My mother, Frances Lekich is your father's first cousin on the Ghersan side. Her mother, Mary Zorovich (nee Ghersan) and your grandmother, Katherine (nee Ghersan) were sisters. I guess that makes us second cousins, if you're my mother's first cousin once removed.
My grandmother, Mary, and your grandmother (I called her Aunt Kate) were the children of Domenick and Mary Ghersan (her maiden name was Grubesich). They had two other sisters, Minnie and Anna, and three brothers Domenick, John and Thomas. I will be glad to share with you whatever knowledge I have of these relatives and their children if you wish, but you may know this already.
As a youngster, I remember that there was a frequent interchange of activity between the Matcovich's and our family as they lived in Long Island City and we in Astoria, a few stones throw away. I don't remember much of your grandfather (Uncle Phil) as he died before I was a teenager, nor do I know anything about his family tree. By the way, I was known to them as Bobby.
I recall that in the fifties, your Uncle Tom was a frequent visitor to our house and we spent many a Sunday afternoon bowling, playing cards or watching football, many times at your grandmother's apartment in Woodside. On my way home from school, I would occasionally stop by just to chat with her and see how she was doing. She was a lot of fun.
But towards the end of the fifties and early sixties, we literally went in different directions. I only saw Tommy twice after that. Once at your Uncle John and Eugenia's wedding in 1959 (I was an usher at that event) and at Aunt Kate's wake in the seventies. I last saw your father at that funeral or at my mother's sister's funeral. They were both around the same time.
Robert Louis Lekich, 2001
