Family ties

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Today has been emotional, to say the least. It started out with a trip to Orava Castle, an absolutely beautiful castle/palace built on a hill in the Orava region, bits dating back as far as the 13th century, and still fairly intact. It was another sort of museum where you followed a guide around from room to room, without being able to wander freely, but I can certainly see why in this case. Not so much to protect from theft or anything as to prevent people from getting lost (the place is huge!) or hurt (there are still open archaeological excavations on site). Not only that, but it was raining, and wood and stone have a tendency to get slippery when wet.

Next we ventured on to Podbiel, and stopped at the town hall. The travel company had called ahead to give them the names I'd provided. We were greeted by a woman in the town hall who seemed singularly unhelpful, but she called a colleague who turned out to be precisely the opposite. With only the name Peter Kruppa to go on, she managed to find the names of some of his family, including half-brothers and sisters, the sister still having living descendants. Sadly I'd missed the half-sister by a year - she passed away in 2009. I did get to see the houses where some of his half-siblings lived, and also the remains (sadly) of the house where Peter was born. The lady from the town hall said she just had a couple more leads for me, so while Marian and I had lunch, she wandered back to do research (please note that all of this was happening in Slovakian - Marian has been tour guide, chauffeur, and translator for me this entire trip). As a result of her research, I also discovered that due to hereditary law in Slovakia, I may actually be entitled to about 12 square meters of Slovakian property that has been unclaimed since Peter took off for Canada. I'm wondering if maybe his intention was never to stay in Canada, but rather return home after a few years... but then political turmoil kicked in. The lady at the town hall was practically begging me to claim it, as it makes their lives much easier if the owner of the property is living. We shall see - so many things to think about. Taxes, legal status, what the hell to do with 12 square meters of Slovakia... Not to mention that I'd have to try and rack down all the other living descendants and buy them off, essentially, or else it gets split between us.

There wasn't much luck on the with the Zuffa side of things, though, until I dug out an email from my mom with the name of another Zuffa-rich village nearby. We zipped off to the town now acting as administrative centre for the village, only to discover that their records only went back so far as 1895. Not so helpful when you're looking for births from 1885. But the woman with the records indicated that she would try and get in touch with the mayor's father, who was from this village, to see what he might know. A visit to him was futile (not enough info on my end to separate one branch of Zuffas from another), but we drove out to the village of Zemianska Dedina just to take a look. I'd basically given up, but Marian stopped to ask someone if there was anyone in town with good knowledge of the family history.

JACKPOT!!!

We were pointed to a house a few doors down, found the owner, and Marian explained what I was looking for. the owner ran a few doors down to grab his son, who's got to be younger than me by a few years at least, but who has been digging through the family history of all lines of the Zuffas, and who was a fount of information. I was invited into their home, served drinks and chocolate, given a copy of the Zuffa coat of arms... I have never felt more welcome. But, they said, even if it's just a distant connection, you're still family. Turns out it wasn't so distant after all. Given some of the names we came across, we're pretty sure that we're ... whatever you call cousins that share the same 2x great grandfather. Basically the family tended only to marry other Zuffas, or the other main family in town (Dedinsky), so the fact that a Michal Zuffa of an appropriate age married a (Jo)Anna Kurlatak is extremely rare, and although we couldn't find any record of my great grandmother, it's about 95% certain we've got the right family.

So anywho, I've got email addresses, I've joined a Zuffa facebook group, and here's hoping we stay in touch. I now have more names, dates, and a fellow researcher with better access to the data and vital records I would need to continue my research.

After visiting the Zuffas, we went out to visit one of the descendants of Peter Kruppa's half-sister (on par with my grandmother's generation, as the half-sister was much younger). Again, I was welcomed into the home, shown around, given a family photo, and it turns out that her sone is a carpenter - so I was given a folk carving he'd done. All this from a country of people who certainly aren't rich, and for some random Canadian who just showed up totally unannounced on their doorstep announcing myself as possibly their half-first-cousin-a-few-times-removed. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the end of the day. I also picked up an email address there, so more possible contacts. Absolutely overwhelmed by the openness and generosity these people have shared with me, right from the start.

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Photos

The house where my great-grandfather was born
from a photo in the museum in Podbiel

The house now
Sadly the part that actually belonged to my great-grandfather has been torn down.