One Generation Back for $27 Plus an Eight Week Wait

Researching the Yurko family, an in-law line on my hubby's family tree, I wanted to discover the names of the parents of Joseph John Yurko (1873-1954), born on this day 152 years ago.

Believe the death cert?

According to Joseph's death cert, his father was John Yurko and his mother's name was unknown. Indeed, in Joseph's generation and later generations, the names of Joseph Yurko and John Yurko appear more than once. Clearly these were beloved family names.

However, the informant on the death cert was John's youngest daughter, Mary L. Yurko (1916-2001), I doubted her ability to remember her grandparents' names. Why? Mary was born 17 years after her own parents left their homeland to come to America. She was 37 when her father died. Although she may have heard her Yurko grandparents' names as she grew up, Mary probably never met those relatives, and I imagine the stress of her father's death impeded her ability to recall the names clearly. 

I didn't feel confident that Mary's memory was correct...which led me to shift my research in another direction. Where would I find Joseph saying the names of his parents?

Social Security application = first-hand info

Joseph applied for a Social Security card in 1937. The application form asks for birth place/place, current residential address, names of parents, and employer, among other details. This is first-hand info supplied by the applicant. 

In the past, I've had great success getting a generation back when I paid to receive a copy of the SS-5 (Social Security) application for other ancestors. IMHO, the information is valuable enough to invest in obtaining it for certain ancestors of interest.

As shown in image at top of this blog post, we can order either the SS-5, which costs $27 at the moment, or a Numident, which is an extract of the info on the application. ALWAYS spend the extra buck or two for the SS-5 because we should see with our own eyes what the applicant wrote on the form! Forget the Numident 👎

Eight weeks later, info arrives

Late in February, I made a Freedom of Information Act request for Joseph John Yurko's SS-5. I had to supply information to help the government ascertain that it was giving me the correct person's form. And of course I had to pay. Note that there are restrictions on such requests, such as how long the person has been dead. In my case, because Joseph was born in 1873 and died in 1954, there were no impediments to obtaining his SS-5.

After eight weeks, I received an email containing the image shown above. Just looking at the form, I think Joseph verbally gave the info and was shown where to sign his name. The info confirms what I believed were his date of birth and birth place, also showing that he worked for the WPA (as shown in the 1940 US Census), and confirming his long-time home address, a house in Cleveland that has since been torn down.

I was delighted to see the names of Joseph's parents. His father was NOT John but was Andrew Yurko. And now I also know his mother's full name for the first time. Joseph and his wife presumably named their older daughter Anna, after Joseph's mother. For me, all these details were worth the investment of $27.

By the way, Joseph and his wife Mary Gavalek (1879-1943) were married in 1896 in their hometown of Hazlin, according to his naturalization papers. Joseph and Mary had no sons named Andrew that I've found (still looking in their hometown) and no grandsons named Andrew either. Hmm. 

Paying for a record

I decided to pay for this record because it provided info that was furnished by the applicant, even though he didn't actually write anything but his signature. Having exhausted other avenues of research, I felt it would be worth my while to see this document and all the details on it. 

Not every ancestor in my ever-expanding family tree is worth an investment of $27, but I decided that the SS-5 was the only way I would learn about this ancestor's parents and be confident that the info was accurate because it came from the man himself. Plus I would see the actual image, not an extract or transcript, which is of great value.

At the Beginning, A Sad End

I'm just beginning my research into the family background of two in-law ancestors in my husband's family: Piacentino "Peter" Pietroniro (1901-1979) and his wife, Anna Yurko Pietroniro (1910-1989). This couple married in 1929. I have the date and the officiant's name, and will be doing more research to identify the church.

Peter was an immigrant from Casacalenda, Italy who crossed the Atlantic in search of work and, like many from his area, settled in Cleveland, Ohio during the 1920s. 

Anna was one of 7 children born to immigrants from Hazlin, Czechoslovakia (now an area in Slovakia). Her father and some of her siblings worked in Cleveland steel mills. 

