Umanets

Umanets [Umanec’]. A Cossack starshyna family line from Right-Bank Ukraine that came into prominence during the Bohdan Khmelnytsky period, when they moved to Left-Bank Ukraine. Pylyp Umanets (‘Pylypcha’) was a captain in Hlukhiv company (1653–68) and the colonel of Nizhyn regiment (1667 and 1669–74). The descendants of his only son, Demian Umanets, archpriest of Hlukhiv, were town Cossacks and captains in Hlukhiv (1726–67) and Yampil [now Yampil (Sumy oblast)] (1772–81) companies. Some of them became regimental commanders; Vasyl Umanets was the flag-bearer of Nizhyn regiment (1734 and 1736–8). That lineage also produced Oleksander Umanets, a physician and writer, and some important landowners in Chernihiv gubernia during the 19th century, especially the provincial activist Fedir Umanets.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]