The maternal ancestry of Valeria (Grečnár) Michutka
(1886–1947)
minor updates posted re: Anna's and Andrej's death records, 21 January 2024
original post 12 December 2023
PART I: Who were Valeria’s parents?
As a small child I was fascinated by the little family tree in the “baby book” my parents had carefully filled in. The top of the tree has boxes for the names of my great-grandparents, and two of them remained blank: the parents of my paternal grandmother Valeria (Grečnár) Michutka.[1] Neither my father nor his siblings knew their names; one of my uncles had been the informant for Valeria’s death certificate, and the spaces for her parents’ names simply state “Not known.” [2]
Although Valeria had told her children some stories about her childhood in Makov, Slovakia, she had been pretty mum about her parents. The family story accounting for Valeria’s illiteracy was that her parents had died when she was just a child and her schooling had ended with their deaths.[3] I once asked one of dad’s sisters whether their mother had ever related anything about her parents, even something simple such as a favorite song, habit, or saying. My aunt stared off into the past for a few moments and then slowly and silently shook her head “no.”[4]
A record is discovered and her parents are named
Some thirty or forty years after Valeria’s 1947 death, the widow of one of my uncles came across a few of my grandparents’ papers. One of these was a baptismal certificate of my grandmother Valeria Grečnár.[5] Born and baptized in Čadca (not in Makov!) in October 1886, she was the daughter of Michal Grešnar [sic] and Antonia Doulaj.[6]
And that was as far as I could get until the 1990s, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons) microfilmed and made available pre-20th century church records of Slovakia. Fortunately some slightly newer records had been microfilmed as well, and there I found my great-grandmother Antonia’s death recorded in Makov’s Roman Catholic parish register.[7] Her birth surname was “Dulaji,” and she was the wife of Michaël Grecsnár, so I knew I had the right woman. This gave me a few new details, but only a few: Antonia died in January 1902 at the age of 45 (but always be suspicious of ages ending in 5 or 0, which might be rounded or estimated). She had died of “phtysis” (i.e., tuberculosis or something similar) and had received the Last Rites. The inferences that can be drawn are that she was born between 4 January 1856 and 3 January 1857 (if her age was correct) and that her husband Michal had survived her.[8] The surprise was the year of death: my grandmother Valeria had lost her parents not during her early childhood as her children recalled her saying—rather, she had been in her mid-teens when her mother died and somewhat older when her father died.
More family details are uncovered and still more remain elusive
In the early 2000s I began to correspond with Grečnárs in Slovakia who lived in the same region as my Grečnár great-grandparents had lived, and in a couple of cases a response pointed me to yet another village where my great-grandparents had had a child baptized.[9] Through [unindexed!] church registers I eventually was able to follow my grandmother Valeria’s parents Michal and Antonia (Dulaj) Grečnár from village to village as their children were born, baptized, and in some cases, died.
In the thirteen years between April 1879 and January 1892 Antonia and Michal had five children; the first two died before their second birthdays. Given that their first child was born legitimate, Antonia and Michal must have married before April 1879. But where? Their marriage is not recorded in the Makov parish records where Antonia died, nor in the Čadca parish records where their daughter/my grandmother Valeria was born. Some of their other children were born or died in Žilina and Bytča; but there is no marriage recorded for Antonia and Michal in those parishes, either.
Some of their children's baptismal and death records state Michal’s town of origin as Lietava, a village just south of the city of Žilina; but not one of those records provides Antonia’s town of origin. There is no marriage record for Michal and Antonia in the Lietava parish (which includes a few of the neighboring villages). Additionally, none of the Lietava baptisms of babies named “Michal Grečnár” in the appropriate timeframe are annotated for a subsequent marriage in different parish.
