in 1971 at the age of 86. He lies in Regina Cemetery in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Nicolae "Nick" Guraluick was born in Romania and came to Canada in 1907 at the age of eighteen.  When he arrived he had no money and could not afford to pay for a train ticket to get to western Canada.  He with other young men with the same dire finances would hang around train stations waiting for trains going in the correct direction to begin leaving.  They would run after the trains and try to climb aboard.  If they were successful they would get to nervously ride for a distance.  If the conductor caught anyone without tickets as they passed through the moving train cars checking passengers they would be put off the train.  Nick was removed from trains many times as he crossed the country and was forced to walk great distances along the tracks.  He admitted to crying tears of disappointment as he walked the vast dominion of Canada. In time, he reached Lethbridge, Alberta and found work as a coal miner to earn the money to buy land one and a half miles north of Kayville on SW-24-09-24-W2.  In 1917 and at the age of twenty-eight Nick married the eighteen year old Dominica "Dora" Zauca and over their thirty-one year marriage farmed and raised eight children. Almost 90 years later his son Sam and wife Hedy would become the last residents of Kayville as it faded to become a ghost town.  Nick died young, at the age of fifty-eight, and was laid to rest in the St. Peter And Paul Church (modern) Romanian Orthodox Cemetery, Kayville, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Katerina Trofim nee Ritzko the daughter of Istafi Ritzko and Maria and niece of Eftim Ritsco.  Her family was cultural Russian from Romania.  She immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1910 at the age of fourteen and lived on her father's homestead NW-14-09-24-W2 north of Kayville. When she was about eighteen another cultural Russian, Alex Trofim, began homesteading next to her father's land.  Two years later, in 1916, twenty year-old Katerina married the thirty-one year-old Alex. She and Alex farmed and raised thirteen children.  They were married fifty-five years when Alex passed away in 1971.  Katerina lived another year following the death of Alex and in 1972 she too died at the age of seventy-five and was laid to rest with him in Regina Cemetery in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Mihal “Michael” Bodnaresk was a farmer and a noted musician in the Kayville community.  The land he farmed was located at SE-24-09-24-W2. In 1936 he married a sixteen year old bride, Victoria Gazuk.

Victoria Gazuk was the daughter of Nicolai and Angelina Gazuk.  She was born on the family farm (SE of Kayville) at NE-01-09-24-W2, Saskatchewan in 1920.  In 1936 at the age of sixteen she married Mihal “Michael” Bodnaresk, a farmer and a noted musician in the Kayville community.

Between the years of 1918 and 1919 Canada was swept by an epidemic of Spanish Influenza (Spanish Flu) which was brought into the country by veterans returning from combat at the end of World War I (WWI). Across the country approximately 50000 people died.  The people living and farming around Kayville, Saskatchewan were not spared.

Inside the Saint Peter and Paul Romanian Orthodox Church in Kayville, Saskatchewan there is a binder that contains information about deaths and burials for the St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church north of Kayville.  It records 213 burials.

Inside the St Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church north of Kayville, Saskatchewan there is a binder that contains information on all of the burials in the cemetery beside the church.  This record describes 134 graves in the cemetery.

Inside the Saint Peter and Paul Romanian Orthodox Church in Kayville, Saskatchewan there is a binder that contains information on 172 deaths and burials.  Some of the burials documented are in the cemetery by the church. Other burials are in the old cemetery that was beside the church when it was located northeast of the town.