Genealogy Just Ask Blog Spotlight: Valerie Mauk
Genealogy! Just Ask! Group Members on Facebook are anxious to share with you how they have been researching during this covid-19 pandemic. They will share the miracles they have experienced with researching during a time that could be really difficult to find anything. You will also see the effects of their research experiences on members of their family.
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This Genealogy Just Ask Blog Spotlight was submitted by Valerie Mauk of Hollidaysburg, PA:
My grandmother had been married to a man by the name of Paul Modrak/Modrok back in the early 1920's. Unfortunately, he died in 1926, and my grandmother was left to raise a two year old son on her own. My grandmother married my grandfather, Mikula Males (Nicholas Mollish), in 1928, and my grandmother's son, John, was raised as Nicholas's child.
John's son, Jack (my cousin), and I always used to joke that they weren't real Mollishes since his dad was never officially adopted by my grandfather. The two of us had been trying to find information for quite awhile now about Paul Modrak's family, but had much difficulty in doing so due to various name spellings, and the fact that he had been born in Austria-Hungary had us dealing with a difference in languages.
Within the past two weeks, a gentleman from the Ukraine contacted both my cousin Jack and myself concerning Paul Modrak. It turns out that Paul is the brother of this gentleman's great-great grandmother. His father had done much of the research, and he is translating to English for us.
We now have copies of birth and baptismal records (not in English, of course, but being translated for us) of my grandmother's first husband as well as information about his parents and siblings. We had given up hope of making any kind of connection outside of the United States.
Valerie Mauk
Hollidaysburg, PA
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