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reunion

Be the Link – Part II

Last week, I wrote of our “re-meeting” with my Praser family—my paternal side—in Chicago. After immigrating in 1920, my grandparents, Marie (Supenova) and Edward Pracser, welcomed Marie’s brother in 1923. Stefan “Steve” Supena was the third child, and only son, of Stefan and Maria (Fuscikova) Supena. At the age of 16 and on his own, Steve emigrated from Slovakia to Chicago. In 1925, he met and married Elizabeth “Bessie” Trampota. Their son, Ronald, was born in 1933. Ron married Nancy Novy in 1956, and they had five children. Several years ago, I found Sheri, the wife of one of Ron and Nancy’s sons, on FaceBook. Sheri has been the conduit to my Supena family.

Sheri put me in contact with her sister-in-law, Mary, who emailed me additional information on her family. It turns out that they lived within a half-hour drive of where I grew up—but I don’t remember ever meeting them. Mary’s family was surprised to learn that Steve’s first cousins still live in Slovakia—but not as surprised as my Slovak family was to learn about Steve. Family lore in Slovakia was that “Steve went to the United States and was never heard from again.” This all changed when my Slovak family gave me a photograph of Ron from his eighth grade graduation. Obviously, someone in Slovakia knew that Steve was alive, well, and married with a son. But that was 70 years ago!!

This year, I tasked myself with the job of being the link between east and west, Slovakia and the U.S., the Supenas, Hrnčiříks, and Prasers. And thanks to Sheri, we began the “linking” in March while on our trip to Chicago. Sheri arranged for dinner at their favorite local Italian restaurant in Elmhurst where they are regulars—Pazzi di Pizza. She must have known that Tom and I were looking forward to pizza in Chicago! The food was great, but as always, the best part was meeting new family. I will try again to introduce the Supena women that Tom and I met. And yes, he was the only male with five women—and he did just fine.

Mini Supena Reunion
Ann, Sheri, Tom, Pam, Mary, Nancy

Sheri married into the Supena family. But like I’ve said, she was the conduit that brought us all together. She is so much a part of this family, it seemed like they were all sisters. Her husband, Paul, sells building supplies, so we could commiserate about the last down-turn in the economy and how it affected the building industry—and the catalyst that sent me to genealogy. Sheri and Paul are also huge Chicago sports fans. YAY! Sheri is very involved in the Alzheimer’s Association, but her paying job is as an actor! She may just be an extra in television shows and movies filmed in Chicago, but someday . . . . And then the surprise came. The restaurant staff brought out a birthday cake?!? A total surprise for her sister-in-law, Ann—and me! Ann’s birthday is four days before mine. How thoughtful was that!?!

Sherri’s two sisters-in-law were also at dinner. Ann, of course. Yes, we almost share a birthday, but she is the youngest of her five siblings and nine years younger than me. But she was delightful. Having just returned from a trip to Florida, she accepted everyone’s teasing about returning to frigid Chicago weather with a tan. Her sister, Mary, has shared a lot of information with me about their Supena family. She wrote two articles for the Medijugorje Magazine, both of which talk about her father. Because of her emails, I was able to piece together and fill in a considerable amount of information about my grandmother’s brother, Steve, and her father, Ron.

The matriarch of this family is Nancy (Novy) Supena. Nancy is a charming woman who was married to Ron, Steve’s son and my grandmother’s nephew, for 59 years. Ron died in October 2015 but is remembered fondly. Mary said, “My dad was truly a gentle man, a very kind man, a man of faith, and a most loving husband, father and grandfather.” Ron was my dad’s first cousin, and a groomsman in my parents’ wedding. Nancy and Ron met in high school. After their marriage in 1956, Ron joined the military—and the family moved a lot. They finally settled in Oak Brook with their five children where Ron ran a successful law practice for many years. Nancy summed up our dinner meeting with the best thing anyone could have said, “It feels like we’ve always known you.”

Needless to say, I can’t wait to see this family again, and hopefully meet Mary and Ann’s brothers. They will all definitely be invited to our future Pracser-Supena reunion!

Be the Link – Part I

It happened again! We turned a conference into a mini family reunion – Twice!

Two weeks ago, I traveled with my husband, Tom, to Chicago for his 3-day conference. Originally from the Chicago area, Tom and I hadn’t been back for a long time. And I hadn’t seen my extended family for even longer. So I made the contact with my Praser family. My cousin, Ken, said the last time he saw me was at my wedding, which will be 40 years in May! I asked Ken to set up dinner with his family that still lived in “Chicagoland.” As most people know, March in Chicago is cold and windy. But what greeted us Saturday night was anything but cold. Ken reserved a table for nine at an Italian restaurant in the city. The food was excellent, but the family was even better. I want to introduce all seven of them, keeping my fingers crossed that I have most of the facts correct!

Mini Praser Reunion
Ken, Mike, James, Kayla, Rose, Kim, Pam, Julia
(Photo by Tom Anderson)

Ken and Julia are the leaders of the pack. Ken and I share paternal grandparents—our fathers were brothers. Like me, Ken has two brothers and two sisters. He’s a little older than I am, so we were not close growing up, even though our families both lived in Naperville. At dinner, I learned that Ken works for JPMorgan Chase in downtown Chicago. He also plays guitar in a band and golfs. Interesting, because Tom golfs and just began playing guitar again—they had things in common! Oh, and we are all big Chicago sports fans!

