Udol, Slovakia

Udol, Slovakia, ancestral home to my Nana’s family, is and always has been a small village. At its biggest, there were perhaps close to 1,000 residents. Today, there are about 350 people who call Udol home.

One of my ancestral Udol lines is the Gmitrisin family, which I think is the smallest documented family I’ve ever come across in over 40 years of genealogy research.

I actually shared all the church records for this family a few days ago.

Udol church records begin in the 1820s and there are only a handful of Gmitrisin entries in the whole 19th century. Google shows exactly ZERO people in the world today with that surname.

The earliest Gmitrisins that I have found are but two lonely people –  John Gmitrisin, born c1787, and who married Maria Kravics c1809 and Anna Gmitrisinova who married John Szurgent c1812.

Just a side note – Slovak names follow the Russian format in which the feminine form of a surname adds -ova to it, so Gmitrisin and Gmitrisinova are one and the same name.

John Gmitrisin married Maria Kravics c1809. Note that online sites attribute a daughter Helen to this couple. I have not found any evidence of her in the Udol church books. However, not all pages are easily read, between fading ink and changing languages from Latin to Hungarian.

They are thought to be the parents of the following six children:

1. Helen, born c1810; I have found no further record
2. Anna, born c1812; married John Szedlak (Sedlak), 14 February 1831, Udol
3. Catherine, born c1815; married (1) John Vancsyo (Wancho today), 11 February 1833 (2) John Timko, c1837
4. John, born c1821; buried 15 May 1849, aged “28 years tomorrow); married Anna Csernics or Csernyak
5. Michael, born c1821; died 10 August 1847 at the age of 26 years; married Anna (Csernetz?)
6. Maria, born c1823; married John Veszelenyi, 8 November 1841

Two comments need to be added here. First – No death/burial record was found for John Wancho nor could I find a marriage record for Catherine to John Timko. There was a severe cholera epidemic in Udol that lasted for months. It is very possible, given that the priest was busy burying several bodies on any one day, that he forgot to record some details in the register.

Second, the maiden name of Michael’s wife is also an uncommon surname. It looks like Csernetz or Csernics, but notice that his brother, John, married Anna who had a very similar surname. I’m not sure which form is correct.

Descendants of John Gmitrisin and Maria Kravics

1. John and Anna (Gmitrisin) Sedlak were the parents of two sons, John, baptized 31 March 1836 and Joseph, baptized 20 August 1850.
2. John and Catherine (Gmitrisin) Vancsyo (Wancho) were the parents of one daughter, Maria, baptized 15 May 1834. John Timko and Catherine Gmitrisin were the parents of three sons, Michael, baptized 11 March 1838, John, baptized 21 March 1843 and Peter, baptized 2 June 1853. Both Michael and Peter left children.
3. John and Anna (Csernics or Csernyak) Gmitrisin were the parents of Michael, baptized 19 November 1836, John, baptized 27 October 1844, but buried 19 May 1849, aged 3 years, and John, again, baptized 2 February 1846. John Sr. was born 16 May 1821 and buried 15 May 1849.
4. Michael and Anna (Csernyak) Gmitrisin were the parents of two sons, Michael, baptized 30 April 1843 and Michael again, baptized 24 October 1847.
5. John and Maria (Gmitrisin) Veszelenyi were the parents of three children, Joseph, baptized 20 August 1850, peter, baptized 27 March 1858 and buried 8 June 1928, and Susanna, baptized 3 February 1861.

Descendants of Anna Gmitrisinova and John Szurgent

Anna Gmitrisinova, my 4X great grandmother, married John Szurgent c1812 and I know of only one child that they had because baptismal records don’t begin until 1828.

Anna, their daughter, married John Patorai (another surname in my Slovak lines that is quite rare) and they were the parents of six known children. I’ve written about the Patorai family in depth in the past.

Here is my line:

1. John Szurgent married Anna Gmitrisinova
2. Anna Szurgent married John Patorai
3. Maria Patorai married John Scerbak
4. Michael Scerbak married Anna Murcko
5. Julia Scerbak married George Kucharik (aka Sabo)
6. George Sabo married Doris Adams
7. Me!

Anna Gmitrisinova has many descendants today, through her daughter who married John Patorai.

Sadly, while John and Maria (Kravics) Gmitrisin and John and Anna (Gmitrisinova) Szurgent both have many descendants today, it appears that the Gmitrisin surname is now extinct. Their descendants all continue on through female lines.