Pelles & Joppa Family Branch

Basilius Pelles, later known as “Wasko” or “Vazil” (common variants of his first name) was born on 23 February 1869 per his obituary published in 27 April 1953 in the Indiana Gazette. His baptism records in Matysova show that he was baptized on 4 Apr 1869 in the Greco-Catholic church (Familysearch.org) to parents Janos (or Joannes) Pelles and Anna Astanasz. Wasko would remain a faithful member of the church, with membership in the St Michaels Greco-Catholic Church of Clymer as chronicled on his obituary.  

Wasko’s father, Joannes, fathered eight children (listed on the 1870 Census) with his first wife who died sometime before he married Anna Astanasz on 27 October 1867.  Wasko’s mother, Anna, was the daughter of Michael Astanasz and Maria Mucha. All were living in Matysova and were Greco-Catholics.

Wasko had one sister listed on his obituary, listed as “Katherine Lukashonsky”.  Because Katherine is not listed on the 1870 census, she is most likely his younger sister (and likely his only full sibling).  One source on Familysearch.org shows her year of birth in 1883.

There are no documented records of Wasko until his arrival in the United States. One of the earliest of those records is his marriage to Anna Yoppa (Joppa/Youpa) on 5 May 1891 and recorded in the Russian Orthodox church records in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

According to the record, Wasko and Anna were both living in Sterlington, NJ at the time. Anna’s parents were given as Michael Joppa and Zusanna Osifchin from [Maly] Lipnik, Slovakia. 

Wasko’s wife, Anna Joppa (Youpa) was born about 5 February 1870 and immigrated to the US in 1891. She married Wasko shortly after arriving in the US, and they moved to Clymer somewhere around 1912, all according to her obituary published on 20 Sep 1946 in the Indiana Gazette.  Anna had at least seven siblings.

The 1910 US Census showed the family living in Utahville in Beccaria, a coal mining township located between Johnstown and Clearfield, Pennsylvania. That year, Peles and Anna lived in a rented home on Township Road with their children Anna, Susanna, John, Joe, and newborn Kathryn. Wasko could read and write in English and was working in the coal industry. The family referred to their ethnicity as “Aust-Polish” and “Aust-Slovenian” as Slovakia was not yet a country.  Absent from the 1910 Census were Wasko and Anna's eldest daughters Helen and Mary likely because they had already been married off.

In 1911, tragically Wasko and Anna’s son Michael was stillborn on 9 Dec 1911. Both Michael and Anna were in their 40s.  But this was not their only tragedy, as baby Veronica was born less than two years later on 16 May 1913. She was born with a diagnosed “Patchless Foramen Ovalle”, apparently a hole in Veronica’s heart, which led to her death just one day later. Their older children were old enough to understand the losses, which must have been devastating to the whole family.

The 1920 US Census showed the family in Rayne Township right next door to his daughter Susanna and her husband Charles Buynak with their newborn daughter Anna. Wasko and Anna’s younger children John, Joe, and Katy were still living with them. Interestingly, they listed themselves as “Russian” rather than “Austrian” while son-in-law Charles listed his as “Slovak”.  This may point to the family’s possible origins with the Rusyns (not Russians), a tribe of Slavs found in the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe.

On 2 March 1922, the Indiana Gazette published a story of 44 alien residents that naturalized as US Citizens two days earlier. One of those was Wasko Peles – a newly official US citizen.

By 1930, the US Census showed Wasko and Anna as empty nesters living next to the Buynaks and son Joseph Peles with his wife Esther in Dixonville, PA. Wasko and Anna were in their 60s and listed their places of birth as Czechoslovakia – the joined nations of Czechia and Slovakia that would last until the 1990s before splitting again. They also show that they spoke ‘Slovak’ in the home.

  The 1940 US Census showed Wasko and Anna living at 50 Dixon Road, in Dixonville, PA. By that time, their children were no longer living next door.  

On 20 September 1946, Anna Joppa died in her home on 6th Street in Clymer, PA, having suffered from an illness for three years. Seven years later, suffering from advanced senility, Wasko died on Sunday, 26 April 1953 in the home of his daughter, Mary, on Adams Street in Clymer, PA. 

Together, Wasko and Anna had nine children Helen, Mary, Anna, Suzanna, John, Joseph, Kathryn, Michael, and Veronica), 47 grandchildren, 59 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren at the time of Wasko’s death in 1953; they have many more descendants today.

Wasko and Anna are buried together at Saint Michael's Orthodox Greek Catholic Cemetery in Clymer, PA.