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Steven Vondrak

@svondrak.bsky.social

75 followers 220 following 59 posts

Tech software sales and support. Slavic genealogy and history enthusiast.

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Dec 4

Years researching: 6
Hobbyist: Paternal pedigree research is original with help from FB groups.
Discovery : Y-DNA GD6 match with surname Papesch in NZ due to a Papež/Vondráková marriage in 1714.
Niche : US immigrants from Chmeľnica, Slovakia.

#Genealogy #SixGenerations
#Slavic #Czech #Slovak #Rusyn

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · 9d

At the other end of the spectrum
theonion.com/area-man-has...

Area Man Has Far Greater Knowledge Of Marvel Universe Than Own Family Tree

LA CROSSE, WI—Returning to his hometown to attend a cousin’s wedding Saturday, Josh Sundling, 29, reportedly demonstrated on numerous occasions a vast, far more intricate understanding of the fictiona...

theonion.com

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · 28d

Chicago Tribune
Chicago, Illinois
Fri, Sep 17, 1886
Page 3

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · 28d

The Inter Ocean
Chicago, Illinois
Fri, Sep 17, 1886
Page 3

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · 28d

Green Bay Press-Gazette
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Sat, Sep 25, 1886
Page 3

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · 28d

Old newspaper articles related to the recently found Lake Michigan wreck of the iron ore schooner F.J. King. Lighthouse keeper accounts from days after the wreck contradicted accounts from the rescued captain. No lives were lost.

#Genealogy #Newspapers
--
shipwreckspod.substack.com/p/researcher...

Researchers have found a "Ghost Ship" in Lake Michigan after 139 years

The schooner "F.J. King" went down on September 15th, 1886 in Lake Michigan.

shipwreckspod.substack.com

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · 29d

Green Bay Press-Gazette
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Sat, Sep 25, 1886
Page 3

www.newspapers.com/article/gree...

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Sep 9

Connection is sister (Katarzyna) of his 2xGGF Josef Gancarz married Antoni Motyczka, brother of your GGM, Carolina, in 1898 in Luzerne.

I wish others understand the uselessness of filling out the trees of spouses of collateral lines and how it obfuscates DNA match research determining a connection.

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 20

Kasigarda is a small new Museum of Emigration from Slovakia to North America in eastern Slovakia near Michalovce.
www.kasigarda.sk/en/kasigarda...

Welcome to the website of Kasigarda

Emigration is an essential part of Slovak history. It is unbelievable that a third of the Slovak nation emigrated from the last quarter of the 19th century until 1968.

www.kasigarda.sk

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 20

MyHeritage had indexed the location as Kressenburg, which is a valid location in Lower Austria near Southern Bohemia.

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 20

Here is NYC birth record link.
a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/10636571

Here is the baptism record.
ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/7404/466

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 20

Czech immigrant ancestral village search success story thanks to @reclaimtherecords.org helping get the NYC vital record images published.

From all US records, only an 1878 birth record showed the birth locations of the parents. Kuttenberg is the German exonym for Kutna Hora.

#Genealogy #Czech

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 18

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zya5...

Finding Vivian Maier | 2015 Oscar Nominee | Official US Trailer

YouTube video by IFC Films

www.youtube.com

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 18

Same story for the street photographer Vivian Maier.
"Maier’s massive body of work would come to light when in 2007 her work was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side"
www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian...

About Vivian Maier | Vivian Maier Photographer

Information about the Photographer Vivian Maier, a person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all, yet born in New York City.

www.vivianmaier.com

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 17

Some other smart high school mathematicians
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

Two High Schoolers Found an 'Impossible' Proof for a 2,000-Year-Old Math Rule—Then, They Discovered Nine More

Ne’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson of Louisiana published a new study proving the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry, a feat mathematicians long thought could not be done

www.smithsonianmag.com

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 17

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKqz...

16 Ways to Find Your Ancestor's Village

YouTube video by Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems

www.youtube.com

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 13

In "Hunky: The Immigrant Experience", author Nicholas Stevensson Karas thought he was Russian until a Navy friend who knew about Rusyn heritage explained the difference. I think the confusion was common for first generation children of Slavic immigrant parents that downplayed their heritage.

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 10

What is the reason the Manhattan death certificates 1876-1919 are not available compared to other records sets released last year? Do they not exist? If not, why not release in smaller yearly increments.

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Aug 9

Chain migration is the social process by which immigrants from a particular area follow others from that area to a particular destination. The destination may be in another country or in a new location within the same country.

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Jul 23

Try DNA search angel groups on Facebook. If you get multiple volunteers, do your best to vet them and hopefully they have some history of how they helped someone else.

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Jul 21

Megan, have you ever tried mapy, the Czech mapping app? They have licensed higher resolution satellite images of present day Czechia and Slovakia and have a 3D mode that really shows the terrain of the villages near the High Tatras.
mapy.com/s/cosavocuso

Mapy.com

mapy.com

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Jul 21

The Summer Solstice is in June.

Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Jul 19

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Jul 14

The author noted the phenomenon as a "beanstalk" instead of a family tree in her 2023 Atlantic story.

"American family trees are turning into beanstalks—tall and narrow."

www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...

The Great Cousin Decline

Families are shrinking. But the weirdest family role is a vital one.

www.theatlantic.com

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Steven Vondrak @svondrak.bsky.social · Jul 14

Uihlein is German.
Related to the Uline packing supply company in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uihlein...

Uihlein family - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org