Yesterday evening I received an e-mail about some of my work over on my Ganister website, where I try to capture, record, and preserve the history of the small quarry town in western Pennsylvania whence my grandfather came. The e-mail’s contents led me back to some old photographs I took from my trip to the Old Country back in 2013, and I stumbled upon this old poster in the village of Dobroslava, Slovakia, birthplace of my 4 × great-grandmother, Parasceva Ruszimo (probably Ruszimova in the local naming convention). Dobroslava features an early 18th century wooden church, for which the Carpatho-Rusyn people are known.
The poster hung from a giant wooden sign in the village, and I was fortunate enough to arrive when a local was showing another family the church—I donated a few Euros to join even though nobody spoke English and I spoke neither Rusyn nor Slovak.
Still, a neat reminder of a trip from now over a decade ago, and one I cannot recall sharing before. So I figured why not this Wednesday before I send my e-mail off this morning.
For the curious, I highlighted the Dobroslava church below. The church dates to 1705, but was damaged during the Battle of the Dukla Pass, when the Soviets attempted to cross the Carpathians through the geographically nearby and aforementioned Dukla Pass.
My 4 × great-grandmother was born about 100 years after the church was completed, and I was born 100 years after she died in 1880. It still impresses me to think that structure has survived to this day and connects me and my roots back to the Carpathians.
Credit for the map goes to Maľované Mapy.