The Zilinskis

 by Roberta McGee

George Zilinskis (sometimes spelt Zelensky) was born about 1878 in Lithuania (Poland-Russia) and married Ona (Anna) Rudzeviclute  in 1897 in Garlecva, Poland. Their first child Steffina Agnes was born in 1903 at Kelme, Kelme District Municipality, Siaulial, Lithuania. George was a coalminer and by 1907 they had moved to Glengyron, Old Cumnock, where their son Anthony was born, followed by Levonas in 1908, Lana in 1910, George in 1913 and William, who was born in 1918 at Waterside Place.

Both George and Anna remained in Cumnock. George died in 1930 at Waterside Place and Anna in 1949 at 55 Keir Hardie Hill, Cumnock.

Their daughter Steffina Agnes sailed out of Glasgow on 9 March 1921 on the Columbia , arriving in New York on 20 March 1921. Her destination was to her uncle Antanas Rudzeviclute in Century, Barbour County, West Virginia. She was only seventeen years old and a few months later on 29 May 1921 she married John Edward Prutsok in Century. John was a miner who was born in 1895 at Lucerne, West Virginia. His parents were Austrian. 

Steffina’s Wedding - Cumnock Connections 

John and Steffina had three sons but sadly John died in 1935 leaving Steffina a widow aged 32 years. Steffina married again in 1941 to Russian born Michael Superfisky and spent the rest of her life in Barbour County, West Virginia where she died in 1963.

Anthony Zilinskis was born in Glengyron Row in 1907 and married Auchinleck born Annie Gibson Pooley in 1932 at Auchinleck. At some time he changed his surname to Rogers. Anthony was a motor mechanic and died in 1914 in Mauchline. 

Levonas (Leonard) Michael 'Scotty' Zilinskis was born in 1908 at Glengyron, Old Cumnock. He sailed out of Liverpool for New York on the Cedric arriving there on 17 September 1928. He gave his occupation as miner. Although his parents were still alive and living at Waterside Place, Cumnock, he gave his nearest relative in Scotland as his uncle Peter Kilvites, Beechwood Square, Auchinleck. His final destination in the USA was to his brother-in-law John Prutsok, his sister Steffina's husband, Century, West Virginia. 

On his Draft Card of 16 August 1940 he gave his address as Mellette, Spink, West Virginia and his employer was The Century Coal Co. Scotty joined the US Army on 2 September 1942 and was married that same year to Lillian Anna Hamilton who was born in West Virginia. He became naturalised in 1943. Scotty died in 1967 at Buckhannon, Upshur, West Virginia.

Image Cumnock Connections

A description of Century in the Cumnock Connections Tree presumably by one of Scotty's children

            

            The town we grew up in was called Century. The name originated because the

            company who opened the coal mine thought they had about a century of coal,

            plus it opened at the beginning of the 1900s. The Mine was Bethlehem 101. It

            was owned by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

            It was a very nice town with an elementary school and two churches;one Catholic

            and one Methodist. We rode a school bus to high school, which was about eight

            miles away. Very close knit community.

                    Scotty, front row centre, representing Bethlehem Steel in a first aid & mine rescue team

                                                            Image - Cumnock Connections

Lana (Ellen) Zilinskis  was born in 1910 at 54 York Street Lane, Ayr and married John Drain Brown in 1933 in Cumnock. However, they divorced in 1939. Ellen then married Hugh Loy in 1841 in Cumnock and she died in 1978.

George Zilinskis was born in 1913 at 13 Glengyron Row. On 22 March 1950 he sailed out of Southampton on the Queen Elizabeth  arriving in New York on 28 March 1950. Aged 36 years and single, he was en route to Century, West Virginia where his brother and sister lived. George was naturalised in 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio and died there in 1973.

William Zilinskis was born in 1918 at Waterside Place, Cumnock. He changed his name to William Rogers legally in 1939 at Cumnock. At the time he was a miner living at 55 Keir Hardie Hill, Cumnock. Sometime afterwards he went to Rhodesia to work as a miner. 8 July 1947 finds William, aged 29 years, arriving in Southampton on the Carnarvon Castle having departed from Capetown, South Africa, his country of last permanent residence being West Rhodesia and his proposed address being 55 Keir Hardie Hill where his mother was still living. William's mother died in 1949.

                                               William Zilinskis Rogers - Image mandyerogers

Five years later, in 1954, William was living in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and had acquired a wife, Tryphena Edith Rogers. He was a miner. Possibly he was a goldminer. It was at Kilgoorlie that Australia's famous Gold Rush took place in 1893 and goldmining remains a major industry. However, by 1968 he had changed his occupation and become a linesman. William died in 1977 at Geraldton, Western Australia and is buried at Utakarra in Greater Geraldton City.

From Cumnock to Pennsylvania and Ohio

by Joanne Ferguson

link to William Howat on Cumnock Connections tree

William Howat was born in Cumnock in 1841, the son of William Howat and Jane Hamilton.  William married Margaret Brown in Scotland in 1862.  He studied surveying at Edinburgh University.  Margaret and William had two daughters, Elizabeth and Jane, in Scotland.  In 1864 after going to America and returning to Scotland, he emigrated to America in 1867 with his wife and daughters, Elizabeth and Jane.  He settled near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his family where three more children were born: Bella, William and John Brown.  

William Howatt, Sr. studied civil and mechanical engineering and took a position with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Baltimore, Maryland.  His skills in Baltimore were highly esteemed.  Here is a newspaper clipping from his 50thWedding Anniversary celebration that details his work in Baltimore.

