András Fedor and Mária Sedlyár
in Szaeszta (Cestice), Slovakia in mid-1800's and later. Welcome Cousins!
We are formalizing the search in Slovakia records for this family as we now have several siblings to connect with these parents. Until recently, we had only found a few indexed baptismal records in Slovakia and a few passenger arrival entries for the children that emigrated. Key will be to find the Status Animarium page for this family to finally bring them all together. While it seems they may not exist, the 1869 Slovak census has been scanned (but not indexed) and was the best help to pulling these families together. Ester Ritter and Randy Harr are the lead researchers plowing through the material and leads. Ester did most of the searching through the image archives in July 2018 — long before any were indexed.
We only initially knew of the parents names from the declarations of the children in marriage, naturalization and death records in America. Through records there that connect the siblings, and now autosomal DNA matching between descendants of various children including a branch still in Slovakia, we are much closer to recreating this family.
Been Contacted by Us?
If you have been contacted by us due to an (autosomal) DNA Match, here is how you can help. No matter what service you tested on, we need you on one or both of the following sites to truly analyze the DNA match and use your match to help find more matches. This involves downloading your RAW data file from DNA testing and uploading to these sites. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to Randy. MyHeritage.com is the first and primary. Once you upload there, let Randy know your ID. The second is FamilyTreeDNA.com. Once there, join the "Harr-Kosak Family" project by clicking on the link embedded here. Very important is to grant Randy "Full Access". If you do not do the latter, your membership is useless to him and you will likely not be kept in the group. These sites allow testers from different test companies to be compared to each other. They also allow a more detailed, segment analysis and triangulation of matches. The more descendants we get to join there then the more sources of the DNA from these original parents we have to compare and match to even more distant relatives. Many have tested on Ancestry and can be compared more minimally there. Ancestry and 23andMe users should transfer their results to match the others tested at MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA.Late breaking development: The next strongest match in DNA to both Maria and Ed on FamilyTreeDNA is Joanne of Cleveland. Her maternal grandmother is Elizabeth Fedor b.2 Nov 1885 in Cestice and died 15 Jul 1961 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Her parents are known to be Joseph Fedor and Barbara Sedlyar. They further somehow know that Barbara was born in 1858 and died in 1942; all presumably in Cestice. Based on the strength of the match, we are suspecting two sisters married two brothers and that her great-grandparents and Ed's great-grandparents are both siblings. So we are now looking for the records to support this DNA indication. Guess we need to create a new page Fedor Sedlyar 2 as well.
Family Origin in Slovakia
Map for Fedor Sedlyár Family in Slovakia
The Parents
Mária Sedlyár was born about 1841 as she was 46 when she died on 13 Aug 1887 while giving birth. We found her death record but not the baptismal one yet. András Fedor is about the same age we believe. We have not found any records on him other than the ones referencing him when his children were baptized and such. If in an English speaking country, they would likely be known as Mary and Andrew.Most of the records are spotty before 1870. And non-existent before 1840. So we cannot trace very far back. It should be noted that this family is clearly identified in records as Greek Catholic. This indicates a Slavic / Ukrainian background and identification. From the ethnicity estimates of present day testers, this Slavic background seems to hold true. Roman Catholics and protestants were there as well. With Roman Catholic being the Hungarian minority. Remember that Hungary ruled the area for hundreds of years and many records are in Hungarian. Hungarians are ethnically (in DNA and customs) very different from the Slavic culture.
The Children
All are born in Cestice (Szeszta) and listed as Greek Catholic; as best we have discovered so far.- Maria b.1860, d.? (was 19 when married to Josef Buzsicsky in Nov 1879)
- Andrew b.1862 d.1906 Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Julia b.1864 d.? (m. 26 Jun 1888 Andras Weiszer b.1852 from Budulov, roman catholic)
- Erzsebet (Alzbeta, Elizabeth) b.1866 d.1939 (lived 73 years; was 20 when married in 1886).
Husband Pál (Paul) Majoros went to America to work; possibly multiple times). But he eventually returned. Not clear if any of their children went to America, stayed back or returned. Pal was born in 1861 and died in 1913. Their children, all born in Peder, are:- Gyula (b 28 May 1887),
- Katalin (b. 7 Jan 1891),
- Erzsebet (b. 1894 died as an infant),
- Juliana (b. 2 May 1896, married Kiss-Matyas), and
- Katarina (b. 1899, married Dezidor Ritter, d.1985 Bodolo (Budulov).
A grand-daughter (Maria) and great-grand-daughter (Ester) of Katarina in Slovakia is a DNA match to the other America-based lines. They tested on MyHeritage and transferred to GEDMatch and FamilyTreeDNA. Ester is working with us to investigate the family and provide local records research. Elizabeta is buried in Budulov where she lived in her final days with her daughter. - Catherine (Katalin), b.12 May 1872, d.10 Oct 1966 Ohio, USA; m. Steven Simko 1889 (was 17 when married)
- A number of children (Margaret, ?)
- Barbara (Barbola) b.1 Jan 1874 Cestice , d 24 Dec 1956 Ohio, USA , m: Frank Timko
- Grandson Ed Lostoski is DNA tested on Ancestry and did early research on the line. His nephew Randy has extended it over the past few years and collaborated with his many DNA matches descended from Barbara and her presumed siblings. Surnames of descendants of Barbara are Ropas, Timko, and Lostoski,
- Paul (Pál) b.5 Jul 1875 Cestice, d.12 Jan 1954 Arizona, USA m. Barbola (Barbara) Budai (born herself 15 Jun 1870/77 in Cestice).
Their children John b.1897 and Mary b.1901 were both born in Slovakia. Anna and the rest of the kids were born in Cleveland. Barbara brought the kids to Cleveland in 1902. Many children and descendants in America. Including a daughter Mary who marries into the Rutkai family. - Maria b.8 Sep 1876 Cestice
- George (Guorgy) b. 24 Apr 1884 Cestice, Slovakia bp 6 May 1884 Cestice, d. 1949 Michigan, USA; m.1930 Anna Erdos b1893
- Listed on WWI draft card in Michigan that closest relative is Pal Fedor in Cleveland, Ohio.
- Located in the 1910 census household, in Cleveland, of Frank and Barbara (Fedor) Timko, listed as a brother-in-law.
- Baptismal record in Slovak Church records for 6 May 1884 listing parents as Andrew Fedor and Maria Sedlyár
- Unnamed Female, b 13 Aug 1877 Cistice, Slovakia
- Baptismal record in Slovak Church records for 13 Aug 1887 listing parents as Andrew Fedor and Maria Sedlyár
- Death record same day indicates child and mother died during the child birth process
Note that most of the Slovak records for this family are not yet indexed. There are films online to peruse though. Something Ester did to find the many additional records in July 2018. Also, FamilySearch does not match romanized Sedlyar with Sedlyár in their search of the few indexed records they have. Or the variations of Andreas name as seen in Slovak records. So we have to generalize searches for this family in what few records are indexed.