Wola Cieklinska is a small village near Peregrymka which had 300-400 Rusyn inhabitants in the century and a half before the mid-1940's deportations. As in the other local villages, the primary occupations were farming, sheepherding and forestry. Available documents include 1787 Austrian cadastral records and a description from the Slownik Geograficzny in 1893-closer to the period of great emigration.
Among fifteen Rusyn surnames on the 18th century cadastral records are Horbal, Hrabko, Dziama, Kulik, Kulczicki, Pelak, Polewka, Fil, Szach and Szczurek. Almost all of these names can be found in immigration records listed in the Emigrants/Destinations section of this website.
Parish records (Blazejowski) report 295 Greek Catholics and 10 Jews in 1785, 432 Greek Catholics in 1840, 282 in 1859, 300 in 1879, 419 in 1899, 342 in 1926 and 378 in 1936.
The 1893 Slownik Geograficzny describes Wola Cieklinska as "located on the Lasowa, a stream flowing into the Ropa from the right bank along the road from Gorka to Zmigrod." The village is listed as having "54 homes" and somewhat lower population numbers than indicated in parish records: "317 inhabitants, (10 Roman Catholic, 300 Greek Catholics and 7 Jews)."
The parish of the village's Greek-Catholic church, St. Demetrius the Great Martyr, was established in 1612. Parishioners from Folusz, Cieklin and Jaslo also attended St. Demetrius. The wooden church, built in 1776 and renovated in 1903, was destroyed following the 1945-1947 Lemko deportations. A drawing of St. Demetrius is included in Oleh Iwaniuw's book, Church in Ruins. The cemetery, on a wooded hilltop, remains.
There is a sad tale of peasant revolt and revenge in Wola Cieklinska following the threatened loss of village forests on the "Bald Mountain" website (www.home.swipnet.se/roland/maryintro.html). Go to the introduction and click on Vola Ceklynska for this 1846 "historical recollection."
There were three World War I military cemeteries constructed in the village--memorials of the great loss of life in nearby battles. One is pictured elsewhere on this site.
Sources:
Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base (www.carpatho-rusyn.org)
Church in Ruins by Oleh Iwaniuw (See Resources/Books)
Slownik Geograficzny, 1893, Vol. 13, page 809, entry #21