Category Archives: Haluska

Maternal Branches in the Family Tree: Anna Haluska (1832-1899+)

Today, we continue the life sketches of the ladies in my family tree. My 2X great grandmother, Anna Haluska, led a similar life to Maria Repka, although Anna’s family life was not nearly as tragic as that of Maria.

To begin, Anna was born a year after the devastating 1831 cholera epidemic that swept through what is today’s eastern Slovakia in the summer of 1831.

Anna Haluska was baptized on 27 December 1832 in the town of Ruska Nova Ves, in the same small geographical area where my Repka family lived. She was the daughter of Greek Catholic Andreas Haluska and Maria Hovance, his Roman Catholic wife.

My Repkas lived in today’s Podhradik, which is the outlined area on the bottom right. The Haluskas’ home in Ruska Nova Ves is a small village slightly southwest of Podhradik.

I had thought for a while that perhaps Andreas Haluska born in 1787 might be my Andreas. However, that man died of a tumor in 1817.

Quite annoyingly, images are not available on FamilySearch for Ruska Nova Ves, although they were in the past because I have images of Haluska baptisms, which I save several years ago.

Haluska was not a common surname in the area during the first half of the 1800s. There were perhaps three or four families living there before 1850, but the surname doesn’t appear in the village in the 1869 census, so the lines either died out or the families moved to another town.

With lack of access to records and online images listing only three children, my Haluska family was very small.

If Andreas had no previous marriages, he was likely born c1806 and Maria born perhaps about 1810.

There are only three known children:

1. Maria, baptized 30 January 1831
2. Anna, baptized 27 December 1832
3. Andreas, baptized 5 October 1834

Anna’s marriage record to Michael Kacsenyak in Ruska Nova Ves gives another hint about the family:

Roman Catholic Michael Kacsenyak lived in nearby Felso Sebes, while Anna Haluska, working as a servant, lived at Gulyves #4.

A priest’s note not seen in the crop indicates “orphanus” and assuming that is the male form of the Latin word, Michael’s father, and possibly his mother, had already died. That seems to say that Anna’s parents, or at least her father, was living.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t help with finding Anna’s parents after the births of their children because the Greek Catholic parish for Gulyves (today’s Dulova Ves) is Ruska Nova Ves.

There are only two Haluskas in Gulyves in 1869 – Martin, born 1835 in Gulyves with a wife and one child and John Haluska, born 1813 with his wife and two children. Both are Greek Catholic.

It’s possible that John Haluska might be a brother of my Andreas, but Martin is a son of John.

Even when the records were accessible online, I was unable to find burial records for Anna’s mother and father and I know nothing about either of Anna’s known siblings.

From this roundabout introduction to the family, it is apparent that Anna’s family history is quite limited in scope.

What is certain, though, is that Anna was 25 years old when she married, which is a bit later than what was typical for village girls. She most definitely would have been expected to contribute to the family’s economic well being or, if she was orphaned, to make her own way in the world.

Since I don’t know what became of the rest of her family, Gulyves #4 could have been her family home or the house where she worked as a servant.

Although there was strife between Austria and Hungary in the 1840s, with the Russian army passing through the area, there were no battles fought near the village.

Most of the villagers were probably not even aware of the empire political struggle. All but the priest were illiterate and the priest would have been the only person aware of government changes, as church registers changed several times from Latin to Hungarian to Cyrillic and back to Latin in the 1840s and 1850s.

How Michael Kacsenyak and Anna Haluska met is unknown. Gulyves is just south of Ruska Nova Ves on the map above. Felso Sebes is today’s Nizna Sebastova, which is shown by the purple arrow near Lubotice on the map.

The villages are only a few miles – less than five – apart from each other and it is probable that they met through family or friends at a social gathering such as a baptism or wedding.

