"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here." - Sue Monk Kidd

Let's Be Frank....Part 2 of 2

The Tale of 5 Franks

The over use of František didn't end in Bohemia. Once our ancestors...and all Lutovskys... made it to America it seems as if Frank, the American version of František, became the new favorite name...and the thorn in my side.

All of the research was falling into place and I was moving right along. I found all kinds of information regarding Frank (who will now be known as "Frank #1"), highlighted below. He was my Grandfather's brother from Generation 0 of the Lutovsky clan's beginning in America. I had found his wife, his kids...so I thought...and I made a new friend. 

Adrienne, her husband Ben and their new baby Jillian

I would like to introduce everyone to my new friend Adrienne Lutovsky. Adrienne and I met stumbling over each other researching Frank, since Adrienne is a direct descendent of a Frank Lutovsky.

We thought this was so great. Getting to know a relative that we didn't know existed, we were working together piecing our family history together and everything was clipping right along until....Adrienne and one of her Uncles did a DNA test and we came up as no match.

We were all completely boggled. It didn't seem possible that we didn't come up as a DNA match. We had family trees and documents substantiating many important dates, but obviously, something was really wrong.

Side note here: Is it just me or does Adrienne have a strong family resemblance? I wanted to chat for a second about our DNA results not matching. At this point that doesn't mean a whole lot. We could be...and most likely are...distant relatives. The testing methods used by the commercial genealogy web sites are a very simple version of a DNA test. Once a relationship gets to be a far distant relationship, like a 5th cousin or beyond, the DNA tests won't always pick up on it because the common strands of DNA may be too small to identify for this type of DNA test. There are more complex DNA tests available, one being GEDCOM, for anyone who is interested in DNA testing. We could upload our DNA results here and they would do a more in depth comparison. I haven't taken the time to look into all the ins and outs of this, but I definitely will.

So at this point all we could do, as with every curved ball genealogy throws at us, is get our hands on more documents, and as many as we can. And once we have them, then examine each with a fine toothed comb...birth records, marriage records, death records and whatever else we can find...which we did.

I ordered Frank #1's death certificate from North Dakota, and once I got it, I was a bit surprised, but also kind of relived, because one little box explained it all. Frank #1 had never been married. Below is a shot of his death record which I highlighted...N. Married, which means "Never Married." And the box to the right of that, Box #11..."Surviving Spouse" and "NA" is written..."Not Applicable."

I have had a few of my Uncles confirm with me that their Uncle Frank never got married or had any kids. This lead us to a "what the hell is going on here" moment. Adrienne is a descendant of Frank Lutovsky, so this meant only one thing...there had to be two Franks. Time to do more sleuthing. And after several months...sure enough, we figured out that there were indeed two different Frank Lutovskys.

Frank #1 (my Granduncle Frank, in the screen shot up above in the family tree) was born in 1897.

Frank #2, (Adrienne's Frank, who has a middle name that starts with "W", who will now be known as "Frank W. #2") was born in 1881 in Bohemia and then came to the US and settled at first in St. Paul, MN, then relocated to Rockford IL sometime between 1922 and 1927.

Frank W. #2 married a woman named Barbara, and named their first son....wait for it....Frank! But this Frank at least has a middle name, so he's Frank C. Lutovsky (and now he's Frank C. #3) To the right here is the group of Lutovskys that I am speaking about, which is Adrienne's clan.

Just recently we realized that all the documents we had gathered for Frank #1 and Frank W. #2 were actually documents for three different Franks. So, now we have a Frank Lutovsky #4, and who the hell is Frank #4? We don't know yet.

Frank W. #2 and Frank #4 are almost the same age (1 year apart), and both were living in St. Paul, MN. One Frank had a wife named Barbara, the other Frank had a Mother named Barbara, and like Frank #1, Frank #4 never was married or had children. So, you can completely understand why there was confusion.

I haven't done much research yet on Frank #4, but just as I was typing this, I was looking something up and I found someone's genealogy tree which includes Frank #4, so somebody else has already done all the work, which makes me very happy. Frank #4 was one of 14 children. Yikes! What is with the Lutovskys and all these massive families? Here's a screen shot of the new Frank #4's family.

I know it's difficult to see even if you click on the photo to enlarge it, but it doesn't matter because who the hell cares? There are just too many Franks and Františeks. I can't even bear to hear the "F" word anymore. Can you tell I have kind of soured on anyone named Frank? And really, a frank is a hot dog, so basically all these people have named their kid Hot Dog Lutovsky......which, actually now that I think of it this way...........Hot Dog is a pretty good name. Why didn't someone just pick Hot Dog for a name? It means Frank...and then we wouldn't have had all these damn duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate, quintuplicate, sextuplicate...and on and on, names.

And this leads us to the last Frank....so far. Frank C. #5 was discovered by Adrienne and Ben while doing research for Frank C. #3. They discovered that there were actually two different Frank C. Lutovskys...and of course there were. Although, their middle names are different. Frank C. #3 is Frank Clarence, and Frank C. #5 is Frank Charles. Another Frank with a different middle initial would have made things easier, so of course that didn't happen. And this is the Frank that I mentioned in the previous post about introducing everyone to another Frank and Anna Lutovsky, so here they are. Frank C. #5 married a woman named Anna.

So, please, Lutovskys, if anyone is planning on having children, no more duplicate names. You can only pick names which haven't been used yet....like Hot Dog Lutovsky.

Here's the recap of where we stand so far with the 5 Franks...

Frank #1 was unmarried and no children like Frank #4. Frank W. #2 is the Father of Frank C. #3. And we have no idea who Frank #4 and Frank C. #5 are. Frank C. #3 and Frank C. #5 both have the same middle initial, and they both have mothers named Barbara. Frank W. #2 has a wife named Barbara. Frank #1 and Frank C #5 both have fathers named John. Frank #1 has a brother named Charles and Frank C. #5 has a son named Charles. Neither of the Charles were ever married. Frank W. #2 and Frank #4 both lived in St. Paul, MN. So, I hope this helped straighten out any confusion.

As you can see above, we have located 4 of the 5 Frank Lutovsky graves. We haven't yet identified where Frank W. #2 has been buried, so more research to come.