Please visit   barjwhit.com  our genealogy/ family stories resource center.

Kuty, Slovakia:   

Helena Maderic was born on  Aug 18, 1858. 
Her parents, Jan Maderic (1826) and Helena Riska (1836) were married 3 Feb 1853.

Josephus (Joseph) was born in 1849. 
His parents, Stephan Vavra (1825) and Terezia Valachovic (1830) were married on 6 Feb 1848.

Joseph (age 24) and Helena Vavra (age 17) were married 28 Oct 1873 in Kuty, Slovakia. 
The witnesses of their marriage were Michael Karafiat and Michael Vrabel.
Joseph was living in Kuty, House # 126; Helena was living in Kuty, House #458.  They were both Roman Catholic.  (Source:  FHL, Kuty 1873, entry 34)

(Update August, 2010)  We are very excited that the Family History Library (FHL), now has  Kuty, Slovakia records  available in the United States.  We are learning many new and interesting things about our Vavra and other Slovak ancestors.   As time permits, we will record the  information  at this website, starting with the Vavra Birth Records as linked below.

Joseph and Helena lived in Kuty.  Between 1874 and 1993, they had eight children.  Two children died only months after their birth. 

Their first four children were born in House #458.    The last four were born in House # 546. 

The godfather for all the children was Joannes Palkovic.  With only two exceptions, the godmother was Teresia Palkovic.  Two children had Susanna or Helena Palkovic for their godmother.  

            See Vavra Birth Records for the details of each child's birth as recorded in the Kuty, Slovakia records on file at the Family History Library. 

Joseph died from whooping cough on October 28, 1892, six month before his last child was born.  He is bury in Kuty, Slovakia.

After his death, his widow became a seamstress to earn money to support her children.  (Source: verbal, ML)

Immigration

In 1897, Helena's children began immigrating to the United States. 

Natick, Massachusetts
Most of them eventually settled in or around Natick,Massachusetts.  

Johnstown, New York
The only son, Joseph, settled in Johnstown, New York.  

Schenectady, New York
The youngest daughter, Josephine settled in Schenectady, New York.

Helena Maderic

In 1911, when she was 53 years old, Helena immigrated to Roxbury, Massachusetts  with her youngest daughter, Josephine. 
For more details of Helena's immigration, see Manifest 

After Josephine married and moved to Schenectady, New York, Helena went to Schenectady, too, and lived with Josephine and her family.

She lived there until she  died at the age of 86 on February 23, 1940 from cardiac insufficiency due to arterio sclerosis. 

She is buried at St.Cyril & Methodius Cemetery in Schenectady, New York

Helena's Brothers

From the obituary of Helen Maderic Vavra, we learned that she had three brothers: 

• John Maderic of Newburgh [NY]
• Joseph Maderic of New York City
• Michael Maderic of Vienna [Austria].  

We would like to get in touch with the families of these Maderics.
If any happen to read this page, please e-mail us.

(Update August, 2008)  In recent months, we have received  emails from several Maderic families.  In some cases, we think they may be cousins of Helena.  We are continuing to share information with these families to find more and more clues to all of our family history.  Learn more about these families at  http://Palkovic.us/Genealogy/Maderic.htm

Margaret Lentini and Helen Flynn, granddaughters of Helena Vavra gave us the initial information which allowed us to create the family tree which includes the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren Joseph & Helena Vavra.  Both Margaret and Helen knew their grandmother,  their cousins and their cousins' children.  They provide valuable, first hand information about this family.  We wish to thank Margaret  and Helen for giving us a good start on this genealogical journey.

Virginia Flynn, granddaughter of Anna Vavra Hesek did persistent research at www.ellisisland.org to find the immigration records of the Helen Vavra, her children, and some of the people who married into their family.  She also did extensive research at cemeteries, municipalities, and neighborhoods in NY and MA to gather information about all these families.  She obtained most of the documents included on this site.

(Update August, 2010)  In 2010, now that some records from Kuty, Slovakia are readily available at the Family History Library, Virginia once again devoted time and patience to do extensive research at the Family History Library (FHL) to find and document birth, baptism, marriage and death records of all the Vavra children, their spouses, and close family friends.  We are very grateful for the way Virginia's research has enhanced the story of our family with information that none of us knew before.

Barbara Whitaker, granddaughter of Josephine Vavra Palkovic initiated this site.  She is the coordinator and webmaster of the site.   

Frances Frizzell, granddaughter of Mary Vavra Kadlik has put the Vavra family tree on www.ancestry.com.   It is a  very comprehensive list of several generations of the Vavra family.  Search your grandma, grandpa,  mom or dad's name.  You'll probably find it on the Kadlik/Vavra Family Tree.  It's been the place where we cousins interested in genealogy meet each other.  Our special thanks to Fran for this marvelous list and some good pictures, too. 

Ivan Faltejsek from Slovakia is researching his own genealogy from the Kúty records in the Bratislava Archives.  Some people in his family and ours are connected through marriages.  When he finds information pertaining to our family, he forwards it to us.  Ivan has been a  valuable source for information for our families from Kúty.  He has a website at faltejsek.com which includes genealogical data bases and useful links .   Ivan is a continual source of  help to us and we are grateful to him.

Our Slovak Heritage

We are in the process of gathering resources that will help us learn about Slovakia--past and present.  In 1992, the Slovak Republic became an independent democratic nation.  Gradually more books about this country and its culture are being published in English.  Since 1995,  websites in both English and Slovak are fast appearing.  Here are two such books:

Streissguth, Tom; Sexton, Colleen, ed. Slovakia in Pictures.  Visual Geography Series.  Minneapolis:  Lerner Publications Company, 1995. (ISBN 0-8225-1912-7)

Stolarik, M.Mark Stolarik. The Slovak Americans.  The Peoples of North America Series.  New York:  Chelsea House Publishers, 1988  (ISBN 1-55546-134-4)

The two books listed above were published for school children to supplement their social studies curriculum.  I found them very useful as an adult learning about my heritage.  I found them on www.amazon.com for very little money.  The first is a great overview of modern Slovakia.  The second reminded me a lot of what I remember about the community of my immigrant Slovak grandparents.  I highly recommend both these books.  (Barbara Whitaker)

Meet Beverly   www.valcovic.blogspot.com 

Beverly found our site when searching "Kuty", where her husband's family comes from.  They recently made a trip to Slovakia, including Kuty and she has some wonderful information on her blog which we will all enjoy--pictures, information, and links to other peoples sites that are very good.

For the Hesek's among us, these Valcovics have some Hesek relatives.

Meet Michal Razus, from the Slovak Republic, is a researcher of Slovak genealogy and Rusyn genealogy.  We learned about him from the Jednota Newspaper,  where he advertises his services.  Michal was kind enough to do some translating for us.  Please visit his website at http://www.slovak-ancestry.com  to see the ways  in which he can be helpful when we search for information about out Slovak ancestors.

Networking  

This is a mini-bulletin board to network with Vavra families that may be related to Joseph and Helen.

(Update August, 2008)  We received an email from Carole who said, "I am currently working  on my family tree and my great grandmother was Julia Vavra Zilka. She was born in Kuty Slovakia in 1872."  Julia could could possibly be a sister or cousin of  Joseph Vavra? 

(Update April, 2009)    When researching Sprusansky ("kadlic") in the Bratislava archives, we found that Josef Sprusanksy married Julianna Zilka in 1837.  Could there be a connection here?

Return to top of page