52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: George Sedor (1882-1963)

I am expanding my definition of ancestors this week to include cousins. My research efforts the last few weeks have been driven by my renewed interest in DNA matches. I have been scouring, with success, Old Fulton NY Postcards, Ancestry.com, and FamilySearch for easily accessible records that will provide a paper trail linking my father to some new matches.

I was told that my grandmother Anna Pereksta had two maternal first cousins in Binghamton, NY where she lived after emigrating to the United States.

This photograph from one of her photo albums is labeled "Mom and Mr. Sedor (first cousin) at Saranac". My aunt had later told me that this was George Sedor. However, given the abundant numbers of George Sedors or Szidors or Citars or Sidors or Scidors appearing in Broome County, NY census records, I still wasn't sure which George to claim. 

So I was particularly pleased when one of my father's matches listed Sedor and Binghamton in his profile. He turned out to be descended from George Sedor and Mary Zubal. Having a name for one of the George's wives was all I needed to zoom on in a specific George. I corresponded excitedly with one of my match's cousins for several days comparing notes and histories.

And then we exchanged photographs. I sent her the photograph of our grandparents in taken at Saranac Lake after the Spanish Flu epidemic. She sent me a photograph of her grandparents and their children in 1949. As wonderful as the census data and newspaper articles are there is something altogether different about having photographs. Especially when there is shared DNA.

There he is. George Sedor, my first cousin, twice removed. Another one of the pivotal people in our history. Yes, as my new-found cousin pointed out, like my grandparents, he started life as a peasant and spent his working life making shoes in a factory. But his children's lives were far different than if he had remained in the Carpathian village of his birth.

His obituary tells the story.

Father of 4 Firemen, Sedor Rites Thursday

Survivors Include Chief 

Funeral service will be held Thursday for George Sedor, Sr. of 5 Jones Street, father of Binghamton Fire Chief John A. Sedor and three other Triple Cities firemen.
Mr. Sedor died yesterday morning at Wilson Memorial Hospital after a long illness. He was 81 years old.
Born in Czechoslovakia (then Austria-Hungary) in 1883, Mr. Sedor came to America at the turn of the century. He was a retired Endicott-Johnson employe.
MR. SEDOR was married to the late Mary Zubal and was a member of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church.
He is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Gregory (Anna) Cytch, Linden, N. J. and Mrs. John (Mary) Hlopko and Mrs. Robert (Helen) Tobey, both of Binghamton; five sons, John, George, Jr., and Steven, all of Binghamton; William, Jersey City, N. J., and Andrew, Endicott.
Also a sister, Mrs. Anna Gabok, Auburn; 17 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.
George Sedor, Jr. and Steven are members of the Binghamton Fire Department. Andrew is a member of the Endicott Fire Department.
FUNERAL SERVICES  will be held at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the Greskovic Funeral Home, 161 Clinton Avenue, and at 9 a.m. at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Burial will be in Holy Spirit Cemetery.
Friends may call at the funeral home tomorrow and Wednesday from 2 to 4 and  to 9 p.m. The Reverend Alexander P. Maczkov, pastor of Holy Spirit Church, will hold prayer services at the funeral home at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's blogger challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Sources

Anna Pereksta and George Sedor photograph, c. 1919, Popp Family photographs and papers, 1930-1990; privately held by Susan Popp Clark, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] St. Louis, MO. 2005.  

Sedor, George. Photograph. 1949. Digital image. Privately held by Susan Popp Clark, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] St. Louis, MO. 2014. Published with permission of the owner of the original photograph.

 "Father of 4 Firemen, Sedor Rites Thursday," Binghamton Press, 16 Dec 1963, Evening Edition, p. 21, col. 7; digital images, Old Fulton NY Postcards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html : accessed 23 Jan 2014), Historical New York Newspapers.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Janos or Ivan Sedor (b. 1818)

I knew nothing about my baba's grandparents when I started researching my father's family. Not even their names. Baba, my grandmother, was born in Prislop a small mountain village in what is now Slovakia. Her mother, Olena Sedor, was born a few miles away in Starina. Both were then part of Hungary. Not easy to research. I hit pay dirt in 2010 when FamilySearch put old Hungarian Empire church records online. 

