Winter Wednesday Wedding: The 110th Anniversary of Ferencz & Ilona Ujlaki

On a cold Wednesday 110 years ago today 25-year-old Ferencz Ujlaki married his bride, 20-year-old Ilona Bence, in the Catholic church of a small Croatian village in Austria-Hungary.

Their life together would carry them to New York City where they would Americanize their names to Frank and Helen, raise six children, and leave a host of descendants.

Yesterday a cousin of mine and I (Hi, Ric!) worked to calculate the current count of just how many descendants Frank and Helen have as of this, their 110th anniversary. We are happy to report that - tada! - the number is actually more than 110!

In honor of this very special anniversary and in hopes that we, their descendants, will not forget the lives of Papa and Grammy Ulaky (as we now know them) and the sacrifices they made that altered the courses of so many of our own lives, I'd like to briefly share their story once again.

~

Ferencz and Ilona were born in different villages just across the Drava River from each other in what is now northern Croatia. At the time Donja Dubrava (formerly Alsodomború, where Ferencz was born in 1879) and Legrad (where Ilona was born in 1884) were considered part of Zala megye (Zala County), Austria-Hungary. Presently this area is in Croatia right on the border of modern Hungary. Read more about the fascinating history of their home villages in Međimurje: Meeting place of rivers and cultures.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church (Župa Presvetog Trojstva), Legrad's parish, was the home church of the Bence family. That is where Ferencz and Ilona married on February 15, 1905.

Their marriage record includes lots of information, including their birthdates and birthplaces, parents' names, occupations, etc. Both the bride's and groom's fathers are listed as földműves (farmers). Ferencz himself is listed as bognár: a wheelright. I was happy to see that the document has the original signatures of both the bride and the groom (see the right hand side of the photo below).

Within the first year of their marriage, by the fall of 1905, Ilona was expecting their first child. As one of the couple's daughters shared with me, Ferencz hastened his plans to immigrate to America before the baby was born: he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to bring himself to leave after his or her arrival. He left the port of Antwerp for New York on April 7, 1906. Baby Ferencz was born just a month later on May 9, 1906. Ilona and her baby stayed behind for almost three years. They left the port of Rijeka (Fiume) on February 13, 1909, joining Ferencz in New York City on March 2, 1909. Theirs was a difficult journey, but the small family was finally reunited.

Following their firstborn, Ferencz (later called Frankie), four daughters were born followed by another son. The girls - Ilona (Helene), Marie, Wilma, and Ethel - were born while the family lived in the Hungarian neighborhood of the lower East side of Manhattan. Their youngest child, Kasmir, was born after they moved to Staten Island into a home built by Frank with the help of friends.

Ferencz and Ilona's days were filled with the struggles of new immigrants trying to raise children, make a living, and somehow fit into the new culture in which they found themselves. Theirs was a difficult life, as I realized with even more clarity when I created a short timeline of her Ilona's sorrows over just a 33-year period. Helen lived to be 97. Sadly, Frank succumbed to tuberculosis at only age 60.

Their marriage had lasted only 34 years, yet today we celebrate the 110th anniversary of their union and the more than 110 descendants that are here today thanks to their love and sacrifice. Their wedding took place a day after February 14. That date has two special memorial celebrations in the Catholic Church: St. Valentine's Day (on which today we celebrate love) and the memorial of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the "apostles to the Slavs" who are known for bringing Christianity to the Slavic peoples (my Ujlaki and Bence ancestors included). The saints we celebrate on this day make it easy for me to remember the anniversary of my great-grandparents on February 15.

Happy 110th anniversary, Papa and Grammy!

Frank and Helen (Bence) Ujlaki

Marriage at a Glance

• Married: 15 February 1905 in Legrad, Austria-Hungary
• Children: Ferencz/Frankie (1906-1942), Ilona/Helene (1910-2009), Marie (1911-2011), Wilma (1913-2014), Ethel (1920-1943), Kasmir (1922-2006)
• Duration of Marriage: 34 years ending at Frank's death on 22 April 1939

Ferencz/Frank Ujlaki
1879-1939

Life at a Glance

• Name at birth: Ferencz Ujlaki
• Parents: Josip Ujlaki and Terezija Globlek
• Born: 17 March 1879 in Alsodomború (Donja Dubrava), Austria-Hungary
• Immigrated: Departed Antwerp aboard the S.S. Zeeland on 7 April 1906; arrived at Ellis Island in New York City on 19 April 1906
• Died: 22 April 1939 in Staten Island, NY at age 60
• Buried: St. Mary's Cemetery, Grasmere, Staten Island, NY

