INTERNET CAUSED IT-THANKS!

Internet entered lives of people as roughly as television some years ago. At first, only the academic community used it, but later it got valuable also in business, trade and in common communication among people. Internet helped me to find my family, of which I had no idea before.

It all began when my nephew, Noel, in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) got involved in one discussion on Internet. Bill Elovski from Pennsylvania replied to him and after their mutual conversation, they found out that they are directly related. Bill’s grandfather and Noel's grand-grandfather were brothers.

In 1912, Bill's grandfather, Imrich Ilavsky, left one poor Slovak village Lukacovce (today district Nitra), together with his brother Victor and went to the U.S.A. They had borrowed some money from their sister-in law, who as a daughter of village-mayor got a pretty large dowry when she got married. Soon after their arrival in USA they lost contact and the family in Slovakia didn't have any information about them.

My brother Mayo Ilavsky, who lives in Toronto, Canada for 31 years, father of Noel, informed me about the whole situation. This august he organized a terrific reunion of our family. Bill Elovski elder arrived from Pennsylvania with his wife Helen, with his son Bill, Bill's wife Stephanie, and their two sons. (3 generations of Elovski)

My mother Teresia Ilavska (1919) a widow of Theophil-Bill's direct cousin, me, Maria Ilavska (1947), my daughter Katarina (1972) and my granddaughter Carolina (1994) arrived from Slovakia. Four generations of Ilavsky descendants arrived from Slovakia!

And since in Toronto lives the whole family of Ilavsky branch, other descendants of Bill's cousins didn't miss the reunion. We were 27 people all together! Getting together was very impressive and we enjoyed this unexpected event, brought into our lives very much. This was not our last meeting. Thanks to Internet we can stay in touch any time of a day or night.

Maria Ilavska-Surnichrastova
Komamicka 40
81103 Bratislava
Slovakia

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Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 7, No. 1, Spring 1999
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1999 
3804 Yale Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article and photographs may not be copied, reproduced, republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic, without the express written permission of Vladimir Linder. All rights reserved.