ZAJACZ and allied families from Petrócz and Topolyán
Click here to go to a PhpGedView database with the most current data (excluding my line) .
Welcome to my ZAJACZ Family Research web-site ... a work in progress. As part of my effort to find my roots in eastern Slovakia, I have decided to post my research to this web-site.
My great-grandparents were George Andrew ZAJACZ and his wife Anna DZUROV. A letter to my mother from her cousin led me to research the Topolyán church records that are available thru the LDS. With the help of their Ohio death certificates, I was able to locate their baptism records and verify their parent's names. George and Anna were married in Cleveland, Ohio, but the fact that they both came from Topolyán leads me to believe that they knew each other prior to emigrating to America.
In the course of my research, I have found MANY alternate spellings of the ZAJACZ surname. Most, if not all, of these alternate spellings did not appear until after the various family members emigrated to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Some of the more common spellings are ZAJAC, ZAJATZ, ZAYATZ, and ZIATS. The only conclusion I can draw from the variety of spellings is that the immigrants probably could not read and write when they arrived in this country. Once they learned how to read and write, each different family spelled the name the way they thought it sounded.
These are the ZAJACZ families I have located in the Greek and Roman Catholic parish register of births, marriages, and deaths for Topol'any, Slovakia (formerly Topolyán, Zemplén, Hungary) and Michalovce, Slovakia (formerly Nagymihály, Zemplén, Hungary). Petrócz (today known as Petrovce Nad Laborcom) is included in these microfilms. In addition, the 1869 censuses for Petrócz and Topolyán have also been used as a sources, as well as the Ellis Island Database, U.S. Censuses, newspaper obituaries/death notices, death certificates, marriage licenses, and assorted other sources.
I have attempted to be as accurate as possible in transcribing the data from the microfilms. Keep in mind that transcription is an art, not a science, and as such is subject to interpretation. Surnames are usually entered into the database just as they are found the first time they are encountered. First names are also recorded "as is" from the first record (baptism, marriage, burial or census) from which they are extracted. It is NOT uncommon for an individual to be referenced by two or even three given names (Pavel, Pál, Paulus and Paul for example). At some point in time I intend to go back and adjust all first names to the one found on the earliest source.
Click here for a list of the descendants of András ZAJACZ
Here are some photos I received from Slovakia of the Petrócz/Topolyán area:
- Mainstreet in Petrovce, home base for the ZAJACZ family.
- St. Michael the Archangel Greek Catholic Church in Topolany, where George and Anna were baptized.
- The cemetery in Petrovce, where many generations of ZAJACZs are buried,
And here is a photo of my great-grandparents, George ZAJACZ and wife Anna DZUROV taken in about 1923 at the grave of their daughter Anna at Holy Ghost Cemetery in Parma, Ohio. To the right is the same grave in 2005. Notice how the tombstone has sunk. Even so, in 2005 the tombstone was just above my waist (I am 6' tall) ... meaning that great-gramma ZAJACZ was a very short person.
If you have any information or research you would like to contribute, please write to me at the address listed below.
