Michael, Alexandria, and William Tchoryk came to Canada from the Ukraine in the early spring of 1929. William had his 8th birthday aboard the steamship Calgaric which belonged to the Canard lines.
They had to work a year in Canada before being able to take a homestead and so lived and worked on a farm just outside Mundare, Alberta. William’s sister, Olga, was born there in 1930. That summer, Michael rode the train to Hythe, Alberta where he filed on a bush quarter in the Bay Tree area, NE quarter 15-79-12-W6. He started to build a cabin and in November, 1930, the family moved to Hythe by rail then took the mail truck to Pouce Coupe before moving on to Bay Tree where they boarded until the cabin was finished.
William completed grade 8 at Many Creeks School, learning more English and then had to quit, as high school was too expensive. William’s second sister, Annette, was born in 1935.
William enlisted in the army in Grande Prairie in 1943 and did his army training there and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was about to embark just as peace was declared.
In 1945, William purchased the NW quarter of 16?-79-12-W6 which was land donated by Alex Oluksuk in 1932 and used as an early schoolhouse that William attended. William partnered with his father to finish clearing the land until Michael’s sudden death in 1954.
In 1949, William married Leona Nasby. They leased two more quarters from the government NW14-79-12-W6 and SW14-79-12-W6. In 1957, they purchased the home quarter from William’s mother who then moved to Pouce Coupe. Michael and Leona farmed the land for 30 years and during that time they raised 4 daughters: Brenda Paul, Linda Fontaine, Cheryl Hubbard, and Krystal Webster. They sold the farm in April, 1980, and moved to Kelowna.
Source: Community Book Index – Homesteader’s Heritage