Rozalia (Rosalia, Rosie) Fialla Hurbanek - Great Grandmother, wife of John Hurbanek

Rosalia Fialla Hurbanek - this picture was taken on 238  Climax Street, Beltzhoover, Pittsburgh, PA.  It's the only picture of her that I have. 

FIALLA spellings:
Fialla
Fiala
Fijala

Rosalia was born Rosalia Fijala in Gbely, Slovakia  on 10/29/1879

Here is her baptism record:

Interesting that they ask if she is legitimate!  How times have changed.

Also looks like a Susanna Hurban was her Godmother.

Here is the full page:

She married John Hurbanek in Gbely - having trouble finding marriage records

LINDA LOOK MORE INTO THIS

She came to the United States with Louis (Ludwig) when she was 24 years old and he was 9 months old.  John was already there in Pittsburgh.

Mom's notes say that John's mother and father came over at the same time that he did. 

LINDA KEEP LOOKING FOR THIS BOAT RECORD

Mom's notes:  Rosalia Fialla (died 1949).  Her family all came to America at the same time.  She had a sister Mary who married John Nedlick and a brother Michael who went to New York state (don't know if there were others).  Nedlick children are in CA, FL, NY and PA. 

There does look like there are several other Fialla siblings including:

Jacob 1881-1951

Michael 1884-1957

Maria 1885-

Angela 1887-1887

Mom's notes:  John Hurbanek and Rosalia Fialla Hurbanek  were separated, I don't remember him at all.  Grandma said that he and Fritz lived at 238 Climax Street in Beltzhoover, in my memory.
Sarah married late in her 30's.  When Fritz went to the Army, Grandma Rosalia  got pneumonia which they said settled in her brain.  Daddy & Uncle Kon took her to Mayview.  She was allowed visitors one day a week.  I remember Daddy going often. 

That's sad that the end of her life was like that. 

John (Jan) Hurbanek - - - great grandfather who came to the U.S. on 5/26/1901

On prior page is John's naturalization papers where he became a U.S. citizen on 11/7/1917.  Wish I had a picture him. 

John was born as Joannes Hurbanek on 5/14/1875. 

From Egbell:

Still looking for his boat record where he arrived in the U.S. on 5/26/1901 at the age of 26. 

The 1910 census shows John working in the coke ovens.  These records really messed up the Hurbanek name as Huerbingk.  Louis was 10 years old.

John's WWI draft record of 9/12/1918 states that he worked at Jones &Laughlin Steel on 2nd Avenue  in the coke drawer.  At that time he lived on 96 Irvine Avenue.  He had brown eyes, brown hair and was tall and slender.

 The 1920 census has Louis already out of the house.  I believe he was in the army then.

Sadly, John died on 4/10/1953 of a coronary occlusion (unfortunately, he saw his son Louis die the year before).

It states on here that John's father's name was John Hurbanek, but we know from Egbell birth records that it was Vincent.  I am finding that birth/death certificates and census records are not always accurate.  I think we should go by the Egbell birth record of Vincent as his father's name. 

Tree so far - lets go on Hurbanek branch! Ludwig = Loius

Here is the tree so far.  How did Louis J. Hurbanek, Sr., come to the U.S.?  He came over with his mother, Rozalia (aka Rosalia aka Rosie) Fialla Hurbanek.  They joined John (Jan) Hurbanek who was already there. 

John came over to America from Gbely, Slovakia (aka Egbell, Austria-Hungary) via the boat named Travo which left Bremen and arrived in the New York port on 5/26/1901.  I've been trying to find this boat record, but am still looking.

LINDA KEEP LOOKING FOR THIS BOAT RECORD

Here is his naturalization papers dated 11/7/1917.  Interestingly, he requests that his name be changed from Jan to John.  Also, Rozalia is called Rosie.

The boat records for Rozalia and Louis Hurbanek were easy to find. 

I never realized that Ludwig = Louis

They are #9 & 10.  Rozalia was only 24 years old and Louis was only 9 months.  She came over with $4.00 in her pocket!  Also, she came over by herself with baby Louis.  No one else from Egbell.  What a brave woman!!!

The ship was the Bremen.

Ship Name:	Bremen
Years in service:	1896-1921
Funnels:	2
Masts:	2
Aliases:	Constantinople (1921), King Alexander (1924)
Shipping line:	North German Lloyd
Ship description:	Built by F. Schichau, Danzig, Germany. Tonnage: 11,570. Dimensions: 550' x 60' (569' o.l.). Twin-screw, 15 1/2 knots. Quadruple expansion engines. Two masts and two funnels. Lengthened from 525 to 550 feet in 1901. Tonnage had been 10,525.
ShipVersion:	II
History:	Served also in Australian trade. Renamed: (a) Constantinople (1921), (b) King Alexander (1924). Sold for scrap to Italian shipbreakers in March 1926.

