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This is our bare-bones genealogy--showing only direct ancestors--from my 5G grandparents down to me. It's an impressive amount of information, but I merely typed it up. Special thanks goes to Denise Mello-Szydlowski (my first-cousin-once-removed through her dad, Michael Mello, brother of Anna P. Mello (see chart above)), who got most of this done through a Slovak genealogist.
People whose ancestors were somehow part of our original colonies can often find a lot of information by going to New England and rooting through records there; and many of those records go back to the 16-1700's. With as big a business as genealogy is anymore, lots of those records may even be online. If there are any Slovak genealogy records, however, the majority of them will be in Slovakia. Even then, they're not written in English but Slovak, Latin, and Greek, the latter two from church records from Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, and Roman Catholic churches. Go to Slovakia for the records if you want, but unless you can read Slovak, Greek, or Latin (and are used to the old script), you most likely won't find a thing. The genealogist had said that there are few records (at least for our family) before 1800, so that's where everything pretty much stops for us. Before that, there is mostly oral tradition, which is very unreliable. Even now, families will often say, "Really? See, I've always heard...."
Even so, in all of this, one must remember that not all data will be exactly true! Sometimes, people fudged dates, addresses, etc for specific purposes, whether to be older to join the military, save face over a baby born to a minor, or the husband had no idea the exact year his wife was born when giving information in filling out her death certificate. It's therefore best to state from whom or where you got your info, eg, "According to John K. Doe, Jane Doe's son, her mother was one of eleven children." It's also necessary to point out any discrepancies, such as, "On his tombstone, the date of his birth is 1810, but on his certificate, it says 1812. Jane Doe said the latter is probably the correct one."
But at least from this point in our family's history, we can be very precise about everything; there should no longer be any gaps or misinformation.
This is the section of the tree that brings us to Peter A. Mello (the yellow branch above).
Ignatius Zsatkovics
c. 1795
Teresa Leviczky
b. 1795-1801
Boksa, Saros, Austria-Hungary (now part of Stropkov)
- Caroline our direct ancestor
- b. 1815 or 1816
- John
- b. 1820
- Joseph
- b. 1822
- George
- b. 1824
- Alexander
- b. 1826
- Ignatius
- b. 1828
-Ignatius Sr. became a Greek Orthodox priest of Byzantine Rite.
-In 1846, he was nominated to the Greek Catholic Bishop Eparchy. Records do not show that he was a bishop.
-Church records do not exist in this area prior to 1800, so no exact birth dates or marriage date for the parents.
Caroline Zsatkovics
b. 1815-1816
Boksa, A-H
Andreas Prokopovics
b. 1802
Smilno, Saros, A-H
d. Apr 15, 1864 (church register) @ age 61
- Gyoirgy
- b. Apr 13, 1834
- Duplin, Saros, Austria-Hungary
- d. May 16, 1881
- Duplin, Saros, Austria-Hungary
-Andreas was the organist for the church in Duplin.
-Gyoirgy was 47 when he died (typhoid).
George Hanyak
c. 1800-1813
Susanna Gondley
c. 1813
- Maria
- b. Feb 03, 1833
- Strocin, A-H
- d. Dec 01, 1878
- Duplin, Saros, A-H
-Maria died from "a lung disease."
-No church records prior to 1800 exist in this area to show parents' birth/death dates.
Gyoirgy Prokopovics married Maria Hanyak on Oct 30, 1853.
- Susanna
- b. 1854
- John
- b. 1857
- George
- b. 1858, died 1862 @ 4.5 years
- Maria
- b. 1860
- Anna
- b. 1863, likely died as an infant
- Ilona (Helena) our direct ancestor
- b. Dec 13, 1864
- d. Nov 06, 1924
- George
- b. 1866
- Marie
- b. 1869
- Elizabeth
- b. 1871
- Anna
- b. 1873
- Andrew
- b. 1875
-George came to America in 1879 (13 yrs); eventually married Barbara Saksa. Olyphant, PA census of 1900 lists him as "hotel keeper"; 1910 census lists him in "real estate."
-Information from Hungarian Census of 1869
Seated is Ilona Prokopovics-Milyo with her daughter Anna
Mihaly Milyo
b. Aug 15, 1832
Maria Szkublyik*
b. Jan 10, 1839
- Peter Milyo our direct ancestor
- b. 1858
- Maria Kusnyir (stepdaughter to Mihaly Milyo)
- b. 1859
- Anna Milyo
- b. 1865
- Julia Milyo
- b. 1869
-No church marriage records found for Maria Szkublyik and Mihaly Milyo.
Ilona (Helen) Prokopovics
b. Dec 13, 1864
Duplin, Saros, A-H
d. Nov 06, 1924
Olyphant, PA
Peter Milyo
b. 1858
- Peter Andrew Mello our direct ancestor
- b. Dec 18, 1884, Deerfield County, PA
- Mary
- b. 1885
- Anna Millo (pictured with her mother, above)
- b. 1885
- Ann doesn't show up on any census that I have, but "she was indeed a sister of Peter A. Mello," (quote from Denise Mello-Szydlowski, granddaughter of Peter A. Mello).
