A History of Central Eastern Europe

DEDICATION
Three of our ancestors choose to leave their life, their friends and their family behind just over a century
ago and made their way to Forest City, Pennsylvania. One of the things that one young man brought with
him was what would morph into the single characteristic we have in common, our last name – SMITH. All
three brought their hopes for a better life for themselves as well as their children. We don’t know what
each experienced while in Eastern Europe but history tells us that life probably did not hold much in the
way of promises for improvement – and thus we can safely surmise that their hopes to improve their lot
in life were realized.
JOZEF KUTARÑA had been married to his wife KATARÍNA
HASAY for just two years when he sailed from Hamburg in 1886. She
was left 6 months pregnant and caring for their 7 month old son.
KATARÍNA made the same trip the following year with both babies.
JÓZSEF SCHMID had been
18 years old for half a year when
he sailed from Bremen, Germany,
leaving behind the only home he
knew - he may have wondered if
he would ever see it again – he
didn’t. When he disembarked on
the 26 th of June 1901, he had just
$12.00 in his pocket.
This work is dedicated to my grandfather and my great-grandparents who gambled on the
unknown, a land of people from all over the world, one where their small-town customs were
possibly seen as quaint but probably backwards, a land where not only was there a new and hard
language to learn, but many languages were spoke. All the ingredients of the great “melting pot”
experiment may have been added by the time they arrived, but they certainly hadn’t yet combined.
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