This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: mdstark22 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.illinois.counties.adams/7657.3/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I wonder if "pushkar" is the right spelling? This is why I'm wondering. My deceased grandma's name was Mary (or on her birth certificate Maria) Puskac. In the USA she always pronounced it like "push"-"kash". I remember that in Hungarian pronounciation the /s/ and the /c/ have different pronounciations than in English. She came from the Austrian Hungarian Empire from a town called Zavod. Now it is in Slovakia. Before it was in Czechoslovakia. But, she said that her family was Slovakian and spoke Slovakian too, not Czech. Then I found out that our name Puskac, prounounced "push-kash", is actually a Hungarian name. She said they never spoke Hungarian although it had been taught in schools. Anyway, Zavod is right on the border with Hungary and not too far from Bratislava in Slovakia. Her father was Joseph Puskac and his father was Sebastian Puskac, also from the same town. She entered Ellis Island with her grandfather Sebastian Puskac in 1908. She was born in Slovakia in 1900. Now, here is where things get interesting. Although I don't think we are probably related, maybe this will help you. On the census records I saw on the internet, in the 1930's or so in Vermillion Co. Illinois they were spelling the family's name as Puskar!!! I am thinking that maybe the orthography or handwriting in Europe made the written /c/ on the end of a word look like the written /r/ on the end of a word here in the USA. So, have you ever thought that maybe the name "Puskar" might be like my grandmother's family name "Puskac" and they just made a mistake in the way they copied it when they copied the way it was written in Europe in the census of the USA? A person who spoke English with an accent might have written his name down to make it clearer and the person who read his handwriting might have thought his final letter /-c/ was the American final letter /-r/ and copied it down that way. Anyway, good luck with your research. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.