Mellos, and Demkos, and Marcinkos! Oh, my!

The Secret Life of Slovaks. A whimsical name at most. I'm sure the subconscious idea came from some show or other. Since I decided on that as the name for this site, though, I may as well post a very little something about my Slovakness, on the off chance that some distant relative may pass by.

Keep in mind that there may be several ways to spell/pronounce some names due to different regions and Ellis Island. A cousin of mine did much of this genealogy with the help of a hired Slovak genealogist.

Without going back too far, the parents of my great-grandmother were John Demko (1864-1929) and Zussana Yuhas (1869-1930). Their daughter Anna Demko (born in Dunmore, PA) is my direct ancestor, and the one my family uses as the common-ancestor  yardstick when figuring out just how extended-family members are related to each other. (Slovaks have a lot of kids, and it isn't always immediately apparent how "that guy at the reception" is related to us.)

Anna Demko goes on to meet and marry Peter Andrew Milyo ("Mello" is what we go by), and they had a buttload of kids, my direct ancestor being my grandmother Anna P. Mello (1908-1985). She marries Michael Marcinko, the son of John Marcinko (d. 1945) and Mary Podrasky (d. 1955); Mary was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and came to America in 1890.

So that's it. In reality, there's a lot more, but that's all you're going to get. I'm throwing a Hail Mary here, but if any of this means anything to you, leave a comment (I never, ever check my email). Who knows? We may be third or fourth cousins 3x removed!