Bill, Based on info I have gathered so far I am at the point of either (1) Requesting FHC info or (2) writing to Archives in Slovakia. Situation: GF born in Almas (there are at least 4 towns/villages which can claim Almas as their name over history). A clue is fact that his last place of residence was Lucka (there are at least 5 Lucka's). Assuming "his" Almas and Lucka are fairly close together, this would narrow the field down to 2 of the four choices: Jablonov nad Turnou ESE of Roznava and Jablonov, east of Levoca. (I hope). In any case, for that region of Slovakia, I presume the historical records would be in the same Archive office. I have his exact date of birth, but there is some variation in spelling of the last name (Smorey, Czmorey, etc.) Any thoughts on whether FHC or Archives would produce best results and be the best course of action at this point? Understand Archive search comes with cost which is OK. The goal is to identify his parents and confirm place of birth. On another issue - have had absolutely no luck identifying arrival of my GM, Anna Pastircak to the U.S. I have only sketchy info from marriage certificate, etc. No luck on EIDB, even using all the spelling variations I and the computer can come up with. Only have year of immigration (1905) from 1920 Census records but that doesn't track with her comment to me when I was a child that "she came to the U.S. when she was 14". Born 1895, plus 14 equals 1909 vice 1905. A mystery continues. On another note: I would never have found my GF's ship manifest info without the Stephen Morse "Missing Manifests" software. NOTHING else worked. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Bill Smorey Researching Smorey, Czmorej, Csmorey, Czmorey, Pastircak, Konzal, Konzel, Serrianni, Serianni, Giordano, McCormack, Clark > More Ellis Island database search tips dealing with errors > > For those searching with www.ellisislandrecords.org I'd like to point > out a couple more examples of database transcription errors which will > inevitably haunt you all. I uncovered the following examples just today > and one of them let to a significant breakthrough for me. > > Arrival: November 02, 1903 > SS Belgravia > > You will see a BIG boondoggle here: Line 24 has the incorrect > passenger name in the "text" list. And age. Looks like the passenger > name (from the "image") is FEDOR POLULIK (but you won't find it in the > database index ("text") recorded that way; it's listed as MOLNA, JOSEF.) > Here is the story: > > Here are the passenger list lines, page 109, List 21: > 0023. Pastornak, Josef M 25y S Austrian, Polish Brody > 0024. Molnar, Josef M 26y M Austrian, Polish Smerek > 0025. Molnar, Josef M 26y M Hungarian, Magyar Nagy Ecs > > (navigate to these listings by going to the web site above, searching > for any of these names, finding the correct entry by date shown above. > Then look at both the "text" and the "image" of the manifest.) > > I stumbled across this entry. Having exhausted the intuitive, obvious > means of searching the database (names that sound and look alike), I > began scouring manifests, page-by-page, looking at the "text versions." > Instead of looking for Surnames, I was scanning for village names. > That's how I found this one. > > For me, the bigger reward was just a half-hour ago, when I found my > Grandmother's first passage to America. I had been looking for 17 > months online for it. I had been looking for MARIA DZIUBA (DZUBA), who > had originally been from Wetlina, moved south to Nova Sedlica. In the > same manifest (as above) I found her name, misspelled as: MARIA SZIUBA, > when I noticed entries for "Novaszedlicza". > > So, the manifest is correct, it's just a great example of how the people > who typed the data into the computers at EIDB messed up. They were > either not careful enough in their typing or were not adequately trained > in the reading of cursive or they were rushed. I still say God Bless > them. However, the moral of the story is to never give up and keep > thinking of different ways to find them. That's my encouragement for > you for today! > > > ______________ > Bill Tarkulich > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >

Knowing the year the village was cited is important Jablonov was called 1863-1902 Almas; 1907-1913 Szepesalmas,1920+ Jablonov, spis county Jablonov nad Turnou was called 1888-1902 Almas; 1907-1913 Szadalmas; 1945-48 - Jablonov Nad Turnou; abov county Jablonovce - Also/Felso-Almas 1863-1913; nont. County; Jablonove 1863-1907 Almas, bratislava cty Luka - , Vagluka 1913, but generally called Luka thorughout all time, Nitra county You can check the FHC for records online (titles only) at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp Make sure you search on present day names only. Films are being released from east to west. Right now, they're finishing up the Presov region, Nitra will be last. If its not at the LDS FHC, you'll need to write to the regional archives. If as you say, it's near Levoca, the regional archives is right there. Here are the details on how to write http://feefhs.org/frl/czs/dg-arch.html Re On another issue - have had absolutely no luck identifying > arrival of my GM, Anna Pastircak to the U.S. It's probably badly, badly mangled. Try to discover other names or relatives from the same village and follow them along, including who they went to stay with, then search further for