The Murczko/Murcko family is part of my paternal Rusyn family tree. I already know quite a bit about the family from the abstracts I have done concerning the Murcko family of Hajtovka, Slovakia that appear in the St. Dimitry Church parish records.

The church books begin in the 1820s and there are no other existing records to provide further details about the lives of those families.

While its neighboring village of Udol was almost 100% Rusyn and Greek Catholic in religion, much smaller Hajtovka had a mix of Roman and Greek Catholic residents.

Church entries indicate that there also was a Roman Catholic Murcko family, perhaps from the nearby town of Plavnica, whose members also lived in Hajtovka. No records have been found to prove or disprove that the Roman and Greek Catholic Murckos were related or not.

However, my ancestral line leads only to the Greek Catholic family.

The earliest Murcko ancestor identified is John Murcko, born c1802 and who died on 3 July 1847 in Hajtovka. John married Anna Liscinska, c1823. She was born perhaps c1805; no burial record has been found for her, nor has a second marriage record been located.

With the high mortality rate, it isn’t surprising that of their four children, only two lived to adulthood and had families of their own:

1. Maria, born c1824; married John Fengya, 17 February 1845, Udol, Slovakia
2. Helena, born c1825; buried 10 February 1835
3. Anna, born 3 January 1830; died young
4. John, born 20 November 1831; died 7 May 1917; married Maria Szova, c1868. Maria was born 23 March 1845; died 6 January 1925.
5. Anna, born 28 October 1836; died young
6. Peter, born 29 July 1840; no further record
7. Anna, born 23 September 1843; no further record

It appears that, of seven children, only two survived to adulthood. Maria Murczko married John Fengya on 17 February 1845 in Udol. They must have left for another village because only one child is recorded for them – daughter Anna, born 23 December and baptized 31 December 1854. No further records have been found so they may have moved away once again.

John Murczko (1831-1917) married Maria Szova (1845-1925) c1868. If John had a previous wife, no evidence has been found. He may just have married at the somewhat late age of 35 years.

John and Maria never came to the United States, but some of their children did and there are descendants in America today.

Children:

1. Maria, born 23 July 1869; died 21 August 1886 of typhoid fever; unmarried
2. Anna, born 23 May 1872; died 28 June 1967, Udol, Slovakia; married Michael Scerbak, 22 October 1892, Passaic, Passaic, New jersey. Although Michael and Anna lived in Passaic in the 1890s, in the fall of 1898, they returned permanently to Udol. However, their children Helena (Julia), Peter and Maria all emigrated and made their homes in the U.S.
3. Susanna, born 5 March 1875;died 14 July 1961, Garfield, Bergen, New Jersey; married John Kovalycsik, 8 June 1894, Passaic, Passaic, New Jersey.
4. Helena (Julia), born 18 August 1877; died 20 January 1952, East Paterson, Passaic, New Jersey; married Stephen Pristas, c1901, likely in Passaic, Passaic, New Jersey
5. John, born 19 November 1879; married Maria Fedus, c1905, possibly New Jersey.

I’ve written extensively about my great grandmother, Anna Murcko, their second child and I’m realizing that I’ve never written about Susanna or Helena (Julia) so those will be posts for the near future.

However, today is for keeping the focus on the Murcko male line, so it’s time to look at their youngest child, John, who married Maria Fedus, c1904.

This family is tricky to document for two reasons. First, there is a contemporary John Murcko who married Anna Fedus and was having children at the same time as John and Maria. However, John Murcko who married Anna is clearly noted as being Roman Catholic, not Greek Catholic. His wife, Anna Fedus, however, is Greek Catholic.

Secondly, baptismal record can be found for most of the children, but the accessible online records end in the 1930s, so don’t go far enough into the future to tell the life stories of their children.

John, like so many others in Udol and Hajtovka, traveled to America at least once to make some money. He sailed from Hamburg, Germany on 6 February 1912 and named the person he was going to as his brother-in-law, Michael Scerbak (my great grandfather), living in Garfield, New Jersey.

One piece of evidence that I have that names the children of John Murcko and Maria Fedus is a 1980 letter which their son, Peter, wrote to me answering my questions about the family. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask which of his siblings came to America (Peter, himself, didn’t come until 1934), nor did I ask when or where his parents were married, died or any questions about his siblings, aside from their names.

No marriage record has been found for John Murcko and Maria Fedus, but since John was born 19 November 1879 and wife Maria was born 20 October 1879 (and their baptisms are ironically listed next to each other in the church register), they probably didn’t marry until perhaps c1904.

Since their marriage isn’t found in the St. Dimitry Church records, I can probably safely assume that they perhaps married at St. Michael’s Church in Passaic, New Jersey, but then returned home to Hajtovka.

It’s also possible that their older children were born in New Jersey, but I can’t find any records for them or pick up their trail in the U.S. or Slovakia.

Peter Murcko named the following children, grouped by boys and girls in this order and I found the birth and death of little Helena:

Peter, born 10 November 1907, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 16 January 1988, New Jersey; married Catherine Pistej, 27 October 1930, Hromos, Slovakia. They had five children.
2. John, born 7June 1911, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 2 June 1998; married Anna Hnat. They had three children.
3. Maria, born 29 July 1913, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 17 November 1975, Slovakia; married Peter Murcko
4. Helena, born 11 November 1915, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 21 November 1915, Hajtovka, Slovakia
5. Michael, born 19 November 1916, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 1996; married Maria Fedus. They had five children.
6. Nicholas, born 16 October 1920, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 16 March 1982 in Bohemia, Czech Republic; married a Czech woman. They had no children.
7. Susanna, born 11 March 1924, Hajtovka, Slovakia; married Mr. Relovsky. They had three children.
8. Stephen, born 19 October 1926, Hajtovka, Slovakia; died 1949, allegedly died from rat poison; unmarried

I originally had child #3 as a son, Michael, but I couldn’t find a burial record. I also wasn’t able to find a baptismal record for their daughter, Maria, who married Peter Murcko so I went back to the church books, thinking perhaps I’d made a mistake. I didn’t, but the priest did!

Look carefully at the ink in the image above. Notice that ‘Michael’ has been written in lighter ink by a different hand. Notice, too, that the columns right after the name are for the sex of the child – male or female. Nothing is marked, although it appears that there is an ink dot in the female column. This baptism was clearly written in later and the name/sex of the child had been omitted. The priest took a guess that they had a son named Michael.

However, I have been in contact with a Murcko cousin in Slovakia and I asked for the birth and death dates of her aunt, Maria. Maria was born on 29 July 1913 and she didn’t have a twin!!! This also answers the question about why I couldn’t find a burial for baby Michael before Michael , born 1916, and why I couldn’t find a baptismal record for daughter Maria.

I would consider this baptism to be a primary record, especially when the baby was only six days old. This is a great example illustrating that even a primary record can be wrong. By the way, I haven’t found many errors in this record set, but I have found a few. Generally, they tend to be the wrong name of the bride in marriage records! The mistakes were noticed because the couple had multiple children noted where the mother’s maiden name was correct, but the given name didn’t match the bridal entry.

I haven’t found evidence that any of Peter’s siblings came to America.

I even met Peter (born 1907) when I was a teenager because my grandmother was invited to the wedding of Peter’s son, also named Peter, in Passaic, New Jersey in 1966. I remember Nana introducing me to all the cousins, but we only ever met that one time. I questioned how we were cousins, since I was only aware of my own first cousins, but Nana couldn’t explain the relationships. Now I know that the groom was my 2nd cousin, once removed.