Sadly, Jane died at the age of 11 and Bella died at age three in Driftwood, Pennsylvania.  Both are buried in the Driftwood Cemetery.  William Howat, Jr. was fatally injured in a railroad accident at the age of 31.

William became the superintendent of the department of public works in 1882.   He went to Baltimore in 1890 to help Baltimore with a tunnel, then returned in 1896 to Braddock County.  He worked in Braddock until 1909.  Margaret Brown died on July 13, 1915 and William Howat died March 16, 1916.  

William, Sr. and Margaret’s Children

Both Margaret and William had moved to Ohio to live with their daughter, Elizabeth Howatt Carr.  

Elizabeth’s husband, Thomas, had died in 1913.  Thomas was a brick layer.  Elizabeth and Thomas had four children:  Margaret, Robert, Elizabeth, and Ida.  

Their second child, William, married Caroline Geyer in 1892 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  William worked for the railroad as a machinist near their home in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.  William died in an accident at the railroad yard.

William and Caroline had three children:  William, Margaret, and John Brown Howat.

John Brown Howat married Ida Boyle in August 1897.  John was the owner of a hardware specialties store making nuts and bolts in Sharon, Pennsylvania. 

                                                                                    1908

John and Ida had no children.  At his death in 1954, John’s occupation was listed as a construction engineer on his death certificate.  Ida died a few years later in 1957.

William and Margaret’s Grandchildren-

Elizabeth Howat and Thomas Carr’s Children

Margaret Carr married George Maxwell on October 29, 1912.  Margaret worked as a bookkeeper at a bank and moved back to live with her mother after George’s death in November of 1914.  Margaret and George had no children.

Robert William Carr was a salesman in a hardware store.  He married Janet Flynn in 1923.  By the 1930 census Robert was the owner of the hardware store.  By the 1950 census, Robert was the vice president of a hardware manufacturing plant.  Robert died on July 22, 1955.  Janet and Robert had no children.

Elizabeth Thomasina Carr married James Foster and they had two children:  James, Jr. and Margaret.  James was the owner of a garage in New Castle City, Pennsylvania, and later became a real estate and insurance salesman.  James and Elizabeth had two children:  James B. Foster and Margaret J. Foster.  James died in 1965 and Elizabeth died in 1981 in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Ida Jane Carr married Henry Noville Boucherle in 1922.  Henry was a plumbing engineer in Youngstown, Ohio.  Ida was a bookkeeper at a bank.  They had two sons:  Thomas and Robert.  Henry died in 1939 and Ida died in 1969.

William, Jr. and Caroline Geyer Howat's Children

Margaret Howat married William Cloyd Gibson in November 1912.  William Gibson worked as a clerk for the post office in Braddock.

Caroline Geyer lived with Margaret until her death in 1945. Margaret died in March of 1950.  William Gibson died in September of 1952.  

Margaret and William Cloyd Gibson had no children.

John Brown Howat married Jennie Elizabeth Miller in 1922.  John was a postal clerk in Braddock, Pennsylvania.  They had one son, Jack.

Jennie Elizabeth died in Braddock in 1957. John died in November of 1978 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

William Howat married Hannah G. Flaherty in Petersburg, Virginia on February 21, 1918.  William worked as a plumber.  Hannah died in 1957.  They had three children: an infant who died in 1921, Jean E. Howat, and William Cloyd Howat.

William and Margaret Brown Howatt's Great Grandchildren

Ida Carr and Henry N. Boucherle’s Children

Thomas Carr Boucherle married Zetta Jane Murray in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1948.  Thomas was a heating engineer at a retail heating and plumbing company in Youngstown, Ohio.

Robert Boucherle was an architectural draftsman in Youngstown, Ohio.

James B. Foster and Elizabeth Carr’s Children

James B. Foster, Jr.  married Yvette Lapeyre Mitchell in 1942 in Lawrence, Pennsylvania.  James was a real estate broker in New Castle, Pennsylvania.  James and Yevette had three children:  James Byers Foster III, Susan L. Foster, Sherry Anne Foster, and William Mitchell Foster.

James died in January 1995 and Yevette died in 2018 in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Margaret Foster became a nurse and emigrated to Brazil for a period of time.  On her return, she worked as a nurse for the Gulf Oil Corporation in Pittsburgh and was a hostess for Capital Airlines.  She married William J. Schelien  who worked as a supervisor for Jones and Laughlin Steel for 41 years.  He passed away in April of 2004.  Margaret died in 2016 in Pennsylvania.  William and Margaret had one child, Elizabeth. 

John Brown and Jennie E. Miller Howat’s Children

Jack William Howat married Julia Green in Pittsburgh in 1944.  Jack worked in the banking industry in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.  They had three children. 

William and Hannah G. Flaherty Howat’s Children

William Cloyd Howat lived in Braddock, Pennsylvania and worked as a lockman for the water locks.  He was not married.

Jean E. Howat married John Anderson on October 28, 1943 in Braddock, Pennsylvania.  John was the son of George and Mary Boyle Anderson from Auchinleck, Scotland.  George and Mary emigrated from Scotland in 1925 to Braddock, Pennsylvania.  John was a weight master at the steel works in Braddock.  Jean and John Anderson had one son John Cloyd Anderson.

links to https://langscotsmilecumnock.blogspot.com/2024/04/George%20Anderson%20and%20Mary%20McMichael%20Boyle.html