Mystery Monday: Two Gula Brothers Marry the Same Woman - Mary Smey

Ok, ladies I have a question for you.  Would you ever marry your brother-in-law?  If you would, I suggest you not tell your husband.  It would likely start a nasty fight.

This is the story of two brothers:  Stefan "Steve" and "Nat" Gula and "their" wife, Maria "Mary" Smey.  These two brothers are my great grand uncles.  Steve and Nat were born in the small village of Wolowiec in present day southern Poland.  Records show that Steve was born on November 10, 1880 and that Nat was born about 1891.  Mary was born about 1883.  I am not sure where Mary was born, but likely she was Rusyn and was born close to where the Gula's originated.

Steve immigrated to the US in 1899.   His original destination was listed as Cleveland, OH.  Not clear how long he spent there, but he did eventually return to Wolowiec for a time.  He married Mary sometime prior to 1907 and returned from Wolowiec on August 14, 1907.  He and Mary lived for a time in Ansonia, Connecticut.  

Steve and Mary had 5 children:  John "Iwan", Peter, Joseph, Michael and Stephen.

In the 1920 US Census, Steve Gula is listed as an invalid.  He died on December 6, 1921.  In a death notice it states he was ill for 8 years prior to his death and died when only 42 years old.  

When Steve Gula died all of his children were all still quite young.  I am sure his death was a devastating blow to the family.  In the 1920's it would have been very difficult for a woman with small children to support the family.  Even prior to Steve's death things must have been tough financially.  Steve and Mary's oldest son, John, had been living in Wolowiec with an uncle (Teodor Smij) since he was an infant.  John would have never really known his father as he didn't return to the US until after his father died.  Also, since Steve had been unable to work they had taken on 4 or 5 boarders (according to the 1920 US Census).  

On Nov 24, 1923, Mary Smey Gula remarried Nat Gula.  There was obvious financial need for her to remarry and to do so quickly.  But did they fall in love?  Did Nat feel a responsibility to support his sister-in-law and nephews?  Was there some necessity?

Nat Gula and Mary had at least 4 children of their own:  William, George, Harry and Mary.

Mary died March 23, 1936 at only 53 years old.

Nat lived to be 71 years old and died October 27, 1962.

When I started my research into the Gula brothers which included my great grandfather, George Gula, I had no idea about the Steve and Nat "sharing" a wife.  When I found obituaries from Steve and Nat's children I was getting confused because they all mentioned Mary as their mother, but the names of the father would differ.   I had thought this was some sort of variance do the americanized name versus the Rusyn or original name.  I was quite shocked when a distant cousin corrected me and told me that the brothers had both married Mary.   I had never considered that possibility.

The realities are that even though the marrying a brother-in-law wasn't common, it may have been a financial and even cultural necessity in some cases.  This sort of marriage situation is even addressed in the Bible and is referred to as a Levirate Marriage.  This type of marriage is an obligation on a brother to marry his brother's widow.  It was seen as protection of the brother's widow and family and was common in tight, close ethnic groups.

Mystery Monday - Austrian? Polish? Russian? Ukrainian? Something else?

Ethnicity.  We often take great pride in the mother country of our ancestors.  One of the interesting things about genealogy research is you can uncover that some family history which is has been passed down is untrue or riddled with mistakes.


This is a story of one of those instances that makes you to rethink your family origins.


I had always been told that my maternal grandmother's family came to the US from Russia.  The family name was Gula and it sounded like it could be Russian to me, so I never had any reason to question it.


The Research


My great-grandfather, George Gula, lived in Scottdale, PA for most of his life. He passes away on May 21, 1967.  George died before I was born and evidently my mother and his daughter believed that he had been born in part of Russia.


The first records I reviewed to find out his origins were the 1930 US Census. The census records indicated that he was born in Austria.


Austria? No one had ever said anything about Austria. In addition, the census records indicated that the language spoken at home was Russian and that he was born abt 1889. Also, it stated that he arrived in 1906.


Lots of great data.


Next, I uncovered a copy of George's obituary. See post June 21,2011. This, too, stated he was born in Austria, but the obituary gave the name of the town of his birth, Wolowitz. Great! His hometown! Perfect! This should be easy. However, there isn't a Wolowitz, Austria.


I was aware that country borders in Europe moved around a lot over the last few hundred years, but i didn't know of any period where Russia was a part of Austria.


I expected that if I could get a copy of George's naturalization records, that may help be a key piece of the puzzle to his origins. I requested copy of George Gula's naturalization records from Westmoreland County, PA   The naturalization records revealed that he was born on March 12, 1889 in the town Wolowiec, Austria. The slight change in spelling of the name of the town made a big difference. Even more importantly, the naturalization records revealed that George arrived at NYC on the ship the Oldenburg on November 21, 1906.


Next, I went to the Ellis Island Immigration records looking for the original passenger list records. This was a jackpot of information. First, I found that George's birth name was "Jewka" Gula and that he was from Austrian Galicia (a region that included part of Poland). Second, it gave his race as "Ruthenian". This was a new one to me and I thought that this might have been an error or another way of referring to Russian ethnicity.

Google search of Wolowiec and Austria Galicia revealed that Wolowiec was no longer part of Austria, but was in extreme southern Poland in the Carpathian Mountains.  Here is a picture of the Byzantine Catholic church which still stands in Wolowiec, Poland.


Does this mean I was Polish?  But what was this "Ruthenian" people? Was that a clue?


I checked "Ruthenian" and found a Wikipedia entry which stated that essentially Ruthenians were Eastern European Slavic peoples specifically Lithuanian, Ukrainian or Belarussians. When I did some additional searches on Wolowiec and on Ruthenian...I eventually found a great website called the Carpatho-rusyn knowledge base. On this website, I discovered that the Greek or Byzantine Catholic residents of Wolowiec were part of an ethnic group called Carpathian Rusyns or just Rusyns. It is interesting to note the Ukraine does not recognize this group and believes they are Ukrainians and not a separate sub-group.


Some famous Rusyns include:  Andy Warhol (famous painter), Robert Urich (actor), and Tom Ridge (former Governor of Pennsylvania).


But, in the end, I found out my Great-grandfather was born in modern day Poland and that he was ethnically a Ukrainian/Rusyn...not Russian.


It is amazing how a few weeks of research can result in having you rethink everything you thought you knew about your family origins.