I'm trying to get the death dates of my three remaining great-great-grandparents, all in Slovakia. Two of them outlived the parish records of Myjava (as microfilmed) so I will have to go through the Slovak Archives again. It's not surprising. Their daughter, my great-grandmother, lived to be 84 years old, so they, born in 1850 and 1852, lived past 1924. I've collected many certificates from that area I call Slovakia, the present day Slovak Republic, a legal entity born when I was almost thirty. The issuing governmental agency is what is on the certificate, not the civil government of the time. Here's some examples:
The death record of my great-great-grandmother Susana (Balaz) Kristofik from 1931. However, it was issued to me in 1992, so it says "Slovenska Republika" although the country at the time was Czechoslovakia, the democracy created in 1918 that existed until 1938 when Hitler started to slice it up. Her original death certificate eventually came into my possession:
Same information, but it looks so much classier. However, it too doesn't give the actual country's name. Another example:
Again, issued in 1995 from the Slovak Archives, this death certificate of my great-great-grandfather happened in the Austro-Hungarian Empire which died in 1918, three year after him. So, the only actual Czechoslovak record I have is:
This is the birth certificate of my great-great-aunt Susana (whom we all called Susette). The issuance date is 1952, so this is the communist Czechoslovakia issuing a birth certificate for something that, again, happened during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It's strange to think that this area where my ancestors lived for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, has changed political identities five times in less that 100 years. Up to 1918, the Austrian Empire; 1918-1939, 1945-1948, Czechoslovakia (republic), 1939-1945 Slovakia (a fascist puppet state propped up by the Nazis), 1948-1990 the communist Czechoslovakia, and from 1992 onward, the Slovak Republic. During the same period all the U.S. did was add two states: Hawaii and Alaska.
Posted by: |