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TATRA AREA RESEARCH GROUP
_______________________________© TARG All rights reserved.
Newsletter for January 2003
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St'astny' Novy' Rok! (Happy New Year! --SK)
Szczs'eliwego Nowego Roku! (Happy New Year! -- PL)
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Greetings to all of our TARG members in the new year! This is another
long issue. We have much news to cover, so I will keep my intro brief.
Congratulations first to my cousin Lucjan who got engaged over the
holidays! Thanks also to all of you who have been inundating me with village
info, photos, etc. I will be posting some of these to the TARG website over
the next couple of weeks! Poland has completed a new online phonebook --
instructions on how to use it are included below. A new book is also out
covering some of the heroic under-cover operations in Slovakia (in our TARG
area!) by the Allies during World War II. And have you sent in your deposit
for our great Goral Homecoming Trip this August? I have, and can't wait to
go! Won't you please join us? We'd love to have you along, too!
-- Paul K. Bingham
TARG FounderWEBSITES__________
1. The URL of our TARG website is: www.mytarg.net. Visit any time, and I
would love to hear your suggestions and encouragement.
2. For our Jewish TARG members is "Zidovská obec" (Slovak Jewish community
congregations) showing recent FHL microfilm accessions. It lists
villages who's LDS microfilm rolls also contain separate Jewish records. I
took a look -- there are some in our TARG area, too! It's at:
http://feefhs.org/mf/sk/sk-jew1.html
3. Great Myto, SK website where the "Partizan Road" begins (See OSS book
review below): www.chalupa1.host.sk/zima.html
4. For those with Orava roots, here's a great site with photos from
Namestovo and the surrounding area:
www.changenet.sk/proorava/fotogaleria2.htm
5. For those who have not visited, here is Bill Tarkulich's great site:
www.iabsi.com/gen/public/kingdom_of_hungary.htm
6. This site has lots of data on many Slovak villages...maybe yours!
www.tatradata.sk/sk/org/town/b.htm
7. This German site shows many Slovak churches on various webpages --
perhaps even yours: http://slovakia-online.com/kirchen.htm
8. Poland's new Online Phonebook: www.tel.tpsa.pl/asp/szukaj_a.asp
9. Here's an interesting Podhale site: http://www1.umn.edu/ihrc/polish.htmYOUR LETTERS__________
~~~Hi Paul, Thanks for the info on Bolcarovits. Happy New Year. - Elayne
***Hi Elayne, You're welcome and same to you! - Paul
~~~Hi Paul, Happy New Year to you and yours! My resolution was to send you
the information for Szczwanica along with old postcard photos for inclusion
on the TARG webpages. Here they are! - Pat
***Thank you for all of this wonderful stuff! I will incorporate it into our website. - Paul
~~~Dear Paul, I wish you and all TARG members a wonderful and happy new
year. Could you please give me an idea how to find the path to an old aunt
of ours immigrating to the USA from Wielka Lipnica? All that I know (through
the grandpa's diary of grandfather, dates from Lipnica W. church records and
Ellis Island): Justyna (Justina) Kupcsik (Kupczyk) aged 28 went to the USA
from Lipnica W. in 1912 on the ship President Lincoln. And here I lost the line.
How can I find more information about her once she settled in the USA? Please
give me and advice how to go further. Many thanks, Eva Kupcsikeva, Hungary
***Hello Eve, Thank you for writing. The U.S. census may have information
about your aunt. Do you know where she settled? It may be on the manifest
from the Ellis Island site. For the Lipnica Wielka records you can travel to
the parish in Poland or to the archives in Spisska Kapitula, SK. See the
past issues of the newsletter and our TARG website for more on that. - Paul
~~~Good Morning Paul: I just returned back from my winter break and opened
your December newsletter. Thank you for keeping us so well informed. I'm
looking for the surname LATTAL or LATAL from Bobrov,SK. Maybe you could
assist me in reaching your site www.mytarg.net. MSN and my search on
DOGPILE does not recognize your address. Any suggestions for me to try?
