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IN SEARCH OF MY SLOVENIAN ROOTS
By:  Beverly Blaszkowski
Part 1

After the death of my beloved father, Jack Green, to cancer in 1996, I felt the need to honor him by finding out about his birth mother (my grandmother), and so I began the search.

I knew that when Jack was in his late twenties, married, and the father of three young children, he found out about his adoption at the age of 3 months.  He also found his biological father, John Sickich Sr. and a brother, John Sickich Jr. and family living in Mason, WI, just 20 minutes from his Ashland, WI, home!

During his initial visit, Jack learned of being placed in a Superior, WI, orphanage at the age of 3 months, when his birth mother died.  He was adopted shortly after by Mr. and Mrs. Max Green of Ashland, WI.

Jack learned that his father, John, had come to the United States from Croatia, and had settled in Hibbing, MN, working as a miner.  It was in Hibbing that John met and married his wife, Mary Petek.   Jack was one of several siblings, a living brother, John Jr. and a sister, Helen. Two other sisters, Mary and Anna had died at a young age. From this meeting on, Jack continued to have a family relationship with his father, brother and sister.

I still needed to find the grandmother I never knew, and never got to love.  I needed to find her gravesite.  I searched cemetery records and cemeteries in the Ashland area, combed through birth, death and marriage certificates.  I read through years of census records. Nothing!  And so the search went on.

Then I recalled my dad mentioning there were cousins living in Hibbing, MN with a surname like  “Davich”; however, he had never met them.  An Internet search came up with Peter and John Davich who appeared to be living right next door to each other.  By their names I assumed they were not a “new generation”, but maybe older gentleman.

I set the phone numbers aside for a time, and then one Sunday I decided to call.  The worst they could do was hang up on me!  It turned out to be one of the most important telephone calls I have ever made.

Yes, Peter and Joe Davich were brothers.  Their mother’s maiden name was Johanna Petek, better known as Anna.   And yes, their dear mother Ann (Petek) Davich and my grandmother Mary (Petek) Sickich were SISTERS!  You guessed it; many tears were shed that day.

Part 2 >