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The History of the Martin Jancik and Maria Shroba Family
by Matthew J. Mikulich, REVISED, July 2006
This is the history of the Martin Jancik and Maria Shroba family in the US. These two families became part of the history of succeeding Mikulich generations when Matthew A. Mikulicic married Pauline Anna Jancik in 1937. Pauline’s parents were Martin Jancik and Maria Shroba. The Slovak family name Jancik, spelled Jancsik in Hungarian, was later spelled Yanchick in the US. The Slovak family name Sroba is usually spelled Shroba in the US. This information is collected from personal communications with family members, birth, marriage, and death records, Church records from the US and Slovakia, census records, county records, passenger arrival records, and other documents.
The Author. The author is the son of Matthew A. and Pauline (Jancik) Mikulicic, and a grandson of Martin and Maria (Shroba) Jancik.
Special note: The Jancik and the Shroba families are doubly related. Martin Jancik married Maria Shroba. His sister, Susan Jancik, married Maria’s brother, Stephen Shroba. Both of these marriages occurred in the US.
Historical Note: The early history of these two families in the US is intimately tied to the development of the anthracite coal mining district of NE Pennsylvania. For perspective, a historical introduction and footnote are included in this narrative. In addition, a map of the greater Wilkes-Barre area with key place names is included at the end of the text.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
In the 1890’s the anthracite coal mining industry was rapidly expanding in northeastern Pennsylvania. There is an extensive anthracite coal field of multiple individual seams underlying the entire Susquehanna Valley from well north of Scranton to well south of Wilkes-Barre, a distance at least 30 miles long and from 2 to 3 miles wide. Jobs for unskilled coal mine laborers, both surface and underground, were plentiful at the time, and were probably relatively high paying jobs, as the demand for laborers was strong. Underground jobs in the collieries paid more money than surface jobs due to the hazardous working conditions. In the period 1910 to 1920, earnings for miners averaged about $2,000 per year, but highly productive workers earned as much as $4,000 per year.
Emigrants from several countries, especially east Europeans, were pouring into the area to work in the mines from the 1890‘s and well into the 1900‘s. In addition to Slovaks there were large groups of Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Croatians, and Greeks, but also many Italians and Irish, and even some Welsh and a few Scots. The majority of these people were Catholics, and each national community built its own church, or churches. The great majority did not speak English when they arrived, and they lived in national communities near their churches. Because the population was growing rapidly, new churches were constantly being built. Today the churches these people built stand in tribute to their faith, their nationalities, and their new way of life. In many areas there is one church in every city block. On Zerby Street in Edwardsville, PA, there are three churches serving different nationalities built on adjacent lots in the same city block. In the Diocese of Scranton, which includes Wilkes-Barre, there were at least 23 Slovak Catholic parishes established between 1882 and 1930, and for comparison there were 46 Polish Catholic parishes established.
The ancestry of Martin Jancik.
The greater valley of the Poprad River in north central Slovakia lies between the Tatry (High Tatra Mountains) on the north and the Nizke Tatra (Low Tatra Mountains) on the south. The valley is primarily a farming area, but wood remains abundant in the valley proper and on the surrounding mountainsides, and so a timber industry has also been a part of the economy there. The County of Spis, with its seat at Levoca, an old medieval trading town on the north-south road between Poland and Hungary, occupies a portion of the Poprad River Valley. The villages of Vysna Sunava (Upper Sunava) and Nizna Sunava (Lower Sunava) lie in the westernmost part of Spis, and south of the Poprad River, on the north flank of the Nizke Tatry. These two villages were later merged into one village which today is simply called, Sunava. Sunava is located about 14 kilometers west of the large city of Poprad. The elevation of Sunava is 871meters (about 2830MSL). The population of Sunava today is about 1800.
Nizna Sunava, Spis County, Slovakia, with All Saints Church. Looking north at the Tatry.