Thanks, Barb
***Hi Barb, thanks for writing. Yes, a few others have trouble getting on to
the website, too. Try http://www.mytarg.net or simply http://mytarg.net. If
that doesn't work, try http://mytarg.net/index.html. One of these
should work for you! - Paul
~~~Dear Mr. Bingham! I would like to receive your monthly e-newsletter. I
would also like to adopt my ancestral village, Czarny Dunajec. I'm
interested in the history of the Podhale region and I'm also doing
genealogical research. I hope to hear from you. Sincerely, Stan Chlebek
***Hi Stan, you are on our mailing list now. And Czarny Dunajec is now
yours! I look forward to what you can send us. Thanks! - Paul
~~~Hi Paul, I was doing a Google search for Sumiac, found your website. Nice
idea to target an area. Last summer I went on one of Helene's tours and
broke away from the group to go to my ancestral villages of Sumiac and
Jelsava, which I see you have listed. I have pictures, information and
websites if you are interested in adding something to those towns. - Joyce
Hewlett, Mission, TX
***Hi Joyce, Nice to hear from you. If you would like to send me information
to put on the Sumiac and Jelsava pages, that would be great! (Please send
any photos or maps to my other e-mail address at bingham@iols.net, if you
would, as it is easier for me to work with them there than through hotmail.)
Thanks for contacting us. I look forward to receiving good things from you! - Paul
~~~Dear Paul, Looking for Bizubova (Bizub) family of Osturna. I have names
and other info. Thank you. - Ellen Waradzin
>>>Hi Megan, I'm passing on this Osturna relative's e-mail to you. - Paul>>>
***Thanks, Paul! Always happy to find another Osturnite! We even have the
Bizub's in our DNA study! Take care, Megan Smolenyak
~~~Hello Paul, Please add me to your email list. My father's family
originated from Namestovo, SK beginning with Matthias Lapikas. Thank you so
much for the detailed maps so I can see exactly where Namestovo is! Kind
Regards, Brendalynn Eustice
***Hello Brendalynn, Thank you for writing. I put your e-mail in our list,
so you will start receiving our e-newsletter from now on. I also know a man
in the Netherlands who is a Lapikas and whose ancestry is from Namestovo. I
forwarded your e-mail to him in hopes that he will contact you. He does
speak/write English very well. I, too, have ancestry from Namestovo. It is
off the beaten path, really, but well worth the effort to see. I've been
there twice on my own -- once in 1999 and again in 2001. I look forward to
going again when the tour group goes this August. We will spend some time in
and around Namestovo on this trip -- you should consider going with us!
There is info on the TARG website under "trips". Did you look through the
microfilmed parish records the LDS have for Namestovo to get all of your
information? - Paul
~~~Dear Paul, Thank you. I have already been in contact with my distant
cousin Louk in the Netherlands. I contributed all the information for
generation 6 on my father's side for his website. I appreciate you thinking
of me. I didn't know that the parish records were on microfilm. That is
great, I will have to check it out. I would love to go to Namestovo someday,
my father too as he always wanted to visit, "the old country". Wow, is it
as beautiful as the pictures I have seen on the websites? I have heard that
some of my distant cousins are still in Slovakia as Louk has visited them.
Thanks again for taking the time to write me. - Brendalynn
~~~Dear Paul, I saw your website and it's a good start. I am searching
genealogy and my grandmother was a highlander. Picture enclosed and baptism
record from Poland. How can I get more information about her culture?