Their children’s records also often note Michal’s occupation: usually a cabinet-maker or woodworker/carpenter of some sort, but sometimes a miller.[10]
Summary of key details at this point in the research
The parents of my grandmother Valeria (Grečnár) Michutka were Michal Grečnár, originally of Lietava, and Antonia Dulaj (ca. 1856–January 1902). Michal’s recorded occupations include miller and wood-working. They had at least five children between April 1879 and January 1892, and during those years lived in several places within the Kysuce region of Slovakia. Antonia died in the village of Makov and her husband Michal survived her; her place of birth was still unknown, as were the date and place of her marriage to Michal. Michal was from Lietava; his date and place of death were (and still are) unknown.[11]
My research was at a brick wall for several years; I had to either get to archives in Slovakia or wait (and wait) for more of the microfilmed parish records to appear online and be indexed.
Research in 2023: Antonia and her father
In planning archival research as part of a long trip to Slovakia for July and August of 2023, I enlisted the expertise and assistance of a fellow genealogist in Slovakia, Michal Razus.[12] My first priority was finding the 1902 civil death record for Antonia (Dulaj) Grečnár, in hope that it would provide more detail than the simple entry in the Makov parish death regeister. Civil vital records from 1895 (the beginning of civil records) to 1922 are at district archives; Makov is in the Čadca district, so that is where we would start. Pre-1895 records are archived at regional national archives, and post-1922 records are still at their respective towns.
Large volumes of indexes made the search easy, and I soon opened the volume of the certificates themselves to the one for Antonia Dulaji Grecsnár, the first death in Makov in 1902.[13] The death certificate is a pre-printed form, in Hungarian, and a little goldmine of information. Key details:
• Husband Michal was the informant and had signed the certificate.[14]
• Antonia was born in the village of Lietavská Lúčka—important new information!
• Antonia was 43 at the time of her death—this is a difference of two years from what was recorded in the church register, and could be helpful in finding her baptismal record.
• Her father’s name was Andras Dulaji [Andrej Dulaj] and he was deceased; his place of residence was Ó-Besztercze—today known as Stará Bystrica, another village in the Čadca district—this was pay dirt!!
• Her father Andrej had been a carpenter/wood-worker.
• Her deceased mother’s name and place of residence was unknown to her husband Michal—disappointing, but Michal’s ignorance here suggests that he had not known his mother-in-law, so perhaps she had died before he and Antonia married. That could be a helpful hint, also.
The brick wall between me and my Dulaj ancestors had begun to crumble.
PART II: Andrej Dulaj of Stará Bystrica: one man or two?
Michal Razus and I took time one day to see what we could learn in Stará Bystrica.
Andrej Dulaj, miller of Stará Bystrica, 1882–1884
When we asked about millers, someone in the town offices of Stará Bystrica suggested that we contact historian PhDr. Marián Liščák, who has studied local historical legal records and developed a name index of some sort. Michal called and spoke with Dr. Liščák, who noted the Dulaj details and said he said he’d get back to us. The following day he sent an email with the results of his search of his materials:
“For the Dulaj family, I only found estate records stating that in the years 1882–1884, Ondrej (Andrej) Dulaj rented a mill in the Hámer part, the so-called 'untern Muhle' [under the mill area] near the official buildings of the Tepličan manor. Ondrej apparently died in 1884, since in the years 1884–1887 this mill was probably rented by his widow Žofia Dulajova with Štefan Chmúr as guarantor. From 1887, the local businessman Bernard Löwy took over this mill from them.”[15]
Antonia’s father was named Andrej (Ondrej, Andras, Andreas) Dulaj and was associated with Stará Bystrica; could I prove whether or not this miller who “rented a mill in the Hámer part [of Stará Bystrica]” and “apparently died in 1884” was the same man? or at least rule him in or out as a candidate?
Most of the necessary information would be in parish sacramental records and could (I hoped!) be found online, so I set this part of my research aside until I returned home from Slovakia.[16] And as I later hunted through digitized church records at my desk, the brick wall fell.
