Can anyone help with confirmation of great-great grandparents from Slovakia?

Question

I have run into some problems with verification of my great-great grandparents.  My great-grandfather was John Mayercik, born in Sklabyna.  From family accounts his birth date was the 10th of May 1884, and from the marriage record from New Jersey it lists his parents as Paul Mayercik (Majercik in Czech) and Katerina Helena.  I believe I was able to locate a birth record for for my great grandfather in the Slovak Church and Synagogue Records (link below), however it lists his birth date as the 15th of May, and his parents are listed as Paulus Majersik and Catherina Haljena.  My question then is two part--first is it a reasonable assumption that this is the birth record of my grandfather, and second, is Haljena the Slovak equivalent to Helena in English?

A profile has not been set up yet because I was unsure the information was correct.  Any help would be appreciated!

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRQN-981V?i=223&cc=1554443  (listed as #23 on the second page)

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61377/images/TH-1-9740-10523-11?pId=760799

Answer 1

From the information you've given, that looks like the correct record of baptism/birth for him.

Just FYI, "Joanes" with that straight line above the n, means that it's "Joannes". Whoever indexed it on FamilySearch just didn't know. (From FamilySearch indexing instructions for Slovak records: "A straight line over an "n" or "m" means it should be indexed with 2 letters.") And Joannes may be recorded many ways in Slovak records: Joannis, Johannes, Johan, Janos, Jan/Ján, etc.

Haljena is not a Slovak spelling of the given name Helena as far as I know, though it obviously sounds similar. In Slovakia, I believe it was typically spelled Helena at that time. Haljena looks like it is Catharina's last name at birth/maiden name to me though. Other mothers listed on the same page have their maiden name included and it's most common at that time in Slovakia to not be given a middle name at birth.

And, with a quick search, that seems to be the case--it's her maiden name. Here is a sibling to Joannes: 

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RQN-9Z2G?i=230&cc=1554443

1885-12-08: Anna Majertsik (just a variant spelling), daughter of Paulus Majertsik and Catharina Haljena.

Another:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RQN-987L?i=236&cc=1554443

1887-10-02: Maria Majercsik, daughter of Paulus Majercsik and Catharina Haljena.

Another:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RQN-9Z5K?i=250&cc=1554443

1893-04-20: Katarina Majerčik, daughter of Pavol Majerčik and Katarina Haliena. (Again, these are just variant spellings--Pavol = Pavel = Paulus = Pál = Paul in English. Haljena = Haliena. Majerčik = Majercsik = Majertsik.)

Another:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRQN-98TP?i=245&cc=1554443

1891-04-08: Durko Majerčik, son of Pavol Majerčik and Katarina Haliena. (I'm not sure which accent it is over the "u", but I believe Durko is a variant of Djuro/Duro, as in Juraj/Juro/Jurko, the latter which I believe, at other times and places in Slovak records, is recorded as György, Georgius, etc.)

Hope that helps!

(Just edited to fix the font.)

Comments

Thank you Anne!  This is tremendously helpful! I knew he had a brother Juraj but was never able to find any information about him-it makes sense if it was written as Durko. I never heard any mention of sisters so I’m curious to delve into that a bit more.

---

No problem. Glad it helped!

For what it's worth, I asked my dad (who's from Slovakia), about the name Durko and mentioned that in the record I saw it in, it looked like the name had a caron over the u (which didn't make sense to me), and he confirmed it would be over the D, as in Ďurko. Looking at the record again and comparing it with the same name written on other pages in the same book, that was probably what was intended.

Answer 2

I'd say you found him. From my experience searching the Slovak church records (more hours than I'd care to admit), the spelling of names is all over the place. It's not uncommon for someone's name (first or last) to be spelled differently on their baptism, marriage and burial record, if you can find all of them.

If you really want to confirm them I'd search the church records for other children of Paul and Katerina (according to the 1930 US census, John didn't come to the US until 1904) and see if you can trace any of your DNA matches back to them. If they're at the same generational level they'd be 3rd cousins and should match about 73 cM (give or take quite a bit 0 - 234 cM). If you can find someone who's one generation closer to them then they'd be 2nd cousins once removed and should match about 122 cM. If they had more children, I'd say you've got a pretty good chance of finding a cousin at Ancestry.