Update since Christmas Party

For those of you who emailed or snail mailed information this past week, I thank you very much.

Now comes the difficult part of disseminating it. While I have a complete Balash Family Tree, more or less (80%), elements of the Hricko side still elude me probably due to distance of this branch relative to our position on the tree (the Balash branch).

Just to recap:

The Hricko branch began when the father of Peter Balash, Steve Balash, married Mary Hricko. She had four brothers (William, Louis, Aftonas and Wasyo) who all came to the US and started families. It is these families that I am attempting to contact, interview, gather information and ultimately fit these pieces to the puzzle.

So far, I have been successful in acquiring the names of the descendants for most of the brothers of Mary Hricko. Some of these names we already have on the current tree. (Uncle George and my grandmother sent me the up to date tree with that information.) However, most of these names as you will soon see in future updates are brand new to the tree. As of this writing, there are at least 80 new names.

This past week, I interviewed a Darlene Hricko from Elmira, New York who is a distant cousin. (Technically, she is my second cousin twice removed but I digress.) Anyway, she was helpful in filling some gaps although much work still needs to be done.

If you are wondering how to figure relationships, i.e. "second cousin twice removed, etc" then check out this website.

http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrelationshipchart.htm

Any information the HRICKO side or PETER BALASH'S brothers and sisters would be great!

Thanks,

Scott