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TATRA AREA RESEARCH GROUP
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© TARG All rights reserved.
Newsletter for November 2005
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Greetings TARG members and welcome to the beginning of our eighth year! It is hard to believe that seven years has already passed since we started. With a website, three tours and 80 monthly newsletter issues under my belt, one would think I'd have noticed seven years go by. But it has been so much fun and so rewarding, the time has really flown past!
And in commemoration of seven years of success -- and just in time for the Holidays -- I'd like to announce our 30% off sale, to TARG members only, on all remaining items on our TARG website. (This is a "for-TARG-members-only" sale, so whatever the website price states, take 30% off. Please also mention "I'm a TARG member" when placing your order. Stated shipping costs still apply. Hurry for best selection.)
There are still lots of things to choose from, including the gripping OSS book (author-autographed copies, too!), dictionaries, maps, one-of-a-kind books and some beautiful and rare TARG-area specific stamps for collectors. Go have a look at our website at www.mytarg.net and click on "BOOKS, ETC. FOR SALE". Simple order instructions are there, too. We can take your PayPal orders or even bank card orders through PayPal now. And remember your orders help support TARG.
We have much more to share in this issue. Thank you for all of your kind words and assistance over the last seven years. I look forward to many more accomplishments in the years to come!
-- Paul K. Bingham
TARG Founder

WEBSITES____________
1. TARG's website is: http://mytarg.net or www.mytarg.net -- there's many updates!
2. Peter Koreo's Slovakian Low Tatras website: www.horehronie.pkdesign.sk
3. Ralph Haugwitz's High Tatra website with Tatra & Dunajec art: www.kunsthandel-haugwitz.com/englisch/works.htm
4. Helene B. Cincebeaux's Treasure Tours website: www.Our-Slovakia.com
5. The Carpathian Connection: www.tccweb.org