Marriage record of Antonia Dulaj and Michal Grečnár, 1878
A parish marriage register entry that matches previously-known information about Antonia and Michal names her father Andreas Dulaj but does not name her mother: on 17 July 1878, thirty-year-old miller Michael Grečnár of Lietava married twenty-year-old Antonia Dulaj of Lietavská Lúčka, daughter of miller Andreas Dulaj; witnesses named in the register entry were millers Andreas Hanula and Joannes Medrli. Possibly banns were not announced—the indication that they were announced appears to be crossed out.[17]
Comments on this marriage record:
• If the ages are accurate rather than rounded or estimated, then Michal was born between July 1847 and July 1848, and Antonia was born between July 1857 and July 1858.
• Parents’ names were not regularly included in this section of marriage records, and usually only fathers’ names when they were. The intent seems to have been identification of bride and groom by occupation or social status rather than by parents’ names, hence Michal the miller and Antonia the daughter of a named miller. Witnesses were even less likely to be identified by occupation or social status.
• Michal was working as a miller; might he have married his boss’s daughter? An interesting idea, but I don’t know if it could ever be proven—perhaps it’s just as likely that he was simply another miller in the area.
Baptismal record of Antonia Dulaj, 1858
Given Antonia's stated ages at marriage and at death, her father's name and occupation, and her place of birth as recorded on her civil death record, then Antonia daughter of Andrej Dulaj and wife of Michal Grečnár is likely the baby Antonia Francisca Dulay born on 9 May 1858 in Lietavská Lúčka to Anna Budics [Budič] and her husband miller Andreas Dulay.[18]
This record provides Antonia’s mother’s full name, which enables us to look for other children. Seven children born to parents named Andreas Dulaj and Anna Budics have been identified in baptismal records: three in the village of Lipovec between 1839 and 1843, three in the village of Varín between 1845 and 1854 (Andrej identified as a miller in most of these), and lastly Antonia born in Lietavská Lúčka in 1858 (father Andrej identified as a miller). Each of these villages is southeast of Žilina.[19]
Comments on this baptismal record:
• Antonia’s death record notes her father’s occupation as some sort of woodworker but her marriage record identifies him as a miller.
• It was typical for a miller to move from one place to another as his mill lease ended. The lack of overlap in birth/baptismal dates from three different villages supports this being one couple moving from place to place, rather than multiple couples of the same names.
• Given their children’s birth dates, Andreas and Anna probably married by the end of 1838, in which case Anna must have been born by 1822 at the latest (assuming she was at least sixteen by the time she married). Their marriage record has not yet been found.
So far, none of this family’s records place them in the village Stará Bystrica where a miller named Andrej Dulaj died circa 1884.
Death record of an Anna Dulaj, 1879
Since Michal Grečnár did not know (or did not recall) his mother-in-law’s name in 1902, I speculated that he either did not know her, or did not know her well enough or long enough, to identify her beyond the Slovak equivalent of “Mrs. Dulaj.” A search of Stará Bystrica parish death records for the period May 1858 (the birth of her last child) to July 1878 (the marriage of her daughter Antonia) produced one likely candidate for Michal Grečnár’s deceased mother-in-law: Anna Dulay, 65, wife of Andrea[s], died in Stará Bystrica on 21 October 1879 at the age of 65, placing her birth circa 1813–14.[20]
Comments on this death record:
• This woman’s name, age, and husband’s first name make her a candidate for Antonia’s mother. The location fits with Andrej’s location as noted on Antonia’s death certificate, and the mill as family address is consistent with the other records of this couple. This combination is compelling.
• The date of her death sixteen months after Antonia’s wedding combined with son-in-law Michal not knowing his mother-in-law’s name also works—he must have known her, but possibly not long enough to know her well.
• Her entry in the death register also notes, “Venit ex Závodje (penes Solnam)” [she comes/came from Závodie (part of Žilina)]. This seems to imply either that she was originally from (i.e., born in) Závodie or that she (and her husband) were newcomers to Stará Bystrica. Anna’s birth surname has not (yet?) been found in Žilina-area church records, and their being newcomers seems more likely.
