JeremyinFrance

For those of you curious about the food to expect in Slovakia, here are a few samples.

http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/slovak_food.htm

I'm going again in a couple of weeks and hope to get a lot more photos.

kellymp

Thank you Jeremy - love this post My mom is slovak - her dad grew up in Moravia before coming to the US. We are going to Munich, Vienna and Prague in the fall with a sidetrip to Bratislava and are very excited for some good Slovak food like my grandmother used to make!! I just created another post re: pierogies looking for some restaurant suggestions in the above towns. My Mom is really hoping to find some sweet cabbage pierogies and some prune ones since we only get these now if her sister feels like making them and that hasn't happened in awhile. I am looking forward to more photos etc when you get back Any restaurant suggestions or other food advice for the above towns is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

tomboy

Moravia is in the Czech Republic, one of three provinces ? of old Czechoslovakia. Prior to 1918, both were part of what was then Austria-Hungary.

kellymp

Tomboy - appreciate the Moravia info...I have actually been reading a bunch on Austria-Hungary and Moravia in an effort to narrow down where my granddad was originally from. He spoke Slovak and always indicates Slovak as his nationality but then on some records it says he was born in Hungary (presumably referring to Austria-Hungary, then others say czechoslovakia...) He served in an army that I think was the Austro-Hungarian army (I am trying the track a pic of him I have on horseback in uniform w/a sword on his hip ...) Anyway, he always referred to himself as Slovak but from moravia...

tomboy

Kelly-good luck with your endeavour. My mom's family always insisted they were German....high German. Only after some REAL detective work did I discover they were Slovak. Apparently GGF's co-workers (when he first emigrated) called him a Hunkie ...vernacular for Hungarian, meaning Austria-Hungarian.
Re your trip: my recommendation is that you spring for a month's subscription to Ancestry.com, and work that website like crazy for that month to try to determine his birthplace.
See if you can find his death certificate, which might say his birthplace. Or, if he served in the armed forces, his draft registration card (on Ancestry).
Bratislava's maybe 40 miles east of the Moravia/Slovakia border, and the whole country's maybe 100 miles north to south. So maybe you could do a daytrip to his birthplace, if you learned it.

kellymp

Hi Tomboy - I have actually been doing Ancestry this month . As I mentioned above he served in the army in Europe...I believe it was Austro-Hungarian army. His death cert. says czechoslovakia as a birth place. Looking at old maps am I wrong to say that it looks like Moravia covered parts of what is now Slovakia back when it was part of the great Moravian Empire?

ira

Hi K,

Moravia was at the Eastern end of what is now the Czech republic and bordered what is now Slovakia.

If he was born before 1919 he was a subject of the Emperor Franz Josef, as what became Czechoslovakia was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If he died after 1919, his death certificate would likely have said that he was born in Czechoslovakia, since Bohemia and Moravia no longer existed.

Anyway if he said that he was a Slovak, he was a Slovak. (The borders kept moving around).

Enjoy your visit.

tomboy

Kelly-a fellow I went to high school with was a genealogist specializing in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. He's now retired, but might give you guidance.
mailto[email protected]

kellymp

Thanks for the tips guys and for the referral tomboy! I may drop him a line if I got a little closer