A young American family

This beautiful family photo (although a little raggedy at the edges and in need of repair) is one of my favorite portraits of Frank & Helen Ujlaky and their young family. (Click on the portrait to view it up close.) More than likely it was taken in early 1913, before Helen was visibly expecting her fourth child. Pictured are Frankie (about age 7), his parents Frank & Helen (formerly Ferencz & Ilona), and his younger sisters.

Helen and young Frankie had only been in the United States for about four years, but look how the family had changed!

With the exception of one, all of Helen's children were born at home. (She had seven children including a baby who was stillborn in 1918.) The exception was her last child, who was born in a hospital on Staten Island. According to one of her daughters, after having all of her other babies at home, it was quite a shock to her mother to birth her last baby in the hospital. She much preferred the way of birth at home.

Frank & Helen's oldest child Frankie was born in Legrad, Croatia (which was Hungary at the time). Their daughters were born in New York City at the couple's home in Manhattan.

One of the things that strikes me about the image of the Ujlaky family above is the way that the sisters are interacting. The eldest is holding her little sister's hand, being a little mother to her. After Frankie, and until the birth of their baby brother, this family filled with little girls.

According to one of the sisters, she and her sisters shared a bed when they were little girls. Together they learned embroidery from the nuns. When they got old enough, they used to help each other curl their hair using an iron rod heated in the fireplace. (Sounds dangerous to me!)

The closeness of these sisters that began in their childhood has continued throughout their lives, although they lost their belovedyoungest sister Ethel at the age of 22.

It is beautiful to see a portrait like this of the young Ujlaky family: new to family life and new to America. What a long way they have come.

A rose by any other name...

Surnames can be blessings or curses in the search for family history. While a more common last name is a good thing during roll call in elementary school and beyond, the more rare and unusual last names tend to be blessings during family history research. Up to a point, that is.

I have a nice mix of both types of surnames in my family tree. One of the least common ones happens to be one of the surnames which is the subject of this blog: the Ujlaki family.

My Ujlaki ancestors back to the mid-1800's resided in what is now northern Croatia, right on the border with Hungary. My continual question (one that I am always researching for further proof) is:

Just what type of heritage did this family have?

Their homes were right on the border of today's Hungary, and were swallowed up as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and more modern-day Hungary at different times throughout history.

Were they true Croatian Slavs? Or did they hail from the Hungarian Magyar tribe?

My great-grandmother Ilona Ujlaki's Ellis Island paperwork indicates Hungarian/German ancestry, the first place I had ever come across that idea. Would this note indicate her husband Ferencz' heritage, or hers? If her husband's, that might explain the sky blue eyes that he passed down to several of his children. Would he be of Austrian descent? Or German?

Then, there are the languages that he spoke. Croatian, Hungarian, English... those make sense. But Polish? Why and how would he have learned Polish? Did the family have relatives there?

All these questions, and no help from the Ujlaki surname. I have been unable to determine if the name is truly of Croatian origin or Hungarian origin or other. Perhaps it is a Slavic variation of an originally German name?

So many questions - so few Ujlakis to help me find the right answer.

I'm wondering if genetic genealogy could possibly provide me with a clue to my family's past.

My question for The Genetic Genealogist during the Carnival of Genealogy with a genetic twist:

What would you suggest for the best way to determine the original genetic heritage of a family? What types of information can I learn from a genetic test? How specific can genetic tests get with regard to origins - Western European vs. Eastern European, Croatian vs. Hungarian vs. Austrian?

When a surname is so uncommon (like Ujlaki) what are the chances that I might find someone else interested in a project for that name? Is it worth the time and money for someone with a relatively rare surname to participate in a genetic surname project?

I'll always be on the lookout for modern-day Ujlakis and descendants of Ujlakis (and Ujlakys and Ulakys, etc.). As all genealogists learn, a rose by any other name still shares the genes of a rose.

What I'd really like to know: just where did the Ujlaki family get its start?

Linguistically speaking

"The Arabs learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning; the Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening!"

~ Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady

Actually, it's more enlightening than frightening. Learning a language, that is.

