Michael Novatnak

Started by Private User on Friday, March 18, 2022
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  • © foto 1979 : Robert Roos van RAADSHOOVEN te Voorburg
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Excuses, mijn Nederlands is schlect. Ik werd gevraagd om mijn overgrootvader van vader in dit project. We wisten nooit hij Nederlands. Mijn vader zei hij Slavic. Was zijn schip Nederlands?

© foto 1979 : Robert Roos van RAADSHOOVEN te Voorburg

Hi Donna, no problem for Dutch people when you ask in English. We can try to answer in English too... I understand you hav Slavic ancestors? Maybe it's good to have a look here
https://www.geni.com/projects/Geni-Curators/9960
to search for an curator who is familiar with genealogy in that part of Europe.
Maybe
Private User
can be of help. But it's still a fact that most curatores in the Eastern Part of Europe are focused on Jewish families. That is a result of the origine / development of the Geni-platform, but hopefully that changes now so much families on the borders with Russia are on the flight to safer regions.
So for the time being maybe you should look for some help in one of the discussion projects mentioned in this page :
https://www.geni.com/projects/CENTRAL-Coffee-CORNER-portal-project/...

And, if you might miss one, we are ready to open new Coffee-meeting-points wherever in whatever langusage, so let me know!

Hi Donna
Do you know where he was from - being Slavic is very wide.

Hi Jeannette
It is not correct that most Slavic Curators are focused on Jewish families. Croatian Curators are focused on their Croatian ancestors and links to our tree. Same goes for meny others. We all have links to Jewish families, the same way we have links to the rest of the world.

Thank you. I was not sure, when I saw the group information written in Dutch, just how much Dutch I would need. When I was there, people born in the 1970s and later were fluent in English, but the older people were not.

I have no idea where he was from. I didn't even know he was born in Europe. My father's father, Daniel, was estranged from his family due to his alcoholism and accompanying bad behaviors. My father, Robert, never met Michael, he died 15 years prior to my father's birth. I really never thought I'd accurately trace my father's side of the family, I was surprised to find Daniel's 2 brothers through Findagrave.

I don't know if Michael was Jewish, either. My father was baptized in the UCC church by his mother, whose side of the family Geni has traced back over a thousand years, which absolutely amazed me. She told a story, which I believed as a child, about a 'Cree Indian princess' that was in Michael's ancestry. This led me to believe he was born in North America. As an adult, I've learned that this was a common story told to Caucasian children in the 40s through the 80s in the US, and is seldom true.

© foto 1979 : Robert Roos van RAADSHOOVEN te Voorburg

Hi Private User. i didn't mean the Slavic specific. As I was searching for Donna to give her a proper name in the list of the mentioned Geni-project-page, nearly the most of them in eastern Europe are focussing on Jewish families. And I don not know what country nowadays is from Slavic ancestry, as I am educated with a Atlas with Yougoslavia and Tito and so... I am born in 1951, you might know. And I am lucky I found your name in between, so I could give her a clou and someone who might be able to help her quickly. As shown, so thank you very much!

Hi Donna
The problem is the surname itself - often people changed surname after arrival to USA.
I have never seen this version of the surname in records I have gone through.

Jeanette
I do understand, I think the problem is that you looked under "Eastern Europe", while we places oursels in southern Europe.
If you look into the project https://www.geni.com/projects/Geni-Curators/9960 under "Southern Europe", you can find us there.
Balkan (ex-Yugoslavia) was always on the crossroad of Europe- east-west,south-north, historically, culturaly, ethnically, you name it.

The closest thing (phoneticaly) to Novotnak is Novotnjak, I have found 52 records with this surname
see here
https://www.myheritage.com/research?action=query&formId=master&form...

They come from Stropkov, Slovakia

I am certain now, that both of ggranparents came from SLovakia, around Kosice (Michael from Stropkov, Pauline from Nacina Ves -Nátafalva in Hungarain records).
Mihael surname was Novotnjak, while Pauline's was Nátafalussy, Nátafalusy or Nátafalusi

There is even a record of
https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10512-8689502/mihal-novo...

It could be your ggrandfather (sometimes the age was not recorded correctly) or his close relative.

I think you need to look through records from those places.

*speechless* Thank you! All of you have such amazing skills!

I had suspected that the spelling my family uses is not the original. I was told Ellis Island changed it, btu not how long ago and to which ancestor. My area also has Novatnoks, Novotnaks, Novatneys, and Novatskis The theory, among my generation, when we encountered each other in school and later learned about Ellis Island, is that we all descend from one family group. Of course, we never followed up on it, being kids.

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