If this Anna Dulaj was the mother of Antonia, and if the Andreas Dulaj who died circa 1884 was the husband of this Anna who died in Stará Bystrica in 1879, then, consistent with the information provided by Dr. Liščák, there should be a marriage record for Andreas and a woman named Žofia (Sofia, Sophia) after October 1879, possibly but not necessarily in Stará Bystrica.
Marriage record of Andrej Dulaj and Žofia Zajaček, 1880
On 3 February 1880, just three months after the death of Anna Dulaj, a widowed miller in Stará Bystrica named Andreas Dulaj married forty-five-year-old widow Sophia Zajacsek of Radôstka (a village just two kilometers south of Stará Bystrica). How many millers in 1880s Stará Bystrica were named Andrej Dulaj and had a wife named Žofia?
Strengthening the argument that this could be Antonia’s father: one of the two witnesses to this wedding was named Michael Grecsnar—the name of Antonia’s husband, and undoubtedly the son-in-law of the groom Andrej Dulaj.[21]
Conclusion
The miller Ondrej Dulaj in the estate records mentioned by PhDr. Marián Liščák was the father of Antonia (Dulaj) Grečnár, grandfather of Valeria (Grečnár) Michutka, and my great-great-grandfather. The alternative would have to be an amazing coincidence of multiple data points: two other men with the same names as my great-grandfather Michal Grečnár and his father-in-law Andrej Dulaj, also with the same occupations, in the same locality, and with a close enough relationship that one would be witness for the other's marriage.
Death record of Andrej Dulaj, 1884
Dr. Liščák’s hypothesis that Andrej died in 1884 was correct. Andreas Dulay, husband of Žofia Zajacsek, “molitor dominalis” [master miller], died in Stará Bystrica on 1 July 1884 at the age of sixty-nine.[22]
Comments on this death record:
• Andrej’s marriage record of four years earlier stated his age as fifty-eight; that would have made him several years younger than his previous wife Anna, which is possible but unusual in a first(?) marriage. The age recorded on his death record would have made him just about the same age as previous wife Anna, therefore born circa 1814.
Summary
Valeria (Grečnár) Michutka’s mother Antonia Františka Dulaj was born 9 May 1858 to Anna Budič and her husband Andrej Dulaj at Lietavská Lúčka, Slovakia; Antonia is the youngest of their known children.
Parents Andrej and Anna, both probably born around 1814 but their towns of origin still unknown, had married some time before March 1839 when their first known child was legitimately born in Lipovec, a village near Martin. Anna was pregnant regularly for the first several years of their marriage and probably more sporadically for several more years, carrying at least seven babies to birth. Each of the children’s baptismal records that noted an occupation for their father identified Andrej as a miller. The family apparently remained in Lipovec through at least September 1843; by December 1845 they were in Varín, just southeast of Žilina; and in Lietavská Lúčka in 1858. Likely Andrej and Anna later lived at the mill in Závodie, a neighborhood separated from the western side of Żilina by the Rajčanka river—possibly in the mid-late 1870s.
By autumn 1879 Anna and Andrej were living in Stará Bystrica, a village northeast of Žilina and a bit southwest of Čadca; Anna died there on 21 October 1879. Andrej quickly remarried, to widow Žofia Zajaček, on 3 February 1880. By 1882, and probably earlier, he was renting the mill located “in the Hámer part” of the village. He died in Stará Bystrica on 1 July 1884.
All
websites were viewed 16 October 2023. My thanks to genealogist Patricia McIntyre for imaging the microfilmed death records for Andrej and Anna Dulaj for me.
[1]. Eve Rockwell, When You Were Very Small—A Catholic Baby’s Record, fill-in-the-blanks book (Norwalk, CT: C. R. Gibson, 1953).
