It’s Saturday, the last one in May, and the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of summer. It’s in the 90s here in Tucson today, so it definitely feels like summer is already here.
It’s also time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings.
This week’s challenge is a bit different:
1) Have you identified #42 on your ahnentafel list? If not, how about #21 the mother of #42? If not, how about #10 on your ahnentafel list? Do you even have an ahnentafel list?
2) Anyway, tell us about your #42 ancestor (or #21, or #10, etc.) – full name, parents, spouse, children, birth, baptism, death, marriage, burial, etc.
Ancestor #42 is John Patorai, my third great grandfather. He was born c1810, probably in Udol, Slovakia, but the parish register doesn’t begin until 1828, so I have no record of his birth.
He married Anna Szurgent on 22 November 1836, in Udol. She was born c1813, also probably in Udol.
Anna was buried on 20 July 1873 in Udol, but I haven’t found a death or burial record for John. In the 1860s, the government changed and records went from Latin to some language using the Cyrillic alphabet, which I can’t read. John Patorai likely died sometime between 1858, as his last child was born in January 1859, and before his wife, Anna, in 1873.
I have no record of his occupation, but most of my Udol family were peasant farmers.
John and Anna were the parents of six known children:
1. John, born c1837; married Anna Fechisin, 2 January 1873, Udol.
2. Maria, born 5 March 1839; married John Scerbak, 11 February 1861, Udol. These are my 2X great grandparents.
2. Maria, born 5 March 1839; married John Scerbak, 11 February 1861, Udol. These are my 2X great grandparents.
3. Anna, born c1842; married Mr. Sasala; no further information.
4. Michael, born c1850; married Helena Miklus, 9 February 1874, Udol.
5. Peter, born c1856; married Maria Buk, 7 February 1881, Udol.
6. Susanna, born 18 January 1859, Udol; married Michael Miklus, 22 January 1885.
I don’t know much more about their children, but Peter and Maria (Buk) Patorai left Europe and settled in Passaic, New Jersey, by the early 1900s.
Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge. I need to look into this family a bit more to see what else I can learn about them.
You do know something about the family. Too bad about the changing of the language to a Cyrillic alphabet.
But the Cyrillic alphabet shouldn’t mean you stop dead (so to speak). Lots of people (me, for example), can read Cyrillic and can help you figure out if his death record is there.
It wasn’t just the Cyrillic letters, it was such poor handwriting that I couldn’t figure one name from another. A native reader might have more luck!I found my great grandfather’s baptism, but only because I knew his exact date of birth in 1868 and babies were baptized within a couple of days after. Even knowing his name and date, I had to look several times to be sure I had the correct record. I’d never get through the register without a clue as to when John Patorai might have died.
Phew! Well done on knowing your #42. I have evidence about my third great-grandfather, and actually had the privilege of performing a Qing Ming (Chinese rite of honouring the dead) at his grave in Shentang Village, Guangdong, China, but that’s all I know. I came back from my trip to China with an entire jiapu (Chinese family tree) and no easy way to translate it. One day…