Heather
While I didn’t get a lead on the letter I posted previously, I did finally make some connections. Here’s the letter:
I assumed the Al was short for Albert, Allan etc. but while doing some research into the previous Firehouse photo and the possible families that it could have been, I found an Aloysius Jenko. On a whim I searched up the name and New York and found his obituary which matches the story told in the letter (Found at https://www.cny.org/stories/father-aloysius-jenko,5029 in May 2025):
Father Aloysius Jenko, who served as a parochial vicar at several parishes in the archdiocese, died Feb. 26 in his native Slovenia where he had been living. He was 95. Father Jenko was assigned to the following parishes: St. Mary Star of the Sea, City Island, the Bronx; St. Patrick’s, Staten Island; Holy Family, Manhattan; and Sacred Heart, Staten Island, where he served from 1977 until his retirement in 1982. He then resided in Manhattan at St. Veronica’s and St. Bernard’s parishes and at the John Paul II Residence for Retired Priests, and at Our Lady of Consolation Residence in the Bronx. He returned to Slovenia in 2004. He was very approachable. People really loved him,” said Father Krizolog Cimerman, pastor of St. Cyril’s parish in Manhattan where Father Jenko had assisted at weekend Masses. Father Jenko was also known for his sense of humor and charitable ways which extended to people in the parishes and neighborhoods where he served and resided, Father Cimerman said. Born in Smlednik in the former Yugoslavia, he was ordained to the priesthood in that country on July 7, 1935. Father Jenko left Yugoslavia at the end of World War II when the communists came to power and went as a refugee to Austria and then on to Rome before coming to the United States, Father Cimerman said. Father Jenko was incardinated into the archdiocese in 1964. A Funeral Mass was offered March 6 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where burial took place.
I’m guessing Aloysius was related to Grandma Majdic, but while the relationship via her maternal Grandmother Gertraud Jenko makes the most sense, the letter implies the relation was through. the wife of a Peter Jenko. Still a mystery for sure and I still don’t know the exact connection but I’m getting closer. Mostly I appreciate this glimpse into the political experiences of the family in the relationships between the US and Austria/Slovenia/Yugoslavia and the news as it traveled from rural Slovenia to rural Wyoming.
There was also this story about his work in New York in 1985 that also gives a little glimpse into the neighborhood and work: https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/06/nyregion/aids-home-planned-in-west-village.html
