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TATRA AREA RESEARCH GROUP
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© TARG All rights reserved.
Newsletter for October 2002
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Hello and welcome to all TARG members, new and old! When I first started
sending out this e-newsletter nearly four years ago, it was sent every other
month. Now so much is happening that not even every month is enough
sometimes! This month has been one of those months.
Steve Morse's Ellis Island Tools site officially came back online this
week at: http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/index.html and is being hosted by:
http://JewishGen.org. One of his fine new features is the ability to search
by village. Also this month (declared Family History month by Congress) saw
the announcement of a database holding all of the 1800 U.S. census, the 1881
Canadian census and the 1881 British census (for more than 85 million people
in all). The LDS church has placed all of this on its website at:
www.familysearch.org. All of the census record information is searchable by
name, birthdate and birthplace - for free. Thousands of LDS volunteers
partnered with the Institute of Canadian Studies at the University of Ottawa
and the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota and
worked 17 years and for more than 11 million man hours transcribing the
microfilm records into this colossal database.
Closer to home, the Osturna group made more unusual findings based on
their continued DNA testing, the TARG surname database (which was at just
1400 entries 4 years ago) just passed the 22,000 mark, and the daily
itinerary and details for the 2003 Goral Homecoming Tour were worked out and announced. I'm also happy to report that a new digital camera (an Olympus
C3020) was successfully sent to Lucjan Soltys in Jurgow, Poland replacing
TARG's malfunctioning Fuji model and also that many TARG members contacted me wanting to "adopt" a village as we discussed in our last issue. So there's plenty of information here in this e-newsletter for everyone!
-- Paul K. Bingham
TARG Founder

WEBSITES TO CHECK OUT_____________
1) The new TARG website at: www.mytarg.net!
2) Steve Morse's Ellis Island Tools site:
http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/index.html (For more on this, see below.)
3) LDS church website with all of the 1800 U.S. census, the 1881 Canadian
census and the 1881 British census records online at: www.familysearch.org
4) Lots of photos of Kasprowy Wierch (PL) and Kasprov Vrch (SK)...the center
of TARG's study area: http://www.ceper.exe.pl/Kasprowy/Kasprowy.html and at: http://www.vivids.ceti.pl/.../gal.tatry/pages/T12.htm
5) Beautiful pictures of the Tatras & close valleys at:
http://www.ceper.com.pl/galeria/galeria.html
6) More Tatra panoramas:
http://www.arsdigital.de/tatra/panoramas/body_panoramas.html
7) Slovak Castles photos site at:
www.zamky.sk/menuk.htm
8) Photos of the Besenova, Slovakia Manor House in old Liptov county:
http://www.zamky.sk/menuk.htm/besenova_k.jpg
9) Photos of parish churches in Koscielisko, Kiry, Dzianisz and Witów,
Poland: www.watra.pl/parafiakoscielisko/