This is the picture from Ancestry - I hope the Bremen is the one on the right!

More on Uncle Lou Hurbanek- South Hills High School band and U.S. Army during WWII

Thanks Kathy for sharing some memories - love the part when you said there were many family dinner pictures were taken with us sitting around the table with Owens Corning Fiberglass Insulation paper decorating the walls. 

I didn't realize that Uncle Lou was in the high school marching band!  He played the "alto horn" in his senior year of high school.  The below is from Ancestry.com's yearbook collection:

Uncle Lou is the second from the left in the front row.

Here is the entire page

It states that Louis Hurbanek is one of the graduating seniors that year and that he plays the alto horn.

Uncle Lou went into the service after high school. 

From mom's story:  Lou went to the service after high school.  We were all so upset.  He went to Fort Meade in Maryland.  He had a cushy job in the hobby shop.  Every time he came home on leave, we all cried and carried on when he had to go back. 

Cushy hobby shop job or not - when he joined the service he didn't know what he was going to be doing or where he would end up and that is very brave!

I'll never forget Uncle Lou's amazing train platform.  I could spend hours looking at everything.  Christmases there were so much fun - the trains, the cookies (Aunt Flo's cookies blew me away!) and the Christmas tree decoration that revolved and changed colors.

 

Louis J. Hurbanek, Jr. and Florence Bruner - some recollections from Kathy Bennett

Recollections of Kathy Bennett (6/1/2016):

My dad (Louis J. Hurbanek, Jr.)  married Florence Marie Bruner on 9/15/1951. She lived in Pittsburgh on Woodstock Avenue. Worked at the counter of a dry cleaners for a period of time then at a drug store cosmetics counter. Her parents, Martha Zapf and Joseph Bruner had 8 surviving children, Helen, Ruth, Mary, Edward, Joseph, Katherine, Dorothy, and Margaret.

I think when first married my parents had an apartment (Location unknown, Belzer Avenue maybe) and then moved into another apartment in Mt. Lebanon (I know where it is, can’t remember the name of the street) (It is a little bit from Gram’s house south on Route 19). We lived there in 1957 until I finished Kindergarten and moved that year to 2443 Willowbrook Road in Upper St. Clair where I started 1st grade at Johnston School. The house was originally a summer cottage and my dad spent years renovating it. Many family dinner pictures were taken with us sitting around the table with Owens Corning Fiberglass Insulation paper decorating the walls.

My dad was born 7/1/1927 died on 8/5/2000. Mom was born 10/31/1927 and died on 6/27/2005. Like his father, my dad also worked in a steel mill. For a period of time he worked in the chemical lab and then as an electrician. He finished his career and retired from Cyclops Specialty Steel in Bridgeville, Pa. He could fix anything and my mom was a terrific baker.

Janos Suri - - John Schury

JOHN SCHURY - Birth 2/20/1874 • Moderdorf, Austria - - Death 3/4/1954 • Pittsburgh, PA

John Schury (Gram Rose's father) came over to America on 7/24/1906 by himself and sent for the family later.

Mom would like to know if he was related to the Habsburgs as there was something said about that at one time.  She said that Gram remembers a fancy family carriage and Schonbrunner Gardens in Vienna.

From Mom's story:

The Schurys settled on the South Side of Pittsburgh.  John worked in a steel mill which was on Carson Street near Smithfield Street Bridge on the West End Side.

 
The Rivers of Steel website shows that this would be the Clinton Rolling Mill:

Clinton Rolling Mill & Furnace/Clinton Iron & Steel Clinton Furnace

Clinton Rolling Mill & Furnace/Clinton Iron & Steel Calling card

Clinton Rolling Mill & Furnace/Clinton Iron & Steel Correspondence

The Clinton Furnace was Pittsburgh's first successful blast furnace for making pig iron at the Clinton Iron and Steel Company. Operations began in the modern day Station Square in 1859, using Connellsville coke as fuel. The Clinton furnace was a metal-encased vessel, an advanced technology for its construction date. The success of the Clinton Furnace played an important role in establishing Pittsburgh as the center of iron and steel making. The furnace ceased production in 1927.
_______________________________________________________________________________
WWI Draft Registration records show John in 1918 to be living on 142 Brownsville Avenue, and that he was tall, medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair.  It also stated that he worked for the A.M. Byers Co. 