A note about pronouncing Slovak letters with marks: the letter č is pronounced like the English -ch- in “church”; š like English -sh-; and ž is a softened English z sound similar to the sound of s in “leisure.” So for example, the surname Budič is pronounced like Boo-ditch. (To make things more confusing, Slovak does have a -ch- combination, but it sounds kind of like the -ch- in “Loch Ness Monster.”) A little slanted mark over a vowel (á, í) simply indicates that the vowel is pronounced a tiny bit longer than the same vowel without that mark.
[2]. Michigan Dept. of Health, Certificate of Death, Clinton County (Michigan), 1947, local file no. 28, state file 19 541, Valeria Michutka; image copy, "Michigan, U.S., Death Records, 1867-1952," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1670775:60872). The informant for Valeria’s personal details was her son Paul Michutka.
[3]. Michutka family history, notes; family files of Julie Michutka.
[4]. Conversation between Josie (Michutka) Waber Perry and Julie Michutka, re: Michutka family history. The conversation occurred sometime between 1985 and 1994.
[5]. Roman Catholic parish in Čadca, Czechoslovakia, Valeria Grešnar baptismal certificate (1886), issued September 1928, referencing the parish baptismal register for 1886 entry 149. Many years later I would obtain my grandparents’ New York City marriage license application and marriage certificate, which also names Valeria’s parents; see: State of New York Affidavit for License to Marry, City of New York, 1913 no. 2990, Mičutka–Grečnar; New York City Municipal Archives; certified photocopy. Also, State of New York Certificate and Record of Marriage, City of New York, 1913 no. 3637, Mičutka–Grečnar; New York City Municipal Archives; certified photocopy. Each of these is in the family files of Julie Michutka.
[6]. Spellings of first names and surnames vary, in part depending on whether the records are in Latin, Hungarian, or Slovak. When quoting a record I will use the spelling as it appears therein (for example, Michaël Grecsnar); otherwise I will use a modern Slovak spelling (Michal Grečnár).
A note about locations: the city of Žilina is in the northwest of Slovakia, about 30 miles south of where the borders of Slovakia, Czechia, and Poland meet. All the villages mentioned here are within 25 miles of Žilina.
[7]. Roman Catholic parish in Makov, Slovakia, death registers 1848–1914, 1902 entry 1 for Antonia (Dulaji) Grecsnár; FHL microfilm 2003292, items 1–3, DGS 4945527; photocopy from microfilm, family files of Julie Michutka.
[8]. The entries in this death register are very particular about indicating whether a spouse was deceased or still living. Antonia was “Michaëlis uxor” [wife of Michal] rather than “Michaëlis vidua” [widow of Michal]. As of December 2023, no death record has yet been located for Michal.
[9]. For example: František “Fero” Grečnár to Julie Michutka, email, “Dear Mrs. Julie,” 31 January 2001; print-out in family files of Julie Michutka.
[10]. For example, Michal was a cabinet-maker (or similar) in 1879: Roman Catholic parish in Žilina, Slovakia, vol. VI: baptisms 1877–1888, baptisms 1879 entry 39 for Rudolphus Joannes Gresznár; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRQK-5VW); citing FHL microfilm 2086048, DGS 4946481.
And he was a miller in late 1880: Roman Catholic parish in Žilina, Slovakia, vol. VI: baptisms 1877–1888, baptisms 1880 entry 130 for Maria Grecsnár; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RQK-5VD3); citing FHL microfilm 2086048, DGS 4946481.
[11]. Michal likely died before Valeria’s emigration to the US in November 1910, when she named “brother Ferdiš Grečnar” as her “nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came,” rather than her father. See her passenger manifest entry: Arrival manifest, SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, 22 November 1910, List 16 stamped p. 66, line 7, Valeria “Grečma,” age 22; “New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJ6N-BNY).
[12]. Slovak Ancestry: Slovak Genealogy Research & Traveling, business website of Mgr. Michal Razus (https://www.slovak-ancestry.com/).