Anna’s life changed dramatically after marriage. Michael Kacsenyak, baptized 21 September 1834, Roman Catholic and the son of John Kacsenyak and Anna Fucsik, was a couple of years younger than Anna. That was not a common occurrence for young people entering into a first marriage. Michael’s father was Roman Catholic, but his mother Anna was Greek Catholic.

Anna’s first child arrived 11 months after her marriage and her tenth child was born in 1881 when Anna was 48 years old!

All children were baptized in Nizna Sebastova, Slovakia. Some church records provide both the birth and baptismal dates, while others only the date of baptism, which definitely would have happened when the child was newborn.

Children of Michael Kacsenyak and Anna Haluska:

1. Maria, born 14 August 1859; died 5 March 1926, Passaic, Passaic, New Jersey
2. Anna, baptized 9 February 1862; buried 17 September 1863
3. Barbara, baptized 25 February 1864
4. Anna, baptized 12 June 1866; died before 1870 when another Anna was born
5. John, born 28 August 1868; buried 29 October 1868
6. Anna, born 29 July 1870
7. Stephen, born 11 February 1873
8. Elizabeth, born 16 January 1875; died 16 January 1875
9. Maria, born 3 February 1879
10. John, born 23 July 1881

Notice that there are two Marias born to Michael and Anna. The first Maria is my great grandmother and she definitely didn’t died young.

I’ve wondered why they named a second daughter Maria when my Maria was still living and I’ve also wondered if my Maria was disowned by her family for her behavior and choice of husband.

Maria became pregnant when she was only 17 years old. She married Stephen Kucharik, who by all accounts, was a difficult man. Could the naming of the second Maria, born 19 months after my Maria married, been a reaction to my Maria being turned out by her family for dishonoring them? It would have been a huge social scandal for a 17 year old girl to be pregnant out of wedlock.

It’s just a supposition on my part, but having two children with the same given name born to the same parents just didn’t happen. The other possibility is that the second Maria wasn’t named Maria at all and the priest erred when entering the baptism in the books.

From my own record abstractions of Udol church records, this happened far more often than one might suspect.

Anna buried at least four of her children when they were very young and, given that I don’t know what became of the others, she might have buried even more in childhood. My Maria and Barbara were the only two children at home in 1869, which matches with findings in the burial records.

Remember, these villages had no electricity until half way through the 20th century. Medical care was non-existent with epidemics of diseases like typhoid, cholera and even chicken pox for children wiping out 50 or more villagers with each occurrence. There weren’t even any village schools until the 20th century.

In spite of the hardships, Anna and her husband lived relatively long lives. The accessible church records online end in 1899. No burial record has been found for either so they apparently lived to see the 20th century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Many John and Elizabeth Haluskas Were There?

My Slovak branches on the family tree seem to run into brick walls at every turn.

On the positive side, many of my surnames are relatively rare so you would think that would be a big help. Nope.

That’s because there are a couple of biggies on the negative side. First, many of the church records only go back to the early 1800s. Having a grandmother born in 1893 means the branches aren’t going to stretch back more than perhaps three generations. The other negative is that, even when church registers have survived, the very limited selection of given names makes it difficult to sort out which child belongs to what parents.

Let’s face it. When a baby had to be named after a saint in the Catholic church and a family chose to repeat some of that handful of names over and over, quite a tangled web can be created.

I was thrilled to discover that the church registers of Ruska Nova Ves, Slovakaia extend further back than most of the other village records I’ve used. Instead of beginning around the 1810-1820 time period, they actually start in 1762! In terms of my family research, that is way far back in time.

My 2X great grandmother, Anna Haluska, was baptized in Ruska Nova Ves on 14 December 1832. I have no death date for her because she apparently died after 1899, when the digitized images end. Her parents were Andreas Haluska and Maria Hovanec (spelling every way from Hovan to Hovanecz and Chovanezc).

