Zagrobelny Family History

The surname goes back to the word greblya in the meaning of «a dam, an earthen embankment through a swampy place». According to onomatologist Yuri Fedosyuk, it exists in the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, and also in some similar dialects of the Russian language. So, the forbearer of the surname could live «za grebley», i. e. , behind a dam or embankment. Most likely, this naming was given to a native of such places when he resettled to indicate the direction of his movements.

The surname is common in Ukraine. In Russia, it is most frequently found in the Krasnodar Territory, the Orenburg Region, Moscow and its suburbs, the Maritime and Stavropol Territories. Few people under this last name also live in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

The surname appeared in manuscripts in the 18th century. The list of the Okhtyrka Sloboda Cossack Regiment featured Cossack of the 1st Regimental Sotnya, Vasily Zagrebelny, among the Aleshnya Sloboda residents who swore allegiance to the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in 1741. 64-year-old Gavrila Afanasyevich Zagrebelny, his 62-year-old wife Pelageya Leontyevna, and their sons Grigory and Gerasim with their families were recorded in the revision book of the Aleshnya Sloboda of the Lebedyn County, the Kharkiv Province, in 1782. Another Zagrebelny lived in Demky Village of the Pereiaslav County, the Poltava Province, in 1787. State peasant Moisey Zagrebelny, a son of Kirill, lived in Novye Shepelichi Village of the Radomyshl County, the Kyiv Province, in 1849. Yevgraf Karpovich Zagrebelny was a landowner in the Yelysavethrad County in 1908. Private soldier of the 56th Zhytomyr Infantry Regiment Ivan Isidorovich Zagrebelny received the St. George Cross «for bravery and courage shown in battles with the Austrians» in 1914. Lieutenant Pyotr Nikitich Zagrebelny was shot by Bolsheviks in the Crimea in 1920 as «an explicit enemy of the Workers' and Peasants' Government».