YOUR LETTERS_________
---"Have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving day. May you have many blessings." - Richard & Norma Lubinski
---"Friends & Family, Happy Thanksgiving!" - Bill & Edna Serchak
***Thank you folks for your kind Thanksgiving wishes! I will share them with the entire TARG membership. - Paul
---Hello, I'm a Slovak man who is looking for his roots. My family name is LEJAVA. I've started searching on the internet. I found this name on many U.S. webpages and on your TARG website in the Nov-Dec 1998 E-Newsletter of Anthony Kromko's parish record extractions from Velka Frankova, SK. I would like to know if there is any possibility to send me this record or just a date and area where I can find it. There are not so many people in Slovakia or Poland with this name and there is a chance of being related. Thank you very much. - Radoslav Lejava
*** Hello Radoslav, Thank you for writing regarding the surname LEJAVA. The surname LEJAVA is sometimes found in records from Velka Frankova, SK and also Osturna, SK. Records from these villages are available in the State Archives in Levoca, SK. However, most people with the name LEJAVA, also spelled LEJAWA, are from Frydman, Poland. (Fydman was a Slovak village called "Fridman" before the border change in 1920.) It is near the Dunajec river west of Niedzica. The church record books from Frydman are found in the church and the Priest there is a very nice man. Many of the older people in Frydman also speak Slovak. If it is possible, you should visit the village of Frydman. There are also Fridman church records (1800-1900) in the Roman Catholic Archives in Spisska Kapitula, SK. These books are organized by year. I hope this information helps you. - Paul
---Hello Paul, I would like to receive the free TARG email newsletter. I was a charter subscriber but somehow seem to have fallen off the list. Thank you for your wonderful work in Slovak genealogy! - Jerry Tibor
***Hello Jerry! Thank you! And yes, I will put you back on the list. Somehow I missed an e-mail addresses change and your newsletter kept bouncing back. We'll fix that now. (Jerry lives in Alaska and has roots in Jurgow) - Paul
---Dear Mr.Bingham, I have found your web site about Tatra and about places nearby. I have worked on a project named Horehronie. Is it a part of Slovakia between Banská Bystrica and Telgárt. This part of Slovakia is surrounded by the Low Tatras. If you are interesting to find some photos of this part of Slovakia visit my website: www.horehronie.pkdesign.sk. Website is in Slovak language but I would like to translate it into English. Best regards. - Peter Koreo
***Hi Peter, Thank you for your e-mail . I will share your note and URL with the rest of our TARG membership for anyone interested. - Paul
---Hello Paul, My name is Margaret Micherdzinski. I'm a Polish-American living, researching, and writing for the past six years here in Krakow, Poland. My paternal grandfather, Florian Aleksander Micherdzinski was originally from Zywiec. Is there anyone in the group who could contact me specifically? I have much research (both in Polish and officially translated into English). Was certainly excited to accidentally find your website. My email address is mmicherdzinski
yahoo. Would be grateful for your contact. In the subject line of e-mails please put: "Tatra Area Info Request". Maybe my research can help someone else find their loved ones. Best, Margaret Micherdzinski
***Hello Margaret, We are glad you found us accidentally, too! Thank you for your offer to help. I know many of the Polish villages within our TARG sphere have parish record copies in the Roman Catholic archives in Krakow. I will post your e-mail on the website and also reprint it here in the E-Newsletter for the TARG membership to read. Thank you again! - Paul
---Good Morning Paul, Thank you for your fast reply. The payment has been made via PayPal. I appreciate you making such unique books available. My mom's parents are from Slovakia, and this is my mom's way of being able to visit the land of her ancestry from her own living room. Thank you and God Bless. - Carolyn Ross
***Hi Carolyn, Your books were sent today via Priority Mail and should arrive within three days. I hope your mother enjoys the books and thank you again for your order that helps supports TARG. - Paul
---Hello, My ancestors came from Czarny Dunajec, Poland. While visiting there, I received a copy of the book "Czarny Dunajec i Okolice" (a history of the town). I would like to know how many people in the TARG organization would be interested in a translated version of the book. If enough people are interested, I may be able to get it translated from Polish to English. The book is 554 pages and covers the gminy (extended community) of Czarny Dunajec. Could you post this query or send it to the membership? Thank you. - Margaret Baniecki Hadsell
***Hi Margaret, Yes, I will include this in our next e-newsletter. I have a copy of the same book which I bought in a bookstore in Nowy Targ. It is one of the largest town-specific books I've yet found. It does also include surrounding villages (thus the part in the title "i okolice" which means "and surroundings"). Thank you for your offer. - Paul
---Dear Paul, For all those who did not get a 2006 tour flier, here is an update: anyone who sends a Treasures Trip deposit before Dec 30 can deduct $50 from the trip cost. The '06 trip info will be on our www.Our-Slovakia.com website and you will be able to download it in color or black and white. If this doesn't work - or you by chance didn't get a flier - let me know. All best wishes and hope you tell your family and friends about our '06 Treasures Tours offerings. And to all our former travelers - we would love to have you join us once again! Srdecny pozdrav, Helene B. Cincebeaux
***Hello Helene, I will certainly share this with our TARG members. I see you offer another "Three Countries" tour next year (Aug 11-21) like many TARG members have enjoyed in the past as it gives them such a nice chance to "break away" and spend a day or two in their Slovak or Polish ancestral villages. - Paul
---Dear Mr. Bingham, Having visited your site I invited you to visit mine, as five views from the High Tatra and the valley of the Dunajec are depicted there. URL: www.kunsthandel-haugwitz.com/englisch/works.htm. Do you happen to know, who might have organized the expedition to Krivan and Prislop in the year 1817? - Kind regards Ralph R. Haugwitz
***Hello Ralph. Thank you for sharing your website photos with us. The expedition to Krivan and Prislop were probably Polish climbers, but I do not know their names. Sorry. - Paul
---Hello, In your Timeline on the TARG website it states in 1943: "Nazis begin invading Tatra-area towns to quell building resistance..." and in 1944: "A DC-8 from Krosno, Poland, loaded with supplies for the Partizans, slams into the Tatras' Gerlach peak on approach to Poprad in bad weather." Is the first statement true? The Uprising did not start until August 1944. The second statement calls for a "DC-8". That was most likely a DC-3, the workhorse of the era and airplane that held the record for most passenger-miles until the 747 came along. The DC-8 would have been in the late '50's. Nice reading all the same. Too bad the TARG sphere doesn't go east to Sulin. - Ron Matviyak
***Hello Ron, thank you for pointing out these two items. You are correct: the so-called "Uprising" did start in August 1944, but Nazis' repeated attacks on Slovak border towns in 1943 are one factor which led to the organization of the VRV and subsequent uprising the following year. The plane that crashed was most certainly a DC-3, too. I've made corrections and clarifications to these two and several other items in the timeline. Thank you again for your help. As for Sulin, SK, it is indeed within our TARG sphere, but we as yet have had no members to represent it. I believe it is also within the "Carpathian Connection's" sphere, too, and you will find much more coverage on it (written by Kevin Sirotnak) by going to: www.tccweb.org/sulin.htm. - Paul

