A Speculative Popp Family Tree

 I have spent decades deciphering how my late father's paternal Popp family is related to both those Popps we "knew" were cousins, and those cousins who appeared when he graciously consented to have his DNA tested and uploaded to as many genealogy sites as possible. 

Andrew Popp, my father, was a first generation American, born to immigrants from the Carpathian Mountains in what was Hungary when his parents were born. It's a remote spot, ruled by more nations and monarchs than I can calculate. He identified as Carpatho-Rusyn but thought his father might have been at least part Hungarian. One day I may get into the differences between citizenship and ethnicity, but for my purposes here it's enough to point out that my father's own DNA ethnicity results show most of his paternal ancestry from what is now the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. 

His father, Stephen Popp, was born Stefan Pap, a grandson of another Stefan Pap, in the village of Berezna, Maramaros County, Hungary (today it is known as Berezovo, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine). He maintained contact with three men he considered cousins in the United States - Frank Popp and John Popp, both born in Kovesliget, Maramaros, Hungary (now Drahovo, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine) and sons of men bearing the same names; and Joe Popp, who was also born in Berezna and a grandson of a Ferenc/Frank Pap. We knew that John and my grandfather were related through John's mother, Ilka Papp, but not what the relationship was. Our attempts at formulating a family tree were complicated by the fact that none of our furthest "known" ancestors shared the same name and we had limited access to any records. 

After DNA testing became available lots more "American" cousins appeared, but few had any information on where their families had originated. I eventually gained access to church records from Berezna and Kovesliget which helped. Some. But what really helped was newer genetic genealogy tools that allowed me to use DNA match data from the web of matches and from multiple testing companies. Using frameworks developed on DNA Painter I was able to finally construct a very speculative tree on BanyanDNA that does fit within all the information provided by 15 matches on my father's paternal side. 

I pieced together screenshots of the tree and the calculation results. The purple boxes represent people who did DNA testing at Ancestry, My Heritage or 23andMe. The purple lines are connections that we have either documented or have personal knowledge of from our parents or grandparents. The yellow lines are speculative relationships. The cluster of yellow lines in the center of the tree are believed to be descended from a child Stephen Popp had before he emigrated to the United States. We were told the child existed, but nothing more. Not even the gender. 

The work is complicated by the fact that there are multiple cousin marriages and marriages to Tegzes (my grandfather's mother) and Stoyka/Stoykos (his grandmother). What little information I have on the European matches we believe descended from my father's unknown half-sibling strongly suggests at least two of them also have Tegze ancestry apart from what they inherited from Stephen Popp. 

Speculative Popp Family Tree from BanyanDNA. Best viewed on other tab. 

Descendents of Frank and Joe Popp have tested. Their results support Frank and Joe's closer connection to one another but also support a slightly more distant relationship to Stephen's family. No known descendants of John Popp have tested. 

DNA testing suggested two possible siblings to Stephen's father Ivan. Documentation from Berezna church records confirmed that the Maria Papp who married Pete Stoyka was a sibling and supported the theory that there was a brother Nicholas whose great-grandchildren showed up as strong matches. I found it especially moving in light of current events in Ukraine that testing is allowing those separated around the world to reconnect. Testers live in Cyprus, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and the United States. 

BanyanDNA validation calcuation. 

 

This is by no means a definitive tree. Several of the matches are well outside normal ranges, though if there are additional Tegze relatives that would explain much of the variance. I hope to follow up with all the testers and get further information, if available. But it is the first time I've come up with anything that seems remotely possible given the DNA tests. Pretty exciting after decades of work. 

Maria Tegze Balabancuk - (Almost) Wordless Wednesday

My great-grandmother Maria or Marika Tegze Balabancuk was born in 1857 in Berezna, Máramaros, Hungary. She married Ivan Papp before 1873. She died 6 July 1920 in Berezova, Czechoslovakia. When I was growing up the village she was born, married and died in was Berezovo, Ukraine, USSR. Today it is Berezovo, Zakarpats’ka oblast’, Ukraine or to be completely accurate Березово, Закарпатська область, Україна.