Martin Jancik was born on April 8, 1878, in house #46 in the village of Nizna Sunava, Spis County, Slovakia, which was at that time a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Church record of his birth shows his parents as Martin Muranszky (Jancsik) and Juliana Szkokan. These family names are recorded in Hungarian, but the Slovaks spell these names as Muransky, Jancik, and Skokan. Martin was baptized in All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Nizna Sunava on April 11, 1878. The name Jancik in parentheses on the birth record indicates that this Muransky family was called, Jancik, by the villagers to distinguish them from other Muransky families in the area. It is a surname “nick-name”, a relatively common occurrence in Slovakia at that time. But, the legal name of this family was Muransky.
All Saints Church (completed 1765) Nizna Sunava, Slovakia, recently repainted and with a new steeple. Photo taken in 2001.
Martin’s father was also Martin Muransky (1852-?). He was a farm laborer in Nizna Sunava. Most probably he did not own land, but worked the land of others. Possibly when he was not farming, he worked in the timber industry in the Nizke Tatry immediately south of his village. He married Juliana Skokan (1856-?) on January 8, 1874. She was a widow and 18 years old at the time of their marriage. Her first husband, Paul Marton had died of cholera in September 1873, after less than one year of marriage. Martin and Juliana had 11 children, with their birth years they are: Joseph (1875, died 1875), Maria (1876, died 1877), Martin (1878 - the subject of this story), Maria (1880), unnamed male baby (1883, died at birth), Anna (1884), unnamed female baby (1887, died at birth), Sophia (1888, died 1888), Susanna (1889), John (1892), and Elizabeth (1895). Of these, Martin, Susanna, and John would immigrate to the United States. To our knowledge, none of these three ever returned to Slovakia, even for a visit.
Martin’s paternal grandparents were Michael Muransky (Jancik)(1809-1877) and Eva Pilat (1818-1873). His maternal grandparents were Joannes Skokan (1826-?) and Susanna Benko (1829-?). All four of these people were from the village of Nizna Sunava. We are still researching these people, but one thing we do know is that Eva Pilat died on August 6, 1873 in Nizna Sunava of cholera.
The given name, Martin, seems to be common in this area of Slovakia. St. Martin is the patron saint of the County of Spis. Also, the church in the nearby village of Lucivna is named St. Martin the Bishop. It is in Lucivna where Church records for Vysna Sunava and Nizna Sunava were kept, because it functioned as the central parish church for all three villages.
The ancestry of Maria Shroba
The County of Orava, Slovakia encompasses the drainage area of the Orava River. It lies in the north central part of Slovakia bounded by the Polish border on the north, and the Tatry (High Tatra Mountains) on the east. Orava Castle lies on the river in the village of Oravsky Podzamok (Orava Below-the-Castle). Villages throughout Orava owed allegiance to the nobles in Orava Castle. Zuberec and Habovka are two small villages at the foot of the western Tatras, where they are called the Rohace, which belonged to Orava Castle. Maria Shroba and her family are from these two villages.
Orava Castle, Slovakia.
The elevation of Zuberec is 743 meters (about 2115 feet above MSL). Although the area was settled as a farming area, the locals say the land is not good for much except potatoes, which is not a high cash crop. There is thick forest on the surrounding mountains, and Zuberec is famous for its log houses. These houses use squared log timbers with dovetail notched corners, and are built as a simple rectangle on a stone foundation. They have steeply pitched roofs for the heavy snows, and very wide eave overhangs. During World War II, Zuberec was a center of Partisan activities against the Germans. Today, the economy has expanded to include tourism: camping and mountain hiking in summer, and skiing in winter. The population of Zuberec today is about 1700 and the adjacent village of Habovka is about 1200. Zuberec has an excellent outdoor museum called the Muzeum Oravskej Dediny (Museum of the Orava Village), which includes historical buildings of all kinds from all over the greater Orava area.
Street in Zuberec, Slovakia showing log houses. Photo taken 2001.
