Who am I?

Have you seen this show?

What about this one?

They're both shows about researching your family tree/finding your roots/doing genealogy/exploring your family history.  Whatever you call it, it's fascinating.

I'm a faithful follower and I started thinking, what about MY FAMILY?  What kinds of things can I find out? Where do we really come from?

A bit of history you should know:

My grandpa George (maternal) is a convert to the LDS church. This means that he doesn't have generations of offspring to faithfully search his roots.

George

Second, my grandpa's parents Theodore and Mary were supposedly both immigrants from Eastern Europe. (Serbia and Hungary/Romania).

Theodore Palla and Mary Penoff

I also know that Theodore came on a boat to the U.S.  Through Ellis Island.

Are you still with me? Good.

Late one night I decided to find more information about Theodore.  I start to search through Ellis Island records to find the ship manifest or other records to help me trace my family.  I get nothing.  Finally I search familysearch.org and find the 1920 census that lists him (22) and Mary (18) living together in her parents home (Matt and Barbara Penoff).   As I start to look through census records I realize it lists Mary, Barbara, Matt and sister Cecilia as being born in Hungary.  That means they traveled to America as a family.  Interesting.  Back to Ellis Island.  I find absolutely nothing with the last name Penoff, and I realize they must have Americanized their name.  After about 45 minutes of searching I find them listed under the last name Penov.

I find Matyas Penov, his wife Barbolina, daughters Cezcilia and Maria . . . and a son Martain! Wow.  I did not know this person even existed. ( I later found out that Martain or Mark as he was called in America, died of consumption when he was only 19).

The ship manifest states that both adults can read and write.  Literate! This is good.  My great grandfather's occupation was listed as an Ag. Lab. (I'm decifering 1907 language to mean agricultural laborer.  We also find that he was only 5' 11" and my great grandmother was 4' 7".  Short.  Hmmm.  So, that explains a lot.    I cannot even express to you how exciting it was to find all this information.

At this point I realize that I need to talk to someone who knew these people directly.  My grandpa George has a sister named Irene who is AMAZING.  Her mind is still so keen and I was able to retrieve photos, birth certificates and some more information from her.  Here are some pictures she sent me.

Mary with her father Matt (LOVE the mustache)
and three of her kids in 1925

Mary {Penoff} Pallas with 4 of her kids.  My grandpa George is the ADORABLE one to her left.  She doesn't look happy, does she?  She ended up leaving her family a few years later. 

I am so excited about the information I have found.  The fact that my husband speaks Serbian and my great grandpa was BORN in serbia is pretty amazing too.  I just had to share some tidbits of genealogy-love with you.