Thanks. - Mary Starosta
***Hello Mary, Thank you for sending the photo and birth info. I'm supposing
you know the document says your grandmother and her parents came from the
town of Szaflary (between Zakopane and Nowy Targ) in southern Poland. Before
I can answer your question, I need to know what you have already found out
about your grandmother and the Goral culture. Also: did you read any of the
older newsletter back issues we have on the TARG website? Have you ever
visited over there? Can you speak/read Polish? - Paul
~~~Hi Paul, I know very Little. My grandmother, Ludwika Suchecka, was
married 3x's that I can find. I do not have any information on her parents,
other than what is on that baptism record. Do you know how I can find
anything about her parents? Also, I know nothing about Goral culture, only
remember her fondly saying "I was a highlander" from the Tatra mountains. My
grandfather, Stanley Tatar, used to carve amazing wooden art pieces and
statues that were beautiful. Was that part of this culture? I do not speak or
read Polish, sorry, and I have a lot of documents and newspaper clippings in
Polish. Never been there but it looks AWESOME. - Mary Starosta
***Hello Mary, Yes, wood carving is a big part of Goral culture!
Unfortunately the parish records from Szaflary are not microfilmed but are
still in the parish church. A second copy (called "the second writings" are
in the Catholic archives in Krakow. In order to follow your lines back, you
will have to access these records. We will be going to the Krakow archives
in August, as well as by Szaflary and to days and days of Goral cultural
experiences -- including to a wood carving market in Zakopane and to a wood
carver's shop in Jurgow. You should think about coming with us! - Paul
~~~Hi Paul, Just wanted to update you on what we have found out about the
Lipnica Wielka Tvoriks. Before Christmas we sent a Christmas postcard with a
picture of us on one side to all the Tvoriks we had located. We got an
e-mail in Polish from a Milan Tvorik in Lipnica Wielka. Milan was thrilled
to get our Christmas Postcard. He has a new address and we are going to
write him again but we have to find somebody first that can write Polish.
We are really looking forward to this trip this summer. - Eileen Tvorik
***Hello Eileen, Wonderful to hear you have made contact! And yes, I'm
excited to go on our August trip, too. Also, please send Milan's e-mail
address to me and I will forward it to my cousin who can write him in Polish
for you. - Paul
~~~Hello, Paul, My name is Diana Gallovich and I have put together a
genealogy website for the ancestors of Stephen Gallovich and Catherine
Slavkovski of Vydrnik, SK. I have pictures and a list of the known names of
the Gallovich siblings. Apparently there were many. I do not know if there
are any more. If you would like to view the web site, please go to:
http://members.cox.net/fgallov/gallovich.html. Thanks, Diana Gallovich
***Hi Diane, I'll share this with our members. Also, please see the WWII
story about Maria Galovich below. - Paul
~~~Hello Paul, Sign me up! I just stumbled on your page when looking for
information on Letownia, and it looks as if your group is a great resource.
3 of my 4 grandparents are from villages in TARG's area: Jadamwola,
Roztoka, and Mlynczyska. In addition, I have other relatives by marriage
from the same area, on both sides of the border, whom I am now researching.
I am presently looking for a person who, I believe, was born in Bogdanowka
and moved to Naprawa. I believe that at that time Letownia was her parish
(Skomielna Czarna is apparently fairly new), so I was trying to get some
information on the area. I am just in the middle of preparing a large
research update for my family, and would be happy to share what I have with
anyone who is interested. Can you tell me what kind of information you are
interested in, and in what format you would want it? - Mary Ann Evan
***Hi Mary Ann, Thank you for your offer! Surnames, village info, any text
on the history of the area and pictures in JPEG formats are great. - Paul
~~~Hi Paul, I would be interested in receiving your e-newsletter. My family
names are Piwowar, Truchan, Wiejaczka, Zaba, Mroz, Fec and Abrams of Biesna,
PL and Lejtrich, Taras, Kvak and Mundar of Zakamene and Klin, SK.
- Victoria Hospodar Valentine
***Thank you, Victoria. You are now on the list! - PaulSPECIAL TARG TRIP IN 2003____________
Well, folks, I've sent in my deposit to go on the big August trip...how
about you?! The Goral Homecoming Trip to Slovakia & Poland with Helene B.