Maria Shroba was born on February 6, 1884 in Zuberec, Orava County, Slovakia. Her parents were John Sroba and Susanna Stech who were living in house #180 at the time of her birth. The Shroba family is from Zuberec, and the Stech family is from Habovka. Maria had four brothers who were: Joseph (1876), John (1879), Andrew (1881), and Stephen (1886). The Roman Catholic Church of St. Valentine in Zuberec was not built until 1933. Before that date, the residents of Zuberec had to walk 2 kilometers to Habovka to go to church at the Church of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mother, which was completed in 1820. Maria and her brothers were baptized there.
Church of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mother (completed 1820), Habovka, Slovakia. Photo taken 2001.
John Sroba’s parents were Janos Sroba (1820-1891) and Dorothea Jancso (1824-1879). His paternal grandparents were Joannes Sroba (1788-?) and Dorothea Leginus (1788-?) and his maternal grandparents were Joannes Jancso (1803-?) and Dorothea Fandak (1801-?).
Zuzanna Stech’s parents were Josephus Stech (1818-1887) and Catharina Ondros (1818-1890). Her paternal grandparents were Joannes Pilar (Stech) (?-?) and Maria Borszik (1791-1846) and her maternal grandparents were George Ondros (?-?) and Maria Matulya (?-?). Stech in parentheses is another surname nickname.
Immigration to the United States.
Martin Jancik immigrated to the United States from Nizna Sunava, Slovakia, and initially settled somewhere in northeastern Pennsylvania. He arrived at Ellis Island on April 3, 1896, on the ship, Dresden. His port of departure was Bremen, Germany. On the ship’s log his name is written as Muranstky Jancsik, with the name Martin written under the line. The record further says that he is a laborer from Hungary, no city given, and is going to NY, NY. We are not sure why Martin chose to leave Slovakia and come to the US, but most probably it was for greater economic opportunity. There may have been another reason. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 4 years of military service were mandatory for all men beginning at the age of 20. By leaving Slovakia when he did, he was able to avoid the draft, which would have postponed any plans he had for immigration for another 4 years. It appears that he never used the name Muransky as his surname from the time of his arrival in the US. He was always known as Martin Jancik.
In the 1900 census we find him living in Forkston Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania. His name is spelled Martin Yancesk, and his occupation is “woodsman”. It is likely that he was employed as a lumberjack cutting timber for railroad construction. In the 1910 census he says he came to the US in 1895, but in the 1920 census he says it was 1893. My mother says that her father came to the US by himself when he was about 18 years old. We have also found the record of passage for his sister, Susan, who arrived at Ellis Island on June 1, 1910, on the ship Kaiser Wilhelm II from Bremen. Her name is spelled Zuzanna Tancsik in the Ellis Island index. We have also found his brother John who arrived on February 2, 1911, at Ellis Island on the ship SS Roon also from Bremen. His name is listed as Janos Jancsik in the Ellis Island index. Both went to Wilkes-Barre to join their brother Martin. Susan and John were more than 10 years younger than Martin. Susan Jancik came to the US to marry Stephen Shroba, her brother Martin’s brother-in-law. The families would not have known each other in Slovakia, so this appears to be an “arranged” marriage. We also know that Martin had three other sisters named Maria, Anna, and Elizabeth who did not come to the US. In addition, in the Ellis Island records, we find another J. (Jancik?) Marton Muransky, 47 years old from Sunava, who came to the US in 1899. We believe this man is Martin’s father who came to visit his son and his relatives, or to work temporarily to earn money. Of the Slovaks who came to the US during this period a significant number did not bring their families and did not intend to stay. They came to work, and planned to return to Slovakia after they saved some money.
Maria Shroba was born in Zuberec, Slovakia, and immigrated to the US with her entire family in 1890 when she was 6 years old. They settled in the town of Luzerne, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre, where her father John and his four sons eventually became coal miners. They came to this area because John’s older brother Andreas was already here having immigrated in 1887. Andreas was also a coal miner. We have not yet been able to find the record of passage for Andreas or John and his family; their passage predates Ellis Island. However, Andreas' wife and 3 children came through Ellis Island in 1894. The story of Maria Shroba’s family is included in another narrative at this website.