[13]. Trencsen-Mako [Makov, Slovakia], volume of civil death certificates 5 May 1901–[no end date provided], page 53, 1902 entry 1, for Antónia Dulaji wife of Mihály Grecsnár; district archives, Čadca, Slovakia.
[14]. Michal’s occupation is recorded as some sort of woodworker, e.g., cabinet-maker. Valeria's daughter Jennie (Michutka) Gilligan said that, among other things, he made caskets.
[15]. PhDr. Marián Liščák, Kysucké múzeum, Čadca, Slovakia to Mgr. Michal Razus, email, 13 July 2023, “Dulaj”; electronic files of Julie Michutka, Burlington, MA. The email was in response to a query by telephone by Razus, on behalf of Julie Michutka, to Dr. Liščák the day before. Dr. Liščák is a historian specializing in “economic and social aspects of everyday life in the period of the 18th–19th centuries in the area of the northern part of the original Trenčín district.” The translation is my own.
[16]. Other online records include the 1828 Urbarial Tax Census, which would not be helpful here given the ages of then-teens Andrej and Anna (plus we don't know where they lived), and the 1869 population census for which the pertinent region seems not to be extant. For more information on census-type records for Slovakia, see Bill Tarkulich's census information page at Slovakia & Environs: Genealogy Research Strategies at http://www.iabsi.com/gen/public/CensusMain.htm
[17]. Roman Catholic parish in Bytčica, Slovakia, register of marriages for the village of Lietavská Lúčka, 15 January 1868–10 February 1897, 1878 entry 3, Grečnár–Dulaj; FHL microfilm 1978902 item 1, DGS 4945102; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRQX-GS9). Historically Lietavská Lúčka did not have its own church, and Roman Catholic villagers belonged to the parish in the village of Bytčica; today these villages are nearly contiguous. See https://www.lietavskalucka.sk/historia.phtml?id3=119650.
[18]. Roman Catholic parish in Bytčica, Slovakia, volume I: baptisms, marriages, and deaths 1788–1867, baptisms 1858 entry 20 for Antonia Francisca Dulay; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRQN-9QRY); citing FHL microfilm 1978901, DGS 4945101. Mother Anna’s birth surname is difficult to make out exactly, in this record; collecting the baptismal records of her other children confirm the spelling I offer here. See my blog post: Julie Michutka, “Identifying the birth surname of Anna, mother of Antonia (Dulaj) Grečnár,” Saint Cross Upheaval: A Genealogy Blog,” post dated 16 November 2023 (http://saintcrossupheaval.blogspot.com/2023/11/identifying-birth-surname-of-anna.html).
[19]. Citations and URLs to baptismal records for children Maria (1839), Theresia (1841), Anna (1843), Juditta (1845), another Theresia (1851), son Joannes (1854), and Antonia (1858) are in my previous blog post (cited above), “Identifying the birth surname of Anna, mother of Antonia (Dulaj) Grečnár.” (http://saintcrossupheaval.blogspot.com/2023/11/identifying-birth-surname-of-anna.html).
[20]. Roman Catholic parish in Stará Bystrica, Slovakia, death registers 1857–1887, 1879 entry 105 for Anna Dulay wife of Andreas Dulay; FHL microfilm 2058233, item 1, now aka DGS 4946349; photocopy from microfilm, family files of Julie Michutka.
[21]. Roman Catholic parish in Stará Bystrica, volume X: marriages 1880–1907, 1880 entry 21, Dulay–Zajacsek; FHL microfilm 2058232, DGS 4946348; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RQV-9H9P?i=347&cc=1554443&cat=646195).
[22]. Roman Catholic parish in Stará Bystrica, Slovakia, death registers 1857–1887, 1884 entry 58 for Andreas Dulay husband of Sophia Zajacsek FHL microfilm 2058233, item 1, now aka DGS 4946349; photocopy from microfilm, family files of Julie Michutka.
