Tonights spotlight is about my Grandmother Jolan who will be celebrating her 84th birthday at the end of the month.  Jolan was born on January 30, 1927 in Prague, Czechoslovakia to Walter Maczek and Elly Perutz.   I have a digital copy of her birth certificate but I would rather not post it.

She is currently writing up the events of her life in Europe to the crossing the ocean during the war to come to the United States. In the mean time I have been able to find a few documents that shed some light on how she came to the United States.

In 1944 she boarded the SS Erria in Cardiff and was bound for New York, according to my Gram there were U-Boat sightings or reports of them in the area, the ship was diverted to Nova Scotia and she landed in Halifax.  I don't know if I can post images from Ancestry.com on a blog, but I will caution on the side of no. But either way I have her Boarder Crossing document (her last name is butchered, only way I found it was by searching for her mothers last 3 husbands names).

From Canada she headed to New York, I am not sure exactly when she arrived in New York, but her grandparents (Richard and Alice Perutz) lived in Manhattan if I am not mistaken.   On February 25, 1947 Jolan married Frank Kondrc the son of Stephen and Anna Benjak Kondrc in Jackson Heights, New York.

In February of 1948 Jolan became a citizen of the United States of America.  The electronic copy I have is kind of distorted so I have to make a new copy once I find the original document.

Jolan and Frank have 3 daughters:  Susan, Patricia, and Dianne.