A lead turns up to be a deadend

In research like this, deadends a foregone conclusion. Call it being naive but in my utopian thinking during this project (which, I'll admit, has surpressed any trace of pragmatism necessary to offset my overly optimistic mindset), never did I actually believe that my research would lead to a deadend. A foolish notion but nonetheless true.

I finally got a hold of Tom Hritzko in Minnesota. According to Steve Hricko in California, he believed that he and Tom were cousins. Over the last three weeks, I left several messages at Tom's residence but to no avail. Through Steve, I finally reached him and talked to him at length. He DID confirm that his mother and Steve's mother MIGHT be related. If his informatio is true, then unfortunately, there is no direct relation (only a relation by marriage).

I still have a lead or two to explore. If those do not pan out, the Hricko side will be complete. At least as far as I can go with the information that I have.

Review of my work so far...

The journal of numerous phonecalls that make up most of the posting on the website can get a little convoluted and understandably so. After all, there hasn't been an actual family tree to reference as of yet. So, in an effort to streamline the lineage of data (names, dates,locations, etc), I will be launching a graph of this branch (Hricko) and others (Balash, etc) in the near future showing the progress at filling the holes along with the holes that still exist at the time. It will be color coded so as to make the deciphering process that much easier. Let me know via the
comment section if this works for you.

Just this afternoon, I had yet another conversation with Laurel "Laurie" Ballash (her married name; husband is no relation). The conversation lasted more than hour but it yielded yet more names from her side as well as some interesting (more like disturbing) pieces of trivia that I will

only share if you email me or call me. Yes, its that bad. Here is where Laurel Ballash (Hricko) resides on the tree: Her grandfather, Aftonas Hricko is Mary Hricko's brother . Remember that Mary Hricko is the mother of Peter Balash. She gave me a couple of phone numbers of other relatives which I should be able to get to later on this week.

Phonecall to Pat Barber

Another jackpot. Last night, I spent a half an hour speaking with Patricia Barber, yet another distant cousin whom I was made aware by Betty Senich (Hricko), my grandmother's first cousin.
I made my first call to her several weeks ago at her home in Ohio. About a week later, she left a message saying she was living in Florida through the winter. Lucky her.

I then called her at her home in Florida and was amazed at the amount of information she had and conversely, how much information I DIDN'T have about her, her parents, aunts, uncles, etc. Her grandfather Aftonas Hricko (he lived in Cleveland on Denison Avenue) didn't have 5 children as I thought through my other research, he had NINE! Patricia filled in the blanks on most of the nine children as well as gave me the addresses and phone numbers of other people related to her (and me), some who happen to live very close to me. As per her request, I sent her a copy of my branch of the family tree which starts with her Great Aunt Mary Hricko.

Once I compile my notes this weekend, I am sure another call to Patricia will be needed to complete this section.

Miscellaneous Calls to Minnesota

After playing phone tag for more than a week, I finally got a hold of Andrea Hjelm, niece of Stephan Hricko. She lives in Minnesota as does most of this side of the Hricko family. She provided a few names to fill in the blanks and also gave me another number to her first cousin Leonard Cline. His father is the brother of Steve Hricko.

Feeling adventurous, I called Leonard Cline right away. As it is with most cold calls, the level of apprehension always builds right before I dial the number knowing the possibility of the person hanging up is better than average. Luckily, each time I've done this, the people have been very courteous and quite helpful. Leonard Cline was equally as courteous and very helpful with names.

Now it's onto another branch: Aftonas Hricko's family

The Hricko Family Historian

Talking to older people can be an exercise in patience. An older relative's mind is an untapped reservoir of knowledge. Its just a matter of asking the right questions which might trigger the memory otherwise locked away for decades. Sometimes it means asking the same question but in a different way in the hope that it will garner that small piece of info that might uncover the unknowns of the family tree. At the risk of sounding redundant and patronizing toward the interviewee, I've been using this technique in my quest for family information. So far, so good.

As previously stated in another posting, I have a cousin who is 91. He's as sharp as a tack. But as he's admitted on a number of occasions, his memory is not what it used to be. I give him a call every two weeks or so when I hit a dead-end. This is where I employ my "ask the question in a different way" technique. Last week, my "sneaky" technique yielded a potential jackpot of knowledge. Steve told me that his niece Andrea Hjelm is the family historian! So I gave her a call and later on this week, we are scheduled to talk at length about the family. My questions are locked and loaded. More next week after the interview.

Conversation with a priest in San Diego

Late last week (before the New Years Weekend), I finally had the chance to call John Hritzko, a Ukranian Catholic priest in San Diego, California. (His grandfather was the brother of Mary Hricko who was the mother of Peter Balash just to refresh the connection to all of us.)

John is a man of very few words, probably due to the fact that he doesn't know me from Adam. But I guess that's the price you pay when you cold-call someone for information about their family in this day and age.

He was able to give me some more names which I have to confirm through the internet databases. Steve Hricko in LA also gave me John's father's phone number in Minnesota. Thomas Hritzko, John's father, once I get a hold of him should be able to shed some light on the information that I got from John earlier.