The Slovak surname of Tidik is quite rare. It is actually ranked in a surname frequency list at #2,426,616. Searching online brings up very few hits and pretty much all of them tie into the village of Udol, Slovakia, formerly called Ujak.

The earliest record that I have found for any Tidik is the burial record on 28 February 1832 for the likely patriarch of this family, Ferdinand Tidik. I have no idea how the name Ferdinand got into a family where John, Michael, Stephen, Nicholas and Andrew run rampant. In fact, this Ferdinand is the only person with that name that I’ve come across in Slovak records.

Ferdinand Tidik, buried 28 February 1832, had his age at death recorded as 75 years old.

The problem is that the Udol (Ujak) records begin in 1827 and these villagers were pretty much all peasants – tenant farmers – so the only records that they would leave behind are births, marriages and deaths, with an occasional census thrown in. In this case, the earliest surviving census was in 1869.

We have a few other hints from Jarabina, another village about ten miles west of Udol. There are two more Tidik records, both baptisms, but they pre-date the Udol records. First is John “Tzidik”, son of Vanyo (nickname for John) Tidik and his wife Eva, baptized on 17 June 1812. The second child, Eva “Stzidik,” daughter of Stephen Stzidik and his wife Maria, was baptized on 22 February 1790.

There are also some marriages in Jarabina, between “Tchidiks” and “Schidiks” and others, but none that appear to cross into Udol. Ten miles is not far, but when walking was the only mode of transportation, young men went courting young ladies who generally lived locally – less than five miles away. The Jarabina folk might be related to the Udol folk, but no documentation has been found to link them thus far.

So, back to Udol. After Ferdinand’s burial, there are records for three Tidik males with their families.

First, we have Andrej Tidik who was married to Maria Kundrat. Andrej was born about 1791 and was buried on 5 June 1847. Only one other record has been found for this family, the marriage of their daughter, Maria, and her parents are named:

Maria Tidik married Ivan (John) Figula, Roman Catholic, on 30 June 1843.

The second family is that of John Tidik and Maria Csanda (Chunda), who had three daughters:

Elena (Helena), baptized 5 June 1828; married Peter Lesko on 30 October 1848. Peter, Helen and three of their children all died in the 1873 cholera outbreak.

Anna Tidik married John Kravecs on 15 November 1838

Susanna Tidik married John Soroka on 14 December 1842.

The last is Michael Tidik, born about 1800. Michael is the progenitor of the other Tidiks who later lived in Udol. Some migrated to the United States.

Michael married (1) before 1827 to Juda Drabasin, who was born about 1806. Michael was buried on 1 December 1871, after dying of head pains. Juda was buried on 26 November 1865. He married (2) Maria Dragan on 29 April 1866. Maria died on 6 August 1873 during the village cholera outbreak.

Michael and Juda Tidik had six known children:

Michael, baptized 2 September 1828; died about 1918 and married Maria Hrinya.

Anna, baptized 22 January 1832; no further records found

Maria, baptized 12 January 1835; no further records found

John, baptized 9 July 1837; no further records found, but he may be the John who married Anna Jurecsko and buried a son, John, 2 days old, on 3 February 1871.

Helena, baptized 25 February 1840; no further records found

Susanna, baptized 10 July 1842; no further records found

From the limited record set in the first half of the 1800s, it appears that most of the Tidik descendants would have to be from Michael who married Maria Hrinya.

The next post will take a look at the 1850-1900 set of Tidiks.