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!

Another Hricko Sister

A few weeks back while talking with Stephan Hricko (my 91 year old cousin) he mentioned yet another Hricko sibling. If I've lost you, here are the main consituents of the main branch of the Hricko tree:

(Rumor has it, there were 10 children. So far, I've only come across six)

Mary Hricko - My Great-great-grandmother

Louis Hricko

Bill Hricko

Aftonas Hricko

Wasyl (William) Hricko

The new sister is named Tekla Hricko. According to Stephan, she lived in Cleveland and attended St. Vladimir Church. He gave me a name and address of a grand daughter of Tekla who lives in Illinois. I called her and was able to get some information albeit in fragmented form due to her Parkinson's Disease which she informed me of at the start of the call. The bottom line: I've got more names.

Upon looking at the Louis Hricko branch, I noticed a bunch of holes that evaded me earlier. So, I gave Betty Senich (my grandmother's first cousin and daughter of Louis Hricko) a call inquiring whether or not she had any information on the "holes" that I found. She is now working on getting four addresses and phone numbers. I should have those sometime next week.

The graph showing what I am doing is coming.....soon....I hope.

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.

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.

Chronology of Hricko Research

Over the last 2 months, I've had several phone conversations with members of the Hricko family. Since then, I've added around 100 new names to the Hricko branch. How did this all come to be? Here is a brief synopsis of how I obtained the information.

Back in March of 2006, I spoke with my grandmother Mary Baldine about the family and she gave me the name of her distant cousin Betty Senich (Hricko). So I called her and spoke with her at length. She gave me more Hricko names--her brothers, sisters and some of her cousins. Among those names was a gentleman by the name of Stephan Hricko who is also a cousin. He's 91 and lives in Los Angeles. After several phone conversations with Steve, I was able to add a whole slew of names along with some other bits of trivia. He then gave me the names of his cousins who live in upstate New York also names Hricko. After speaking with his cousin Bob Hricko, his sister Darlene and her daughter Katrina, the Hricko side of the tree is now about 80% complete.

During my last conversation with Stephan Hricko, he gave me the phone number of a potential cousin who is priest in San Diego. Hopefully, that will unearth more Hricko information.