c. 1830 – Jiriho Plašenka
Jiriho Plašenka was born sometime around 1830 in the small village of Hrušové (š is pronounced “sh”) in Horné Uhorsko (Upper Hungary), a region of the Habsburg controlled Kingdom of Hungary (Uhorské kráľovstvo in Slovak and Magyar Királyság in Hungarian). Upper Hungary comprised the region that today is the Slovenská Republika (Slovak Republic) or Slovakia. We have no record of Jihiro’s birth, his parents, or his siblings. So this is the earliest we can trace the Plašenka family line.
Until 1835, the Kingdom of Hungary was ruled by Francis II, the last of the Holy Roman Emperors.
c. 1830 – Anna Pavlovic
Anna Pavlovic was also born in Hrušové in the Kingdom of Hungary sometime around 1830. Like Jiriho, we have no record of her birth, her parents, or her siblings.
Hrušové
Today, the village of Hrušové is in the Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia. Hrušové is less than a mile southeast of the larger town of Lubina.
Slovakia, Hungary
The region had been settled first by Celtic tribes around 400 BCE, then by Germanic tribes, and finally by Slavic tribes over the course of several centuries. The major political regions that emerged consisted of three historic lands: Bohemia and Moravia in the west (often called the Czech Lands) and Slovakia in the east.
Slovakia had been ruled by Hungary for almost 1,000 years and was known as “Upper Hungary” (Horné Uhorsko in Slovak) because it was situated on the highlands below the Carpathian mountain range. From 1526 to 1918, the Kingdom of Hungary came under the control of the Habsburg monarchy, which had ruled areas around Austria since 1276.
In the sixteenth century, Hungary served as a buffer between the Ottoman Empire of the Turks and the Holy Roman Empire to the west and the Kingdom of Poland to the north. As the Turks encroached on Hungarian soil, they captured the area that is today the modern nation of Hungary, while another Hungarian region, Transylvania, became a Turkish protectorate. Only Slovakia was left as the remaining independent piece of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1536 it became known as “Royal Hungary” with Bratislava, as the capital. From 1526 to 1830, nineteen Habsburg sovereigns were crowned “Kings and Queens of Hungary” in the St. Martin’s Cathedral in Bratislava. At the time, Bratislava was known as Prešporok (in Slovak), Pressburg (in German), and Pozsony (in Hungarian). Bratislava remained the capital of Hungary until the Turks were finally ousted from Central Europe in 1786 and Buda replaced it as the capital city.
marriage and children
Jiriho Plašenka married Anna Pavlovic in Hrušové (perhaps around 1855) and lived in House #39 until their deaths. Jiriho was a miller in the town of Hrušové, so perhaps his father was also the town miller before him.
Their daughter Anna Plašenka was born November 29, 1856 in House #39 in Hrušové. She is the only child we have a record of.
When she was 15 years old, Anna married Štefan Klč (č is pronounced “ch”) on May 12, 1872 in either the village of Hrušové or in Myjava, Stefan’s home town. After their marriage they moved in with Anna’s parents in House #39 in Hrušové and it was here that their three daughters were born.
Štefan Klč became a miller in Hrušové like Jiriho Plašenka. We don’t know if Štefan learned this trade after his marriage by working for his father-in-law, or if he was apprenticed to Jiriho Plašenka before his marriage and the situation led to him marry the boss’s daughter. (See Štefan Klč and Anna Plašenka)
deaths
Jiriho and Anna Pavlovic Plašenka both died in Hrušové. We have no record of their death dates.