“Mesgovec” — an awkward relic from documents that has produced only further confusion as I review additional census records, birth records, and historic maps. Anton, who came here in 1913 with Katherina, left us too many questions. Was he born in Austria-proper? Or was he born in Slovenia? His surname posed issues for people upon their arrival, so they opted to use Katherina’s last name — even though they still manageable to misunderstand her as well.
Searching the web had previously given me no additional leads on “Mesgovec” as a location. However, we now have “Miščovec” as a potential birth place in the Slovenia Alpine region, though, which connects to the Slavic lineage detected in my DNA, my mother’s DNA, and my maternal grandfather’s DNA. Based on additional information available, it appears this region fell under Habsburg rule during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So while I previously thought that perhaps he had been born further away in Bohemia in a town called Myslkovice, I believe Miščovec in the Gorenjska (Upper Carniola) region of present-day Slovenia would make more sense based on the distance from Trieben.
Based on events leading up to World War I and World War II, we can assume Anton and Katherina fled Austria due to anti-Slavic sentiment. It surely wouldn’t help that the two wed in Austria and born their first child prior to arriving in America. Unfortunately as we see these days, such prejudice still exists to this day.
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