Hey everyone, I’m an American currently doing some genealogical research on my family and I need some help finding a place. On the 1920 census, my great-grandfather listed his mother tongue as Slovak, but the birthplace makes no sense to me. I’ve attached an image of the record and would greatly appreciate any insight as to where this could be. The columns I am referring to are the first, third, and fifth columns.
In some of the columns there is an “Au” which I am guessing is referring to Austria. In other records, including marriage licenses and censuses, he listed his place of birth as Austria. His brother lists his, however, as Slovakia. It seems a bit odd, but it might provide some clarity to what is seen on the document.
I had the privilege of visiting Slovakia before the pandemic — what a beautiful country! I would greatly appreciate any help figuring out what the heck this record is saying about where my family is from 🙂
Record: https://imgur.com/qHx7hRK
3 comments
Well the one on the right looks like Spiš followed up by something idk what.
Spiš is a region in Slovakia.
The third and fifth i have no idea.
The place of birth beeing AU could refer to the fact that he would be born during the Austro-Hungarian empire, before Czechoslovakia was formed.
Ideally you could use his surname amd date of birth to look for corelations, but i dont know if thats possible online as birth records are not digitalised (the ones this old arent for sure)…
I am sorry i could not help more but its really hard to read i am not even sure about the Spiš thing tbh
But if you find something be sure to post an update:)
I’m no expert, but I tried looking it up and it seems to be an interesting case!
Before 1918, Slovakia was a [part of Austria-Hungary](https://external-preview.redd.it/2dQOapT0SZ4BKCiueXGE2VxEDQ2GDv0UiUSW0TvQPMM.jpg?auto=webp&s=b3962675b2ba12451ca0009bfe42fd7f2109df02). So based on the fact he spoke Slovak he seems to be born in Slovak parts of Austria-Hungary. It’s interesting that his brother noted Slovakia there though, is there a chance he was younger, born after WW1 when Slovakia started existing? Maybe they just weren’t sure what to include there since the city changed ownership and one wrote AU, other SK.
However, what’s more interesting is the city – it seems to say “Spisko”. We don’t have a village like that, but we have the Spiš region with multiple “Spišian” cities called after it. However, we retain the “š” in the word, so the places are called Spišské podhradie, Spišský hrad or Spišská nová ves, not Spisky/a/e/o/… . This form of spelling is actually Polish – and indeed, [some Slovak-speaking parts of the Spiš region](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/PolskySpis.svg/944px-PolskySpis.svg.png) were given to Poland after AU-HU dissolution after a brief conflict ([some more info in Slovak](https://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po%C4%BEsk%C3%BD_Spi%C5%A1), maybe Google Translate will help you). From 23rd Dec 1920 to 1st of July 1925 this region was known as the Powiat Spisko-orawski within the Krakowian voivodship, then it became part of Powiat nowotarski. It’s weird that he would write this in Polish even though he states his language is Slovak and Polish wasn’t very popular in the area yet but it’s possible he was one of the few Poles there or had some Polish relatives or something. Or maybe the people there just used the Polish spelling, I don’t know.
Therefore, my best hypothesis is that your grandfather was somewhere from [here](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/514.13_Pog%C3%B3rze_Spisko-Guba%C5%82owskie.png), the [Polski Spisz](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polski_Spisz) region. A Slovak with some possible ties to Poland living on the territory of Slovakia within Austria-Hungary which was given to Poland around the time this survey was taken.
Feel free to correct me if anyone has any better idea, inb4 Spisko is some Austrian city lol
My theory: He was born in Spišská Nová Ves before 1918. The box in the form is too small so he only managed to write “Spiška” and Au would stand for Austrian empire, which the region was part of at that time.