From Porac to Pensylvania: Reflections of Maria Durica Sirila Dursa

This is a memoir of my grandmother, Maria Durica Sirila Dursa, from her life as a widow in 1908 due to the death of her husband, Michael Sirila, of black lung, leaving 7 dependent children in Lemont Furnace, a coal mining town in Fayette County, western Pennsylvania; a return to her ancestral village of Porac, Slovakia with 5 of the 7 dependent children; then a return to Pennsylvania; then a remarriage to Michael Dursa and the birth of two more children; then last a move to Youngstown, Ohio. The memoir is told through her letters to her sisters in the U.S.: Anna and Helena, and to her sister who remained in Slovakia: Katka. Four letters are original; the rest are based on documents and stories told by members of the family. This is the story of a woman who had lasting strength, perseverance, and hard work. An account of her death on July 3, 1955 is followed by the End Notes, factual information about the substances of the letters. Following the End Notes is the Appendix containing maps and charts of places and people in the narrative, with brief summaries of the Slovak village of Porac and the Greek Catholic Church.