Searching for information of relative

Hello,



George Olenick was my grandmothers brother. He passed away shortly after the war and I have little to no information on his involvement such as regiment, rank or what he was involved in. My grandmother never discussed him at all and she passed away about 5 years ago. The picture I have attached doesn’t offer a lot of information.



By chance if someone recognizes the uniform as a certain regiments or anything along those lines I would appreciate the information!


This picture would have been taken somewhere around the greater Toronto area. Hamilton would be a good guess as that is where they lived at the time.

 

Collection New York City Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
Record set United States, Passenger And Crew Lists
First name(s) George
Last name Olenick
Role Passenger
Sex Male, single
Age 23
Birth year 1919
Birth place Hamilton, Canada
Arrival year 5 Sept 1942
Arrival city New York
Arrival state New York
Arrival country United States
Ship name SS Monterey
Sailed from The Clyde, Scotland
Date 27 August 1942
Occupation Canadian Army
Last residence Hamilton, Canada
Nearest relative MO-Stella, 149 Wallace Ave, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Final destination In transit to Canada
By whom passage paid Canadian Govt, c/o Canadian Army Debarkation Office, NYC
Height 5' 10"
Complexion FR
Hair BRN
Eyes BLU
NARA roll number 6651
NARA publication number T715
Film number 1758389

 

Best thing to do is order his military records. Follow the link below. you will need ‘proof of death’, an obit, a death certificate, a photo of his headstone

Just fill in the forms with as MUCH as you know, don’t worry about Rank, Service Number, Unit etc....LAC will contact you when they are ready to search to confirm details of him (birth date, mother and father etc). BUT do give them all you know.

AND, it will take a LONG TIME.....waiting for military records is over 1 year and longer right now.

Requests for Military Service Files - Library and Archives Canada

If you need help with the forms (all on line) just let us know, I can help

 

I did find ONE George in the Royal Canadian Legion LAST POST, but this may not be him, as you said he died shortly after the war......but just in case

George OLENICK
Date Deceased: March 15th, 1995

Age: 76

Service Information

• Unit:South Saskatchewan Regiment, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps
• Period of Service:World War II
• Service Numbers:L13002

Legion Branch Information

• Legion Branch:Strathclair Branch, Strathclair, Manitoba, Canada

And I found this newspaper article......seems like the same man, but it may not be your family, if you could confirm

 

Found the man above GOING to England, 15 Dec 1940, South Saskatchewan Regiment, ‘C” Company, Embarkation Nominal Roll

 

George Golenick was Royal Canadian Artillery. Invalided home September 1942.

Other clipping confirms the Wallace Avenue address.

Regards,

Dave

 

I think Dave and I have a “couple” of George Olenick’s for you to review and see if you can tell us “which one” is a possibility.

The New York Passenger list “address” match’s Dave’s posts, and the “reason” he was returning make sense (men were NOT sent home to Canada without a really good reason)......and the South Sask Regiment “Olenick” seems to be correct birth date (1919)?? But date of death may be wrong, and family seems to be Saskatchewan based?

So over to you to see if you can give us more advice

 

Here’s more information on the George Olenick who “originally” was with the South Sask Regt......in this file, when he returns home in 1946, he is now with the RCASC (Royal Canadian Army Service Corps)

From the information that Dave posted (and other research I have done) I THINK that Dave has the right Olenick..........and if this IS the right man, he was with the Royal Canadian Artillery when he returned to Canada (which will help when you order his military records)



Name: G Olenick
Arrival Date: 20 Feb 1946
Port of Arrival: New York, New York, USA
Ship Name: Queen Elizabeth

 

Do you know if George was married to “Phyllis”???



1949 Voters list

 

Wow!
I appreciate all of your responses along with all of the information as well. They lived in Hamilton so I believe Dave would have the correct individual. Apparently he was killed by a train after returning from the war. Not much was ever spoken of him. Recently I’ve joined as a reservist with the Queens Own Rifles which sparked my interest in regards to looking into this. I will look into obtaining the information required for starting a request to obtain his military records as well.

Exciting!

I appreciate all of your help and will keep you posted.

-Andrew

 

I’m not 100% sure if he was I’ll have to look into it

 

OK, that helps.......we’ll go with Dave’s info.......so we can look for some one in the RCA. In Hamilton area, at the beginning of ww2, their were TWO RCA units that were mobilized, the 40th Field Battery and the 11th Field Battery.

I will see if I can find him in either of these two units......

And, you don’t have a year he died do you??.....so we can narrow down a newspaper search

 

I do not have a year of death, to be honest I’m not even sure where his tombstone is located

 

So the headstone I posted, you don’t know if that is his, or his wife was Phyllis?? I’m seeing if I can find a “train accident” to help us

 

The Hamilton Spectator is sadly not included in any of the newspaper packages out there. One either asks nicely at the Hamilton Public Library or goes in and digs up the microfilm. You can reach a live body in the times indicated. Contact Us | HPL

Phyllis passed away in 1976. ON: Winona (Fifty) Cemetery (Phyllis (Reid) OLENICK), CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project Bottom of marker says "Loved and Loving Mother" so obtaining an obituary might come in handy in locating family.

Regards,

Dave

 

I’m unsure of that either I will have to contact family to dig deeper

 

No problem Andrew.

 

Turns out Phyllis was his wife!

 

Excellent Andrew.......so now you can be pretty confident that he was the George that Dave found.....and he was a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA).........and we now have a headstone picture (I posted it previously) so you can use that as proof of death when you apply for his military records. Once you get his records (in about a year from now), we can help you decipher them from “military speak” to “English” (so you can understand what they are telling you.

And, as he joined in MD2 (Military District 2) I’ll start seeing if I can find “anything” that would tell us which RCA unit he joined. I suspect that it may have been either the 40th Field Battery or the 11th Field Battery. The 11th Field Battery was part of the 12th Cdn Field Regiment, RCA

If I find anything, of course I will post up here

Cheers