YOUR LETTERS______________________
Dear Paul, Thank you for all your work on the Webpage and Newsletter. I
have been corresponding with relatives in Trstena, Slovakia and hope to join
your travel group in a year and meet them in person! I have some old
post cards from my grandparents that I will be sending to you. One is a
photo of Trstena from the turn of the century. I contacted my grandmother's
LENCUCHA relatives and have a copy of my grandfather SENI's baptismal
certificate, but haven't been able to trace any of his relatives. Do you
know of anyone in NV or northern CA area that I could contact to work with
me on translations and genealogical research? Thanks, Chris Bailey
***Hi Chris, Thanks for your letter. I hope you can join us next August,
too! As for translation help, what language is it you need help with?
Slovak? Hungarian? For either of these you can probably find that in many
parts of the country. But if you want "local" help, I know Doug Holmes' wife
does translation (he's in Northern CA). For some reason his
www.dholmes.com/hungarian-bookstore.html website (where he sells Hungarian and Slovakian books and maps) would not come up for me today. Try his HAFS website at: http://feefhs.org/ah/hafs-toc.html. There is a Bay Area
Czech-Slovak group, too. Their website is:
http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/ccsc/. Good luck! -- Paul
Dear Paul, I would like to subscribe to your monthly e-mail newsletter.
My husband's paternal grandparents were from the Tatra area. His
grandfather, John PARDOL, was born in Skrzypne in 1894, and immigrated to
Chicago in 1914. John's mother's maiden name was Katherine DUDA. My
husband's grandmother, Katherine A. SZCZECH, was born in Ludzmierz in 1895, and immigrated to Chicago in 1913. Katherine's mother's maiden name was Agnes LUBASIK. Any connections out there? -- Barb Pardol
***Hi Barb. Your ancestral villages (Skrzypne & Ludzmierz) are within our
TARG study area. I'll print your info and see if any of our readers
respond. -- Paul
Paul, I just got your interesting TARG newsletter, with its request for
information each of us might have on our ancestral Goral village. In lieu of
a write-up, here's the address for a website a group of us are in the
process of constructing on the village of Kolac'kov in the northern part of
former Spis' County, Slovakia: http://www.saed.kent.edu/~kolackov/. There
are lots of photos and brief descriptions of us, the village, and
surrounding area. -- Mark Sabol
***Thanks Mark, I will post your info and include a link from TARG's
Kolackov's page to your very helpful website! -- Paul
Dear Paul, What a wonderful idea -- I would love to adopt Sczcwanica,
Poland! Count me in! -- Pat Smith
***Your in, Pat! Thanks for volunteering. I look forward to whatever you
have to send me, be it photos (jpegs are best) or text of village history,
etc. -- Paul
Hi Paul, Great newsletter - enjoy your site, too. I have recent photos
of my grandfathers village Velka Frankova, Slovakia. How do I get them to
you? Also, are you interested in collecting genealogy info? -- Bill Lawrence
***Hi Bill and thanks for writing. You can send photos as e-mail attachments
if they are 1 MB in size or smaller...jpeg files are best, or you can snail
mail prints for me to scan to the address at the end of the newsletter. And
yes, we will be having a page on the website for you to enter your surnames
and villages as soon as my cousin and I get time to get it working! -- Paul
Dear Paul, My wife and I have been in contact with Helene Cincebeaux and
are planning to join you on the Goral Trip to Slovakia and Poland in August
2003. In 1907 my grandfather, Istvan Tvorik, emigrated to Cleveland, OH from Alsolipnicza, Austria-Hungary. I understand this area is in present day Poland just across the border from Slovakia and is now called Lipnica Wielka. Helene suggested I contact you and ask if you might contact the four Tvoriks in the Lipnica Wielka area to determine if they are related to my ancestors. I would like to do as much research as possible before making the trip with your group next year. Thank you for any way that you can help us. Sincerely, Robert Tvorik
***Hi Robert, You are wise to do as much "homework" as you can before going over to the old country. Time is valuable once you are over there and following up on leads you could have done before hand can waste lots of precious moments you could be spending with family or in your ancestral village itself. Yes, Helene had contacted me earlier about your surname, and I am the one who told her about the four TVORIK families listed in the 1998 phonebook. Alsolipnica was indeed the present-day Lipnica Wielka Poland. Something you must also realize is that this and other villages in Orawa became part of Poland in 1920. As such, everyone speaks Polish (some also speak Slovak) and write in Polish. The TVORIK spelling is something you will probably not see in current records or on headstones in the cemetary. Like so many surnames, the Polish spelling has been adopted to preserve the pronounciation. In your case, the four I found are spelled TWORZYK. I will have my Polish cousin to try and contact them for you, but you could also write a simple note to them yourself using the guide in the May 2001 issue of our TARG newsletter. It's on our website at: http://www.mytarg.net/Resources/E-Newletters/05-01TARG.html. -- Paul
Dear Paul, Do you have any suggestions for a reliable yet reasonable
translator of Slovak or Polish material? I have recently come across some
50+ year old documents and letters from Lipnica Wielka and Lipnica Mala,
Poland. I can't tell if these letters are written in Slovak or Polish but
they do appear to contain diacritial marks in the writing. One letter begins
"P.P.J. Kristus, Drahi moj Bratisku", with the word "Bratisku" included
several times in the letter. Could this be some form of "brat" for
"brother"? Earlier a postcard written in English in 1922 and sent to my
paternal grandfather from his brother-in-law in Lipnica Wielka informing my
grandfather of the death of his father was turned up in my father's things.
A photo of my great-grandfather's tombstone in the Old Country was also
found. I've sent copies of both to the SIMALAs I met in Lipnica Wielka last
year. I hope this helps us find a common ancestor. This is all very exciting
to me. I'm looking forward to receiving details on the 2003 Goral Tour, and
hope to join, possibly staying a few extra days in the Zakopane area either
before or after the tour. I want to visit the Simalas in Lipnica Wielka again, but I don't want to miss out on any of the tour! Best Regards, Florian
***Hi Florian, Some would say to contact the Slovak Institute in Cleveland
for help with a Slovak translation by going to the Benedictine Order of
Cleveland's site at: www.csnmail.net/~bocohio/slovak.htm. But having some
old letters myself from the area, the dialect (a mix of Polish and Slovak)
can be tough. If you want to scan some of the documents and e-mail them
to me, I'll let my cousin have a peek at them for you. Look forward to
seeing you next August with us again! -- Paul
Dear Paul, Would like to receive your newsletter and would like to
submit names and villages: Duda, Kundlya, Romanecz, Chudik (Hudik),
Krivonyak, Bondra, Kurej, Szereda from Jakubany. Thank you, Eveline Blanar
***Thank you, Eveline. I'll make sure you get the e-newsletter. -- Paul
Dear Paul, Please change my email address so that I may continue to get
the TARG newsletter without interruption! Thanks. -- Ruth Bross
***Will do, Ruth. Thanks for updating your e-mail address for us. -- Paul
Dear Mr. Bingham, Helene Cincebeaux gave me your email address because I am interested to know more about my deceased grandfather's ancestral village, Maniow, Poland. He was Lemko-Ukrainian from that mountain village. I have distant relations in Ukraine who have written me that the village was razed by the Nazis in WWII. Do you have any advice on how I can find out more about the village? I have used Google and come up with some photos of "Maniowy", which may be the same village. Any "light" that you can shed on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Regards, T.R. Lazorishak
***Hi T.R., The villages of Maniow and Maniowy are actually two different
places. The Maniowy you refer to within our TARG study area is a Roman
Catholic village which was not destroyed by the Nazis. (It was later flooded
by the Communists, though, when they dammed the Dunajec, but that's another
story.) The Lemko village of Maniow is also in Poland very close to the
Slovak border but further to the east. It is nearer to the Slovak city of
Humenne. More precisely it due north of the Slovak town of Snina and due
east of the Slovak town of Medzilaborce...again, just over the Slovak border
in Poland. I do not know anymore about the village except that it was in the
old Austrian Crownland of Galicia and is in an area of Carpatho-Rusyn
habitation. I had one other inquiry a couple of years ago as to the Lemko
village of Maniow. I would share that connection with you, but the e-mail
address I had for the woman has long ago become invalid. You might well
check with www.iarelative.com or another site dedicated to Carpatho-Rusyn
heritage to learn more. Photos of the town of Maniowy in our study area can
be seen at: www.rapnet.pl/~maniowy/ and www.maniowy.turystyczny.pl. Best of luck to you! -- Paul

