Family Matters

I'm back to blogging. The trip home was uneventful, if long. Arrived in Annapolis and my back developed major problems making it difficult for me to sit at the computer. I'm on the mend now and want to talk about a number of things I had to skim over while we were traveling.


Valachovics from both countries, taken during our trip to Kúty (more about Kúty later): Front row, l-r: Jean Girard, Magdalena Hesekova, Larry Valcovic, Beverly Valcovic, Dee Brown; 2nd row, l-r: Rod Girard, Pavol Hesek, Margita Jakubecova, Adriana Jakubecova, Maria Galkaova, Ferdinand Heske, Dick Brown (This was behind the home of Ferdinand's brother Pavol's home. Pavol was not there. Below is the descendant list for Ferdinand's family, starting with his father Augustin and mother Genoveva Valachovicova:

1-Augustin (Gusta) HESEK (10 Sep 1911-20 Apr 2000)
+Genoveva VALACHOVICOVA (20 Jul 1917-12 Jan 2007)
. . . . . 2-Dr. Ferdinand HESEK (1938-)
. . . . . +Helena MACEJKOVA (1939-)
. . . . . . . . . . 3-Katarina (Katka) HESEKOVA (30 Mar 1965-)
. . . . . . . . . . 3-Anna HESEKOVA (4 Aug 1975-)
. . . . . 2-Agnesa HESEK (13 Sep 1940-30 Jul 1955)
. . . . . 2-Margita HESEKOVA (1943-)
. . . . . +Jan JAKUBEC (-)
. . . . . . . . . . 3-Adriana JAKUBECOVA (-)
. . . . . 2-Maria HESEKOVA (1947-)
. . . . . +Milau GALKA (-)
. . . . . 2-Jozef HESEK (1951-)
. . . . . 2-Augustine HESEK (1956-1956)
. . . . . 2-Pavol HESEK (1957-)
. . . . . +Maria [HESEKOVA] (-)
. . . . . . . . . . 3-Pavol HESEK (abt 1981-)
. . . . . . . . . . 3-Magdalena HESEKOVA (abt 1983-)

Yesterday, I went back over the travel entries and added some pictures. Scroll backwards and take a look. There are a few links also.

Today, I'd like to introduce the American Valachovics to the Slovak Valachovics.
The evening we arrived, we were met in the hotel lobby by cousins Ferdinand Hesek and (Fr) Augustin (Gusta) Drška.


Ferdinand Hesek -Ferdinand is retired from his work which involved calculating air pollution from road traffic in an urban built-up area. He spent time in Los Angles working with colleagues on the problem. He has two daughters. He was most generous with his time, acting our guide during all the time we spent in Bratislava, making certain we met family and saw the sights in the city.

Augustin Drška - Gusta is a priest in a Catholic church in Bratislava. We were to see more of his kindness and delightful sense of humor on the Sunday that we were his guests for Mass and dinner.

We had a wonderful dinner that first night, even though Gusta spoke no English and Ferdsh's was rusty. We talked about family, using a genealogy chart Gusta had made and the pictures we had of Uncle Tony's visit to [then] Czechoslovakia when Gusta was ordained. That was in 1963, so everyone looked much different. We were thrilled, as the trip went on, to meet many of the people in the pictures!

Pavol & Maria Hesek - On Friday, we went to Kúty, the Valachovic home in Slovakia. There, Maria Hesekova and her children (not so little children!) Magda and Pavol (both college students) entertained us royally before we went out to visit the street fair and tour Kúty. Unfortunately, Pavol was working out of the country during our visit, so we didn't meet him.

Maria served a wonderful meal of goulash and a strudel to die for! We all thought we had tried outstanding strudels in the US, but Maria's was glorious and we had a new standard by which to measure.

Magda (whose field of study is IT) was kind enough to scan several old family pictures for me, including the photo at the right of Ferdinand Valachovic (1891-1972), husband of Aunt Elizabeth (in Slovak, Alžbeta, 1892-1973). I'm thrilled to death! Aunt Elizabeth's birth name was also Valachovicova. As soon as I get a grip on the naming convention, I'll add it. I still have one question that I have to ask Ferdsh to answer.