Cincebeaux (and lots of other TARG members!) is planned for Aug. 5 thru Aug.
15, 2003. That's just over seven months away! The cost is only $2,299 per
person (covers nearly every cost, including round trip travel from NYC.)
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: www.mytarg.net/Trips.html. Have a look!POLISH ONLINE PHONEBOOK_______
The big news is that Poland has finally produced an online phonebook
something like Slovakia's and the Czech Republic's. It is found at:
www.tel.tpsa.pl/asp/szukaj_a.asp
The page is simple, displaying this text (I'll supply translations):
==================
Klienci Indywidualni ("individual clients", or in other words, residential customers)
imie~: FIRST NAME
*nazwisko: FAMILY SURNAME
<click> ul, os, al, or pl (choose street, etc.) STREET NAME
*miejscowos'c': LOCALITY (city, town, village)
województwo: (<click> to pick a province from the drop-down list)
That list shows:
wybierz
dolnosla~skie
kujawsko-pomorskie
lubelskie
lubuskie
l~o'dzkie
mazowieckie
mal~opolskie
opolskie
podkarpackie
podlaskie
pomorskie
s'la~skie
s'wie~tokrzyskie
warmin'sko-mazurskie
wielkopolskie
zachodniopomorskie
(Here Poland's 16 "wojewodztwo"s (or provinces) all end in "ie". The default
word "wybierz" which appears last in the search form's final blank is not a
province, it means "SELECT". If you leave this default you will get search
results from ALL of Poland's 16 provinces.)
* - pola wymagane (means you MUST enter something where there is an
asterisk, i.e.; FAMILY SURNAME and LOCALITY)
"szukaj" button means "search"
==================
Now some instructions.
1) You must put in the COMPLETE family surname and the COMPLETE village
name - not three letters of each like Slovakia's online phonebook. Your
entries must include diacritics or you must use letters and asterisks to
represent them. The later method uses these conversions: a~=a*, c'=c*,
e~=e*, l~=l*, n'=n*, ó=o*, s'=s*, z'=z*, and z~ (z with a dot over it)=z**
2) Set the "województwo" box to "Malopolskie" for all TARG villages.
3) Click the "szukaj" button to launch your search.
A successful search will show "Znalezionych pozycji:" with the number 1
up to 20. An unsuccessful search may show: "Znalezionych pozycji: 0" and
"Prosze~ sprawdzic' dane w formularzu... zobacz pomoc". If you leave out a
required field's input, you will get an error message like: "Uzupelnij dane:
NAZWISKO" and/or "MIEJSCOWOS'C'"
What you get in a successful search is a list of names and their phone
numbers (no house addresses). If you don't type in a street name, it may or
may not then list the street. This seems to vary from village to village.
>>>Here are sample results without street names shown:
1.
Barbara Soltys
Jurgów,
woj. malopolskie
powiat: tatrzanski tel: (18) 207-79-51
2.
Karolina Soltys
Jurgów,
woj. malopolskie
powiat: tatrzanski tel: (18) 207-79-53
>>>Here are sample results with street names shown:
1.
Helena Szaflarska
ul. Suskiego
Szaflary,
woj. malopolskie
powiat: nowotarski tel: (18) 275-49-13
2.
Janina Szaflarska
ul. Szkolna
Szaflary,
woj. malopolskie
powiat: nowotarski tel: (18) 275-45-95
==============
Some things to remember:
1. Under "wojewodztwo" on the input screen, the default selection is the
word "wybierz". This isn't a province, it means SELECT. It's best to choose
"Malopolskie" (the province that covers all of our Polish TARG villages).
Note: you really don't need to specify a certain wojewodztwo PROVIDING THAT
your village is unique. Zakopane comes up no problem because there is only
one in all of Poland. However, look for NOWAKs (very common throughout
Poland) in Zalesie (20 Polish villages with that name) and you'll wind up
with ten hits in six different provinces! So to clarify: If you don't change
the setting from this "wybierz" default, then the program will find ANY
listing from all Polish villages of that name.