FOR THE HOLIDAYS___________
The Seven Years of TARG Sale: in commemoration of seven years of success -- and just in time for the Holidays -- TARG is celebrating by having a 30% off sale to TARG members only on all remaining items on our TARG website. (This is a "for-TARG-members-only" sale, so whatever the website price states, take 30% off. Please also mention "I'm a TARG member" when placing your order. Stated shipping costs still apply. Hurry for best selection.) There are still lots of great things to choose from, including the gripping OSS book (author-autographed copies, too!), dictionaries, maps, one-of-a-kind books and some beautiful and rare TARG-area specific stamps for collectors. Go have a look at our website at www.mytarg.net and click on "BOOKS, ETC. FOR SALE". Simple order instructions are there, too. We can take your PayPal orders or even bank card orders through PayPal now. And remember your orders help support TARG.
Daniel Kisha writes: "Every year, mostly at Christmas and Easter, (but it can be done at any time), we send out food baskets at about cost, for people who have family and friends in Slovakia. If you visit our website at: www.slovakic.com and go to the link for Christmas Baskets you will find the information. Have the names, addresses, and if possible, the phone numbers of the people you are sending to. In each package we include a card with your name and address. Please send the information to me at my email address: daniel.kisha
prodigy. Last year several people gave money, as a gift, to be given to the needy in Slovakia. This money was used to give food baskets to the needy, but most of it was used to buy toys and clothes for children in orphanages through the Churches in Martin, SK. - Dan Kisha"

TATRA MOUNTAINS BOOK - PART 6__________
Chapter 2 "The Robbers" concludes:
"The Robbers were proud independent people, with an interesting local culture, and they recognized no authority. Although today there are no more robbers in the Tatras, much of their old spirit survives. A famous Tatra song reads:
"High lords you, high lords you,
And lords you will remain.
But never will you, oh, never,
be lords over us here."

"I remember a train puffing heavily up the steep rise before Zakopane, the mountain resort and the capital of the Tatra highlands. Two local lads in their colorful white Goral trousers of thick, heavy wool with red and blue embroideries, and short embroidered, sleeveless sheepskin jackets were singing blissfully at the top of their voices a local tune - and they do go up to a high pitch when they sing. Suddenly a German police officer emerged from the next compartment and turned on them roughly, demanding that they should stop singing at once.
"They looked down at him disdainfully, their eyes blazing with anger. One said: 'And who are you to talk like that? People here don't object to our singing, do they? So what have you got to say? We are free and there is no harm in singing.' The other added: 'You had better keep quiet, or you might find yourself on the other side of the window before you know what's happened.' The police officer, used to tame obedience, disappeared from the scene rather sheepishly.
"It must be known that the Tatra Highlanders are proud of their singing and a derogatory remark on that subject is a moral insult. But in defense of the police officer, I am inclined to admit that the charm of the performance is not always unalloyed. Anyhow, the alleged Marcomanni seem signally ill-adapted to Nazi ideology, and it appears that from time to time a missing Nazi is found by smell in some lonely place among the mountains."
(We will begin Chapter 3 "Take it Easy" in next month's issue.)

CONTACTING TARG_____________________
To contact the TARG Editor, the new e-mail address is: TatraAreaResearchGroupgmail. 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 address above, go ahead and use the old address (targ_nethotmail) by clicking here.
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