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Research in Other Countries => United States of America => Topic started by: RCB on Thursday 04 June 15 13:07 BST (UK)
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Hello again - in 1920 two sisters appear as inmates of an Orphanage - Chartiers, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Anna 16 and Josephine 14 the surname used is Schustic, both said to be born Pennsylvania, but their parents are Slovak, then part of the Hungarian Empire.
Josephine married first but she is recorded as Schuster, maybe an error if somebody copied from a signature? Parents John and Marie.
She's easy to find after her marriage, as is her sister, and they both married in Detroit
Anna M married but is recorded as Shustrick, again possibly an error, but what seems strange is only the witnesses sign, but sister Josephine uses her married name Faber so I can't look for a transcription error. Also Anna confirms father John mother Maria nee Dreska.
So can anyone find the girls births registered in Pennsylvania Anna M 1904, and Josephine 1906.
The surname is the hard part when searching, but I'm pretty sure it will be a variant of Schustrick.
I've been looking at the 1910 census but so far no luck, are the girls already orphans?
Then there's the parents, did they arrive as a couple from Slovakia? or did the marry in the US? Their first child being born 1904 would probably mean a marriage after 1900, putting parents DOB 1880-85? Obviously there will be some record of entry in to the US.
Not easy, for me anyway, but please don't kill yourself looking. This is just the tail end of a family tree which years on has brought someone in asking questions. Thank's in advance for anything you might find. Remember I'm only looking for info pre-1920. cheers Fred
PS. If I can settle the surname I have a friend in Slovakia who might be able to take this further.
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Have you looked through the PA Birth Index? It might have Josephine.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/genealogy/3183/birth_indices/1962923
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http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/genealogy/3183/vital_statistics/387291
On January 1, 1906, the newly established Pennsylvania Department of Health officially began to issue birth and death certificates. Prior to 1906, Pennsylvania births and deaths were recorded only sporadically by the counties and some cities such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Genealogists must rely on county records or nongovernmental sources such as church registers, gravestone inscriptions and newspapers to obtain data for this earlier period.
Do you have either of the women on the Social Security Death Index? Or their death certificates or burials? Getting a more exact date of birth might lead to the birth records.
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obituary rewritten
Obituary appearing in the Doylestown (PA) Intelligencer, 15 Mar 1990
Josephine M Faber, 85, born in Oakdale, Allegheny, PA to the late John and Mary Drucheski Schustic, died Mar 13th at Doylestown. She was the widow of the late Nicholas F Faber and leaves 2 children, 6 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren to mourn her passing.
SSDI states dob as 16 Jul 1904
dod as 13 Mar 1990
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Spot on Genealiza - I did see her husbands death notice when I was searching. I wonder if Anna was Hannah? or maybe named Maria after her mother but using her middle name? I think it's pretty obvious John and Mary are adaptions of European names. With regard to records I was watching "Long Lost Family" last night and Germany which is a country renowned for it's organisation has no National data base for BMD, so you have to go to local archives, so US states with different set ups is no surprise.
Do you think the mothers middle name will be her maiden surname? Not Dreska, but Dreska does exist as a surname. This is a good board to come to when you need help. I'll try immigration, I'm sure you're already looking. If the mother died in childbirth it could be John simply couldn't keep the children, so he may appear alone in 1910, but it is all guess work. Thanks again.
By the way Anna married a Brit and moved to the UK 1932, where she died. There might be some detail here in the UK, but you won't find parents names on a death certificate, just DOB if you're lucky, place od death, and the informants name. I'll get back to you if I find out more here in the UK.
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If you are referring to her middle name being Drucheski, obituaries here usually state the mother's maiden name followed by her married name. So, the mother's name is probably "Mary" Drucheski.
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If you want to give us Anna's married name and husband, then we might be able to find her obituary to see if it matches with Josephine's. Just read that Anna moved to the UK.
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Our replies are passing each other. Anna married a chemist Leonard Carr and came to live in the UK, I'm just trying to find out more. Her husband died alone in Southampton in 1966? so Anna died earlier? Or they divorced? I can't see a Anna Carr's death which puts her birth year anywhere near 1904. I'll get back to those asking me the questions and then get back to you.
The 1920 clearly put's Josephine's birth as 1906, so maybe they mixed up the girls DOB and Anna is 1906? Or if Anna is 2 years older? I'll look at their ages when they married.
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Just found an entry in the Pittsburgh City and another in the Business Directory, 1926, for:
Anna Shustic, nurse, 535 Rosedale, resides same
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Yes she says Nurse at her marriage? According to ages given when they married Josephine is just short of 21 when she married in 1926, so she was the youngest, Anna is 25 in 1929 when she married, so a 1904 birth date and Anna 1906? for Josephine.