My great-grandfather, Ferencz Ujlaki, is said to have spoken seven languages. These included Hungarian, Croatian, Polish and English, among others. Today, according to a current resident of his birthplace of Donja Dubrava, Croatia, only the older folk in the neighboring town of Legrad can still speak Hungarian. The younger residents of Donja Dubrava, which has moved in the 21st century a little faster than Legrad, consists of Croatian speakers who live just across the border from Hungary yet don't speak Hungarian.

And then there are Ferencz' American descendants.

Well, we speak English, of course.

Sadly, just English.

The first Croatian phrase that we should all learn is, "Ja ne razumijem. Ne govorim hrvatski." That means, "I don't understand. I don't speak Croatian."

It turns out that my great-grandmother and her generation used the Croatian language to speak secretively in front of their children without them knowing what they were saying. Their family discussion was carried out in Hungarian. A generation later, my grandmother and her sisters may have used Hungarian in the same way that their mother used Croatian to keep little ears from listening. The younger generations had no such "language of secrecy", and we remain primarily English speakers (with the occasional German and Spanish thrown in - learned from travels, college courses, etc.).

Inspired partly by my great-grandfather's linguistic abilities and partly by the desire to learn anything and everything about the world he and his family lived in, I checked out a Pimsleur language audio course on Croatian. I have fond memories of my grandmother speaking with her mother, Ilona, and her sisters, Wilma and Helene, in Hungarian. The language and vocabulary that they used was like a time-capsule version of Hungarian, since Ilona had left her home country back in 1909. To me, the sound of a native Hungarian speaker evokes fond childhood memories. I wondered what Croatian would actually sound like.

What an interesting surprise to hear the language via the Pimsleur audio CDs, especially after learning a few words and phrases in the language.

"Kako ti se svidja hrvatski?" means "How do you like Croatian?"

(Found that phrase thanks to the printable Single-serving.com miniature Croatian phrase booklet.)

I'm not sure that I'll ever have the chance to become even close to fluent in Croatian or Hungarian (surely it won't be with the speed of summer lightning if I do), but it sure is fun to get a glimpse into the world that my ancestors lived in through the language that they spoke daily.

Dobar tek!

I understand that Croatians sometimes say, "Dobar tek!" to eachother before a meal. The phrase means, "Enjoy!"

To thank all of you who have become regular readers of 100 Years in America, I've added some new features for you to enjoy. If you are a regular reader and don't scroll down the page each time past the most recent post, you might want to take some time to look down the sidebar now.

If you don't want to miss a new post, don't miss:

• The opportunity to subscribe to new posts via email


• The opportunity to subscribe to new posts in a reader (RSS feed is the term, if you want to get fancy)


• The opportunity to bookmark this site (Heard of del.icio.us?)

Also take a look at:

• The new Family Surnames list (hopefully this will help new readers to quickly determine whether or not they have a connection to our family)

If you want to learn more:

• Check out the Related Reading sidebar, with links to books of interest about Croatia, Hungary, Ellis Island, New York immigrants, genealogy, etc.

I'm glad to see that many of you are enjoying 100 Years in America. If you are a regular reader and you are enjoying this blog, please drop me an email if you get a chance. I'd like to hear your comments and suggestions.

In the meantime, it's late here, so I will offer you a Croatian good night. (Hopefully it is appropriate for your time of day.)

Laku noć & slatki snovi! (Good night and sweet dreams!)

Frankie the school boy

The young fellow in the top left-hand corner is our very own Frankie Ujlaky. According to the back of the photo, he is posing here with his classmates at Immaculate Conception Catholic School on E. 13th Street in Manhattan. He was probably around ten years old, so the picture may have been taken some time between 1915-1917. Brother Aloysius is the priest in the middle (according to the note on the back of the photo). A nice group of upstanding young men, don't you think? This picture reminds me very much of St. John Bosco and his famous boys.

The photo at left appears also to be at Immaculate Conception Catholic School. Frankie is circled in the center of the photo.

Young Frankie was quite a talented artist. He went on to become a sign painter as a young man and had business cards printed up for his services. He also did gold leaf lettering as I mentioned here.

Here is a small sample of artwork from his childhood, drawn on the back of the class picture:

My favorites are the woman with the flapper hairstyle at the left and the funny man with the bowtie near the middle.

I hope Frankie didn't do too much doodling during Brother Alolysius' classes.