Andreas Haluska is probably the one baptized on 30 November 1787 in Ruska Nova Ves because there are three babies by that name born there in the 1700s. First, is Andreas baptized in 1772, second is Andreas baptized in 1775 and the third is likely mine. Who were the parents of these three boys, all named Andreas Haluska? They were John and Elizabeth (no maiden name) Haluska.

The infant/child mortality rate in this area was sky high, as seen in the burial records. If we assume, for the moment, that John and Elizabeth are the parents of all three children and extrapolate back in time, then the parents could have been born about 1750 if the first Andreas was a first or second child.

This project seemed simple enough. I went through the indexed FamilySearch records to compile a list of all the children born to a John and Elizabeth Haluska in the 1772-1830 time frame.

Here are my results:

  1. Gislena, baptized 1764
  2. Andreas, baptized 1772
  3. Andreas, baptized 1775
  4. Barbara, baptized 1778
  5. John, baptized & buried 1784, in Solivar, 4 km away
  6. Andreas, baptized 1787
  7. Anna, baptized 1788
  8. John, baptized 1791
  9. Stephen, baptized 1794
  10. Maria, baptized 1797, in Petroviany (11 km away)
  11. Elizabeth, baptized 1801

While it is possible that the father of these children is just one man, it isn’t possible that Elizabeth is only one person. Even if she had her first child at 16, she would have been 53 when the last one was born. In this community, it was uncommon for the females to marry before 20 or 21.

A search of the death records from 1769 turned up Anna Haluska, aged 24, who was buried on 6 January 1784 and Helena Haluska, aged 62, who was buried on 30 August 1785. The burial records are missing from 1787 until 1806.

There was also an Elizabeth Haluska, who was buried there in 1782. She was noted as the child of Andreas Haluska, but no other records have been found for an Andreas Haluska who would have been an adult in the 1780s.

However, two children were baptized in nearby villages, so I checked the burial records for Solivar and Petroviany. Solivar has the burial of infant John recorded. No burials are found for Haluska in Petroviany. Interestingly, though, the priest in Solivar noted that John was “affinis” or “of somewhere nearby” and the priest in Petroviany noted that he lived in Gulyvez, which is near Ruska Nova Ves and I think today part of Vysna Sebastova.

What would you make of all this? I can’t find marriage or burial records for this family. How many John and Elizabeths do you think there were?

If I am missing a clue here, please tell me!

How Many John & Elizabeth Haluskas Were There?

Not long ago, I wrote about my great grandmother, Mary Kacsenyak who married Stephen Kucharik. Mary, or Maria as she was baptized, was the daughter of Michael Kacsenyak and Anna Haluska.

Today, I’d like to focus on Anna Haluska’s family. Haluska isn’t one of those names like Smith or Jones, but there were a fair number of them in the area around Ruska Nova Ves. In addition to that, while the church records begin in 1769, there are some gaps in the births, marriages and burials, leading to more than a few questions.

Where do I start? I’ll start with what I know:

Andreas Haluska married Maria Hovance sometime before 1829. No marriage record has been found, but it is possible that Maria was Roman Catholic, not Greek Catholic like Andreas, and they married in a neighboring parish. Marriage records have not been indexed yet in the Slovakia church register collection.

Andreas and Maria had three known children:

Maria, baptized 30 January 1831; no further record yet proved, but she is likely the Maria Haluska who married Michael Majernik. They had children born in 1871 and 1873 and lived a couple of miles away from Ruska Nova Ves in Solivar.
Anna, baptized 14 December 1832; married Michael Kacsenyak
Andreas, baptized 5 October 1834; buried 15 April 1894, according to a notation in his baptismal record

There was child of Andreas Haluska who was buried 12 December 1829, but a baptismal record indicated that he was the son of Andreas and Anna Hovance. I don’t know if that was a mistake on the part of the priest who recorded the baptism or if Andreas had a first wife, Anna Hovance. It is certainly possible because the only Andreas found in baptismal records who could be this man was baptized on 30 December 1787.

