The box had been sitting on a shelf for two years. What followed was an unexpected discovery I wasn’t prepared for.
It came to me from my uncle, Eva Marcisak Dubinsky’s son, along with the family papers he kept after his mother died. I set it aside, intending to come back to it.
In early April 2026, I finally did.
Tucked inside were two formal church-issued baptismal extracts: one for my great-grandmother Eva Marcisak, and one for a child I had never heard of.
His name was Basilius. He was born on 20 May 1906. He was Eva’s brother. And until I held that piece of paper in my hands, I had no idea he existed.
What is a Baptismal Extractus?
Before I explain what these documents mean, it helps to understand what they are.
An extractus is a certified extract from a church baptismal register, issued by a pastor and stamped with the church seal. These were official documents used to prove a child’s birth, age, or religious standing.
They were not casual keepsakes. Someone requested these. Someone kept them.
Both extracts are headed “Extractus Matriculae Baptisatorum Ecclesiae Gr. Catholicae in America” (a certified extract from the baptismal register of a Greek Catholic church in America). The Latin header and columnar format are standard for Greek Catholic parishes of this era, reflecting the church’s ecclesiastical tradition even in its American missions.
The fact that these documents survived at all is remarkable. They traveled from the Marcisak household through decades, through Eva’s possession and then her son’s, and eventually into my hands.
The 1906 Extract: A Child I Didn’t Know
The first document bears the stamp of St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church, New Salem, Pennsylvania, dated 1903. The extract itself was issued on 21 May 1906.
It records:
- Child’s name: Basilius
- Birth and baptism date: 20 May 1906
- Status: Legitimate
- Birth location: Mt. Braddock, Pennsylvania
- Baptism location: New Salem, Pennsylvania
- Father: Basilius Marcisak
- Mother: Anna Hurkala
- Godfather: Adam Hlinka
- Godmother: Maria Vojtek
- Officiating pastor: Nicolaus Sthecovic
The parents are unmistakably my great-grandparents Vasil Marcisak and Anna Hurkala Marcisak. This was an unexpected discovery: the child is their son, and he is nowhere in any record I have previously found for this family.
In my November 2025 post about Anna’s children and the family’s documented twins [“Four Sets of Twins: Two Families, Remarkable Stories, and Missing Records“], I listed Anna’s known children in birth order: Anna (1905), Michael (1909), Eva and Adam (twins, 1911), Stephen (1913), Magdalena (1920), and Paul and Pauline (twins, 1922). Basilius, born 1906, fits between Anna and Michael. He is not on that list because I did not know he existed.
He almost certainly died young. His absence from the 1910 census, from Anna’s naturalization petition, and from every other family record suggests he did not survive childhood. Anna’s 1910 census entry records only two children born and two living: Anna and Michael. If Basilius had still been living at that point, he would have been counted. He was not.
But he was born. He was baptized. Someone requested a formal extract documenting that fact. And someone kept it.
The 1911 Extract: A New Wrinkle in a Familiar Story
The second extract tells a very different story.
The document was issued by the Greek Catholic church in Leisenring, Pennsylvania, in 1911. It records Eva’s baptism.
- Child’s name: Eva
- Birth and baptism date: 14 May 1911
- Status: Legitimate
- Birth location: Mt. Braddock, Pennsylvania
- Baptism location: Leisenring, Pennsylvania
- Father: Basilius Marcisak
- Mother: Anna Hurkala
- Godfather: Nicolaus Gladis
- Godmother: Maria Vojtek
- Officiating pastor: Alex Dubay
If you read my March 2026 post [“When Your Mom and Dad Disagree: Conflicting Evidence in Genealogy“], you know this date matters. That post laid out a conflict between Eva’s two parents over her birth date: Vasil’s 1935 naturalization petition recorded March 4, 1911, while Anna’s 1943 petition recorded May 15, 1911. Three additional sources, including Eva’s own 1945 marriage affidavit and her 1995 death certificate, supported May 15.
This baptismal extract adds a fifth source to that conflict. It records 14 May 1911.
That is one day before May 15.
Three independent sources still point to May 15, including Eva’s own signature on her marriage affidavit. The extract was issued the same year as Eva’s birth, which gives it real weight as a contemporaneous record, but a single day’s difference between sources is not unusual. Anna may have reported the baptismal date rather than the birth date when filing her naturalization petition.
What the extract does is add texture, not overturn the conclusion. The preponderance of evidence still favors May 15 as Eva’s date of birth. The extract is now part of that evidentiary record, and it deserves to be cited alongside the others.
What These Documents Mean Together
An unexpected discovery rarely announces itself.
Two certified church extracts. Two children of Vasil and Anna Marcisak. One of them my grandmother. One of them a child who vanished from the historical record before anyone alive today could have known him.
The godmother on both extracts is the same woman: Maria Vojtek. That consistency across two documents, five years apart, is a small but vivid detail. The Vojtek family was part of this community, present at both baptisms, woven into the family’s life in ways the census and naturalization records don’t show.
The godfather on the Basilius extract is Adam Hlinka. Anna’s mother was Anastasia Hlinka, making Adam Hlinka likely a member of Anna’s maternal family. Adam Hlinka also appears as the name of Eva’s twin brother, who died in infancy. Whether the infant Adam was named for this godfather is a question I cannot answer from the documents alone, but it is the kind of connection worth noting.
This unexpected discovery reminded me of something I already knew but sometimes forget: the most important documents in a genealogical search are not always online. They are not always in archives. Sometimes they are in a box on a shelf, waiting for a genealogist to finally slow down and look.
I have looked now. I know about Basilius. His brief life left one piece of paper, and that paper found its way to me.
That is unexpected enough.
YOUR TURN!
Do you have family documents sitting in a box somewhere, waiting to be properly examined? This post is your reminder. And if you find something unexpected, come back and tell me about it.
- St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church (New Salem, Pennsylvania), certified baptismal extract for Basilius Marcisak, 21 May 1906, entry no. 100, recording birth and baptism of Basilius Marcisak, 20 May 1906; Max-Douglas Family Papers, privately held by Kirsten M. Max-Douglas, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Blue Ash, Ohio. Received from a family member, son of Eva Marcisak Dubinsky. ↩︎
- Greek Catholic Church, Leisenring (Leisenring, Pennsylvania), certified baptismal extract for Eva Marcisak, 20 June 1911, recording birth and baptism of Eva Marcisak, 14 May 1911; Max-Douglas Family Papers, privately held by Kirsten M. Max-Douglas, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Blue Ash, Ohio. Received from a family member, son of Eva Marcisak Dubinsky. ↩︎
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