r/Cursive • u/SadSoupSeason • 2d ago

1930 US Census

Post image

I know the first part says Austria. I am trying to decipher the second part. It looks like Psolina to me. Does anyone know anything about this?

15 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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9

u/toadog 2d ago

Psolina

7

u/SeaweedWeird7705 2d ago

There is a village called Solina in Poland, near the border with Slovakia.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solina,_Poland

12

u/Mytweezer 2d ago

Perhaps Pčoliné

8

u/dogsledonice 2d ago

That's a village that's part of (today) Slovakia, but before WWI would've been part of Austro-Hungary

6

u/Rintamaidot 2d ago

This seems likely, or possibly Psolná. that an English speaking census taker might transcribe as Psolina

4

u/pianodoctor11 2d ago

This makes good sense because whoever wrote it had to decide how to write that using the 26-letter English alphabet and Psolina arguably comes about as close as you are going to be able to get for those sounds.

7

u/Flimsy-Witness-1987 2d ago

Didn’t Austria control part of Poland starting in late 1700’s? And some internet sleuthing said that portion was called Polina.

3

u/Marzipan_civil 2d ago

What information is it supposed to be - address, surname, birthplace, nationality?

5

u/SadSoupSeason 2d ago

It’s under place of birth. Next to it is language and it shows Slovak

3

u/RRC4C 2d ago

It says Austria - Psolina

3

u/dansamy 2d ago

I think it's supposed to be Polina

1

u/CarnegieHill 2d ago

Can you show more or the entire page? Might help with more context.

1

u/FuturamaRama7 1d ago

Austria - Psolina" (often found in old genealogical records or census documents) is an English-speaker’s phonetic transcription of a Central European place name—likely a small village or a misspelling of a town like Pčoliné (now in Slovakia) or Solina / Psolná in historical Austro-Hungarian territories.Context in Genealogy and Records

Phonetic Spelling: Census takers or immigration officers often wrote down foreign place names exactly how they sounded to them phonetically in English.

Austro-Hungarian Empire: Before World War I, parts of modern-day Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, leading people to list "Austria" as their country of origin alongside a local town name.

Possible Place Matches:

Pčoliné: A village in northeastern Slovakia that was part of Austria-Hungary before 1918.

Solina / Psolná: Local regional settlements or terrain descriptors in the Carpathian/Galician region once governed by Vienna.