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From:
Subject: Re: Trncek or Burlan
Date: 7 Oct 2004 12:28:26 -0600


This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/QdB.2ACI/2509.1.1.2

Message Board Post:

Jim...First of all, a little background on MAUCH CHUNK. It's an Indian name meaning "Bear Mountain." In 1953, the little town became the burial place of the great Olympian, JIM THORPE, who'd won the Gold Medal in both the Pentathlon and Decathlon events in the 1912 Olympics.

Jim Thorpe, part Sac and Fox Indian, was born about 1888 in Oklahoma and attended the Carlisle Indian School in western Pa. He's been considered the greatest all-around athlete of the 20th Century. He was stripped of his medals by the Olympic Committee, when it was reported in the news media that he'd once played a season of minor league baseball for a small sum of money (about $60 a month). Those medals were finally restored to his family around 1982.

When Thorpe died in poverty in 1953, the state of Oklahoma refused to provide a burial site for it's native son. The people of Mauch Chunk offered to rename their town in his honor, if his family would consider burying him there. They built a mausoleum to hold his remains; inscribed with the words of King Gustaf V of Sweden, "Sir, you are the greatest in the world!"

Now...an update on my efforts to locate your Michael Trancek. I concentrated my search on Carbon and nearby counties looking for Checzhoslovakian immigrants with first names of Michael and Amelia (also Emily). The closest I've come to a match is the following entry, but the wife's name does not match. Still, this man's age is correct and their years of immigration are very close to those you gave me.

1930 Census ED 48-30, Pg 11B - Bethlehem, Northampton Co, Pa (about 30 miles from Jim Thorpe (Mauch Chunk).

Michael Turanchik, age 42, born Checzhoslovakia, Steel Mill Worker; his wife Mary, age 39, born Checzhoslovakia; children: Helen 18; Mary 17; Anna 16; Julia 14; Pauline 13; Irene 9 and Michael, age 8. Children all born in Pa. Michael immigrated in 1904 and Mary in 1906, per the census.

If this is not the correct family, can you give me the names of their children? Often, if I can locate one or more of the children, I find the parents living with them or nearby.

Mary O'Donnell Mulcahy

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