- According to a marriage application in Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, Ann reported that she was 18 at the time of her marriage on August 15, 1903. This poses a problem, though, in that her older sister, Mary, was also born in 1885, per the census.
1903-18=1885, and August is the 8th month of the year; so for Ann to have been 18 years old by August of 1903, she would have had to have been conceived at latest by December of 1884.
Math check
Conceived in December of 1884+9 months (gestation)=born in August of 1885.
1885+18 (her age)=Ann is 18 in August of 1903, just in time for her wedding date.
But the girls' brother, Peter A. Mello, was born December18, 1884! If their mother got pregnant immediately after Peter were born (January, 1885), Mary would have have been born in September of 1885; and if their mother were to get pregnant immediately again after that (October 01, 1885), Ann would have been born in June of 1886, and she wouldn't be 18 years old until 1904, and both of those years are considered wrong according to the marriage application.
What if the girls were twins? It would account nicely for their both being born in 1885, but it would still require their mother's being pregnant almost immediately after the birth of their brother, Peter, and it would also require them to have been born a few months' prematurely in order for Ann to have made the "married at 18 on August 15, 1903" deadline. Still unlikely.
Nonetheless, because their older brother was born in December, 1884, the only way it works for Ann and her sister Mary to have both been born in 1885 is if they were twins.
Possible solutions
1. Mary and Ann were twins who were conceived immediately after the birth of their brother, and they were born at least 1 month prematurely.
2. Mary and Ann were to-term twins born in 1885, which means that they were born no earlier than September (but more likely in November or December). Either way, Ann was 17 when she married.
3. If Mary and Ann are not twins, then Ann was born in 1886, which still makes her at most 17, and possibly even 16!, on August 15, 1903.
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- George
- b. 1889
- Stephen Milo
- b. Dec 23, 1891, Lackawanna County, PA
- John
- c.1892
- Andrew Milo
- b. Jan 08, 1894, Lackawanna County, PA
- Margaret Milo
- b. Mar 28, 1896, Lackawanna County, PA
- Ilona
- b. Feb 01, 1898, Lackawanna County, PA
-Family stories say that Ilona was Hungarian, but a Slovak researcher says that Prokopovics is a Rusyn/Ruthenian name.
-Church records report that Ilona's family is Catholic.
-Ilona's godparents were Andrew Zsatko and Maria Hudak (Catholics).
-No birth records found for Peter Milyo Sr.
-On Peter A. Mello's WWI draft record, his name is Peter Millo. It said he had a medium build, brown eyes, and black hair.
-Peter and Ann (at least) live on Frank St. in Dunmore, PA in 1917-18.
-There doesn't appear to be anyone of our family using the surname Milyo in America, maybe in an attempt to become Americanized. These Milyo children seem to have adapted their name to whatever they liked--Milo, Millo, Miller, and eventually Mello--without going through the courts (a common practice at the time), so they can be hard to track.
-Names that Stephen went by are Stephen, Steve, Millo, Miller, and (according to memory) ended up as Mello. His daughters, Veronica and Mary, went by Miller. Veronica Miller ended up marrying a man named Miller, too!
Related to us? Sure, why not?
Stephen Mello with wife, Susan Demko-Mello, and children Mary, Cyril, and Veronica (L to R).
Veronica and sister Mary Miller, respectively.
Unknown gentlemen.
Andrew G. Mello
His niece--Anna P. Mello-Marcinko, daughter of Peter A. Mello--wrote on the back of this picture that he was 7'3" and that he "built bridges." Anna's daughter, Delores (my mom), told me that he was probably 6'6" at most. "He was tall, but he wasn't 7 feet!"
George Mello
The brother of Peter A. Mello, not Peter A.'s son.
This takes us as far as Peter A. Mello, my great-grandfather. Next will be "everyone" who leads up to his wife, Anna Demko (the green branch above).
Lots of confusion exists for locations and nationality of our pre-1900s ancestors and their villages. The Demko and Milyo families lived in the Carpathian Mountains. Their separate villages were located along the same steep hillside along the Ondava River valley in what is now called Slovakia. The Demkos lived at the top of the hill, in Vysna Olsava. It was mainly a Greek Catholic populated village. The Milyo family lived at the bottom of the hillside, 10 miles away, in Nizna Olsava, populated with Roman Catholics.
ReplyDeleteWhen our 1800s era ancestors were alive, Austria Hungary ruled the region. What is today called Slovakia was then known as "Upper Hungary." Countries to the west of Slovakia were known as Moravia and Bohemia. Following World War II, those two countries were combined with Slovakia as Czechoslovakia. Slovakia today is independent from the Czech Republic; its own country.