Welcome cousins!
As John Jano was only in their lives a few years and left before his sons were even 5, we include the Jano-Evan history as part of this page. The email list for this combined families page is SuhovicJanoEvans
Mary Suhovic (nee Evan) was born, along with her parents, in eastern Europe. We know they spoke Slovak and a bit of Russian. In fact, Mary never learned to speak English even though she lived in the USA nearly 60 years. Mary was mostly known as Mary Jano. This because Joe Suhovic died in 1919 and Mary remarried John Jano two months later. She retained the new last name for the rest of her life. The big job yet to tackle is tracing the Suhovic family back into Slovakia and the surrounding areas.
We are now confident to say the surname was originally Suchovič or possibly even Šuchovič. This because of the early records in the 1900's now found listing the name either this way, or phonetically pronounced this way. The earliest record, the passenger arrival record, lists the name as Szuchovics. Which is phonetic English for Šuchovič. This change to Suhovic explains both the rarity of the name in the USA and elsewhere, as well as the non-existence of the name in Slovakia and Ukraine. Mary must be Ivan originally, as these early records list her maiden name this way also. We will keep it Evan here as later records list her name that way. But have since found her and her ancestors in the Slovak records as Ivan.
Children
- Mary "Mae" (b.1898)
- Joe "Daniels" (b.1904)
- Frank (b.1905)
- Agnes (b.1907)
- John (b.1909)
- Anna (b.1910)
- Helen (b.1912)
- Baby (b.1920)
- John (b.1921)
- Michael (b.1923).
Origins of the Family
There are two census entries for Mary Suhovic Bobincheck with her husband Mike. The 1920 lists her birthplace as Budapest, Hungary. The 1930 lists it as Vienna, Austria. We do not know if either of those are true or she was actually born in Slovakia where the parents are from. Slovakia was under the Hungarian king and the Astro-Hungarian Empire at the time. Frank Suhovic's wife Margaret Fedor was born into a recent immigrant family. The parents in their census records are listed as being born in Sariska, Austria. Šarišská is a region in North Eastern Slovakia that is more commonly spelled in English as Šariš or Veľký Šariš (meaning Saris Valley). Districts encompassing this area are Presov, Bardejov, Svidnik and Stropkov. The valley is just north of Prešov which is directly north of Košice down near the southern border. John Jano, on his Naturalization documents, claims his birth location as Budastoliscky in Slovakia. (We have not found this village yet.)Most of the area where Slovak is spoken has not been independently ruled by Slovak speaking peoples for most of their history. See Slovak History for more details. The Czecks and Slovaks split peacefully in 1993 to form their own federations. The Suhovic side of the family is believed to be from the general area of what is now eastern Slovakia, western Ukraine, northern Romania and Hungary and south eastern Poland. Often called Galacia. The challenge will be finding where. When the sisters would get together with their mother, it seemed the family was from what was Western Ukraine at that time. Often, language use and political boundaries do not line up throughout Europe.
Rachael "Dolly" Harr, Mary Jano's granddaughter-in-law, stated that Joseph Suhovic was from some sort of blue blood or royal family background. The Suhovic descendants all remember a photo or painting of Joe Suhovic in a Cossack Calvary uniform on horseback. Dolly alluded that Joe had not been used to working or was not really dedicated to work. It is not clear if this was before coming to America only or all his life. According to her also, Mary Evan was a servant or maid in his household. We conjecture that maybe Joe was a Szlachta — a privileged class formed under Polish-Lithuanian rule hundreds of years earlier that was dying out under the Hungarian rule of late.
On the marriage application with John Jano, Mary Evan lists her parents as Andrew Ivan and Anna Redmar. It also lists John Jano's parents as Andrew Jano and Julia Nestor. Joe Suhovics death certificate, filled by Mary, lists his parents as George Suhovich and Mary Evan. Was Joe's wife and mother with the same maiden name? Or was their a confusion when filling out the form?
Agnes self-declared birth certificate filed in 1940 lists her father's birthplace as Ketzar Pecklin, Hungary and mother as Tezate, Austro-Hungary. In 1945, Anna has a self-declared birth record which lists her surname as Suchovic, her father born in Peklani, Austria-Hungary and her mother Mary Evans born in Csizacicc, Austria-Hungary. These are important to discovering their real villages later.
Birth of Kids and Moving Around
The connection with Eastern Pennsylvania, their first home after arrival in America, is not yet clear. We know Mary and Joseph Suhovic first immigrated to Pennsylvania with their first daughter Mary Ann (Mae). Mae was born in the homeland in 1898. The next two kids who survived, brothers Joe and Frank, were born in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in approx 1904 and 1905. The location is according to Anna Schwartz (nee Suhovic) and since confirmed in Joe's Death Certificate that listed Maltby (a region of Kingston which is now part of Wilkes-Barre). (County) Birth records were manually searched there by great-grandson Randy but no Suhovics found. The clerk stated it was not uncommon for the really poor, second-class immigrant workers to not report a birth to the county at that time.Anna remembers visiting her mother's sister Anna who lived in Wilkes-Barre. Supposedly Anna Evan lived there her whole life before Joseph and Mary came and stayed there. Anna Evan was briefly married but had no children, according to Anna. In historical documents it is reported that Wilkes-Barre saw tens of thousand of East European immigrants come in from 1880 through 1910 to work in the coal mines there. We have not found record of this sister Anna as of yet.