2. If you put in the street name it will limit the hits to that street.
3. The successful search NEVER displays any more than 20 hits...even if
there should be many more. There is unfortunately no button or way to
increase the number!
4. For women's names you must use the feminine form: i.e.; Szarflarski and
Szaflarska, etc.
5. Names of people, streets or towns do not need to be capitalized, but they
DO need to be spelled correctly and completely with all diacritics as
required (see separate list above).
6. It doesn't matter if you capitalize letters in names or mix and match.
Searching for Maria Bachleda(s) from Zakopane works just as well as mAriA
bAcHLeDa, zAkOpAnE. Go figure!
7. No hyphenated last names will be recognized if input into the search
form. However, such names contained in the phonebook's listings WILL come up
based on the 1st surname of the 2. In a list for Nowak, it will return
"Barabasz-Nowak", "Nowak" & "Nowak-Walasek" all in the same list. But,
unfortunately, you can't hunt for Nowak-Walasek, just singly for Nowak,
Barabasz or Walasek.
8. There is also unfortunately no "back" or "forward" buttons existing to
make searches smoother.
9. Theoretically, if someone has a website or an e-mail address it will be
listed with their phone number (if they choose). I have yet to see one listed!
>>>So try this new research tool out. Happy hunting!NEW BOOK ON TARG-AREA WWII HISTORY______
There's a new book out called "World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia,"
by Jim Downs. This former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent vividly
chronicles a desperate journey from survivor accounts, files of the U.S.
Office of Strategic Services, and Slovak and Czech governments files. Much
of the story takes place in the southern part of our TARG sphere.
In 1939 a pro-German and former Catholic monsignor named Tiso had
established a police state in Slovakia directed by the Germans. Maria
Gulovich, a second-grade teacher, recalls that in September of that year the
German soldiers with their new weapons and shiny horses poured into Slovakia
past her Stara Lubovna home, marching by ceaselessly for two weeks. The
backdrop of Down's extraordinary adventure is an OSS daring attempt in the
fall of 1944 to drop groups of agents into German-controlled Slovakia to
assist a Slovak uprising against the Germans and to rescue dozens of downed
Allied airmen. The rescue was successful, but German SS divisions crushed
the uprising and sent the agents fleeing into the Mala Tatra mountains
outside of Myto and Polomka, SK. At 23, Maria Galovich would play a
life-saving role. In the dead of winter and with great peril to her own
life, she kept the American and British agents fed and out of the hands of
the relentless enemy for weeks. When it was all over, 14 Americans and 3
Brits were dead. But without Maria, none would have made it.
After the war the CIA director and the head of OSS Gen. "Wild Bill"
Donovan helped Maria to immigrate to the U.S. On May 25, 1946, Donovan
presented her with a Bronze Star for her heroic and meritorious actions and
she was given a scholarship to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She
became the first woman to be decorated on the Plain of West Point in front
of the Corps of Cadets. To read more about Maria Gulovich and this OSS
Slovak operation, visit:
www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_1582132,00.html
NOTE: The author Jim Downs is retired and lives just 15 minutes
from me in Oceanside, CA. Maria Galovich is also retired and lives in
Southern California. I'm trying to see if I can get autographed copies of
this new book for our TARG members. If you would be interested in one,
please drop me a note!A LITTLE GORAL CULTURE__________
Lines from one Goral tune I spotted:
"Hej, gorale, nie bijcie sie.
Ma goralka dwa warkocze podzielicie sie!"
Translation:
"Hey highland boys, don't fight.
The girl will dance with both of you!"
(Or, literally: "The girl has two pigtails, and she will share!")
If you want to hear this tune and others, go to:
http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/studebaker/15/piesni.htmlCONTACTING 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 new website is
at:www.mytarg.net.
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