Wed 7/15/2020 8:53 PM
Jim & Jeff,
There are several pieces to a mystery that came together for the first time today.
The mystery, if you don’t remember, is to find the links between all three waves of the Elcik family immigrated to America in the 1800s. We all came from Austria/Hungry, and there is a commonality of surnames (Elsik, Elick, and Elcik) and given names (John and James). Yet, I could not find a link between us (our Grandfather and Great-Grandfather) and a third group that initially settled in Lisbon Falls along with us, but moved south to New York.
It turns out that there are two links to the 3rd family. Remember that there was no apparent link because the two John Elcik’s are ten years apart, so they can’t be father and son.
The first evidence of a family link is on a government registration card—John Paul Elcik’s Registration Card (Serial #2701, Order #A1580), to be exact. The card gives 16 MAR 1885 as the birthdate for an Austria-Hungary born individual working as a “stock washer” in the paper mill. Mary Helen Elcik is the nearest relative and an RR2 #2 Lisbon Falls address.
Mary Helen can only be Mary Helen Pelarsky [Percarsky], wife to John Elsik, Sr.
With this encouragement, I decided to start entering the unlinked New York Elcik’s into the Family Tree without a link. Perhaps, given enough data, the software could suggest the family connection.
SUCCESS! For the first time, Ancestry.com began suggesting relationships. Ancestry identified John P Elcik (NY) as the “father of 1st cousin 1x removed.” WONDERFUL NEWS!
I now did one better by continuing to follow the Ancestry hints. Next, I found out that the 1rst cousin 1x removed is George M. Elcik. That is not all. I know this name as George is my Aunt Gertrude’s cousin. It means that her cousin and she both married members of the Gamache family. She married Norman Gamache. And her cousin George married Hanna Gamache.
I think this explains why the software is recognizing family relationships as “once-removed.
Thus, I can now show that we are related to the third Elcik family. The link is the marriages of Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Norman. George M. Elcik was our missing link.
I still suspect that there is a European connection between the families, but proof of that will take more research.
Meanwhile, to identify the parents (probably in Europe) of my previously unlinked John P. Elcik and John Elcik, Sr. (my Great-Grandfather), I have reached out to the New York cousin’s help. I’ll keep you posted.
John, IV
[Auntie Gertrude and Uncle Norman’s marriage is not the missing link we thought as George is not a “blood relative” cousin. His common Elcik surname and living in Lisbon Falls, however, grant him that “informal” status with the families. Later, a family link will develop because George marries Anna Gamache, Uncle Norman’s sister. Thus, for the first time, a marital, not blood relationship, exists between the Ilsik and Elsik families. – John P. Elcik, IV, Editor]