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This death of an infant in 1902, a daughter "Georgie" to John and Mary (Sh?t?ck? - indexed Shestock), parents from "Austria", may be relevant. Address "13 Irwin Ave"?
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-16555-21276-24?cc=1810412
Around this time (1906) there was a Frank "Schustic" at "2812 Edwards ay" - one of the few traces of this spelling in the area I can find - might be worth checking up on him?
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Yes I would say that's the family, so the lost a daughter.
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She appears to be buried at Calvary cemetery according to that, which would suggest the family are Catholic.
Possibly the girls were at St. Paul's R.C. Orphan Asylum which was in Chartiers?
Here is where you'd need to ask for records for St Pauls:
http://diopitt.org/office-archives-and-record-center/information-genealogists
Orphanage Records
We have orphanage records from St. Paul's Orphanage, St. Joseph's Orphanage, and Holy Family Institute. Information in these records consists of the child's name, date of admission, and date of departure. Other information that may be included are father's and mother's first and last names; correspondence; grades; medical records; whether Baptism, First Communion, or Confirmation were administered and when and where; and reason for placement.
By search-scamming on the free indexes at Ancestry, I found that there was a John Shustic, parents John and Annie, b. about 1864, d. 1906
I also tried to look up any probate and the nearest thing I could find was this.
"Jusefa Szotek", "M" (minor?), "Frank Szotek, Gdn" (Guardian?)
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-28782-705-55?cc=1999196&wc=9PMF-T3L:268499101,270443101
Could this be "Josephine"?
vol 28 / page 240 / book 6
Which refers to here, and another cross reference
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-28782-28102-88?cc=1999196&wc=9PMN-ZNP:268499101,280384701
docket: OC, vol 158, page 513, no 201, Nov 1905 - guardian appointed?
Unfortunately
Pittsburgh directories (http://digital.library.pitt.edu/p/pitttextdir/ )show, in addition to the 1906 at 2812 Edwards
1909: Szostek Frank mill wkr 1809 Fox
1912: Shustik Frank lab 1809 Fox
1913: Schrostic Frank lab 1809 Fox
1914: Chostik Frank lab 1809 Fox
1915: Kostek Frank lab 1809 Fox
1916: Szotek Frank, lab, h 1809 Fox
I think these may all the same person, with varying levels of errors added between him giving his name and it getting printed (there may be more entries, I found these by searching on the address and it's OCR not manual transcription).
Perhaps if we could find this man in 1910 that might clear something up. Anybody know how to search the US census by address?
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Possibly the girls were at St. Paul's R.C. Orphan Asylum which was in Chartiers?
That's the name of the institution given at the top of the 1920 census.
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As for searching the census by address, www.stevemorse.org was usually a good resource for finding the enumeration district of a specific address, but it looks like it's offline at the moment.
I was trying to look for people in the city directories that were close to the 1809 Fox St. address. I found a Charles P. Metzler at 1808 Fox St. and Frank Pociernicki at 1811 Fox St. in the 1910 census, but I'm not seeing 1809 on any immediate pages.
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Since this kicked off with me asking about the sisters, the grand-daughter has stirred up some relatives and somebody who knows more. I still have no idea what happened to the parents, but the father was Schustic an Orthodox Jew, and the mother Drusheski who's family were strict Roman Catholics, the name change of the mother to Dreska had something to do with the different faiths. As I type this the parents faiths might have been the other way around, but you'll understand how things were 100 years ago with mixed faith marriages etc.
So hold fire until I find out just what's going to come from this new source. Almost all that you guys found has been proved to be right, you can't have too many details to confirm fact. So thanks to you yet again. Cheers Fred.
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OK this is the last bit of info that's come my way, please don't go out of your way searching.
John Schustic(k) born Slovakia was electrocuted in a coal mining accident before 1910. Wife Mary (Marie) remarried soon after but her new husband couldn't afford to take on the children or didn't want too, so the youngest children Anna and Josephine were put in an orphanage. There may have been older children? One name that was mentioned is Stella (Estella?)
That's all there is, there's no record of arrival in the US that stands out, so no date of arrival, and no definite place of birth for the girls. Were they actually born Pennsylvania? It seems they may have arrived after the 1900 census, with the children? father died after birth of youngest daughter 1906, the family broke up and the mother remarried. And all that's left is the story. Thank you for the time and effort. Fred
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On Ancestry there's a death record for a John Shustic in 1906 in Allegheny, PA - have you checked him out?
