The words here would have been impossible to write were it not for the work of others, starting with my dad, Bill Durbin, and his brother, Bob Durbin. They spent years collecting and documenting precious family history, as did Robert Ross Durbin, a fourth cousin twice removed.
My mother, Lorraine Durbin, and her sister, Jackie Mahoney, have never tired of answering my questions about Mom’s side of the family. Last but not least, my cousin Ann Mahoney’s rich compilations of the Kalish, Krokvica, and Malec family histories were as priceless to me as they will be for generations to come.
I am deeply grateful to all of these genealogical collaborators, and to those who took the time to speak or correspond with me directly. Each is listed below.
Interviews and Correspondence
- Durbin, Ann
- Durbin, Dan
- Durbin, Dick
- Durbin, Ed
- Durbin, Ken
- Durbin, Leslie James (Jim)
- Durbin, Lorraine
- Durbin, Marty
- Durbin, Robert E
- Durbin, William P Jr
- Graybill, Barb
- Kalish, Bernice
- Kalish, James L
- Kalish, Lou
- Kurowsky, John
- Mahoney, Ann
- Mahoney, Jacqueline (Jackie)
- Petterson, Catherine
- Volkmann, Beth
Books, Publications, Papers, and Letters
- Crankshaw, Edward : The Fall of the House of Habsburg (Viking Press, 1963)
- Durbin, Robert E : Durbins of East St. Louis & Related Families (2003)
- Durbin, Robert E : 29th Street (2000)
- Durbin, Robert Ross : A Durbin Heritage (2000)
- Durbin, William P Jr : Letters home during US Navy tour of duty (1948-1952)
- Durbin, William P Jr : Random Notes on the Kalish Background (1996)
- Durbin, William P Jr : The Durbin Family (A Narrative) (1997)
- Durbin, William P Jr : World War II: Billy Durbin’s Recollections (2000)
- Kalish, James L : Handwritten note with parent and grandparent birth dates and places (c1990)
- Kalish, Louis F : The Life of Louis M and Victoria Kalish (2001)
- Mahoney, Ann : Where we started, the stops along the way, and where we’re headed : For the descendants of Stefan and Kata Kalis (2012)
- Mahoney, Jacqueline : Letter to nephew Michael Durbin (1976)
- Mahoney, Ann : Krokvica Family History in America (2013)
- Mahoney, Ann : The Malec Family: You bet your dupa we’re Polish (2014)
- Prebezac, Earl: Interview of Frank Kavalier (1996)
- Time-Life Books : What life was like at empire’s end: Austro-Hungarian Empire, AD 1848-1918. (2000)
- Walko, Ed : Memoir (2001)
More
- Death records for Durbin, Kalish, Krokvica, Malec, and Walko family members
- East St. Louis City Directories, 1924 and 1926
- Genealogical notes, artifacts, correspondence, and family memorabilia from William P Durbin Jr, Lorraine Durbin, and Robert Emmet Durbin
- Immigration records for Stefan and Kata Kalis, Leonard Krokvica, Josephine Krokvica, Anna Krokvica, Maria Krokvica, Marie Krokvica
- Marriage records for Kalish, Krokvica, and Malec family members
- Personal observations and recollections of this writer
- US Census rolls for 1910 and 1930
- US Social Security Applications and Claims Index
- US Army draft registration records for Adam Malec, Mike Kalish, Robert Kutkin
- Wikipedia: Franz Joseph, Slavs, Yugoslavia
- Wikitree (https://www.wikitree.com)
Unlike commercial Internet ancestry services, Wikitree has two great things going for it. One, it is entirely free to use. Two, it aims to complete a single, unified family tree with countless contributors and editors, checking each other’s work. To date it has millions of entries and is growing all the time. It is a priceless, forward-looking resource for the historian in any family.
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Michael Durbin 