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TATRA AREA RESEARCH GROUP
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© TARG All rights reserved.
Newsletter for May 2005
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Hello fellow TARG members. This issue of the e-newsletter is going out
with a bit of a limp. The mytarg website has been available to visit this
month, but has not been accessible for updating. I have also not been able
to access any of your e-mails sent to editor-AT-mytarg-DOT-net. It is truly time to
leave this web hosting company (Cyber Pixels) for greener pastures. They are
under "new management", supposedly -- but it is pretty grim.
In spite of great care, I unfortunately experienced a hacker attack on
my computer in May, too, and so am running on a back-up right now while I
repair the damage and install the latest firewall & anti-virus software. The
only thing you may notice on your end is the newsletter coming to both the
latest e-mail address you sent me as well as your older one. If that
happens, please write and tell me which one to use and which to delete.
(Sorry, but merging the two lists was the only way not to lose many of you.)
TARG has done its first book sales using PayPal this month. Although I
can't yet place the PayPal link on the website, if you do want to purchase
something just e-mail and I will send you an electronic PayPal invoice.
If you need to contact me please don't use the editor-AT-mytarg-DOT-net address
anymore. Any who have used it, please resend your message to a new address.
Google has a nifty new webmail service that is very stable called "Gmail."
TARG's address there is: TatraAreaResearchGroup-AT-gmail-DOT-com. Please use this
from now on, if you will. Thanks.(Note: these addresses are being written here in spam-resistive form. Please insert your own "@" and "." symbols where needed.)
We have the last installment of the Podhale book translation this issue.
Hard to believe it has been a whole year since we started with these
excerpts!
-- Paul K. Bingham
TARG Founder

WEBSITES____________
1. TARG's website is: http://mytarg.net (or also www.mytarg.net).
2. Lucjan Soltys has added a genealogy chart to his Jurgow website at:
http://soltysowie.jurgow.pl.
3. Here are also a few new Jurgow pictures posted:
http://www.jurgow.pl/index.php?id=634
4. Steve Morse's truly golden research site at: www.stevemorse.org.

YOUR LETTERS_________
---Hi Paul, Helene said that I should write to you because we might have a
common ancestor. My great-great-great grandmother was named Anna Vojtanek.
Is it possible that this is also your relation? The Anna Vojtanek in my
family goes back to probably the mid 1700's. She married Joannes Miskovics,
and one of their children was Maria Miskovics who married Simeon Vojtas.
They had a son Valentine that married Maria Grocholya. I have a breakdown of
my ancestors on both sides from Jurgow and Rzepiska. I would be happy to
send them to you if you would like. Maybe you could piece them together.
Thank you. By the way, Vojtas has been changed to Wojtas and to the present
Wytas. -- Norman Wytas
***Hi Norman, The cousins we have in Jurgow today may be closer related to
you than I am! Lucjan Soltys -- the cousin who sends me the pictures I put
on the TARG website -- has a Miskovics line. And the maiden name of the girl
he just married is Maria Grochola from Rzepiska! But looking through my own
family history I see an Anna Vojtanek born April 13, 1886 in Jurgow. She was
my great-grandfather's sister. Their parents were Sebastian Vojtanek born
December 1, 1836 and Zofia Soltis born April 27, 1850. Sebastian's parents
were Valent Vojtanek and Maria Plucinski. (This Plucinski is how I am
possibly related to the village violin maker Marion Plucinski.) Lucjan's
genealogy is posted on one of his websites. The link to his chart is:
http://soltysowie.jurgow.pl. You will notice he has not gone back too far,
but his great-grandmother was a Miskowicz (Polish spelling). The URL to this
main website of his is: http://republika.pl/lsoltys/. He has a newer site he
is working on at: http://www.jurgow.pl/index.php?id=11,0,0,EN. He also has
some great old pictures he just added at:
http://www.jurgow.pl/index.php?id=1,0,2,EN. There is no genealogy on this
site yet, however. The names you mention from your tree are all ones I know
from around town and in the local cemetery. Thanks! -- Paul
---Hello Paul, Well I have finally finished by family research of my
Pisarcik roots in Velka Frankova, Slovakia via the LDS and with the help a
very nice person named Karen Melis, who I learned is my 5th cousin. We were
able to go back to the early 1700's. According to the church records my name was spelled
PISARSTIK...interesting. The only thing I am lacking is one key piece of
info....where did my great grandfather John (Johannes) Pisarcik land when he
came to the US? I located his wife, her sister and father on the Ellis
Island manifests but not him. I tried all sorts of spelling variations with
no luck. I was hoping you may give me some insight on this. Last summer I
visited Ellis Island and found his name on the wall of honor but I understand that that does not
necessarily mean he emigrated through there as family member purchased a
spot on the wall. What are some other research options? Other Ports of entry
during the early 1920's? Could he have been a stow away? I would appreciate
your input...by the way..thanks for the newsletters. Sincerely, Robert Pisarcik, El Paso, Texas
***Hi Robert, Karen is wonderful -- even better to find you are related. As
for "lost arrivals", keep in mind that Ellis Island's database of extracted
records includes the 22.5 million who came through this famous New York City
port between 1892 and 1924. If he came before or after this he will not be
listed. Misspellings also make searches tough. There were also other
ports -- many Tatra area folks came later on through Canada. You might try
Steve Morse's site at: www.stevemorse.org, too. This is an excellent site
which helps better sort immigrant information in the Ellis Island database
and also has database links and sort options for ports in Baltimore, Boston,
Galveston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, as well as many U.S. census
databases. Have you located him on the census? Spellings, locations of his
residences and relatives nearby may help you find this missing piece. I'll
also post it in the TARG newsletter and perhaps another member will have a
clue for you. -- Paul
***Please be patient while I get to all of the mail. With some messages
lost, please resend if you can, too! Thanks! -- Paul

