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ZAMAGURZE AREA RESEARCH PROJECT

& PODHALE AREA RESEARCH GROUP
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© The Zamagurze Area Research Project and
Podhale Area Research Group -- all rights reserved
Monthly Newsletter for March 2000
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Greetings to all ZARP and PARG members. For ZARP members this is our
13th newsletter. For PARG its number 5.
February was a difficult month for my family personally as our
18-year-old son was a victim in a car crash out-of-state. Many of you heard
of his serious injuries. The outpouring of love, support and offers to pray
for him were overwhelming to myself and our family. As I look back on your
generousity I realize that you are all decended from loving, caring and
deeply religious ancestors who turned to God and sought to bless the lives
of others -- including strangers in trouble -- with kindness always. I can't
help but think the same ancestors are smiling as I am at your support. Below
I share but a few of the many kind e-mails received.
I am so happy to report that John and his mother (who we flew up to
Wyoming to be with him) are now home. His injuries included two fractured
vertebrae at his belt line, one being completely shattered. After two
surgeries lasting a total of 14 hours, he is making phenominal progress. The
doctors say it is a miracle -- something we also believe. There was no
damage to the spinal cord itself. He has complete use of both legs and has
recovered all of his lower tract functions. It has been four weeks since the
accident where the vehicle he was in slid off the highway on black ice and
rolled down the hill. He is now walking up and down stairs and he is off all
pain medication. He even put on his own socks before church this morning.
He's already begun rehab, and has been told he will regain all of his
mobility. On behalf of my son and our family, we thank you from the bottom
of our hearts. May God bless you, too, for your kindness.
While we are on the subject of our smiling ancestors long since passed
on, I can't help but feel a sense of urgency in our efforts to save our
wonderful Tatra families histories and culture for future generations. We
were privileged yesterday to have Helene Cincebeaux and her mother come
visit us here in Phoenix and give a colorful presentation showcasing the
uniquely beautiful culture our ancestors lived. What a treasure would be
lost if we let it slip away.
Someone once asked: "If not you, who?" and "If not now, when?" It is up
to us to preserve the elements that made them the individuals they were --
the individuals that gave us life. Reading "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening" by Robert Frost I am struck by the simple line that "we have miles
to go, and promises to keep, before we sleep." I don't know just how or just
when, but I feel I am keeping promises to those who have gone before when I
research and record my Goral family history. Many of you who have been
over there and walked the paths our ancestors walked and gone through the
doorways of the churches they built feel the same thing, I know.
-- Paul K. Bingham
PARG & ZARP Team Leader
bingham@iols.net
P.S. -- I'm trying a little experiment by combining the ZARP and PARG
newsletters this time since many, many of the items in both are redundant
and a dozen or more of you have ancestors in both these adjacent areas. This
should be especially pleasing to those of you in PARG who have been asking
for a monthly newsletter! I've tried to go through both lists and delete one
of each dual recipient. If you get two copies of this let me know so I can
remove the duplicate address. Your comments are also welcome. Thanks! -pb

WEBSITES TO CHECK OUT__________
(1) To find out where the LDS Family History Libraries are in your area go
to this website and type in Country and City where you live and a list
including TIMES OF OPERATION will come up:
www.familysearch.org/Search/searchfhc2.asp
(2) A Hungarian Genealogy website called "Radix" with maps and surnames is
found at www.bogardi.com/gen/
(3) Carl Rosenberg's Global Gazetteer website listing 8200 towns and
villages in Slovakia: www.calle.com/world/slovakia/index.html
(4) Another of his websites shows almost 57,000 in Poland! It's at:
www.calle.com/world/poland/index.html
(5) A map of Slovakian languages and dialects by Jozef Stolc (redrawn by Joe
Armata) is at: www.pitt.edu/~armata/dialects.htm It is dated 1968 and does
not show the Spisz and Orawa areas, but indicates "Gorale" as the dominant
historical language. The area around Osturna is listed as "Ukrainian
Dialect" (Osturna is the western-most Carpatho-Rusyn village in Slovakia).
(6) Here's an interesting website found by Bob Panek with pictures of the
Namestovo town Commissioners. (Perhaps other Slovak towns have similar
pages!) http://www.namestovo.sk/msue.html
(7) As a reminder our ZARP & PARG webpages are at:
http://ns1.iols.net/users/bingham/ (ZARP)
http://members.delphi.com/pkbingham (ZARP)
http://www0.delphi.com/PARG (PARG)
***(We'll be doing more updates again soon!)

