Saturday, May 19, 2012

My Carpatho-Rusyn FAN Club ~ Helena Basos

This is another of the FAN Club photographs belonging to my grandparents Stephen Popp (Stefan Papp) and Anna Pereksta of Binghamton, NY. 


The photograph is identified as Helena Basos in ink on the front. The only Helen Basos found in the Binghamton, NY City Directories available on Ancestry.com is the wife of William Basos. She first appears in the 1923 directory, living with William, a grocer, at 51 Dickinson Street. He appears living alone or with a brother from 1911 through 1922. They both appear in the directories through 1959. 

She and William are enumerated together in the 1920 census. She is listed as born about 1894 in Czechoslovakia, emigrating to the United States in 1911 and working as a sorter at a tannery. The 1930 Census information is similar, though she is no longer working, but adds that she was married for the first time at age 20 (about 1913).

A death notice for Helen Basos was published on Saturday, 21 May 1960 in the Binghamton Press. It reads
Mrs. Helen Basos, 20 Holland St., Binghamton, died Friday at 9:35 p.m. at Wilson Memorial Hospital. She is survived by her husband, William Basos, Binghamton; one sister, Mrs. Theresa Pirich, Johnson City; one brother, Andrew Wacendak, Binghamton; several nieces and nephews. The family operates a grocery store on Clinton St. The body was removed to the Greskovic Funeral Home, 161 Clinton St., where the funeral will be held Monday at 9:30 a.m. Burial will be in Riverhurst Cemetery, Endicott. Friends may call at the funeral home this evening from 7 to 9 and Sunday afternoon and evening.
I found no immigration records for Helen Basos or her husband, but his World War I Draft registration card indicates he was born in Dara, a village near my grandmother Anna Pereksta's birthplace in today's Slovakia.

I would be delighted to share high resolution scans of these images and source information with anyone researching these families. Please leave a comment or email me (there is a link in the righthand column).