Neither whimsy nor curiosity, neither a sense of adventure nor a spirit of conquest, brought the Ukrainians across the ocean to Canada. These people who migrated in the hundreds of thousands, wrenched their roots out of their native soil, and left behind all that had been their very life to travel to a strange and distant land, these Ukrainians decided to leave their homeland and embark on a difficult journey into the unknown because of the severe social and economic pressures in their Mother Land. The decision to make Canada their destination was determined by opportunities created at a particular stage in this country's growth into independent statehood. It was this junction of historical circumstances which on one hand drove Ukrainians to emigrate, and on the other make Canada eager to receive the immigrants.

Among these eager to immigrate Ukrainians was Kost Achtymichuk and family. Kost took out a passport for the family on May 27, 1899 (this passport was valid for 6 months) and for reasons unknown to us they postponed their long journey until early 1900. Maybe because his wife was expecting their seventh child and the long journey would have been too hard on mother and baby. Or the fast approaching winter was the wrong time of the year to embark on this long journey. Baby Paraska was born on Aug 2, 1899.

My parents came to Canada in 1900, and they settled on the farm of dad's niece, Sam Gnyp's place, about 20 miles northeast of Yorkton, Sask. I was born on Jan. 27, 1902, at Sam Gnyp's farm, as my parents stayed there for three years. Dad was working out and so did my brother Philip and sister Ann. In 1903 my Dad got a homestead six miles east of Rhein, so he and the older brothers built a dugout 12' x 30' and covered it with brush and dirt. We had two rooms, in one we all lived and slept, and in the other we kept a cow and two steers and some chickens. It was pretty crowded, but we lived there for two years, until we built a three room house. One a kitchen and a bed, one a hall where we kept all kind of stuff like flour, boxes of clothes and foodstuff. The thirdroom had two beds and a big table as a dining room. Grain we had very little then as the land was bushy and had many sloughs, so most of it had to beb scrubbed and plowed by oxen, as we had no machinery of any kind.

Kost must have been met with many difficult conditions, but there was this feeling of peace, Peace! which ruled his thoughts, his heart, and his hands, and it was this peace that he wanted for himself, his children, and his grandchildren.

Kost died in 1922, and his wife Anastasia lived a much longer life enjoying her children and grandchildren, she died in April of 1952. Both are buried at St. John's church cemetery, Mulock, Sask.

-Paragraph three written by son William on January 11, 1977. Rest written by Olga Koroluk.