Doing a little digging and discovered that my dad’s...

[mbarrick]

Doing a little digging and discovered that my dad’s “real” (in quotes because of a long story) surname, Worobec, was transliterated badly. I always assumed the Cyrillic would be Воробек, but it is actually Воробець - which would properly transliterate as Worobets or Vorobets

It’s most common in south-western Ukraine near the Carpathian Mountains, which is consistent with where he always told us his grandparents came from, which I’ve whittled down to somewhere in the mountains of Zakarpattia Oblast near where it borders on Lviv Oblast and the westernmost part of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. There’s a valley in there that the Vecha River exits out of in the west and the Rika River and exits out of in the east that is IMHO most likely where they came from.

The image on the left is Mizhhiria, the currently largest city in the valley and on the right, Drumheller, where they settled.

source: https://mbarrick.tumblr.com/post/698969544207876096

Source: https://www.mbarrick.com/blog/221024/doing-little-digging-and-discovered-my-dad-s