sad news: Vladimir Bohinc

[Julie Michutka]

Greetings, friends ~ 

Some of you were active on the Slovak World listserv going way back and will remember Vladimir Bohinc. I recently recommended his research services to someone who subsequently reached out to Vladimir, only to learn from Vladimir’s son that Vladimir passed away recently. I thought you would want to know. I’m guessing he would have been in his 70s—at one point I knew how much older he was than I, but I’ve forgotten the exact difference.

Vladimir was a native of Slovenia who had moved to Slovakia. He eventually became a genealogical researcher (http://konekta.sk/) and as a member of Slovak World he generously shared his knowledge of Slovak history and records with us. I and a cousin had separately hired him for research assistance, so I have first-hand knowledge of the quality of his work and his ability to draw family stories from complete strangers. My daughter and I had the pleasure of meeting Vladimir for lunch when we were in Slovakia in 2006, and he was as gracious and interesting in person as he appeared in his posts. And much taller than I expected!

Fond memories. Gratitude for all his assistance, and his patience with our endless stream of questions about Slovakia.

Julie Michutka

[JimDubelko]

Thanks for letting everyone know, Julie.

Jim Dubelko

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 14, 2022, at 10:34 AM, Julie Michutka <jmic...@gmail.com> wrote:

Greetings, friends ~ 

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[B. J. Licko-Keel]

Julie,

Thank you for extending this sad news. It comes at a particularly sorrowful time, because I was planning to recommend Vladimir Bohinc's excellent experience and Slovak-related services to my cousin as he was making arrangements to visit Slovakia with his two sons this coming summer with the purpose of trying to find genealogical information in the area of Stará Turá about my father's family. My father would never speak about his younger years growing up in Slovakia at a time when speaking Slovak in school was prohibited because his school used Hungarian for lessons and all other social interactions. The only time he mentioned this was to remember that he was severely beaten when someone reported hearing him privately speaking Slovak with a friend.

My father's parents needed to leave him behind when they emigrated to the United States for many reasons that might have prevented them from being accepted into this country. Although they planned to have him join his family as quickly as possible, the First World War intervened. When it was possible to reunite him with his family, he was already in his mid-teens. At that time, his father gathered his four siblings (two sisters and two brothers who were born after their parents arrived in the United States) as a group. They traveled as a family, but were forced to leave their mother behind to keep their home intact and because of her poor health. On their return trip, they received a cablegram to the ship on which they were traveling that she had passed away, so my father never had the opportunity to ever know his mother. (The cousin who is planning this current excursion to Slovakia is the son of my father's youngest brother.)

I would greatly appreciate any information or related assistance that anyone could recommend that would help my cousin and his sons during their trip, because none of them are fluent in Slovak conversation, and will need someone who can speak English and help with interpreting and guidance for their upcoming visit.

It's been a long time since I've been in contact with my fellow Slovaks on various Slovak-English websites on the internet, and welcome receiving any interesting news. Best wishes to all of you!

's Bohom

B. J. 

____________________________

B. J, Licko-Keel (BJ...@aol.com)

Count your blessings, not your woes,

Count your friends, not your foes.

(Traditional Irish Blessing)

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[Julie Michutka]

B. J., what a difficult time your father and his family had. Immigrants sometimes had to make terrible choices in hopes that all would work out in the end.

I recommend Michal Razus for your cousin’s needs; see Michal's website at https://www.slovak-ancestry.com/. He’s not as close to Stará Turá as Vlad Bohinc was, but this sounds right up his alley. He and I have done work for each other in the past (I no longer do client work), and I’ve been impressed by his presentations at CGSI conferences and the articles he’s written. His English skills are excellent (his mother is/was an English language teacher). You/your cousin are welcome to let him know that I recommended him—self-employed people like genealogists like to know how their [potential] clients heard about them. 

I think that Facebook has replaced the listservs that we were using for discussions in the 1990s and early 2000s. That’s a pity, in my opinion; there doesn’t seem to be as much thought behind the FB posts and the discussions don’t go into as much depth. Finding information on FB that was posted earlier, whether by a few days or several months, is difficult. The one advantage is the ability to attach images, documents, etc., and I do really enjoy the FB groups about Slovakia for that reason if nothing else. The Slovak World listserv was amazing for assistance in planning a trip to Slovakia, as well as hearing about others’ trips when they returned and posted extensively about what they saw and did. And now I sound like a geezer for reminiscing about the internet of 30 years ago, hahaha! 

Best wishes to you, and to your cousin for what I’m sure will be a wonderful trip.

Julie Michutka

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/slovak-spot/277438554.916557.1644874121878%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Helen Fedor]

Julie, et al.,

Slovak Spot can be useful again, if we make it so.  I'll continue to post info about SASW talks because I know that folks in this group (whatever its size) are interested in such things.  I understand that sharing files and photos is a problem.  I'm not technically inclined, so can offer no solution to this problem.  I'm not on Facebook and have no intention of joining.

Helen

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From: slova...@googlegroups.com <slova...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Julie Michutka <jmic...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2022 6:52 PM
To: slova...@googlegroups.com <slova...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/slovak-spot/512A3566-8889-4EBA-A69F-C2BFBA9EB21D%40gmail.com.

[B. J. Licko-Keel]

Julie.

Thank you so very much for the information and suggestions you have sent to me. I will pass this information on to my cousin so that he has some help with his planned trip and possibly also some assistance with suggestions about travel and lodging information. Because he is just in the very first part for the planning of his trip, it may be a while before an actual itinerary comes together, so I am unable to promise just when he will follow up on making the contact you have recommended. I'll let you know later if he has any comments that might interest you.

I'm grateful for your prompt attention.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/slovak-spot/512A3566-8889-4EBA-A69F-C2BFBA9EB21D%40gmail.com.