Ilona/ Helen (Bence) Ujlaki
1884-1981

Life at a Glance

• Name at birth: Ilona Bence
• Parents: Stjepan Bence (1857-1939) and Magdalena Bedenica (1860-1957)
• Born: 6 May 1884 in Alsodomború (Donja Dubrava), Austria-Hungary
• Siblings: Katarina (1882-1981), Adam (1888-1915)
• Immigrated: Departed Rijeka (Fiume) aboard the S.S. Carmania on 13 February 1909; arrived at Ellis Island in New York City on 2 March 1909
• Died:  15 September 1981 in Staten Island, NY at age 97
• Buried: St. Mary's Cemetery, Grasmere, Staten Island, NY

This article is included as part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge organized by Amy Johnson Crow. The theme for Week 7, in which this article falls, is "Love". [Note: Hat tip to Donna Pointkouski of What's Past is Prologue for the summary format I've used at the end of this article.]

My new Croatian Genealogy QuickGuide™: Journey with me back to your roots in Croatia

My family's Croatian roots were originally hidden.
After research I discovered that my grandmother's
"Hungarian" family had actually originated in northern Croatia.

This fall I visited Croatia, but not in the sense that you might imagine. Though I do hope to actually set foot in the country of my ancestors again sometime in the next few years, this "trip" to Croatia was a virtual tour of the country, its history, its geography, and most of all its genealogical treasures.

Croatian genealogy can be a challenging area, yet those who are up to the task can be rewarded with great discoveries.

I am privileged to be able to delve into the heritage of my great-grandparents' who hailed from near the Hungarian border in the northernmost region of Croatia. The country is diverse, and so are the stories of the peoples who have lived within its borders. The historical influence of many different nations, peoples and cultures and the variety of languages found within Croatian records can test the skills of even an experienced genealogist.

My Croatian Genealogy QuickGuide™
is a resource for both experienced researchers
and those new to tracing their Croatian roots

In partnership with Legacy Family Tree, I am pleased to present to you a brand new aid for your quest for Croatian roots: my Croatian Genealogy QuickGuide™, a downloadable resource that includes -

• An overview of the history and geography of Croatia
• Details about the types and whereabouts of available records
• A description of the various types of archives and repositories that house Croatian records
• An explanation of the numerous languages in which Croatian records were written
• A glossary of common terms in several of those languages
• Links to many types of online resources (genealogy guides, translation tools, maps, forums, blogs and more)
• A list of genealogy-related publications in both English and Croatian
• A research strategy to follow for success in tracing your Croatian roots

One of the kind editors who took the time to preview this little guide for me wrote a note on the sidebar during the editing process: "You're practically handing them their family trees!" Well, not quite, but it is my hope that this resource will act as a compass when you're feeling lost in the world of Croatian genealogy.

If nothing else, I hope it will inspire you to take up the project again (or for the first time). Working on this project has definitely done that for me. I am proud to be the descendant of my Croatian-American great-grandparents and am greatly looking forward to digging more deeply into my Croatian roots. I hope you will join me.

~

Update: I am pleased to announce that all three of my genealogy guides are now available as Amazon Kindle eBooks. Whether you have a Kindle (or use the free Kindle app on your computer, tablet or smartphone) you can now have handy access to these guides in eBook format.

What's the difference? The PDF downloads are in a compressed format and make the guide compact for easier printing and sliding into the rings of a notebook. The eBooks include the same content laid out into book format, so they have more pages. They would use up more paper if printed, yet are easily scrollable using a Kindle or Kindle app.

For more details about the other QuickGuides™ I've authored, see: My new Hungarian Genealogy QuickGuide™: Trace your roots in the land of the Magyars and My new Catholic Genealogy QuickGuide™: Let me help you find those Catholic ancestors.

Happy researching!

The Hungarian language & the "poetry" of my childhood

Thomas Lynch in his memoir Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans mentions his memories of the words that his grandfather repeated often after blessing the food and giving thanks at family meals. He states, "This was part of the first poetry of my life."

I enjoyed reading the impression that those words made on his life and the interesting chain of events that resulted from childhood memories of his grandfather's references to the family members still left behind in Ireland.

Thomas Lynch's idea of "the first poetry of life" is a thought-provoking one. It sparked in me the desire to remember the "poetry" or "soundtrack" of my own childhood. In the process I asked myself some questions. What were the first sounds and words that have most influenced my view of the world? Whose words do I remember most clearly from my early days, and why?

