We’re almost half way through October already and I attended my first fall holiday art fair this morning. I was very pleased to pick up several inexpensive cute holiday items to add to my display.
Now it’s time for this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge with Randy Seaver.
1) Sometimes an ancestor or relative has no name at all – not even a given name (for males, we usually can surmise a surname, but …) — we all have millions of them.
2) Tell us about one (or more) of your ancestors that have no given and no surname who has perhaps married an ancestor with a given name and surname from whom you are descended. Don’t worry, we’ll do unknown parents some time soon).
3) When was the last time you looked for this no-name ancestor?
This is an easy one for me this week. My first no-name ancestor is the wife of my Rusyn 4X great grandfather John Scerbak. He died c1760 and was buried on 13 May 1835.
The only reason I have his name is that he died about 7 years after the Ujak church registers begin. His birth year might or might not be accurate. It was the age given at time of death, but, in the past, I’ve found many death ages were way off from reality when a baptismal record could also be found for the person.
John was a widower when he died and his wife apparently died before November 1827 when the church register begins.
Of my grandmother’s known females ancestors, there are four Marias, four Annas and one Helena. I’d say the odds are quite high that John Scerbak’s wife was a Maria or an Anna. If not, though, then Helena or possibly Susanna. It seems most of the young ladies in the village were given one of those names.
As for when I last searched for her, well, there are no records to search. There are only the church registers for Ujak. Remember, Rusyns in the villages during the first half of the 1800s were still serfs with no rights and working for the local lord of the manor to survive.
Unfortunately, her name has been lost to time unless an earlier church register is miraculously found.
Thanks, Randy for this week’s challenge!
Perhaps the manor records survived and they are mentioned there.
I was thinking the same as Lisa. When areas were owned by individuals, those individuals were the “governments” of the time. They often keep detailed records of everything and everyone on their properties. Perhaps the family who owned the manor and lands have an archive that has survived.
Unfortunately, I have looked, but it seems no manor house records from that time period have survived. another dead end.