Joannes Kozub and Catharina Nizsayik

While jtgen96 has been helping me with August's mom's (Kelly/Kello) side, my family history guy, Les, has helped me move forward with August's dad's (Kozub) side. We were tipped off by patskanovo from the SLOVAC-ROOTS yahoo group. Patskanovo was responding to another researcher and had posted Alexander Kozub's baptism record, which lists Alexander's parents as Joannes Kozub and Catharina Nizsayik.

Les helped me to find that baptism record, as well as the baptism records of Alexander's siblings! Here they are!

Alexander Kozub
Born: Oct 22, 1859 (baptized Oct. 24)
Place: Malcov, Bardejov, Slovakia

Catharina Kozub
Born: Nov. 21, 1862 (baptized Nov. 23)
Place: Malcov, Bardejov, Slovakia

Petrus Kozub  (I think this is the Peter Kozub of Broad Street in Perth Amboy!!!!)
Born: July 12, 1865 (baptized July 13, 1865)
Place: Malcov, Bardejov, Slovakia

Johanna Kozub
Born: April 2, 1868 (baptized April 5, 1868)
Place: Malcov, Bardejov, Slovakia

Maria Kozub
Born: August 19, 1871 (baptized August 22, 1871)
Place: Malcov, Bardejov, Slovakia

On all of the records, the Kozub family lived at house #110. They say "Greek Catholic" is their religion. And Joannes Kozub's occupation is "Cantor and Docens" (reader).



Of course, Slovakia did not exist in those days (1859 to 1868). Malcov was actually under control of Hungary until 1918. The baptism records actually say "Malyzzov," the Hungarian version of Malcov (if I heard right).

These days,
Malcov is a town/village in the district (okres) of Bardejov.
Bardejov is one of 13 districts (okres) in the region (kraj) of Presov.
Presov is one of 8 regions (kraj) in the country of Slovakia. And, the town of Presov is the seat of the Presov region (kraj).

Remember all my talk about Zegiastow? Well it just so happens that Malcov is very close to Zegiastow. (Google maps driving directions say 35 kilometers, 53 minutes away.) Both towns have Greek Catholic Churches. So it is very likely that Alexander's dad Joannes went to the church in Zegiastow at some point. These days, Malcov is in Slovakia and Zegiastow is in Poland.

From the baptism records, I learned that Alexander, who was a cantor for the Greek Catholic church, had a father who was also a cantor for the Greek Catholic church.

Here is the cool thing. These records just recently became available. Slovakia became its own country again in 1993. The LDS Church has gone in and not only microfilmed the records that are now in Slovakian hands, but they have digitized them as well. So, records are free, searchable and online!

This is how you get to them:

www.familysearch.org
Click on catolog
Select place names and type in Slovakia, Bardejov, Malcov
Click on the one result. Then, click on Cirkevna matrika 1768-1895 (the only option at this point).
Then halfway down the page, you will see red writing directing you to "click here" for the online Slovakia, Church and Synagogue Books.

At this point, you can do your search. If you enter the name "Kozub," you will see 18,319 Kozub records listed. Do we have the right part of the world? YES!

We can now do some homework and go back generation after generation. . . finding baptism (listing births), marriage and death records.

Wow! And when I started this project, I thought we were at a dead end. Thanks to all those who are helping me move forward!