|
Peter and Mária Antašová Lisoň |
|
Around 1815, Peter Lisoň was born in Nižné Repaše. Since the existing baptismal register has very sporadic entries during that period in time, his entry, and consequently his date of birth and the names of his parents and possible siblings, has been lost to time. However, he is our earliest verifiable ancestor in the Lisoň line. Most of what we know about him comes from the sacramental records of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. James in the provincial capital, Levoča. It was in this church on November 11, 1839, that Peter married Mária Antašová. Her parents, Michal Antaš and Anna Pravliková, were married in the same church in 1819 and her older brother, Michal, was baptized there in 1820. Additional records can be found regarding the Antaš family which indicate that they, too, migrated to Levoča from the surrounding countryside. From the entry in the marriage register we learn that Peter was 23 years old, not previously married, born in Nižné Repaše and was a Greek Catholic. Mária was 17, not previously married, a Roman Catholic and from Levoča.
Supplementary documents indicate that Peter was a miller by profession. It is unclear whether he practiced his trade at a mill in his birthplace of Nižné Repaše or in the outskirts of Levoča. If the former is true, he would have had to travel 15 km between the village and the city. An inquiry in 2002 directed to contemporary inhabitants of Nižné Repaše yielded a reply on the last day of that year from, ironically, another Peter Lisoň. He shared the fact that he lived 60 meters from the former site of the mill there which was still operational until 1950 or 1955. At that time the mill was already old and lacking the resources to make repairs, it was torn down in the 1960’s. A search for surviving photographs of the mill, even in the local archives, was fruitless. Another correspondant, Ján Lisoň of Svit whose father and grandparents were born in Nižné Repaše, provided a photograph marking the former location of the mill. A residence is now located on the site. |
|
Slovak miller at work |
|
Link to page describing mills on the Torysa river, including the Lisoň mill. Text is in Slovak, but can be translated using your web browser. Page also contains a Summary in English and Hungarian. |
|
The baptismal records provide additional information about the couple and their seven children. Their eldest, Štefan, was born in 1843 with Mária following in 1845 and Zuzanna in 1849. Daughter Žofia’s entry in 1852 provided the first reference to her father’s profession. Sadly she died at age 10 months. Son, Michal, was born in 1854 and lived to age 19. His younger brothers, Andrej and Jozef, were born in 1857 and 1861 respectively, rounded out the family. Other parish records give us a glimpse of the dynamic of the family. Daughter Mária married a fellow Levočan, Ján Blažovský, son of Jozef Blažovský and Mária Fedorová in the parish chuch, the Cathedral of St. James, in January of 1868. In June of that year Mária delivered the first of their two stillborn children. The year of 1869 was one of many changes. On June 12, Peter lost his wife, Mária, to pulmonary tuberculoses, then commonly called consumption. Two months later, daughter Mária delivered her second stillborn child. Living at the residence of Mária and Ján Blažovský at the time was Mária’s sister, Zuzanna who gave birth to an illegitimate son, Jozef, in December of the same year.
In August of 1870, Peter married a second time. His bride was a widow also named Mária. Her maiden name was Cehulová but she had been previously married to a man whose family name was Kukura. Peter and Mária had no children together. In October of that year, Mária Blažovská gave birth to a son, Ján, who lived to age 19. At about the same time the following year, her sister, Zuzanna, still living with the Blažovský family, gave birth to her second illegitimate son, Vojtech.
In October of 1873, Peter’s son, Michal, died. He was followed in death by his nephew, Ján Blažovský, on January 21, 1890. Peter died of old age four days after his grandson, Ján, on January 25th. Peter’s second wife died in 1905 at the hospital in Levoča which had opened five years earlier.
No further records have been found on Peter’s oldest son, Štefan. If he married, the record of it would in his bride’s home parish. Likewise, it is unclear if Štefan’s younger brother, Andrej, married. The only later reference found regarding him was a mention on a postcard written in 1937 that he was seen visiting the Levoča cemetery on All Saint’s Day. Click on this link to see the postcard sent by Fr. Stanislaus Gmuca in 1937 during his visit to Levoča to his brother-in-law, Frank Lison, mentioning Frank’s uncle, Andrej.
The youngest son of the family, Jozef, was the one to provide offspring who would immigrate to the United States. To learn about the children of Peter and Mária who had families of their own, click on the links below: |
