Asturian-American Migration Forum

hi . my name is david gubanez. my granparents migrated from (Ruska Bystra austria) sometime in the 1920,s. they came to work in pinnickinnick WV. anyone know the name?? their names were George Gubanez Mary (Bonduraz) Gubanez

David,

Welcome to the forum. The name of Gubanez appears in the 1930 U.S. Census for Harrison County, West Virginia. They have a George, Mary, Charles, John, Annie, Alga, and Mike Gubanez listed. Usually, most public libraries have Ancestry.com access where one can copy the Census.

I am not sure if your family members appear in the 1920 Census since it was taken in January, 1920, for the town of Anmoore, Simpson District, where Pinncik Kinnick Hill is located.

Manuell Alvarez

Welcome, David.

Possible misspellings and mistakes make it difficult for us to interpret your message. With genealogy, the details matter. (And our task is made more difficult by the many errors in genealogical documents.) Here is a message that explains how to be sure your message is read and understood:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2246

Where were your family members from? It looks like Ruska Bystra is in Slovakia, not Austria. If they were from Asturias, which is the area we know best, we may be able to help you. If they were from Austria or Slovakia, we'll be less helpful, but we do know about the Clarksburg, WV, area.

You may want to read the book Pinnick Kinnick Hill by Gavin Gonzalez, which is discussed here:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55

Amazon sells the book, often used, too, and will give Asturian-American Migration Forum a percentage on any orders made through the following link. You can support the forum, at no cost to you. Anything you buy at Amazon after using this link to get to Amazon will also support AsturianUS.org. To visit Amazon or buy Pinnick Kinnick Hill, please use this link:
Pinnick Kinnick Hill on Amazon.com

thank you for the info. then i guess if they were from solvakia. i should find a different site being this is for austrians only?

Actually, several of our members have Slovak heritage, too. Bob and Manny, I think, had Slovakian grandparents.

It is true, however, that the focus of the site is Asturian. Something we can help you with is understanding what was going on in the Clarksburg area in the early 20th century. That would be something we hold in common. The book I mentioned above was a real eye-opener for me. I highly recommend it. It's not the great American novel, but it gives a good sense for the lives our our grandparents. Unfortunately, Gonzalez changed all of the names of the people and places. The thread on the book (in the link I posted in my previous message) discusses some of these issues so you'll know what you're reading about. It's very possible that your grandparents are in the book, although you'd have to know something about them to recognize them since the names will have been changed.

I see now that I misspelled Slovakian (it's not Solvakian) ... and you may have followed my poor lead! Sorry about that. I'll correct my errors.

I'd be interested in learning about your last name (Gubanez). It's interesting that it would look almost Spanish. Maybe when the last name was created, Slovakia was under the sway of the Latin language and has the same -ez ending. In Spanish that ending often means "son of". So Fernández means, "son of Fernando" and Alvarez means "son of Alvaro".

Hi David,

Welcome to the forum. Cyndi's List has lots of sites to check out:

http://www.cyndislist.com/czech

Also, Charleston, WV became a sister city with a Slav. city and you may find some help there:

http://www.cityofcharleston.org/sites/d ... ce_web.pdf

Joni

it is true.. my last name went from bubanecz to gubanec to finaly at ellis island gubanez. i do know that much. i think it was my great great granfather alec bubanecz. chew on that a minute..lol.

i would love to talk to you . could you call me at 234-650-1860. any time, i live in ohio.

My father's side of the family is pure Asturian and my mother's pure Slovak. The languages are relatively unrelated to each other. Slovak bears a distinct resemblance to Polish. "Forever and ever" in Slovak is (phonetic spelling) azh na veki veki. Not much resemblance to Asturian or Castillian That's about the extent of my knowledge of the Slovak language.

My mother's family called the language Slavish, not Slovak, but pronounced Slavish with a flat broad "a" like the "a" in ham.

Bob,

I can not speak Spanish or Slovakian. Neither can some of my cousins who actually lived with my Slovakian grandparents. We used English at home. I did take three years of Spanish in high school and my father told me very pointedly that I spoke Spanish like a cow, which is to say that if he could not understand me, it was not Spanish.

Interestingly, I had a b average for all three years. The kid from Cuba who spoke Spanish very well had a d average. Go figure.

In my first year of Spanish, I was looking forward to the field trip to the Embassy of Spain in DC; however. a kid the year before had pocketed a minature silver bull and our teacher was told by the Embassy staff that her classes were not welcomed back, ever. We would visit the Mexican Embassy and Pan American Building instead.

My mother spoke Slovakian and Russian. Dad spoke Spanish, Italian, and some Greek. I am not sure of his Asturian dialect. I think that it's central Asturian.


Manny

david e gubanez wrote:... my last name went from bubanecz to gubanec to finaly at ellis island gubanez....

Ah, then it has nothing to do with Spanish. I suppose it's possible that the Ellis Island clerk was more familiar with Spanish-sounding names and adjusted yours to fit the pattern!