One of the strongest memories that I do have, perhaps because it stood out from the voices of other family members, was the strong accent of my great-grandmother.

Lisa with Grammy Ulaky

 A native Croatian and Hungarian speaker, she and her husband spoke Hungarian to their children, but reserved the Croatian language to speak of subjects that were not appropriate for little ears. By the time I came around, no-one was left for her to share a conversation in the Croatian language, and only her children could speak Hungarian. That language, like Croatian, was never passed down to the succeeding generations.

I loved hearing my great-grandmother speak with her strong accent, and I enjoyed listening to her childrens' pronunciations of Hungarian words. At one point in my childhood, I asked my grandmother to help me write out a Hungarian glossary of the words and phrases that she used most, pronunciation guide included. I still have the handwritten list of Hungarian words that I made that day. Unfortunately, my proficiency with the language has not gotten too far beyond that first start.

The loss of my family's link to the Croatian and Hungarian languages, woven throughout the lives of my family members just a couple of generations ago, saddens me. It is perhaps one of the reasons that I find myself drawn more and more to learning the history, culture and languages of the lands of my ancestors. I am thankful that at the very least I had a small taste of these wonderfully rich cultures as a young child in the "first poetry" of my life.

For more on the Croatian and Hungarian languages here at 100 Years in America, see:

• Here's to Hrvatski! Google Translate now does Croatian
• A thousand words and a few pictures
• Crossing borders and language barriers
• Linguistically speaking
• Bumo vidli!

This article first appeared here at 100 Years in America on August 13, 2008.  Thanks to Loretta Murphy for recommending the book Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans via the 7th edition Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture: Looking into the heart of Ireland.

In search of Stefan/Stephanus/Stjepan S.

Browsing through the family documents that I've collected over the years I made an interesting and timely discovery. You may have read about the discoveries that I made back in February regarding my great-grandfather's trip to America thanks to a little help from some friends who discovered the passenger lists. (Ferencz Ujlaki and the trip he didn't take can be found in Part 1 and Part 2.)

One fact about Ferencz Ujlaki's trip that has stumped me is his specific intended destination in America. Listed as bound for New York, New York, both passenger lists (the one for the ship he first got on, and the one for the trip he actually took) indicate what appears to be the same friend's name and address as his intended destination.



Now, going through the copies I made of the Matična knjiga (Croatian for church records) that I found a few years back thanks to microfilm from my local Family History Library, I revisited Ferencz's birth registry. Born on March 17, 1879, Ferencz's parents' names are listed on the registry along with his godparents'. What a surprise to find that his godfather's name (listed in its Latin form because it is appearing in a Catholic church registry), is: Stephanus Štefić.


This name is very similar to the name of the man on both passenger lists of 1906. It is too unusual a coincidence and makes me wonder if this could be the same man.

According to the family story, Ferencz had grown up the only child of aged parents, his father blind. Could his godfather have taken a special interest in him throughout his life and could he have been the one to encourage him to set out for America to start a new life?

According to the Hrvatski Telekom (Croatian White Pages), there are many Štefić families still living in the area where my Ujlaki family hails from, particularly the village of Donja Dubrava. There is even currently a Štefić Stjepan living in the village, whose name may be spelled the way my Stephanus Štefić spelled his (outside of "Latinized" parish records, that is - Stjepan is the Croatian spelling of Stephen).

Now my next step is to do a little research on this new mystery man with a link to my family - to determine his history in Ferencz Ujlaki's home village, if possible, and to find his whereabouts in the United States, more specifically in New York City, where it appears my great-grandfather joined him upon his arrival as a brand new American immigrant in 1906.

A Croatian genealogy how-to guide: tips to get you started

As far as I know, there are only two sites in the blogosphere that currently focus on Croatian genealogy in the English language: 100 Years in America and Ćurković.ca.

I have been a fan of Ivan Ćurković's blog since I discovered it over a year ago. It is nice to have a fellow blogger writing about the world of my ancestors, even though we do not share a family connection and we are usually focusing on different regional areas.

As a son of Croatian immigrants living in Canada, Ivan has connections to family back in Europe that many of those researching their ancestors may not have. He also has something that I wish I could share: a proficiency with the Croatian language!

Ivan has traced his Croatian ancestors back nine generations (that's 300 years) to an area of what is now Bosnia-Hercegovina called Buško Blato and maintains a website about the genealogy of families from the area at BuškoBlato.org.

