The Final Touches

As indicated by my last posting, the end is near.

Upon looking at the holes in the tree as it is now, I decided earlier this week to make one last final research "push" to search for any people that might be able to shed light on the missing links.

First, I went back to the people who were responsible for getting the ball rolling 3 months ago. Those people are: Betty Senich and Steve Hricko. Without their help, this peoject would not have happened.

The first was Steve. I told him of my progress but also that I needed a few names to fill in the gaps. He gave me another phone number belonging to a lady by the name of Sue Davis (she is Steve's cousin) who was the mother of the person I needed info on. As of this writing, I still can't
get a hold of her. I'll try again next week.

Later that evening, I called Betty Senich and asked her if she had any information on her sister's son Vernon Miller. She remembered his wife and three children. Bingo!

The day before, I finally received an email from Linda Breckenridge from Florida. She gave me the phone number of Helen Costello's daughter Judy in Estero, Florida. I called her, introduced myself and got the names of her children, etc. As it stands now, the only information I need to
complete this branch are the grandchildren of Bob Hricko. Efforts to contact him have failed multiple times so it looks as if the well has run dry.

The Louis Hricko branch is 99% complete.

The Aftonas Hricko branch was next. I called Ron Hricko in texas to inform him on my progress. I still needed information on his cousins from his Aunt Edna Grainer. He wasn't close to them but he did have her number in Farminton Hills, Michigan. As always with me, the juices were flowing knowing that I was that much closer to nailing this branch down so I called her that evening. She gave me her family names and grandchildren. Afterward, she mentioned that she would like a copy of the tree when it was done. "You'll have it in a few weeks", I told her.

The last piece of information on the Aftonas Hricko side that I needed has proved to be the most elusive, that is until a hunch and alot of luck would surface a few nights ago. As mentioned a while ago, Aftonas Hricko had 8 children. One of his sons named James had a daughter names Shirley. After more than 3 months of phonecalls and internet research, no one knew if she had a family or whether or not she was still alive. I called Patricia Barber in Florida (distant cousin on the Aftonas Hricko side) and told her of my predicament. She had no information but she did say she was married to a Bill Sisk and that they lived in Cleveland and that she was sure she had two boys, one was named Billy. She said Shirley had passed decades ago but that all the information she had.

That wasn't much to go on. So I checked the phonebook for all of the William Sisks in Cleveland. It was a shot in the dark but what did I have to lose. Of course it figures, there were dozens of Sisks in the phonebook. I went to the web and tried to scale down the Sisks to the ones that would have been born between 1940 and 1950. Another shot in the dark. I found a William Sisk was born in 1941 and he still lived in Cleveland. In fact, there were several William Sisks with those criteria but the gentleman who lived just outside of Cleveland stood out. I don't know why but I figured this was a good place to start. So, out of the blue, I called him not knowing if he was related or not. His wife answered, as always I introduced myself and told her what I was doing, etc. I asked her if her husband's parents were named Shirley and William.

SHE SAID YES!

I guessed right. What were the chances of guessing the right person out of 20 or 30? Very exciting stuff. She was VERY apprehensive about giving me information. She gave the phone
to her husband. To make a long story short, after talking with him for more than half of an hour, he gave me the names that I needed to finish the Aftonas Branch. At the end, I promised to give him a copy of the tree in the weeks ahead. All in all, the best evening of research to date!

As of March 11th, the Hricko side of the family tree is 99% complete!

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