PODHALE BOOK TRANSLATION - PART 12______________
In the Gorcow and the Pieniny we have several beautifully located spa
resorts. At the foot of Pieniny Mountains is Szczawica with its fabulous
mineral waters and therapeutically equipped places for inhalations. On the
north side of the Gorcow, near Podhale, is the town of Rabka with its
convalescent hospitals. These are specifically for children. Also in Rabka
we have a unusually beautiful wooden church and an Orkan Museum with its
rich collection of local folk art.
All of the local convalescent hospitals and therapeutic spas here have
now been given new life and support from the government. The government
owned health care system and the government owned national industry give the
proletariat opportunity to take vacations in convalescent hospitals here and
therapeutic spas. (Note: Keep in mind this book was written during the
Communist era.)
For the first time the millions of workers from around the country are
able to take advantage of facilities here. The designated tourist places
promote not only health and recreation but also the beauty of Podhale, its
charm, its miracles of flora and fauna, and its art, creating new lovers of Podhale.
Podhale is one of the most beautiful places in all of Poland. However,
its beauty shall never let us forget that the region used to be very poor
and the people often times had to leave their native meadows, to pursue
putting bread on their tables. The social and economical reforms which are
taking place right now are covering this region as well. Podhale has an
excellent potential for progress. The beauty of the mountains here and new
technological achievements are complimenting each other extremely well. The
times when private manufacturers were free to devastate the nature, create
almost inhumane living places for their workers, construct hideous office
and industrial buildings are over. Today, an architect can preserve the
natural surroundings the folk, art and tradition and successfully combine
with innovative designed buildings.
One shall note that a well designed bridge will coexist in harmony with a
river, that an asphalt road will enhance and help to recognize a diversified
mountain terrain. Furthermore, one cannot argue that a beautiful dam will
blend well with its surroundings. Innovative and modern architecture, and
tradition is not mutually exclusive. Examples of this we can see clearly in
newly built highlander homes which are totally in tune with the old
traditions. Another fine example is the new dairy and fish cooperative
society buildings in Lopuszno, the dam in Rozanowie, and other bridges and
viaducts in the area like the bridge in Kroscienko.
The beauty of old Podhale - its wilderness in the state-owned parks of
the Tatry or Gorcow, as well as the local folk art, the region's old
tradition - will all be preserved, and will like a magnet bring tourists,
skiers, and those in need of spa therapies. The new Podhale with its modern
and futuristic character will equally be important. It will help transition
the region and integrate it into, and become an important part of the
national economics, and its efforts to create a solid foundation of socialism.
(This was the final installment: part 12 of 12. If you missed any, you can
read them online in the back issues of the newsletter posted at:
http://mytarg.net/Resources/index.html.)

CONTACTING TARG_____________________
To contact the TARG Editor, please use this new e-mail address:
TatraAreaResearchGroup-AT-gmail-DOT-com (this being written here in spam-resistive form -- please insert your own "@" and "." symbols where needed). Our "snail" mailing
address is still TARG, P.O. Box 3533, Escondido, CA 92033. Use it for
sending in orders or photos and anything else you want to share with the
group. (If for some reason you are unable to contact us at the new e-mail
addresses above, go ahead and use the old address. It is still: targ_net-AT-hotmail-DOT-com.
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