My father loved baseball and was quite a Cleveland Indians fan. He would listen to the games on the radio. I remember at times the Indians were losing and he would turn off the radio and stomp out of the house talking to himself. He would walk around with his hands behind his back for a little while and cool down. Then he came back in and listened to the rest of the game.
My mother had two brothers who were in America. Alexander, or Alex as we called him. He and his wife, Stephania, lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Also a brother named Mike. I never really knew him by any other name, so I didn't know what Mike might be short for. He and his wife, Mary, lived in Chesapeake City, Maryland on a farm. When I was young I remember going once or twice to Pennsylvania to see Alex and to Maryland to see Mike.
My father had two brothers in America: Stephan and Constantine. It was Stephan who sponsored my father to come to America as a coal mine laborer. We found this information out just recently when we got the printout of my father's arrival to America through Ellis Island. We got the printout from the granddaughter of Stephan (Suzie Mislevy) who lives in Tunkhannock, Pa. She also sent a printout of Stephan's arrival. She got all this information from the internet on her home computer. There was nothing about Constantine coming through Ellis Island, and they say he may have come through Baltimore, Maryland. We told my nephew, Dick Musleve who is the son of my brother, Anthony, about the printouts from Ellis Island. Dick got on his computer and came up with my mother, Alexandra Basalyga's printout. So as you can see we have been using all sorts of people and ways to find information on who we are and where we came from.
It was many, many years that we had no contact with the Mislevys. A very interesting point was discovered about our family name. Sedor's (or Sidor) branch of the family spell our name Musleve. The other two branches, Stephan and Constantine, spell their name Mislevy. How these two different spellings came to be is a mystery. On the passenger list from Ellis Island the names were Stephan and Sidor with both family names spelled Mysliwy. My mother's side, which was Basalyga, stayed true throughout both her brothers Alexander and Mike. Plus through all the other research we have done, it was always spelled this way.
Several years ago I got a letter from Violet Dalessandro, who is the youngest daughter of Constantine Mislevy. I sent a reply and asked for her phone number. I called her and we have been keeping in touch ever since. I got John Basalyga's phone number from Violet. John is the oldest son of my mother's brother Alex. So now I have made contact with both my father and mother's sides of the family. Since then I have gotten phone numbers of others on both sides and called and made other contacts.
I'm not sure, but I think when Violet made the first step, my daughter Claudia and I started thinking. My own family, after all but one of my brothers and sisters passed on, their children (my nieces and nephews) were all scattered around. We had just drifted apart. So Claudia and I sent everyone a letter that we were going to have a family reunion in Akron, Ohio. That was three years ago. We had such a good turn out and we had a great time. Last year, 2003, we had our third reunion. I will continue with the reunion in just a moment, but first I have to tell you this.
In 2002 before our second reunion I was talking to John Basalyga in Scranton. I told him about my having a friend from England, and how I have been going to England for the past several years and traveling around Europe. John said to me, sometime why don't you go to the place where our parents were born, Snietnica. WOW ! There's that funny word again.
So back to the reunion. While at the second reunion, which was in September of 2002, I mentioned what John had said to me about going to Snietnica. Well what a response I never would believe. My son Scott and daughter Claudia ( I only have two children ) said they wanted to go. My niece Kathy Ransdell was very excited and said she wanted to go. Dick Musleve you remember my brother Anthony's or Tony's son said he wanted to go. Also my niece Franny my Sister Joan's daughter said she and
next page