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Cheers, I found the entry but no dates given, and no details on the find a grave site so probably no headstone. There's a M Marie Shustic? at the same cemetery but again no dates or details. Do you see something I can't? There's a list of mining accidents and fatalities on line but the spelling of the surname makes this so difficult to find the right one.
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I don't have pay access so don't know what's on the full record, just thought it would be worth checking out. It is on the "Pennsylvania Deaths and Burials" database. On the free access by search-spamming* I could see his dates were something like b. 1864 d. 1906 so thought he might be a good bet.
*search-spamming: when Ancestry or similar sites don't return full details, select "exact" or "range", put in a year and see if you still get that result back. Doing this you can narrow down quite a few details before you decide if it's worth paying for.
Part of the problem is that there were so many mining accidents.
I presume you mean these lists?
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r45_MineAccidentRegisters/r45-14AccidentRegistersInterface.htm
You could look through all the Sch-/Sh-/(Sz-?) names of the right time for a John/Jan/(?) who died and was married with 2 or more children. It also could be that he was injured and later died, so not listed as a fatality in those lists but the family remembered his death as connected to the accident?
As for "Stella", I think you should look at:
Paul Mcchancy and Stella "Shustick"
1940:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQCR-LJY
1930:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHCW-HCZ
"Stella" is born PA but parents b. Austria
I can also see what I guess is Paul's family in 1900:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3M8-P3W
I'm having trouble finding Stella earlier or Paul in 1910/1920 but I did find this which gives Stella, mother of a McChancy as "Stephanie Shustick" and says she had a sister Josephine who married a Faber!
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FABER/2002-07/1026537722
Maybe if you can trace Stella in 1920 (already married?) and before it will give some hint about the rest of the family. Her marriage to Paul probably took place in Allegheny Co (where both their families seem to have lived) or Washington Co (where they settled later). His parents are buried in Oakdale, so I would check there first:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=70933348
I think you would have to contact Allegheny county for a marriage there, I can't see anything online.
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The 1906 death certificate for John Shustic says he was married, about 42 years old with exact date of birth unknown, place of birth "Slavish", son of John & Annie Shustic both born Austria. His occupation was laborer, usual residence was Duquesne, and he died of typhoid fever in McKeesport Hospital. Place of burial looks like St. John Duquesne.
The information on Find A Grave is placed there by volunteers. If there is no picture of a headstone, it may just be that one was never requested or no volunteer was available yet to take one.
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I really didn't expect any more info from you. Yes I'm pretty sure most of that ties in, Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Could the find a grave lack of info be down to the name coming from a register? No stone, but usually a burial register gives a plot number and some member of family. I keep saying thank you, but thanks again. Fred
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It looks like 2 different contributors added John and M. Mary Shustick to Find a Grave and both have added over 100,000 memorials, so I suspect they are not really close relations. You could try to contact them through the site and see if they have any further information.
There is a family tree that says Marie (whose maiden surname was listed as Dneuscka) married a man named Heidseck or Hadsick and had children Albert & Rose with him.
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I've started an Ancestry tree adding this info in the hope somebody will have more information.
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the findagrave entries at Saint Patrick's Cemetery Oakdale contain these notes, which suggest to me the information is not from a burial register but from someone walking the cemetery and taking notes.
for M. Mary Shustick
Note: No dates / Homemade cement cross
for John Shustick
Note: No dates / Homemade cross
Email address for someone who might be able to supply photos (but no more details, I would think) at this link:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njm1/04StPatricks-Nblstwn.html
I'm not sure these burials and the 1906 death are linked, however.
Perhaps if you can get in touch with Stella's descendants, they will know more? I think you may be reaching the point at which boots on the ground will be necessary.
I also highly encourage you (or the family) to consider trying to get records from diocese regardng their stay at the orphanage, as mentioned earlier:
http://diopitt.org/office-archives-and-record-center/information-genealogists
Information in these records consists of the child's name, date of admission, and date of departure. Other information that may be included are father's and mother's first and last names; correspondence; grades; medical records; whether Baptism, First Communion, or Confirmation were administered and when and where; and reason for placement.
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Fred, have you learned any more anecdotally about Josephine and Anna since this original thread? I recently discovered Josephine was my great-grandmother so I’ve been researching her extensively the last couple of years, but would love to know even more about her extended family. (I do have her father’s death certificate and the news articles re: his mine accident - happy to share.) Thank you!
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Hi - I know this is an old thread, so not sure if this is resolved or not, but I am Anna and Josephine's great niece. Stella was my grandmother. I can fill in a lot of blanks here, but also have questions. Let me know.