It is not known if there were any more children born in that gap from Mae till Joe that did not survive. The last two sisters (Anna and Helen) were born in Cleveland in 1910 and 1912; respectively. Agnes and John were born in 1907 and 1909, respectively, in what is now confirmed as Whipple, Fayette County, West Virginia.
All Agnes could ever get out of her mother is she was born in Whiple. Agnes could never find a Whiple in West Virginia. In the 1930's, Agnes' husband Walter was traveling through Ripley and conjectured that this was the birthplace. So Agnes self-declared birth and baptism in Ripley, Jackson County, West Virginia. Problem is this was in flat lands near the Ohio river and not a mining area. -Recently, great-grandson Randy found John Suchovic's death certificate from 1909 which again repeated Whiple, (Virginia). He then also found an unincorporated area called Whipple, Fayette County, WV that is in the heart of the regions old Cold Mining territory of the time. Whipple was a company town and famous for having the "Company Store" for all supplies that coal mining families would need. That store still stands in 2011. While birth and death records were recorded well back into the 1800's in both these counties, and births in both counties are recorded around this time, no records of any Suhovic/Suchovic have been found in either county. So we conjectured Whipple in Fayette is the likely birth place with Ripley in Jackson being Agnes' self-declared, registered birth place in 1940.
In 2015, Randy tracked down the St Peter and Paul Catholic Church. Originally of Whipple but now in Oak Hill. Upon inquiry, they had the records back to their founding in 1906. Upon perusal, they found the baptism of both Agnes and John in the church records at the expected times. So this is the actual location of the family from around 1906 to mid-1909. This gives new hope to maybe go back to Wilkes-Barre and track down the Slovak catholic church there to find records on the older boys born there.
For more on Whipple and what it was like, see a nice overview with photos by Chris DellaMea. The Whipple Company Store still stands and exists as a museum. St Peter and Paul moved to Oak Hill but the original church is somewhat standing near the cemetery that still exists in Whipple.
Death of Joe and Beyond
Joe Suhovic died of Pneumonia and TB in May 1919. Joseph Suhovic spoke Slovak as did John Jano, Mary Evans second husband. It is not clear yet if John Jano came from the same general area as Mary Evans. Likely Joe Suhovic and Mary Evan are from the same area as they were married before immigrating to America.Mae married Mike Bobincheck in 1917. The 1920 census shows first son Bob 2 years old by then and Mary housing her two brothers Joe and Frank. We do have a death certificate of a Baby Jano still born in 1920 with John Jano listed as the father and Mary Suhovic, the mother. In 1917 Mae listed her home on Berg Street, as does the death and marriage certificate of 1919, and the death certificate of 1920. The 1920 census shows John Jano, Mary, and the three daughters still on Berg Street. But John has given his name as Brady there. This was done again when he filed for Naturalization a few months later. But in 1925, when he completed the process to become a citizen, he is using the surname Jano. John Jano is a very common name combination and a search for John before 1919 has come up with no real plausible records.
Agnes is married in 1925, has her oldest Leroy Patrick in 1928 and is housing her brother Frank with her in the 1930 census. Joe is married and changed his name to Daniels by 1930. Mae Bobincheck is found with her husband and kids in 1930 in the census as expected. Helen and Anna are both married in 1928; Helen at the age of 15. But where is mother Mary and her two young boys in 1930? They are not readily found in the census.
John disappeared from the family after 1925 and it was not spoken about him further; that we have been able to ascertain. It appears John might have listed himself as divorced by 1930; based on a plausible census record found. It also has him living with a "partner" on West 5th in basically a skid-row type area. We wonder if, knowingly to Mary as she was destitute when Joe Suhovic died and had 5 mouths to feed, John Jano married Mary just to get his citizenship. This as you could not be Naturalized if homosexual at that time. John seems to have left shortly after getting his naturalization in 1925 and hence why the girls got married soon after as well (as the mother could not support them all).
Jano Boys and later years of Mary Jano
It is believed that the East 25th street house that John Jano lists as his address on his 1925 Naturalization document is where Mary Jano was living with the boys in 1930. But that John Jano is out of the picture by then. He may be the one we found on West 5th street in the 1930 census. He is listed as Divorced there. Sure enough, we find Mary and the boys in the 1930 and 1940 census at that address. Was just improperly indexed as Zana in the 1930 census and hence why we could not find.The Jano boys both joined the war effort as young lads; Mike even before finishing high school. Mary never learned to speak nor read/write English. And the boys never learned to read/write Slovak. So they would send letters to their half-sister Agnes who would read them in Slovak to her mother; then write the boys letters back in English. This communication method went on for many years. The boys did learn and retain enough Slovak to verbally communicate with their mother and take care of her most of her life.
Mary Jano lived with her son John well into the 1950's. Definitely they were all in the East 25th street house for many years together. We do find her at her grandsons weddings in 1950 (Eddie Helman, son of Helen) and 1955 (Wally Harr, son of Agnes) as the photos show her prominent in both. According to great-granddaughter Cindy, Mary lived her last days with daughter Helen at 3147 West 82nd. They both lived upstairs with (grand)daugther Tootsie and her family while (grand)son Ed and his family were downstairs.