Many years ago my father showed me a few pages of his father’s autobiography, which he had translated into Polish. As a child I was not particularly interested – I could not read Polish well enough, and in any case my father had already told me the most interesting snippets. But then my father died and I began to take more of an interest in family afffairs and decided to translate this short memoir. I spent lockdown doing most of it,and then lockdown passed and time was at a premium again. But from time to time I went back to it, and started investigating place names and people etc. And then a few weeks ago I had a brainwave. My grandfather mentions his baptism. I would write to the church authorities in his birthplace and get a copy from the archives. Easier said than done.

It took me a while to track down his village – it changed names several times over the last 150years, but it is now in Romania. So I wrote to the church powers, who were very helpful and directed me to the civil authorities and archives – when communism came all church records had to be passed on, and many churches were closed.

Eventually I reached the right place (a friend of my daughter’s translated my letter into Romanian) and after paying my twenty three euros, and providing my passport details, I received some photocopies in the post. I reproduce them here.

If you read the beginning of the biography below you will see that my grandfather was a very precise man – all the details seem to be absolutely correct. Sidney Trivick was also quite famous in his time; I will put his information in another post.

Gustaw Wisoky Autobiography

“In the name of God

I was born on 13 December 1878,  a  son to Gustaw Wisoky, a forester  to  His Imperial Highness, and  his wife Julia Fuchs, the daughter of a  mining clerk.  Michał Fuchs and Emilia Bauhelzer, in Berzasca, House no 90, Hungary, Banas, Krasse Szowery, Keusital.

I was baptised on the 2nd February 1879 on Sunday at 4 pm by the priest Bertrand Spaček from the diocese Weizenried in Berzasca   My godfather, Sidney Trivick, an Englishman, was the director of the Kozla) mine which was situated near the station of the inland waterway Dreszkewo   As he was a member of the Anglosaxon Church he had to learn the Our Father etc before my baptism .

My baptismal certificate is from Weizenried made out on the 8 December -1880 and it was registered no 103 in volume II on page 56. The original letter from Father B Spaček where he informs my father that he is coming from Weizenried to Berszaszka in order to christen me is attached. Attachment no 1 (Unfortunately this is missing)

My mother and father only had s civil wedding / a Hungarian civil wedding. The reason there was no church wedding after the registry office one , despite the fact that the parish  priest was probably on good terms with my father, is unknown to me.” to be continued.

This is probably the church where Gustaw was christened.

Berzasca is a commune in Caraș-Severin County, in the Banat region of western Romania with a population of 3,123 people. It is composed of five villages: Berzasca, Bigăr, Cozla, Drencova and Liubcova. At the 2002 census, 70.5% of the commune’s inhabitants were Romanians, 14.2% Czechs, 10.8% Serbs and 3.5% Roma.

Wikipedia

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dZTDvPruA7bjDnFd8

Just a few short paragraphs and so much to investigate..