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Growing up in Avon Park, a small Slovenian enclave in the city of Girard, Ohio I had the opportunity to become involved in the Slovenian culture at an early age. Memories include the many activities of Circle 7 of the SNPJ—learning to sing Slovenian folksongs, performing at many holiday functions, dancing the polka, and just having lots of fun with my young friends
I’ve always been interested in my heritage, but like so many of us, I never took the time to talk with my parents/grandparents about our history, so I had a lot of work to do! In 1986, I attended a genealogy meeting featuring Al Peterlin—and I got the “bug”! I immediately volunteered to help as an editor and have since then, initiated the organization of an SGSI South Florida State Chapter in 1997 and upon returning to Ohio in 1999, initiated the organization of the Ohio Chapter of SGSI.
Traveling to Slovenia three times in the past 8 years and studying the language at the University of Ljubljana on two of these trips, I’ve had some very unique experiences delving into my family’s history including meeting relatives I never knew I had! I’ve researched records at the Archbishopric Archives in Ljubljana and visited several churches in my family’s villages as well as traveled throughout Slovenia.
Learning so much from our Cleveland area SGSI meetings in the past two years, I’m willing to help anyone who is interested in learning more about their Slovenian heritage. Just give me a call or E-mail me. And if you live in the Greater Cleveland area, please attend our meetings. We meet four times a year—March, May, September, and November—at the Recher Slovenian Hall in Euclid, Ohio. Announcements of our meetings are on this web site, in the American Home newspaper, the Prosveta, the KSKJ newspaper, and on the local polka radio programs. We learn a lot from our speakers and from each other. And we have fun!
The Ohio Chapter 2006 meeting schedule is as follows:
(All meetings begin at 7 p.m., and are held at the Recher Slovenian Hall in Euclid, Ohio.)
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