Grangranfather research, Trying to find info about my grangran

Dear everyone, I dont think I have enough information but I'm working on it.
I'm looking as much information as possible about my gran-gran-father who was Rumanian prisoner of war in Russia before 1917 His name was Ioan(Ivan in Russian) Botezatu He stayed in USSR after revolution 1917 and had large family with many kids. His Rumanian family, as some of my relatives knew, lived in Rumanian city Iasi before 1977. The family was also large but I dont have any contact or information about them. They were visiting Russia one time in 60th. The father's name on my gran-gran was Constantin (but this info can be wrong)

How big is the chance to catch up with the family history using informations above?

Because of his "prisoner-of-war" condition in Russia, I assume that he was fighting on austro-hungarian side.

Maybe someone could give me dates or actions during that war when my g-g-father could be captured by Russians, or numbers/names of divisions that has been captured by Russians? I found plenty of information about actions of Rumanians against Austro-Hungarians but didnt find info about actions where Rumanians where standing against of Russians. Or there were some other ways how Rumanian soldier could become russian prisoner of war?

All Romanian POWs in Russia were Transylvanians or Bukovinians servinf in the Austro-Hungarian Army. They were not members of the Romanian Army.

In 1917, after the great battles from Marasti and Marasesti, russian army colapsed under the presure of bolshevic revolution. Romanian army entered Bessarabia to protect it against bolshevics and some fightings occured between romanian army and russian bolshevics. Maybe during these fightings some romanian soldiers were captured.

In 1916 almost 30.000 romanians from Transylvania, ex AH citisens, fought in romanian army as regular soldier, NCO's or oficers. In 1917, the first transylvanian-bucovinean volunteers regiment were integrated in romanian army, before the battle from Marasesti, having the status of romanian soldiers and beeing considered accordingly. In 1918, after the Buftea Peace, second Corp of transylvanian-bucovinean volunteers was raised from the ranks of other romanians ex-AH soldiers. 2nd transylvanian-bucovinean volunteer Corp fought in Siberia untill 1921 against bolshevics, together with Czech volunteer Corp, when they all were returned to their fatherlands.

Botezatu is very common name in some parts of the country.

This post has been edited by 21 inf on November 04, 2009 10:53 am

Minor note: there was no Austro-Hungarian citizenship (it's a common error). They were either Hungarian or Austrian citizens.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on November 04, 2009 09:09 pm

I didnt hear anything about Austrian or Hungarian citizenship of my relative, looking in family archives for postal address in Iasi that Rumanian relatives lived before 1977, maybe that will help. My grandmother was born 1918 and she wasnt the oldest in his Russian family. So, he could be captured in 1916 and placed in Southern Russia. I also remember the stories that he was not alone placed there. There was yet another Rumanian lived about 20km away in neighboring village. Also, my grandma told me a few times that he was rich back in Rumania and had some type of business there, on old photo from 1927 (the earliest I have) he looks rich indeed, or at least he behaved and dressed like that.

Thank you for your help though, I would really love to know more of this history and I already got so much information.

One more thing: is there more info about those 30000 Romanians in AH army? like is there number of division that they were serving in or some other more specific info?

This post has been edited by brack on November 04, 2009 10:44 pm

Denes is right. It was also not AH army, but Austrian and Hungarian armies and I believe a sort of AH units.

To brack: the number of 30.000 is about romanians from Transylvania who crossed Carpathian Mountains into Romania and were enlisted in romanian army BEFORE 1916.

In AH army, both in austrian or hungarian troops were enlisted between 1914 and 1918 a total number of more than 500.000 romanians, mostly from Transylvania and Banat. In early 1918 in russian POW camps were 120.000 romanians from Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina, from wich number 12% joined 1st and 2nd Transylvanian-Bucovinean Volunteers Corps between 1917-1919.

Good, I found some more info, to be precise the Soviet passport of my Grand-grand-father where it states where he was born in 1893 - Suceava Korno-Luchi village Komunna Bajsesti Does this sound any familiar place? I just made it transliterated from Russian cyrillic writting so it might be different spelling in reality, if anyone recognizes the place name could you please give me a correct spelling in Romanian? Also maybe coordinates of this place from google maps?

http://www.listafirme.ro/harta/suceava_baisesti.htm

WOW finally! I can see it on Google earth. For some reason though it is not searchable in google, I could find it only because I've seen the map. Thank you Thank you Thank you for the link. But then record in Soviet passport looks kinda messy...

If you check the list of localities on the right side menu, you can find the village you're looking for (on the top): Cornu Luncii.
http://www.listafirme.ro/harta/suceava_cornu_luncii.htm

Gen. Dénes

Yes, I found it, so "Baisesti" is a commune name or is it smaller village in commune with capital in Cornu Luncii?

Are there any lists of recruits by Austrian army taken in that place in 1914-1916? Or are there Romanian church birth registration (it's easy in Sweden - you just make a phone call and get all birth registry info for the last 100 years)? I'm looking for info for the next step. The next step is to find information about parents of my grand-grand. I guess if he lived in Bucovina and later told that his nationality was Rumanian the that is what it was.

Cornu Luncii is the commune now. It has 9 villages and Baisesti is one of them:
http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornu_Luncii,_Suceava

So he was a KUK POW in Russia after all.

what is KUK POW I'm not very familiar with abbreviations here.

Apparently my gran gran was not alone, he was serving in Austrian army with his older brother and was captured together with him and lived at the same place, then he moved even more south in Russia in about 1927-29 And it really looks like he became rich only after revolution 1917 before that he was slave on one of the farms in southern Russia.

But all of that is not related to the issue. Im looking for archive information about austrian army in that area.

KUK is austrian army: abreviation from kaiser und konig (chezaro-craiasca in romanian), or something like this, I dont speak german and POW means Prisonier Of War. So, KUK POW means austrian soldier prisonier of war.