YOUR GREAT LETTERS____________
-- "Hi Paul, We're so sorry that your son was involved in such a serious
accident. You can count on our prayers. Thank God that he does have feeling
in his legs." - Ralph & Marilyn Graybill
-- "Dear Paul, Our hearts and prayers are with you all - the first hours are
the hardest and I hope he will come through it all fine and won't remember
these difficult hours. Poor Robin - I know how terrible this is for her to
see your beloved son in pain. Sounds like he had a great surgeon and this is
when faith is needed the most - he is in God's hands." - Helene Cincebeaux
-- "Paul, So sorry to hear what happened. I pray your son recuperates
speedily, his age is favorable to that. When the plane arrives give him a
big hug, and your wife lots of them. Please know that I appreciate all
you've done! Got to see the tape last night. It is wonderful - and not
unlike the undeveloped area along the Delaware River here! One headstone you
taped may be an uncle. I have to contact my Mom's cousin." - Alicia Batko
-- "Dear, Paul. I supposedly have family that came from that area (around
Niedzica Castle) but I do not know any more than that. Thank you for putting
my name on the newsletter list and for your help." - Jarrett Phillips
-- "HI Paul, Great stuff as usual. I noticed a few months ago that there
were some records (immigration) for the SS. BREMEN on the web. But I think
they were for just a few years, and also lists of passengers leaving
Bremerhaven or somewhere in GERMANY. Wouldn't it be nice if all the
passenger lists were available on the web?" - Stan Budz
-- "Hi Paul, Thanks so much for the mention of the Osturna website, but have
folks e-mail me first if they want to visit - I'm at:
76163.1042@compuserve.com The website is password protected, so I have to
issue an invitation with their initial password. This privacy is what
enabled us to upload our first master Osturna database with more than 2,500
Osturnites so far. We've got about 90 photos, too. Thom Kolton's being in
Slovakia for 6 months has also increase traffic. I suspect this July's
reunion will do the same."
- Megan Smolenyak (More Megan Smolenak news below -ed)
-- "Hello Paul, I found your webpage doing a "Szlembark" search. I have a
WWII era document signed by my g-grandmother. She had to sign a loyalty oath
to get her ration books. On this she lists "Slembarg." So I guess my
surname is from Szlembarg-ski. I'd appreciate learning a little more about
your work. Thanks for your time!" - Chris Slembarski
*** Hello Chris, There are over 300 of us in ZARP (the Zamagurze Area
Research Project) researching our family lines over there. Szlembark is one
of the 60 villages in our ZARP study area. The surname SZLEMBARSKI is found
mostly in Szlembark village; also in nearby Maniowy and Niedzica
(where the famous castle is). I don't believe Szlembark's parish records
have been microfilmed yet, but an LDS team is still in Poland doing archival
microfilming, so its just a mater of time. Some (1822-1847) of nearby
Harklowa's records are included in Zakopane's roll #0998662. I'm not sure if
other's are as well. - Paul
-- "Hi, Paul. I'm researching my son's family tree and his father's surname
is FURDEK. You're listed as the contact person for this family's county, and
I was wondering what you know about them, if anything. Specifically, I
believe the family branch I'm looking for migrated to the Wisconsin area.
Thanks!" - Natalie Furdek

TRIPS TO SLOVAKIA IN 2000____________
Helene Cincebeaux has three tours this summer with stops in the Tatra
mountains and two with days in Polish Spisz! She can provide you a
driver/translator for day trips to visit ancestral villages. Visit her
website at: www.our-slovakia.com or e-mail her at: Helenezx@aol.com
(2) Thom Kolton is also visiting the area with a group of Osturnites this
July and is including Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest. For more
information e-mail him at: thom_kolton@hotmail.com.

SPECIAL EXCITING NEWS______________
ZARP Team Member for Osturna, Megan Smolenyak, has been involved in the
production of the PBS "Ancestors II" series to aire in June. She has also
authored the companion book: "In Search of Our Ancestors - 101 Inspiring
Stories of Serendipity and Connection in Rediscovering Our Family History".
Her Smolenyak story and other Slovak tales are included in what is
essentially a chicken soup for the genealogist's soul. By sometime in March,
she'll have a website: www.honoringourancestors.com to learn more about it.
Megan has also agreed to be the temporary chairman of the genealogical
committee of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society. If any of you have some
genealogical skill and a bit of spare time, she would love some help
fielding the genealogical queries she gets.

POSSIBLE MEMBERS LOST___________________
Here's some ZARP surname researchers that we are unable to contact.
If you recognize any of these, please let us know! (A PARG list next month.)
Irene Zawasky ZAWASKY@webtv.net
Kenneth Sisitka Kmsisitka@hotmail.com
Mic Hayes MCclain@uakron.edu
Joann Z. Mottese jermo64@hotmail.com
Peggy Folmer pf7santa@webtv.net
Edward Griglak ah870@cleveland.freenet.edu
Russ Hayes/Frank Kurtz randbisc@m7.sprynet.com
D. Redding dredding@mindspring.com

OTHER NOTES______________________________
(1) Contact us if you would like the e-mail address of someone in PARG or
ZARP. (2) If you have comments, questions, someone's address to add to our
mailing list or missed any newsletter issues, just ask! (3) This e-mail
newsletter is sent out free to all who want it (due to ISP anti-spamming
policies in groups of <20). Newsletter Editor: bingham@iols.net
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