A.M. Byers was apparently the world's largest wrought iron mill.

There is a site:  http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/6359

this has all the employee records, you have to log in to download.  The history includes wage rate, occupation, date of hire, length of time on the job, and reasons for leaving.

LINDA LOOK INTO THIS

Here's a picture of A.M. Byers inside the mill:

John Sury was naturalized in 1922

Sadly, the 1940 census on Montooth Street was without Antoinette. 

This census gives us more clues though.  John was 66 and retired.  He lived with Pauline, Steve and Betty. 

 - John only had a 4th grade education

 - Pauline worked as a seamstress and had two years of high school

- Steve worked as a waiter in a night club and had an 8th grade education

- Betty worked as a manicurist in a department store and it's hard to say if she had an 8th grade education or more as it's kind of scratched off

How about if you look a few names below theirs, my other great-grandparents are there on the same street, Charles and Maude Albitz.  Charles was a laborer in a road project. 

I'm not liking some of what Mom said about John Schury:

- He beat his wife and children frequently.

- He was a playboy.

This is interesting, though: 

His family in Austria considered him a "black sheep". because he came to America. 

He died of larynx cancer at the age of 80.

Great-Grandfather Schury worked hard all his life - a life where he was first named Janos Suri and died as John Schury and in between was also known as John Sury.

 

Mom's story - Mostly about Gram Rose

First of all, I loved Gram Rose so much!  She was so upbeat and kind to us grandchildren.  She always made me feel special, for example one time I had on an old shirt and she told me how nice I looked and I told mom on the way home that it was one of my stained up old shirts and mom said Gram just liked to make her grandchildren feel special and good about themselves no matter what they were wearing. 

When I got older and wrote a poem, she couldn't stop complimenting me on it.  We all should have such a Gram!

Every summer we went to Kennywood Park during Uncle Jimmy's USS picnics where Gram would go and play Fascination, mom would play Skee ball and Dave, Jeff and I rode the rides.  Aunt Sue loved going on the roller coasters with us  :)  LOL!

Hope you all enjoy mom's memories as much as I have enjoyed typing them.  These are the last pages:



SCHURY
John (also Jan), born in Presburg, Austria on 2/20/1874 and died in the 1950's. Married Antonia (also Antoinette) Yadernick, born on 7/7/74 and died at age 60 in early April 1934.

Name has been spelled: Sury, Suri, Shury, Surij.

John and Antonia came to America from Vienna, Austria via Bremen, Germany in late 1906. He came first and sent for them and Frank, who was 1 or 2. They settled on the South Side of Pittsburgh. John worked in a mill which was on Carson Street near Smithfield Street Bridge on the West End Side.

ROSEe was born on 1/16/1901 in Vienna, Austria, Married Louis J. Hurbanek in November 14, 1923. Lived awhile on Gearing Avenue, 2nd Floor.

The landlady was trying to seduce Louis so they moved.

Lived at 89 Lafferty Avenue, Beltzhoover from 1926 to 1946.

Moved to 1463 Dormont Avenue, Dormont. Phone Lehigh 1-4608.

In 1966, Rose moved fo 747 Artvue Avenue, Scott Township.

Then she bought a condominium at the Pines in Clearwater, Florida and moved in June 1980.

In 1985, she bought a house at 203 Magnolia Drive, CLearwater, FL.

In 1986, she sold the house and moved to Nob Hill Apts, Swallow Hill Road, Scott Township.

In Sept 1989, she moved into Rolling Hills Manor, Baldwin Township.

Rose's siblings:

Frank Schury: Born Feb 21, 1905 in Austria-Hungary. Married Elizabeth prior to August 1930. Divorced prior to 1946. Died in the 1950's or 1960's. No children. Waiter at William Penn.

Anna Mae Meister: Born Feb 1910 in Pittsburgh. Married th Charles Meister. Had 2 daughters, Shirley and Janet. Both married. Charles worked for Westinghouse

Agnes C. Wilhelm: Born 2/16/12. Married to George Wilhelm. Had daughter Lois born 10/31/1931 and son George orn 2/1933. Husband George died in 1933 of diabetes before son was born. Married Louis Adams around 1950

Pauline V. Wacker: Born 4/1/1914. Married Fred Wacker. Had daughter Paula and son David who died as a child.

Stephen Schury: Born 4/14/15. Married Nellie? No children. Divorced 1970's. Waiter. Nellie was a beautician.