I found my great-grandmother's 1860 baptism recorded. Naming her parents. My great-great grandparents. Szidor Joan and Komiszar Maria. Or Romisszar. Her name is negotiable. In fact, much about these names is negotiable. Baba's family were ethnic Rusyns. They did not speak Hungarian. So while the records are in Hungarian or Latin or Church Slavonic, the names they used amongst themselves were different. Her mother was Olena, rather than Helena. Her father was Ivan, not Janos or Joannes. I suspect her grandfathers were also Ivan. And, of course, their descendants changed names all over the place when they settled in America.

I digress. Ultimately I found my great-great grandparents marriage record and baptismal registries for six children.

From FamilySearch.org

Janos or Ivan Sedor  was born in 1818 in Sztarina, Zemplén, Hungary. At this point I have no idea who his parents were. Sedor is a common name. There is one clue. His granddaughter referred to her mother as Olena Sedor Hocko. Hocko is probably an alias name used to help distinguish one Sedor line from another. Further research is needed here.

On 1 February 1848 Ivan married Maria Komisar, who was born in 1825, also in Sztarina. According to the marriage record he was a widower. They had at least six children, though one son died as a child.

Their son, Mihaly Sedor was baptized on 20 Aug 1849 in Sztarina.

Basilus or Wasyl Sedor was born and baptized in 1853 in Sztarina. His record is in Cyrillic script. I could not make out the month.

Joannes or Ivan Sedor was born on 26 Jan 1859 in Sztarina and died before 1866 when a second son with the same name was born.

Helena or Olena Sedor was born on 27 Sep 1860 in Sztarina, Zemplén, Hungary and was baptized on 6 Oct 1860. She died on 3 Jan 1936 in Príslop, Czechoslovakia at age 75. She is buried in Príslop, which now in Slovakia. Olena is my great-grandmother.

Anna Sedor was born on 2 Jan 1863 and was baptized on 18 Jan 1963 in Sztarina, Zemplén, Hungary.

A second Joannes or Ivan Sedor was born on 28 Aug 1866 in Sztarina and baptized on 4 Sep 1866.

His name appears frequently as a sponsor or witness in the church records, but with such a common name I don't know which, if any, of these men were my great great-grandfather. At least not without much more work examining the records. Komissar is a much less common name and worth investigation.

That is all I know about Ivan Sedor. He was most likely an illiterate peasant farmer. The land he lived and died on is now beneath the Starina Resevoir. 




Written for Amy Johnson Crow's blogger challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Sources

• Stefan Popp, "Popp-Pereksta Family Record" (Private, recorded in diary c. 1940).
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, Szidor-Komiszar marriage, record 3, image 163 of 192; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 15 Mar 2010).
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, "Image 14/189," Mihaly Szidor record; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 18 Mar 2010).
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, "Image 24/189, Record 13," Basilus Szidor Baptismal Record; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 Mar 2010); Record is in Cyrillac alphabet.
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, Joannes Szidor Birth 1859, image 33 of 189; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 15 Mar 2010).
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, Olena Szidor birth record, image 59 of 189; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 15 Mar 2010); Names her parents as Joannes Szidor and Maria Komiszar of Sztarina.
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, "Image 36/189, Record 24," Janos Perekszta Baptismal record; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 18 Mar 2010); The record is in Cyrillac letters. It lists his parents and their residence, Prisxlop Household #2.
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, Anna Szidor Birth, 1863. Image 68 of 189; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 15 Mar 2010).
• Greek Catholic Church of Sztarina (Starina, Hummene, Slovakia), Baptisms, marriages, deaths (krsty, manzelstva, umrtia) Inv. c 1156 1845-1868, Joannes Szidor birth 1866, record 30, image 153 of 192; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 26 Jan 2014).

My Carpatho-Rusyn FAN Club ~ Hamzik, Rudik and Havtur

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

On the back of the photograph is written Anna Hamzik, Mrs. Rudik, Mrs. Havtur.

