September is rolling along and another weekend has arrived, bringing autumn with it on Monday.

Randy Seaver has an interesting challenge for us this week on Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

1)  Pick one of your ancestors that you want to know more about.  Based on your knowledge of their life, what story lines do you want to explore?

I think, like Randy, I would pick my grandfather, my Dad’s father, who I never knew.

George Kucharik aka Sabo (1893-1936) was, by all accounts, a good man. He died of tuberculosis the day after Thanksgiving, 27 November 1936, when my father was just ten years old.

I know a fair amount about his life from census records, vital records, newspaper accounts and my Nana and Dad, but because my grandmother didn’t spend any time with her in-laws after George died, I have lots of questions. Unbeknownst to me, but George’s sister Anna lived until 1959, sister Mary died in 1973 and Steve, his younger brother, died in 1976. I would love to have met and talked with them, but it wasn’t to be.

Questions:

1. Tell me about your parents (Stephen and Mary) and siblings – John, Mary, Anna, and Stephen. When and where did John die? Did he ever marry?
2. Did you parents ever tell you about their lives growing up in Slovakia?
3. Did your parents ever keep in touch with family back in Europe?
4. How did you make the decision to open a butcher shop in Passaic and having worked in the mills?
5. Were you as religious as Nana?
6. Did you attend high school at all or did your education end when you finished 8th grade?
7. Did you have any hobbies or interests?
8. Did you speak the same Rusyn dialect as Nana?
9. If you had lived longer, what were your hopes for the future for the family?
10. Who were your closest friends?

My grandfather, George, was a first generation American, born in Delano, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania on 24 May 1893, the sixth of seven children born to Stephen Kucharik and Maria Kacsenyak. However, two children predeceased George and his oldest brother, John, died between 1900-1910, apparently unmarried.

George was well loved by his family and respected by his friends. Like other immigrant families, George worked in the Passaic mills when he was old enough, but was lucky enough to attend School #2 and finish 8th grade. Therefore, he was the first generation of his family to have any education at all and to be bilingual on top of that, speaking Rusyn and English.

Here are a couple of photos:

My dad, George Michael Sabo (1926-1985) resembled him a lot.

Thanks, Randy, for an interesting topic this week.