2025 May President’s Letter
How long have you been researching your family history? What got you started? Do you remember what got you interested? Was it talking to an older relative? Were you fascinated by listening to stories from your parents or grandparents’ childhood or where they grew up?
In my case, as it may be the same for many of you, my parents were very secretive about their early lives. Secretive may be too strong a word. Perhaps secretive is not the correct word; but growing up, I knew little to nothing about my parents’ life before they married. They never even discussed how or when they met. My mother did tell my siblings and I that her parents died before they were married. So, I had no maternal grandparents. My father’s parents were from Czechoslovakia. I knew that much… and that’s about all. My grandmother was alive until I was 6 years old. I vaguely remember her. She spoke no English. She was always dressed in a long black dress. I have no pictures of her. My father’s father did speak some English. He had worked in a steel mill in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At some point after his wife died, he moved into our house I was probably 12. I may have resented that because I had to give up my bedroom for him and then move in with my sister. He passed away when I was 13 years old. Truthfully, I don’t remember him very well either. He was a tall man, and he seemed scary to me. He was very quiet and didn’t talk much. I do have a few photos of him. Sadly, we didn’t have much of a relationship.
Since doing genealogy research, I have found out that my paternal grandparents immigrated to America in 1902. Both already had family here. I have found their passenger records from Ellis Island and pictures of the ships they arrived on. They were not together. They did not live in the same village in what is now Slovakia. Based on the records I have found, my hypothesis is that they may have known each other because they went to the same Roman Catholic parish. I have found baptismal records and a marriage record but not much between the dashes! One big surprise I found through my research was their marriage resulted in three children. My father, of course. My father’s sister (my aunt). But the surprise was that there was another child born who died when she was ten months old. My father never discussed this. One of those “secrets” I mentioned earlier. Of course, many more things would be discovered after more research.
Many families have similar stories that need to be told. This is why we always say that genealogy research is never DONE. Literally every day, more records are made available. So don’t give up. Join multiple genealogy societies, especially in the locations where your ancestors lived. Our society offers education on how to find answers to the questions we have about the lives of those who have come before us. As I’ve talked about in the past, I’ve learned things about my own parents that were not ever discussed. More about this in the coming newsletters.