Two Anna Hamziks appear in the Binghamton, NY City Directories available on Ancestry.com. Anna Macko (1890-1961) was married to Michael Hamzik. They did not move to Binghamton until sometime before the 1930 census. In 1920 they were living in Montana. Anna Macko Hamzik is reported to have to come to the United States as a child. Anna Bancansky (1894-1966) was married to Joseph Hamzik. They moved to Binghamton sometime after 1930. According to the 1930 census she was born in Czechoslovakia and emigrated to the United States in 1911. 

In addition to the two Anna Hamziks, there is also an Anna Hemzik living nearby in Johnson City in the 1930 census. She was born about 1899 in Pennsylvania to Czechoslovakian born parents and was married to Andrew Hemzik. 

Mary Vaszko Rudik (1895-1964) is the only Mrs. Rudik found in Binghamton, NY census or city directory records. She was born in Ruské, a village near my grandmother's village in today's Slovakia and emigrated to the United States in 1911. She married Frank Rudik in 1915 at St. Michael's Church in Binghamton.

There are two potential Mrs. Havturs, sisters-in-law who were each named Helen. Helen Wasko Havtur Selanich (1894-1972) was also born in Ruské. (She and Mary Vaszko Rudik may have been related, but they were not siblings. Each named different parents on their marriage records.) Helen Wasko married Frank Havtur. Helen Bundga married Frank's brother John in 1916. She was born in Starina, the village where my grandmother's mother was born. Based on the descriptions in their immigration records the picture above is most likely Helen Bundga Havtur.

This is a challenging photograph to date or place. I have a similar photograph of my grandmother that I have assumed was taken shortly after she arrived in the United States in 1913. But if either of the Anna Hamziks are the woman pictured they do not appear to have been in Binghamton until after 1920. There are newspaper reports in the Binghamton (NY) Press referring to folk dancers led by Mrs. Helen Havtur and it may be the woman all participated with her.

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).

Introducing My Carpatho-Rusyn FAN Club ~ Gydik and Kostun

Elizabeth Shown Mills' FAN Club strategy of researching friends, associates and neighbors has been enormously helpful in exploring the Tennessee and Tidewater branches of my family. I have also used it when examining immigration records and newspaper articles for my Carpatho-Rusyn family.

My aunt recently gave me a photo album and loose pictures belonging to her parents, Stephen Popp (Stefan Papp) and Anna Pereksta. Most of the images are of friends of the family from the Binghamton, NY area. Most are from the 1910s and 1920s. All seem to have been taken in the United States. Over the next months I will digitize and post the images and any cursory research I have done under the title My Carpatho-Rusyn FAN Club.

I know some of the relationships predate their immigration. These friends were called krajan or krajani - countrymen or villagers. Stephen was born in 1882 Berezovo (also known as Berezna) in what was then the Maramoros district of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today it is in the Ukraine. Anna was born in 1895 in Prislup (also known as Kis Pereszlo) in what was then the Zemplen district of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today it is in Slovakia.

Those relationships that were established in the United States likely resulted from friendships through their work at the Endicott-Johnson shoe factory, residence in Binghamton's immigrant First Ward, or membership in St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church.

The first photo in the album is this picture. On the back is written "Sue Sedor Gydik/ John Kostun" in my aunt's handwriting.

Susie Gydik (also spelled Guydik or Guydick) was the daughter of William and Mary Sedor (also spelled Sidor). She was born about 1898 in Starina (near Prislup) and came to the United States with her mother in 1903. She was a close friend of Anna Pereksta's and probably a cousin. Her father is believed to have been Anna's first cousin. She married Frank Gydik.

John Kostun is not a name I have heard before. Two adult John Kostuns appear in the 1930 census index on Ancestry.com. Both were born in Czechoslovakia - one in 1895 with a wife Mary and one in 1899 with a wife Anna. Both lived in the First Ward, worked at a shoe factory and were identified as Carpatho-Russian or Ruthenian. This man could be either of them, however the man born in 1895 has boarders in the household named Kost and Bundza. These are both names associated with the Pereksta family in Europe.

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).

A Family Record, Part 2 - Amanuensis Monday

Thanks to John at Transylvanian Dutch who originated the Amanuensis Monday meme, providing a framework (and nudge) for transcribing family records, news clippings and other treasures.