Ken’s wife, Julia, worked for AT&T, but about 20 years ago, adopted an infant from China. This little girl has grown into an amazing young woman. Kayla is a junior at Ohio State in the music program, the flute being her instrument of choice. It’s too bad that my nephew, Daniel, didn’t choose Ohio State for his engineering program. They chose him, but OSU didn’t have saxophones in their marching band, which is uber important!  As of last week, Kayla wants to go to graduate school, and possibly Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, which is less than three hours from our home in Chambersburg!

Ken’s son, Richard, lives in California, flies for Jet Blue, and has been researching their genealogy for several years. Because Rich showed an interest, and I needed a paternal cousin to DNA test, I asked Ken, who complied. Then about a month ago, I found a different Praser match on 23andMe. We had to be related because there are so few Prasers. And we were. It was Ken’s other son, Mike. And it was Mike’s family that rounded out our group at dinner. Mike works for an architectural firm in Chicago, pulling permits and basically doing the legwork to get construction jobs ready to go. With my 25 years in construction, we, too, had a lot in common. As I did with his wife, Kim.

Yes, Kim Praser, not to be confused with my sister, Kim Praser Pahira—and I think they are about the same age! Mike’s Kim Praser is a high school English teacher. And because of having worked in the school system as a Speech Pathologist, Kim and I also had stories to share. Kim is no stranger to Eastern European ancestors either, because her great-great grandparents immigrated from Poland. I see an awesome family vacation in their future, because Slovakia shares a northern border with Poland. It would also be an amazing experience for their two kids.

Mike and Kim’s youngest, 10-year-old James, is into football, baseball (Go Cubbies!) and Tae Kwon Do. We watched a video of James breaking boards, shared stories of when he broke his arm, and commiserated about when Daniel broke his leg. Boys . . . . And finally, there is 13-year-old Rose, named after my aunt, Ken’s mother. Rose also practices Tae Kwon Do (both kids are black belts with degrees!), and at 5’8” plays on her Junior High basketball team. It’s good to see that the Praser girl height continues into the next generation! The night ended with a promise to get together for lunch (with Ken, Mike, and Kayla) before we left.

At lunch, I shared pictures of our trip to Slovakia and our grandmother’s childhood home. Then we came up with a crazy idea . . . a “real” family reunion, possibly in 2020 to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of our grandparents’ immigration to Chicago! Stay tuned for details!

Put Aside the Dead People . . . Just for a While

Besides ancestor hunting, one of the best things about researching our genealogy is re-uniting with and meeting new cousins. This week I’m lucky enough to do this again at a “Mini Marquet Reunion” in California. I’ll be reconnecting with a cousin who I haven’t seen since the 1970s, meeting another cousin’s daughter, and introducing a fifth cousin that I met through the internet, to all of these people.

My mother, Miriam Marquet, and her two older brothers, Win and Art, were raised in Berwyn, Illinois in the 1930s and 40s. By the 1960s, the Marquet brothers and their families were living in California.

Arthur, Winfield, and Miriam Marquet, 1934

Our family traveled west a couple times to visit my uncles in the 1970s—five kids in a station wagon without air conditioning, and once with a collie! We couldn’t wait for the Holiday Inn swimming pool!!

Steve, Pam, Chris, Kim, and Ed on Vacation in 1971

But then I lost touch with my Marquet cousins—until 2012, when I contacted my cousin Matt, Art’s son, who was still in California. I knew his mother was interested in genealogy, so I asked if he had any information on the Marquet family. Because I made the effort to reach out, he sent me tons of old photographs and documents. It was then that I was proclaimed the family historian. That same year I was contacted, through Ancestry.com, by Jane, a fifth cousin who also lives in California. It turns out that she and I share a five times great grandfather, James McMaster, who we were both researching. Two maternal cousins living in the same state meant that a trip out west was in order. My husband,Tom, and I traveled there in 2013, where I met Jane in person and reconnected with Matt and his wife, Sherry.

Pam & Cousin Matt, 2013
Pam & Cousin Jane, 2013

But what about my Uncle Win’s family? About a year later, I saw that my cousin Amy had developed a tree on Ancestry.com, so I messaged her. In the fall of 2016, she came to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania “on her way” to a cruise out of New York City. She rented a car in NYC, and drove 4 hours south—definitely not on her way—to reconnect with my two New Jersey sisters, Chris and Kim, and me. Since she made that crazy trip, I promised to go back to California, and that’s where I’m headed this week.

Sister Kim, Cousin Amy, Sister Chris, and Pam, 2016

So on Saturday, January 27, Amy is hosting our first Mini Marquet Reunion at her house. Matt and Sherry will be there, and even Jane has agreed to drive down and meet more cousins. Amy’s sister, Mallory, is also coming, as are (I hope) the cousins’ children—first cousins once removed. I’m so psyched to meet more living people!!!

And maybe after talking genealogy a little, we’ll put aside the dead people, just for a while, and be thankful for the opportunity to meet new cousins and reconnect with the old—and yes, we are getting old! But hopefully some of those “once removeds” will carry on in the ancestor hunt where we leave off.

Finally, this year, I encourage everyone to take a break from your computers and archives, and connect or reconnect with your living family. You just may enjoy them more!

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