SPECIAL TARG TRIP IN 2003____________
Announcing the Third Goral Homecoming Trip to Slovakia & Poland with
Helene B. Cincebeaux and lots of other TARG members! When: Tues, Aug. 5 thru Fri., Aug. 15, 2003. Cost: just $2,299 per person (covers nearly every cost,
including round trip travel from New York.)
Helene has worked to try and design a tour especially for us TARG
members. We will be in all of the old Slovak counties of Spis, Liptov and
Orava and in Poland's Spisz, Podhale and Orawa regions, too. We will also
travel a day to Krakow, Poland. We will have side trips available to
archives and other destinations of interest. As usual, Helene will have
drivers and translators to let you break away from the group to visit your
ancestral villages or new-found family while we are close. We will end the
trip by spending time in Bratislava where we can finish shopping, send
packages and take in the historic sites. Instead of "hotel-hopping" every
night, Helene has wisely chosen three great places near our tour areas so we
can spend more time enjoying and less time packing for the next destination.
We will spend 2 nights in Zdiar, Slovakia (in the Beliansky Tatry Mts.), 3
nights in Zakopane, Poland's mountain jewel, and 2 nights in Martin,
Slovakia (close to Orava and Liptov). Then we will head for Bratislava,
Slovakia's historic capital, where we will spend our final two nights.
If you've gone with us before, you will want to go again! If you've
never been, you don't know what fun and life-changing experiences await you!
A fuller itinerary and other information is available to you on our Trips
page on the TARG website at: http://www.mytarg.net/Trips.html. Go have a
look!

STEVE MORSE ELLIS ISLAND SITE_____________
Megan Smolenyak, our expert on all things regarding Osturna, Slovakia,
reports that Steve Morse's tools finally came back online this week with new
features at: http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/index.html. She says they're
being hosted by JewishGen.org and that one of the best new features is the
ability to search by town. The problem is that, much like when the Ellis
Island database first came online, there is so much traffic that it's almost
impossible to get in. Megan managed by luck to get in a few days ago and she
searched for folks from towns beginning with "Oszt" and whose surnames
started with the letters "A" through "H." After that, she couldn't get in
again. When the traffic slows down, she will search I through Z and to
search for towns beginning with "Ost," "Ozs" and other possible variations
of Osturna. She posted what she did retrieve on the Osturna group's website.
She notes that what you will see will reflect the strange spellings used
when our ancestors entered this country as well as some peculiar
transcriptions like "Vaneckos" listed as a "Daneckos". Also, you'll see
other strange stuff such as some arrival years being listed as "0000."
Still, a quick skim through suggests that most of the 95 listings of her A
thru H so far are, indeed, Osturnites. She'd like to eventually assemble a
complete list of Osturnites who came through Ellis Island, ideally noting
additional details, such as the name of the closest relative in the old
country, their destination, etc. (Thanks, Megan! Maybe some other TARG
members will try the site's tools and let us know what they find. -- Paul)

CONTACTING TARG_____________________
To contact TARG the e-mail address is: TARG_NET@hotmail.com. Our mailing address is: TARG, P.O. Box 3533, Escondido, CA 92033. Our website is: www.mytarg.net. Thanks for participating!
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