Charles Schury: Born 12/24/191?. Married ? Divorced. Married Libby and had two sons and a daughter. Died in 198

Elizabeth Kelly: Born 191? Married Samuel Kelly. Had daughter Patricia. Betty died in 1986? Married a second time after Samuel died. Name of John? Lived near South Park.

Rose started first grade at Monongahela School on West Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA. Then the family moved to 142 Brownsville Avenue and she went to Knox School through eighth grade at which time she had to go to work to help support the famiuly. She started washing glasses at _______ Hotel. Then she was a food checker, then a food checker at Donahue's. She worked as a waitress at the William Penn Hotel, several country clubs such as Shanapin.

When widowed in 1952, she worked in St. Bernard school cafeteria for a year. She worked as a dietician in Dormont Hich Schol cafeteria until 1966 retirement.

She also worked as a caterer after she widowed.

Children:

Frances Louise: Born 3/2/1925. Married Stephen Grden 5/21/1945. Two children, Nancy and Thomas. Steve died in Feb 1966. Married to Jay Steele in 1970. Divorced. Married Joseph Driscoll and divorced in 198?

Louis J. Jr.: Born 7/1/1927. Married Florence Bruner. Three Children: Kathleen, Carol and Gary

Marilyn: Born March 1932. Married Robert Albitz on 6/20/1953. Three children: Dave, Linda and Jeff.

Albert: Born 3/1935. Unmarried

James: Born June 1941. Married Susan Wachtler 6/17/1972. Two children: Jason and Shana



Rose Schury childhood:
Her Godmother was Cecilia Flinta who was a Godmother for either birth or confirmation for most all of the Schury children.

They had school picnics back then too. The children had to line up and walk to the park not too far away (I don't remember the name of the park). They also went by streetcar to school picnics. On several occasions, a neighbor lady gave Rose a dollar once in awhile for the picnic.

When Rose was a chilld they had to go to confession every Saturday and they weren't allowed to talk until after church the next day. Her mother took her to town when she was working to Frank and Seders and bought her one outfit every spring. It was always of good quality.

Frank was bought a suit also on occasion after he became of working age. Rose and Frank were made to help support the family.

I don't know when the Schury family moved to 904 Montooth Street in Beltzhoover, but I know they lived there around 1930. Also, Aunt Annie went to Beltzhoover School becasue she told me several years ago that they made her change the spelling of Schury to Shury when in school there.

Rose was very popular after she started work. She loved to dance and was very good at the Tango. Some of her friends were Greek and took her to expensive restaurants to eat. One Greek man was very taken with her and wanted to marry her, but she told me she didn't love him and couldn't marry just for money.

One of her dance partners went to New York City to be a professional dancer and wanted her to go, but she declined. Her friends had to promise her parents that they would have her home at a certain time. Sometimes she was given permission to stay out a little later.

I forget who introduced Rose and Lou. It was a mutual friend. Rose's parents were against her marrying Lou because he didn't have any money. They refused to buy her wedding gown so her Godmother paid for it. Her parents also didn't want her marrying because they wanted her wages.

Rose's father was very strict. He drank and played pinochle at the local saloon on the corner near our house (Montooth and Lafferty).

He beat the wife and children frequently.

His family in Austria considered him a "black sheep". becasue he came to America.

He was a playboy.

My mother told me that Grama Schury had 16 babies! 8 lived.

She said she had a brother MIchael buried in Ohio (Bellaire I think). He was only a few years old. A few of the dead girlls were baptized Mary.

Aunt Aggie said some were miscarriages

Antonia died of uterine cancer. John died of throat cancer.

Frank died of an aneurysm. Don't know the cause of Pauline's death. Both Charlie and Betty died of cancer of digestive tract (stomach and colon I think). Betty had cancerous thyroid when I was small.

When Rose worked before her marriage, She sewed most of her clothes. She would look in the store windows downtown and go buy material and make her copies. She was always well dressed.

When I was real young, she worked to supplement the family income. I remember her going to work on Fridays at the William Penn Hotel as a waitress for lunch.

She always worked the Shriner's lunch. There was a store downtown called Donahue's and she brought slabs of butter home and the best Jewish rye bread.

She always brought us leftover filet mignon steaks (untouched) and little French rolls wrapped in napkins. What a treat! Fran said that she her Lou had to miss school often on Fridays to watch the kids. Sometimes Aunt Rosie watched Jimmy.

I remember going to kindergarten both morning and afternoon for awhile. Before Jim was born, Rose was bedridden with neuritis for about a year one time and a lesser period another time. On both occasions, we had a black lady come during the day to help. Her name was Hattie. She was short and fat and jolly.