Old World Uncle - Wordless Wednesday

Reconnecting Across the Years

My great-uncle Mikula Papp and his family in 1932. The portrait was taken in Chust, in what is now the Ukraine. The man sitting on the right may be another great-uncle, Ivan Papp, but I am not sure. 

Mikula was the youngest of Ivan and Maria Tegze Papp's surviving children (the one who had no shoes). He and my grandfather Stefan corresponded for many years but after Stefan died in 1948 contact with the family was lost. When we went to Europe after the Berlin Wall fell we were reunited with my grandfather's family. My father and aunt met several first cousins, including Mikula's two surviving children.

His daughter, Maria, and two of her sons were still living in the Ukraine. They were an amazing family - welcoming us with open arms with only a day or two's notice. We asked there, as we asked everyone we visited, if they had pictures we could see. His daughter pulled a photo album from the shelf and showed us an entire album of empty pages. Only old fashioned small white corners outlined where the photographs had been.

Mikula had been arrested by Stalin's men one day after World War II and sent away. He was gone for many years, but did survive and return home. The family's photographs were destroyed (it wasn't clear to me whether the men who took Uncle Mikula destroyed them or the family themselves, out of fear) but forty years later they still had the album. Despite the scars Maria and her family lived and continue to live full and successful lives. One son is a surgeon, another is a dentist and the third, a Moscow-trained classical musician, emigrated to Mexico where he is a concert violinist.

Maria's younger brother, Laszlo, had settled in Budapest and joined us there for dinner. He looked very like his father. Laszlo would have been one of the two younger boys in this picture. He had worked as a bureaucrat in Hungary for many years and was retired when we came. For my father and aunt to meet these first cousins more than seventy years after their father left Europe was a gift we will treasure always.

A Family Record - Treasure Chest Thursday

Documentation can get pretty interesting when one is dealing with 19th c. Eastern European records. One is looking for records kept in lands pummeled by Hitler, communism, Stalin (an entirely different issue from communism) and other plagues; for records written in multiple languages - Latin, Church Slavonic, Hungarian, Slovak, Ukrainian and Rusyn dialects that are fast vanishing - if not vanished.

I've been overjoyed (and overwhelmed) by the Slovak church registers appearing on FamilySearch. Decoding the images is slow, but I have made some progress on my grandmother's Pereksta and Sidor families. My grandfather Stefan Popp's family however is far more difficult. His home now lies in the Ukraine. There is not even a hint that any of those records will be available outside the country in my lifetime. I am ever grateful for the notebooks, letters and the records he kept. I cannot read all of them. But slowly I am working out a strategy for analyzing and preserving them.

Stefan 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.  This first part is record of his parents' family.

Family Record for Ivan Papp and Maria Tegza

My Daddy and Mama

Ivan Papp was born in Drahov on December 9 in the year 1846. He died in 1909 on December 7. He lived 64 years minus 2 days.

Mama Marya Tegza was born in Berezov in the year 1857. She died July 6 in the year 1920. She lived 63 years.

Their children
Vasily, Ivan, Elana, Anca, Stefan, Marika, (second page begins) Mikula, Marika, Hafya, Luka, Mikula and Petra.

Marika, Mikula and Petra died as children.

Marika Papp Hricak died February 21 in the year 1942.

Luka Popp died September 25 in the year 1944.

Stefan Popp died 9-8-48.

Notes -

My family's name is most often spelled Papp or Pap in European records. It was not changed at Ellis Island. It was changed when my my grandfather, his brother and cousins grew tired of hearing it pronounced as "pap".  All the family in America opted to spell the name as close to the phonetic pronunciation as possible. Thus in the United States we are Popps. 

My great-grandparents reused the names Marika and Mikula after the older children bearing those names died. I have been told both by my aunt and by cousins in the Ukraine that the record accurately gives the children's birth order. 

Three of the Popp children, Marika Popp Hricak, Luka and Stefan settled in America. 

The last entry recording Stefan's own death was obviously written by someone else. I believe his daughter made the entry. 

"Popp-Pereksta Family Record." (MS. Binghamton, NY, 1930-1982), p. 1-2; Digital Images.  Privately held by Susan Popp Clark, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]. 2008.