those names. Search the pages directly. Re: Born 1895, plus 14 equals 1909 vice 1905. A mystery continues. Don't lose sleep over this one, dates are inevitably wrong, either in writing or in memory. Plus or minus five years doesn't surprise me. Plus or minus 10 years might, unless one was being purposefully deceptive. Yes, the missing manifests stuff is great. It looks like Steve Morse site is down again unfortunately. AFHIC appears to be harrassing him again. Please write a letter of protest to ellisisland.org. Persist on the villages. Bill > -----Original Message----- > From: wasmore@att.net [mailto:wasmore@att.net] > Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 12:36 PM > To: SLOVAKIA-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: More Ellis Island database search tips dealing > with errors > > > Bill, > Based on info I have gathered so far I am at the point > of either (1) Requesting FHC info or (2) writing to Archives > in Slovakia. > Situation: > GF born in Almas (there are at least 4 towns/villages > which can claim Almas as their name over history). A clue > is fact that his last place of residence was Lucka (there are > at least 5 Lucka's). Assuming "his" Almas and > Lucka are fairly close together, this would narrow the field > down to 2 of the four choices: Jablonov nad Turnou ESE of > Roznava and Jablonov, east of Levoca. (I hope). > In any case, for that region of Slovakia, I presume the > historical records would be in the same Archive office. > I have his exact date of birth, but there is some > variation in spelling of the last name (Smorey, Czmorey, etc.) > Any thoughts on whether FHC or Archives would produce best > results and be the best course of action at this point? > Understand Archive search comes with cost which is OK. The > goal is to identify his parents and confirm place of birth. > > On another issue - have had absolutely no luck identifying > arrival of my GM, Anna Pastircak to the U.S. I have only > sketchy info from marriage certificate, etc. No luck on > EIDB, even using all the spelling variations I and the > computer can come up with. Only have year of immigration > (1905) from 1920 Census records but that doesn't track with > her comment to me > when I was a child that "she came to the U.S. when she was > 14". Born 1895, plus 14 equals 1909 vice 1905. A mystery continues. > > On another note: I would never have found my GF's ship > manifest info without the Stephen Morse "Missing Manifests" > software. NOTHING else worked. > > Any suggestions would be appreciated. > Thanks, > Bill Smorey > Researching Smorey, Czmorej, Csmorey, Czmorey, Pastircak, > Konzal, Konzel, Serrianni, Serianni, Giordano, McCormack, Clark > > More Ellis Island database search tips dealing with errors > > > > For those searching with www.ellisislandrecords.org I'd like to > > point out a couple more examples of database transcription errors > > which will inevitably haunt you all. I uncovered the following > > examples just today and one of them let to a significant > breakthrough > > for me. > > > > Arrival: November 02, 1903 > > SS Belgravia > > > > You will see a BIG boondoggle here: Line 24 has the incorrect > > passenger name in the "text" list. And age. Looks like > the passenger > > name (from the "image") is FEDOR POLULIK (but you won't find it in > > the database index ("text") recorded that way; it's listed > as MOLNA, > > JOSEF.) Here is the story: > > > > Here are the passenger list lines, page 109, List 21: > > 0023. Pastornak, Josef M 25y S Austrian, Polish Brody > > 0024. Molnar, Josef M 26y M Austrian, Polish Smerek > > 0025. Molnar, Josef M 26y M Hungarian, Magyar Nagy Ecs > > > > (navigate to these listings by going to the web site above, > searching > > for any of these names, finding the correct entry by date > shown above. > > Then look at both the "text" and the "image" of the manifest.) > > > > I stumbled across this entry. Having exhausted the > intuitive, obvious > > means of searching the database (names that sound and look > alike), I > > began scouring manifests, page-by-page, looking at the "text > > versions." Instead of looking for Surnames, I was scanning > for village > > names. That's how I found this one. > > > > For me, the bigger reward was just a half-hour ago, when I found my > > Grandmother's first passage to America. I had been looking for 17 > > months online for it. I had been looking for MARIA DZIUBA (DZUBA), > > who had originally been from Wetlina, moved south to Nova > Sedlica. In > > the same manifest (as above) I found her name, misspelled as: MARIA > > SZIUBA, when I noticed entries for "Novaszedlicza". > > > > So, the manifest is correct, it's just a great example of how the > > people who typed the data into the computers at EIDB messed > up. They > > were either not careful enough in their typing or were not > adequately > > trained in the reading of cursive or they were rushed. I still say > > God Bless them. However, the moral of the story is to > never give up > > and keep thinking of different ways to find them. That's my > > encouragement for you for today! > > > > > > ______________ > > Bill Tarkulich > > > > > > ============================== > > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy > > records, go to: > > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online > genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=> 1237 >