That leads to the many records found for John Haluska. Andreas was the son of John Haluska and Elizabeth. Her maiden name is not given in her children’s baptismal records and it is almost certain that there were at least two wives named Elizabeth.

Here is the mystery. John and Elizabeth Haluska were recorded as the parents of quite a few children. The villages are where the family was recorded as living at the time.

Gislena, baptized March 1764, village of Zsegnye
Andreas, baptized 24 May 1772, village of Zsegnye
Andreas, baptized 2 August 1775, village of Zsegnye
Barbara, baptized 27 April 1778, village of Zsegnye
Andreas, baptized 30 December 1787, village of Gulyvez
Anna, baptized 18 December 1789, village of Gulyvez
John, baptized 28 August 1791, village of Gulyvez
Stephen, baptized 3 August 1794, village of Gulyvez
Elizabeth, baptized 11 April 1801, village of Gulyvez
Michael, baptized November 1803, village of Gulyvez

The gap I mentioned in these church records is from 1787 until 1806. I have combed through the burial records and found two records for John Haluskas but none for possible wives named Elizabeth.

The first man was buried on 12 January 1822.

He lived in Gulyvez and was aged 70 years old, fixing his date of birth around 1752. The second man was buried on 3 December 1836, aged 66 years old, so born about 1770.

Where did he live? Yep, you guessed it – in Gulyvez. By the way, my experience has been that ages at death don’t match birth/baptismal records in this area and that they may be off by as much as five years, either young or older, if the person lived well into adulthood as these men did.

Next, it is certain John born in 1752 wasn’t the father of Gislena, but she could well be his sister. It also possible that one Elizabeth was the mother of all the children from Andreas born in 1772 up to Stephen born in 1794 or of the children from Andreas born in 1787 through Michael born in 1803, but not of all these children. A lack of burial records for any Elizabeth Haluska is a definite handicap here.

Is it significant that the first four children were born in Zsegnye and the rest in Gulyvez? Maybe, but maybe not. The men in these villages were all peasant tenant farmers. They owned the clothes on their backs and not much more.

It is 4.9 miles from Zsegnye (today, Zehna) to Gulyvez (today Dulova Ves). Gulyvez is quite a bit closer to Solivar and Presov, which is important when you have to walk places to get there. (Side note: You can see Vysna Sebastova and Severna, home of the Kucharik clan about whom I’ve also written, in the top right corner of the map.)

It is definitely possible that John of Zsegnye moved to Gulyvez, which was closer to the action, so to speak with children born in both villages.

However, there is another possibility, which I think is the most likely scenario. With the two Johns born roughly 18 years apart, I need to consider a father and son, both named John and both married to a woman named Elizabeth. The church records are mighty slim for those first years from 1769 to 1787. It’s also very possible that the second John was born, say in 1769 or even 1768, before these records begin. It is also possible that the elder John’s wife, Elizabeth, died between 1787 and 1806.

My working hypothesis right now, which may never change because of lack of records, is that there was a third John born no later than 1742 who married Elizabeth (MNU) and they were the parents of Gislena and probably other children whose births are lost to time. Among those children was John the second who also married an Elizabeth (MNU) and raised their family (children born 1772-1778) in Zsegnye. It is possible that this second Elizabeth died in the 1787-1806 time period. As John #2 reached his senior years, he moved to Gulyvez to live with his son’s family. This would be John #3 married to Elizabeth (MNU) #3. John #2 would be the man who died in 1822.

John #3 and Elizabeth #3 were the parents of the children born 1787 through 1803.

For those who would question the gap in births from 1794 to 1801, believe me, if you read the burial records for these villages, you wouldn’t wonder. Some women had ten children and only two survived to adulthood.

For those who wonder about the odds of three Johns all being married to women named Elizabeth, the five most popular given names for girls were Maria, Anna, Elizabeth, Barbara and Susanna. There weren’t many options after that chosen by families in this area.

If you’ve been able to follow this Haluska trail, do you agree with my hypothesis?