SCHWABIK

The Family Tree

CHAPTER 2

(If we started with Chapter 1, we wouldn't be able go farther back, would we? We already have new leads that pre-date previous information - it is always best to leave the door open.)

So begins the story of our Schwabik family...239 years ago in a small village called Hnilčík, now part of Slovakia. According to data from answers.com, the population today is 530 people and the first mention of the town in history dates to 1315.

A young couple named Mathias and Maria Zelesnek (her maiden name is unknown to us) married and had five children: Anna, Catharina, Matthias, Michael and Joannes. Daughter Catherine went on to marry Joannes Bascham Kosty and they became the proud parents of twin girls on January 1, 1794, naming them Eva and Anna. (Did you know that this is a long tradition to name twins Adam and Eva, or in the case of two girls, Eva and Anna.)

Daughter Marie Zelesnakova of Hnilčík met and married Joannes Schwabik around the year 1793.  We have no record of their marriage, although their children were legitimate as noted in
church records. 

On March 2, 1794 they became parents: a child named Josephus Schwabik was born in Spišská Nová Ves. Little did Josephus know he would ultimately become the patriarch of the Schwabik family of America, nor would he in his wildest dreams know that people over 200 years later would be able to view his actual birth records. Josephus is referred to as "Josephus 1794" in this document.

Josephus-1794 had 4 siblings, with three brothers: Johannes, born December 9, 1796, Paulus, born  January 19, 1799, Martinus born November 14, 1807 and a sister Marie, born January 9, 1805. They all had the same Mother and Father and all were born in Spišská Nová Ves (aka Iglo or Zipser Neudorf.) According to church records, we found no paper trail on Johannes - no marriage, no children that we found. Paulus appears to have had four different wives, and eight children! All four of his wives were named Maria! You will see his children listed in the family tree when it is posted.  Mother of the children, Marie Zelesnakova-Schvabik died in Iglo August 17, 1831 at the age of 51.

Josephus-1794 married Susan Masney, who according to records, was born in 1808. We have not been able to find their marriage records, in Spišská Nová Ves or any other town (yet.) Usually a marriage would take place in the bride's home town. We do not know the home town of Susanna Masney. Radix index lists one name of Masszy [sic] from a town called Szolnok, which may bear further investigation. The records indicate only one child born to the couple on July 8, 1819, Johannes Schvabik. He was likely named for his Grandfather. If we do the math, and if the birth date of Susanna Masney is correct, she gave birth to this child when she was eleven years old! This is highly unlikely, so you can see that some of the data may not be correct, such as the birth date of Susanna Masney. Could the real mother, her sister perhaps have died in childbirth? We do have the birth information from the church and the names of the parents, and child and birth date are correct. The birth is also called a legitimate birth, which would mean that the parents were married at the time. We have a death date for a Susanna Masney in Spišská Nová Ves of 1848, which would put her at 40 years old.

We have no other data on Josephus 1794 in Spišská Nová Ves. There were no other children born of his union with Susanna, based on the church records. There is no record of his death in Spišská Nová Ves. This is an important fact to remember because there are two other Schwabik families that are claiming Joseph-1794 as their ancestor, only they both place their Joseph in Teval, with an entire family tree and solid records to back them up. If Joseph-1794 left the child Johannes 1819 in Spišská Nová Ves, and moved to Teval and re-married to start another Schwabik clan, (and a totally different profession - is this possible?) it could connect the two families. However as in all research, there must be facts to back up the data. So far, we do not have these facts, but this blip should be kept in mind for future generations who may have the ways and means to obtain this information in the future.