Multiple newspaper searches

Searching for the surnames Yurko and Pietroniro on multiple newspaper sites, I initially came across a surprising mention of Yurko in the Enakopravnost newspaper, a Slovenian-language publication in Cleveland that is in the OldNews.com database.  

Using the "Google Lens" app, I aimed the camera of my phone at the news item on my screen and took a photo of the translation.

It was a horrifically sad news report: Anna Yurko's 17-year-old nephew, Joseph Yurko, committed suicide by hanging himself after his widowed father "asked him to leave work during the holidays and stay at home with his four younger brothers and sisters."

Then I used GenealogyBank to look for any items about young Joseph's death and located a brief piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, p. 2 on 25 July 1947. The headline and subhead read:

Heartsick, Hangs Self--Boy, 17, broken up by request to quit job, says coroner.

This news item explained that the father had been unable to hire a housekeeper after the death of his wife the previous year. So during the summer months, when the father had to work but school was out, he wanted his oldest son to care for the younger children. But on the morning of July 24th, the father went down to the basement and found young Joseph's body 😥

Confirming Joseph's birth and death

Using the newspaper info as clues, I quickly found the mother's death a year earlier and learned that Joseph Robert Yurko was born on 11 June 1930 and died on 24 July 1947. His death cert confirms that death was due to suicide by hanging, a really tragic end to this high schooler's life. Joseph was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, where many in the Yurko family were laid to rest. 

I was flabbergasted to see, from the 1950 US Census, that the Yurko family remained in the home where poor Joseph had died...his father had remarried and the household included the new wife, those younger children, plus a stepson.

So as I begin my Yurko and Pietroniro research, I've added all this sad news to the family tree.

"Beginning" is the first #52Ancestors genealogy prompt of 2025, from Amy Johnson Crow. 

Wordless Wednesday: Josef Yurko: from Czechoslovakia to Cleveland

A relative in my hubby's in-law family, Josef Yurko (1873-1954) was born in Hasalin, Czechoslovakia and marred Mary Gavalek (1879-1943) shortly before leaving for America. Their oldest son was born in Czechoslovakia and the other 4 sons and 2 daughters were born in Ohio, where they settled. Josef was a laborer, working in a foundry and later in a housing project. His oldest daughter, Anna C. Yurko (1910-1989), married Peter Pietroniro in 1929.

This photo is from one of Josef's naturalization documents, where he was sometimes called "Josef Yurkov."

52 Weeks- Disasters? Just the Usual, So Counting My Blessings

This week's challenge is "disasters" and I have to say, my family hasn't had any particularly unusual disasters. Let's leave aside WWII for the moment, of course. The disasters that made a big difference to my parents were more personal than environmental:

• My father Harold Burk's first heart attack was a disaster (for his health and for our family's finances). He lived nearly 20 years after that first attack, I'm happy to say.
• The Savoy Hilton Hotel in NYC being pulled down so the GM building could go up, another disaster--because my father lost his travel agency concession and never was able to secure another one, a devastating financial blow.
• My mother Daisy Burk's cancer was a disaster (she lived only 3 years after her diagnosis).

Despite these disasters, this week I'm counting my blessings. I have a wonderful extended family (that's getting larger all the time--now that I've met Cousin Lois and Cousin Lil, descended from Meyer and Tillie Mahler, my pat g-grandparents). And I'm counting my blessings that I have a bit of time and energy to trace back my ancestors and those of my extended family.

Right now I'm on the trail of the Pietroniro family from Casacalenda, Italy. Piacentino (Peter) Pietroniro and his brother Paolo (Paul) came from Italy to New York City on the Taormina on July 10, 1923. Paul went to Montreal, Peter went back and forth between Montreal and Cleveland and ultimately settled in Cleveland, marrying Anna Yurko (whose father I mentioned in my last blog entry). More info to come, I hope!