I found a US immigration record of an ancestor and I'm having trouble locating the current-day place. She is listed as Slovak, from Hungary (1912, so part of the Kingdom). This town is listed 3 times: as the last residence, as the location of nearest relative in country of origin (father), and place of birth. It looks to start with Wysz and end in ie or ic, but the connecting letters are indistinct. I've tried Googling various possibilities, with no luck. Given the "sz" which seems to be much more common in Hungarian than Slovak, I believe it could be a Hungarian version of the name. It also seems to resemble Polish in certain respects, so it could be a place in modern Poland where ethnic Slovaks lived. If it helps, the family name given is Fialka. Passenger's name was Marya and father is Janos. Any ideas?

by DavidYakubik

5 comments

  1. Common Slovak naming patterns, especially in eastern Slovakia, include “Vyšné” or “Vyšny” at the start of a town name, which could correspond to “Wysznie”. It means “upper”. Maybe that will help to narrow it down.

  2. Seems to state “wysznie” in polish. Is there anything further to go on?

    I speak both hungarian and slovak, no mistaking it for those languages.

  3. I would go definitely with Polish rather than Hungarian. The inscription definitely says “Wysznie” (a Polish spelling), should be a part of a name, as someone already mentioned. Immigration records are notoriously bad for spelling the original name of towns in Slovakia / Eastern Europe (I have seen some butchered incomprehensibly).

    Cross-checking surnames you can see that most people with surname Fialka are either in Eastern Slovakia (Prešov, Košice etc.) or Southern Slovakia. Nevertheless, the Eastern Slovaks emigrated by far the most and there is also a sizable contact with Poland, especially around Prešov, so that would be the most probable place of origin (which does not mean you will find them there).
    [https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk/?w=fialka&s=exact&c=A5ad&cs=&d=priezviska#](https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk/?w=fialka&s=exact&c=A5ad&cs=&d=priezviska#)

    You can try searching for Fialkas in the church records, especially if you have specific date of birth in the immigration record.

    If you want, I can try and help locate her, if you can DM me the record or date of birth.

    A quick search shows a number of immigrating Fialkas coming from Nagycséb/Žbince (formerly called Vyšné Žbince) near Michalovce, Eastern Slovakia, which seems like a close enough call. Perhaps you can start there. Here are the church records, they are not indexed, so it cannot be searched via fulltext, but if you have a date of birth, you can quickly see whether it matches.

    [https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/beta/search-results?place=3398928](https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/beta/search-results?place=3398928)

  4. If I’m not mistaken, the usage of Polish orthography was quite common in pre-1918 Slovakia because very few people were taught Slovak orthography due to hungarization policies.

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