Tombstone Tuesday: Philip Casacove

Gravemarker of Philip Casacove

Philip Casacove (né Cazakoff) was my husband’s maternal uncle. His obituary can be read here.

The third, but second surviving son of George and Polly (Poznekoff) Cazakoff, Philip was born in July 1911 in Simeonovka (aka Semenovo), a Doukhobor village near Arran, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Philip legally changed his name to ‘Philip Gordon Casacove’ in July 1948. A few weeks earlier in June, he married Mary Abrosimoff in Vancouver, British Columbia. The couple had two daughters, Donna and Elizabeth.

Philip died thirty-seven years ago on 16 December 1976. He was buried four days later at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby, British Columbia. His wife Mary, who died in 2002, is interred beside him.

His gravemarker reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY

PHILIP G. CASACOVE

1911 – 1976

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Philip Casacove

Obituary of Philip Casacove, 1976

Philip is my husband’s maternal uncle, being an elder brother of his mother Ann. He passed away thirty-seven years ago tomorrow (December 16).

Philip was the third child of George and Polly (Poznekoff) Cazakoff, Doukhobor immigrants who left Russia in 1899. He changed his surname from Cazakoff to Casacove in the summer of 1948.

Philip married twice and had children by both unions. He was survived by his (second) wife Mary and their daughters Donna and Elizabeth.

Source:
“Casacove”, obituary, undated clipping, from unidentified newspaper; Demoskoff Family Papers, privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2013. Yvonne received an assortment of family memorabilia (including Philip’s obituary) in January 2012 from her father-in-law William (Bill) Demoskoff.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Surname Saturday: Cazakoff

My late mother-in-law Ann was born a Cazakoff. She was the youngest child and only daughter of George and Polly (Poznekoff) Cazakoff, Doukhobor immigrants who settled Canada in 1899. (For a brief explanation of this Russian religious group, see Family History Though the Alphabet – S is for …)

In 1948, Ann’s elder brother Philip legally changed his surname Cazakoff to the more English-sounding Casacove.

As a surname, Kazakoff developed from the word kazak, which means Cossack. According to the Doukhobor Genealogy Website, Doukhobors with the surname Kazakov “originated from the province of Tambor, Russia in the 18th century”.¹

Kazakoff is one of the most common Doukhobor surnames in Canada; it ranked fourth in 1970.² Other English spellings include Kazakow, Kozakoff, Casacove, Kazakove, Kasikoff and Kasakoff.³

Sources:

1. “Origin and Meaning of Doukhobor Surnames”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website (http://www.doukhobor.org/Surnames.htm : accessed 7 April 2009), entry for Kazakov.

2. “Origin and Meaning of Doukhobor Surnames”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website, entry for Kazakov.

3. “Origin and Meaning of Doukhobor Surnames”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website, entry for Kazakov.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.