Week 26 of #52Ancestors Challenge: Favorite Name
Some names just grab you, don’t they? When I first discovered that I had not one, but two great-great-grandmothers named Anastasia, I knew there was a story worth telling. Both women lived under Austrian rule in the late 1800s, both faced tremendous hardships, and both carried a name that meant “resurrection.”
Anastasia Hlinka: From Slovakia to Pennsylvania
Born in 1860 in the mountain village of Litmanova, Slovakia, Anastasia Hlinka (my maternal, maternal, great-great-grandmother) lived through one of history’s most dramatic transformations. Her name, derived from the Greek word meaning “resurrection,” connected her to Saint Anastasia the Pharmakolutria, known as “Anastasia the Healer.”
The contrast between her two worlds was stark. In Litmanova, life was marked by rural poverty. When she married Konstantine Hurkala in 1883, they were part of a region where economic conditions were driving mass emigration. By the early 1900s, they had joined approximately 500,000 Slovaks who immigrated to the United States, with more than half settling in Pennsylvania.1
Anastasia settled in Star Junction, Pennsylvania, a company coal town founded in 1893 with the opening of Washington No. 2 Mine. The town featured over 1,000 beehive coke ovens and had grown to nearly 700 inhabitants by 1900.2 Company houses were often built directly on cinders from coke ovens, preventing grass from growing, and the proximity to coke ovens was so intense that their light allowed residents to read newspapers at night.
Like many Slovak immigrant women, Anastasia faced the challenge of managing a household in an industrial environment completely different from her rural homeland. The heartbreak of losing children had already marked her life in Slovakia – little Maria died in 1885, then Petrus in 1894, both in Litmanova before the family’s emigration. When Anastasia died in January 1917 at age 56, she had bridged two entirely different worlds and established an American family that included my great-grandmother Anna.
Anastasia Bosak: Life in Austrian Galicia
My other great-great-grandmother, Anastasia Bosak (my maternal, paternal great-great-grandmother), was born on December 26, 1845, in the village of Dubne, Nowy Sącz County, Poland, during one of the most challenging periods in Polish history. She lived in Austrian Galicia, a province so notorious for its poverty that it was mockingly called “Golicja i Głodomeria” (Nakedia and Hungrymeria).3
Regular famines punctuated life in Galicia, with major food crises occurring in 1844-1848, 1855, 1865, and 1876. These famines killed an average of 50,000 people annually.4 Female life expectancy in rural Galicia was just 28.5 years.5
In 1868, at age 22, Anastasia married Stephanus Dubnianski. When Stephanus died in 1873, leaving her a widow at 27 with young children, she married Basil Dubnianski in 1874. This quick remarriage to someone with the same surname suggests either a family connection or strategic alliance – whether Basil was a relative of her first husband or simply someone from the same community, the arrangement would have provided economic security for Anastasia and her children during a time when widowed women faced extremely limited options. I, personally, am glad that she did as Basil Dubnianski is my great-great grandfather!
Anastasia died in 1879 at age 33, having lived through the serf emancipation of 1848 and the beginning of the great wave of emigration that would eventually bring millions of Eastern Europeans to America. Her descendants, including my great-grandfather Paul, would eventually emigrate to America, carrying forward the family line she had struggled to maintain in those difficult years in Dubne.
The Significance of “Anastasia”
The choice of “Anastasia” for daughters born in the 1840s and 1860s carried profound religious significance in Eastern European Catholic culture. Saint Anastasia held the unique distinction of being one of only seven women (excluding the Virgin Mary) commemorated by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Known as “Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions” or “Anastasia the Healer,” she was venerated as protector against poison, disease, and harmful substances.
Saint Anastasia’s feast day falls on December 25th, and she held the unique honor of special commemoration in the second Mass on Christmas Day.6 Given that Anastasia Bosak was born on December 26, 1845, her naming likely reflected this proximity to the saint’s feast day, following the traditional Polish practice of choosing saints’ names based on birth timing.
Two Lives, One Legacy
Both women faced the reality of losing children and living under difficult economic conditions. Anastasia Hlinka lived to see four of her six children reach adulthood and established an American family line. Anastasia Bosak’s life was cut short at 33, but her descendants eventually achieved the opportunities she never lived to see.
The name “Anastasia,” meaning resurrection, has taken on special significance for me as I’ve researched these women’s lives. Both faced circumstances that could have broken their spirits, yet they persevered in building families and maintaining hope for the future.
Reflection on Names and Memory
As I’ve traced naming patterns in my family tree, I can see the gradual Americanization of immigrant families. The beautiful Old World names like Anastasia often gave way to more American-sounding variations or entirely different names for the next generation. But these original names serve as important connections to our ancestral cultures and the values our immigrant ancestors held dear.
Both Anastasias lived through historical periods that tested human endurance, yet they continued building families and hoping for better days. Their shared name connects them across time and geography, reminding me that genealogy isn’t just about collecting names and dates, but about understanding the courage ordinary people showed in facing extraordinary challenges.
Do you have names in your family tree that carry special cultural or religious significance? Have you noticed patterns in how naming traditions changed as your family became more Americanized? I’d love to hear about the meaningful names in your family history!
- “Slovak Americans,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Americans: accessed 28 June 2025). ↩︎
- “Star Junction,” Coal Camp U.S.A. (https://www.coalcampusa.com/westpa/pittsburgh/starjunction/starjunction.htm: accessed 28 June 2025). ↩︎
- “Poverty in Austrian Galicia,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Austrian_Galicia: accessed 28 June 2025). ↩︎
- “Famines in Austrian Galicia,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famines_in_Austrian_Galicia: accessed 26 June 2025). ↩︎
- “Scholderer Surname Study: Chronicles of the Scholderer Family Lineage, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austro-Hungarian Empire,” Scholderer.org (https://scholderer.org/web_data/: accessed 26 June 2025). ↩︎
- Peter Kwasniewski, “St. Anastasia and the Second Mass of Christmas,” New Liturgical Movement (https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2013/12/st-anastasia-and-second-mass-of.html: accessed 26 June 2025). ↩︎
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