This letter was received from Charles Suhor, a family historian who’s work this site is indebted to...

October 6, 1969
        
Dear Fellow Suhors,

Most of you haven’t seen the enclosed chart, I think. It traces the lineage of Antun Suhor, founder of our family line in New Orleans, back to the 1500’s. Of course, Antun was the father of Jeff, John, Anthony (my father), Lae, and Frances (Fanf) Suhor. Antun was a riverboat captain who died at age 42 in 1904.

I got this chart tracing our ancestry in Yugoslavia through a Suhor family that lives in Australia! I discovered the Australian Suhors through one of those mail order companies (Halbert, Inc.) that searches computerized phone directories for people with your surname. The only Suhors I didn’t recognize on their list were two names/addresses in Australia. I took a long shot and wrote to them.

I was astonished to hear from Mark Suhor (Sydney, Australia) that his family came from the little Yugoslavian village of Nakovana. He enclosed the chart that showed Antun and his sister Ana, who we know married Stephen Cerezin. (The Cerezins’ son and grandson now live in Cleveland.) We’ve long known that Antun came from somewhere in Yugoslavia, but we weren’t sure of exactly where. (He ran away and went to sea as a teenager - quite an adventurer, in case you haven’t heard.)

Mary Lou Suhor, my oldest sister, went to Yugoslavia this summer, mainly on a sightseeing tour, and happened to meet one Vlaho Suhor in Dubrovnik. She learned more about how to get to Nakovana, and she and I might make a trip in ‘90 or ‘91 to see the place where Antun walked, and where all of our Suhor ancestors came from.

I’m sending a copy of this letter to everyone on the attached list. My own children - all 11 of them - already have the info and chart, and of course so do my parents and siblings. If you’d like, please send copies to others in our family. The Halbert addresses are probably dated and surely are incomplete. And it’s the nature of surname lists to exclude married females in the family, so please pass the materials on.

It’s been many years since I’ve seen most of you - I left New Orleans in 1977, and really miss it - and I haven’t even met some of the fourth generation Suhors (that is, Antun’s great-grandchildren). But family matters always matter to me, so I wanted to share this bit of "roots" information with you. Do drop a line sometime. After all, we’re all related directly through Antun.

Best,

Charles Suhor

Click here to read Charles’ 2nd letter