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Jednota!

March is Women's History Month! It's time for the spotlight to shine on the ladies in our family trees. I'll be writing all month on women I've researched. I encourage all family history lovers to take the month to seek out the stories of our foremothers! They are often under-documented, but they have a lot to teach us.   My great-grandmother, Anna Tatar Simonik.   On 14 March 1988, after my grandmother, Margaret Simonik Kozlina (1913-1988) died, my mother got a letter from the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association. It contained the death claim benefit owed to my Grandma's heirs. 1 What Mom probably didn't know at the time was that this letter represented just one event in a chain that reached back 70 some years and was begun by her grandmother, Anna Tatar Simonik (1883-1 950). Anna joined the First Catholic Slovak Union—commonly known as Jednota, meaning "union"—in 1915, about a decade after she immigrated to the U.S. from then Austri...
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GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Wartime Letter


GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Wartime Letter - January 22nd entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.  

by Nancy Gilbride Casey

 

When my grandmother Margaret Simonik Kozlina (1913-1988) passed away, a cedar chest full of her possessions passed to my mother, Ann Kozlina Gilbride, and in turn when she passed away, I was fortunate enough to inherit most of the items in the chest. 

Amongst Grandma's things were a few very small letters in military envelopes, marked "V-Mail," "Official Business" and "War Department."  The letters themselves look as if they were a photograph or a print from a negative, as the surface of the letter is shiny. And, they appear to be shrunken down somehow, as I can't imagine that anyone could write that small and expect the letters to be readable.

The letters were from a Katherine "Kay" Kurutz (1915-1992), my grandmother's friend, who was an Army nurse, stationed in England at the end of WWII. There are two letters, dated in May and July 1945. I've transcribed the first below; the second will follow in tomorrow's post.1



May 8, 1945

Dear Margaret, 

   To-day is a great day for the British. We were 

expecting our boys to go a bit wild but I am

proud of them. The really are sensible over the

whole thing. Even though the war in Europe is over

we still have the Japs to lick. I'm afraid 

our unit will get a trip there. I certainly hope

not, but I wouldn't be too surprised to find

myself in the Pacific. We all want to move

to the U.S.—anywhere in the U.S.

   We had a Thanksgiving mass at 11 a.m. to-day. The

whole post is celebrating V.E. day. The British

are doing most of the celebrating. 

   How's the baby getting along? Next thing 

you know the baby will be going to First Communion,

too. How did Cleveland behave when V.E. Day was

announced?

  I hope I can soon be writing to you from 

a place where I won't have to post an A.P.O. # in my 

address. God Bless you on Mother's Day.

            Love, Kay


The baby referred to is my aunt Marian Kozlina, my mother's sister. The family lived on Waterloo Road in Cleveland at the time. 

I'll transcribe the second letter for tomorrow's post, and will have more info on V-Mail to share.


NEXT UP: Wartime Letter II

 

1 K.R. Kurutz, ANC (England) to "Dear Margaret" [Margaret Kozlina], V-Mail letter, 8 May 1945; privately held by N. Gilbride Casey, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] Tioga, Texas, 2021. I identified Kay's identity via her memorial on FindaGrave, as well her newspaper obituary. 

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