Josef Novak (1866–1931), Kapušany
great-great-grandfather
Birth: 1866-03-19 · Kapušany, Sáros county
Death: 1931-08-14 · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Burial: St. Matthew's Slovak cemetery, Pittsburgh
Name variants: Jozef Novák; Joseph Novak; Josef Nowak
Jozef Novák was born in Kapušany in March 1866 and baptised in the parish church (S6). In the spring of 1892 he walked and rode to Hamburg, where his name was entered in the emigrant lists together with a Michal Novák from the same village (S9), and sailed to New York. The Ellis Island manifest gives his age as 25 (S5), which is why older family trees say he was born in 1867.
He went first to Chicago, where Slovak boarding houses clustered around the stockyards, and in 1894 married Mária Kováčová there (S7). In 1898 the young family moved to the new coal town of Windber in Somerset County, where Josef dug coal for fourteen years. He became an American citizen in 1904 (S26). The Windber photograph of 1906 shows him with Mária, their children Frank and Helen, and little Rose, the orphan they took in (S8, S13).
In 1912 the Novaks moved to Pittsburgh, and Josef worked as a watchman at a steel works until his lungs gave out. He died in August 1931 (S22).
Sources
- S5. Ellis Island manifest, May 1892 — Original
- S6. Baptism register of Kapušany parish, 1866 — Copy in the archive
- S7. Marriage certificate of Josef Novak and Mary Kovac, Chicago, 1894 — Copy in the archive
- S8. Photo: the Novak family in Windber, 1906 — Copy in the archive
- S9. Hamburg emigrant list, May 1892 — Original
- S13. Petition and decree of adoption of Rose Sabo, 1910 — Copy in the archive
- S22. Death certificate of Joseph Novak, 1931 — Copy in the archive
- S26. Certificate of naturalization of Joseph Novak, 1904 — Copy in the archive
