Wednesday, April 5, 2000
I got more e-mail from cousin Paul last night. He has some documents, in particular, Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Horbal’s death certificates, their marriage license, and Great Grandma’s birth certificate from Poland!
The marriage license says that they were married at Sts Peter & Paul Church in Blair County, Pennsylvania. I found two churches by that name, one in Windber and another in Homer City. Homer City is a good 40+ miles from Altoona, and definitely not in Blair County; Windber, on the other hand, is about 25 miles away, and definitely could be in Blair County. It’s actually closer to Johnstown than to Altoona, which could explain the scattering of Horbals near Johnstown but none in Altoona. The church in Windber’s address is 141 Hoffman Farm Road. I looked it up on Maps On Us and got a close-up map and a map from a bit more distance that shows it in relation to Altoona and Johnstown. Interestingly, the church is an Orthodox church (as is the one in Homer City). I think I remember Windber, but I don’t remember if it’s from my college days or if there’s an exit off the PA Turnpike that mentions it that I’ve passed in recent years. Maybe next time we go to Columbus or somewhere we can see the town.
According to Paul, the death certificates don’t have any useful information on them.
Great Grandma’s birth certificate, on the other hand, does. It lists her birthday as September 17, 1890, which makes her a year older than Great Grandpa. Her father’s name was Jozef Mazur, and her mother’s name was Katarzyna Podgorska. She was born in Lipa, Rzeszow district, Przemysl province, Poland. I went to the World Gazetteer and found a bunch of Lipas, but the most likely candidate is about 15 miles west of the city of Przemysl, which is right on the modern day Polish-Ukrainian border. I went to the FEEFHS map library’s 1882 map of Galicia, and it shows Rzeszow pretty much due west of Przemysl.
This is a lot of information, and definitely bears more research. Paul offered to send copies of the documents, so I sent him my address. I guess Governor Engler is going to have 13 dollars more than he needs, since I didn’t really need to order Great Grandpa’s death certificate. I hope he spends it wisely.
Posted at 6:02:01 AM
