Brencics Everywhere

KIM: It's been a busy week. As expected, this blog is stimulating all kinds of conversation among various family members. My dad's cousin Joyce has contributed some valuable information regarding forest property that her grandfather Andy owned at one time in Slovenia (then Austria). If I am able to find details on the location of that land, I will visit it and post photographs.

Also this week, my sister Jody supplied me with access to her ancestry.com account. I have spent about two hours so far looking at ships passenger manifests and census records that document my dad's line of Brencics - his father Edward Jacob, his grandfather Jakob, and various others. In an uncharacteristically long conversation about family history with my dad (Edward Andrew), I found out more than I ever knew about his father's family. He didn't know Jakob's wife, but the oldest daughter, Mary, lived with Jakob and was a poor housekeeper (according to my dad)! Edward Jacob (my dad's father) was the oldest son, then there were Karl, Frank, Jack and Ann. Not sure in what order although dad said Jack was the young one. The only one I met was Ann. She married a furrier and lived in New York City (her married name, coincidentally, was Jacob). I met her when I attended Juilliard and lived in NYC, about 1982. She had a beautiful apartment at about 62nd St., between Central Park West and Broadway, if I remember correctly. Her husband had died and she lived there alone. I remember she was a very elegant older woman. Dad reminded me that many of his relatives worked in or owned coal mines in PA and WV. Most of the Brencics I have found in this country were in the Johnstown PA area, and most worked in coal mines or the steel industry.

A couple of days ago I found a link online for the Slovenian telephone directory. There are several Brencics and Urbases in Ljubljana, Logatec, Planina and Pivka - all places I visited with Olga (my dad's mother) in 1970. Over the next few weeks I will be looking into these family names in the old country, along with any others I can find. Joyce suggested looking for Pristow, Rubal and Krabal. So far I am really enjoying piecing this together. I can't wait to actually meet some distant relatives in Slovenia!