Ivan has recently put together a series of articles that have very helpful tips for those getting started and/or wanting to make further progress on researching their Croatian roots. At this point, he has three installments in his series. I'm looking forward to more in the future! Here are parts one, two and three:

• Starting Your Croatian Genealogy Research
• Online Tools to Expand Your Croatian Genealogy Research
• Finding Church Records for Croatian Genealogy
  

If you have Croatian roots I highly encourage you to read Ivan's articles and browse his blog for ideas and inspiration. Thanks, Ivan, for being such a good neighbor in the online world of Croatian genealogy!

November Croatian genealogy seminar in Pennsylvania

Just a couple of months following the Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies conference in Pittsburgh, a Croatian Genealogy Seminar is coming to Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Robert Jerin, of the Croatian Heritage Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, will be presenting the day-long event on Saturday, November 15 from 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

The Croatian Genealogy Seminar will cover the following topics:

• History of Croatia and origins of Croatians
• How our ancestors lived in the old country
• Croatian immigration to America and the journey to America
• How to get started with your family tree
• The "do"s and "don't"s of genealogy
• How to translate Croatian records
• How to locate records such as birth records, marriage records, death records, census records in the U.S. and in Croatia
• Translation of given names (with Croatian, English, Italian and Latin)
• Meanings and categories of surnames
• Figuring family relationships
• The value of the internet in doing family research online

The seminar will be held at the Monroeville Holiday Inn located at 2250 Mosside Road. The cost is $45 and seating is limited. For information or registration, contact Robert at rjerin26@yahoo.com.

The Hungarian language & the "poetry" of my childhood

Thomas Lynch in his memoir Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans mentions his memories of the words that his grandfather repeated often after blessing the food and giving thanks at family meals. He states, "This was part of the first poetry of my life."

I enjoyed reading the impression that those words made on his life and the interesting chain of events that resulted from childhood memories of his grandfather's references to the family members still left behind in Ireland.

Thomas Lynch's idea of "the first poetry of life" is a thought-provoking one. It sparked in me the desire to remember the "poetry" or "soundtrack" of my own childhood. In the process I asked myself some questions. What were the first sounds and words that have most influenced my view of the world? Whose words do I remember most clearly from my early days, and why?

One of the strongest memories that I do have, perhaps because it stood out from the voices of other family members, was the strong accent of my great-grandmother. A native Croatian and Hungarian speaker, she and her husband spoke Hungarian to their children, but reserved the Croatian language to speak of subjects that were not appropriate for little ears. By the time I came around, no-one was left for her to share a conversation in the Croatian language, and only her children could speak Hungarian. The language was never passed down to the succeeding generations.

I loved hearing my great-grandmother speak with her strong accent, and I enjoyed listening to her childrens' pronunciations of Hungarian words. At one point in my childhood, I asked my grandmother to help me write out a Hungarian glossary of the words and phrases that she used most, pronunciation guide included. I still have the handwritten list of Hungarian words that I made that day. Unfortunately, my proficiency with the language has not gotten too far beyond that first start.

The loss of my family's link to the Croatian and Hungarian languages, woven throughout the lives of my family members just a couple of generations ago, saddens me. It is perhaps one of the reasons that I find myself drawn more and more to learning the history, culture and languages of the lands of my ancestors. I am thankful that at the very least I had a small taste of these wonderfully rich cultures as a young child in the "first poetry" of my life.

For more on the Croatian and Hungarian languages here at 100 Years in America, see:

• Here's to Hrvatski! Google Translate now does Croatian
• A thousand words and a few pictures
• Crossing borders and language barriers
• Linguistically speaking
• Bumo vidli!

Thanks to Loretta Murphy for recommending the book Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans via the 7th edition Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture: Looking into the heart of Ireland.

First Croatian Catholic church in the U.S. may find new life as a museum

The home of the first ethnic Croatian parish in the United States, twice slated for demolition, has been given one more chance at remaining alive, possibly as a museum. The 108-year-old St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose parish was merged with another area church in 2004, will probably not see a future as a diocesan building. Instead, the Church may sell the property to the Croatian American Cultural and Economic Alliance, who has an interest in preserving it for historic reasons.

For more information on St. Nicholas, see the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's March 25, 2008 article entitled Vacant North Side church may find new life. A 2007 article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette regarding the removal of religious objects from the church is also of interest and includes a photo of the church.

Updates from the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation which was "established to save and preserve the beautiful St. Nicholas Croatian Roman Catholic Church" can be viewed at their website.