My grandfather Stefan Popp wrote a family record of his, his wife's and their own family in a pocket calendar that I have. It's written in what I have been told is a Rusyn/Ukrainian dialect. My translations are not exact, but I believe they communicate the basic information.  I wrote about his own parents here. This second part is a record of his wife Anna Pereksta's family.

Family Record for Ivan Pereksta and Olena Sidor

Wife's parents

Ivan Pereksta was born in Prislop january 25 in the year 1857

He died february 19 in the year 1933 at the age of 76 years 9 months and 3 days.

Mama

Olena Sidor (Hocko) was born in Starini September 27 in the year 1860

She died january 3 in the year 1936 at the age of 75 years 4 months and 24 days.

Ivan and Olena Pereksta were married may 3 in the year 1879

They had children

Maru, Ivana, Petra, Olenu, Zuzku, Anna, Vasila and Nascu|Zelenak 

Mara was born in the year 1880

Notes -

Olena Sidor's name includes an alias (Hocko). This is not uncommon and is used to differentiate families that have the same surname. Sidor is a very common name in the area this family lived. At this point we don't know if Hocko indicates maternal surname earlier in the family, a personal characteristic or trait or references a geographic location. 

Starini or Starina, the village where she was born, no longer exists. It was one of several villages flooded  when the Starina Reservoir was constructed in 1980. 

The names of the children as we use them today are Maria, Ivan (John), Pytor (Peter), Olena, Susanna, Anna, Vasil and Nascia. Maria, John, Susanna and Anna settled in the United States. Peter, Olena, Vasil and Nascia stayed in Europe. 

The surname Zelenak was added later with lines indicating it belonged to Mara, the eldest child. 

"Popp-Pereksta Family Record." (MS. Binghamton, NY, 1930-1982), p. 2-3; Digital Images.  Privately held by Susan Popp Clark, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]. 2008.  

Over the river and through the woods

I have spent years researching my husband's ancestors and my maternal ancestors.  It's not that I don't love my father.  He's truly one of the most wonderful men ever created and must owe something of his stellar character to his ancestors.  It's just that his parents emigrated to this country in the early 20th century from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since they left wars and political strife have raged across their Carpatho-Rusyn mountain villages, borders changed countless times, and contact was lost with most of his family.  Even the alphabets used for official documents changed.  Assuming I could name the languages my grandparents spoke (another too complicated issue), I cannot read or write any of the official languages used.  So after poring over the Ellis Island records, gathering what could be gathered from family here and - in a post-Cold War miracle - from the family there,  I pretty much gave up and focused on research on this side of the pond.

And then Family Search posted the Greek Catholic Church records from my grandmother's ancestral villages on-line (thanks to Lee Drew at FamHist for prompting me to check!).  I had ordered the films before. Twice.  But sitting in the library poring over almost 500 pages of 19th c. church records in three languages and two alphabets was not productive.  I would work for a couple hours and names (almost always Maria, Georgy or some version of Janos) would start swimming before my eyes.  This time I could work at home, on my own computer.  When the names started swimming I could take the dogs for a walk or go to bed.

And so I plugged away, armed with Tylenol and wine, eventually making sense of the handwriting and records.  My great-grandmother's name Szidor, relatively uncommon in this neck of the woods, turned out to be about as common as Smith or Jones up in those mountains.  In one of my most brilliant moments, I remembered I had my grandmother's birth certificate written in cyrillic letters which helped me identify her parents' names and the name of her village in the cyrillic records.  It was like looking for pieces in a jigsaw puzzle focusing on the right shapes and sizes.  My grandfather, blessings be on his soul, had written down her parents' birth dates.  With all that help and about 40 hours of viewing and reviewing, I found her parent's baptismal records naming their parents and a marriage record for one set of great-great grandparents.  Mind boggling.

I'm still decoding some of the information, haven't figured out all the godparents, etc.  But I've learned so much.  My great-grandfather Ivan Pereksta was something of a mystery.  We knew nothing of his family.  But now we know he was the youngest of three children, that his father died shortly before he was born, and that he lived with and next door to other families with the same surname.  And surely it will be possible to discover more about the newly found Janos/Ivan and Maria Szidor - their village's version of John and Mary Smith.

So thank you Family Search for reconnecting me with my Carpathian roots. Thank you grandfather.  And thank you Daddy.