were the irish ever stationed out in ukraine russia abt 1870 ?

[greeneyesgudge]

Hi my step ggranfather philip o conell was born in russia .in 1877 he later imigrated with his wife nettie sparka and there eldest son andrew o oconell to canada and then michigan usa .in census records his birthplace is ukraine russia but his surname is very irish and my step granfather was told they had irish and russian in them .Im trying to workout why the irish would of been in russia in the 18 hundreds ,were the military over there ? this is quite un usual im told 

[Skoosh]

The Crimean War was fought there in the 1850's.

Skoosh.

[MaecW]

Hi,
No British troops are likely to have been officially in Russia at that time.

More likely his father was associated with the establishment of the coal and steel industries in the Donetz Basin. The Tsar employed a number of foreigners to get the industries going and they, in turn, brought skilled labourers with them.
Donetsk city itself was originally called Yuzovka after the welshman John Hughes who founded it.

Maec