Solosky/Saleikas Memoir

By Millie Solosky Fratcher

Eva Marie Bagdes Solosky Family

Arthur Martin George of Pittsburgh married

Miss Antoinette Stone at Assention Church, Pittsburgh

on January 17, 1939.

Signed by J. Misius, pastor

Witnesses were Veronica Ingold and Joseph McQuaid

I believe Joe was a good friend of my father's.

Tidbits:

Stuff like Vernie Solosky tried to kill her stepmother, Petronele, and

Nettie knew Art was cheating on her before she died of cancer at age

50, and Nettie and Vernie's father, Casimer Solosky was a bootlegger -

that's why he had the gun that Vernie shot at her step mother.

Letter from Millie Solosky Fratcher, January 7, 2006

Family History - Fratcher/Solosky

My father, Casimer Saleika Solosky was born March 4, 1865. He died June 6, 1931. He was 66 years old. He was christened Casimer because he was born on St. Casimer’s Day - March 4th.

You mentioned that Marian was born in 1890.

I was told that she was born in 1875. I remember my brother Anthony telling me one time that his biological mother - Marian - was 43 years old when she died in November, 1918 -- The year of the great Flu Epidemic. She had consumption - also known as TB in those days.

Anthony liked to be called “Tony.” He used to say - it was too bad that he was conceived while his mother was in ill health, because he started having health problems. Tony died February 19, 1964. He was only 45 years old and had pancreatic cancer.

Your next question was - if I had the birth date and death date of Adam Bagdes. That, I don’t know and also I don’t know whether he was married twice. I do know they had no children.

After Marian died in November, 1918, my father let Uncle Adam Bagdes and his wife take Anthony and raise him. My father had no one to take care of Anthony. He was only five months old. However, my father was paying Uncle Adam for raising him.

Then one day my father (Casimer) received a letter from Uncle Adam and his wife saying that he was retiring and returning to Lithuania and they were taking Anthony with them. That’s when my father stepped in. He wrote to them and said, You can’t do that - he’s my son,” and you better bring him back to me or I’ll take you to court. So Adam and his wife arrived one Sunday in January, 1931 with Tony and his clothes to our house. Tony was now with his biological father, my mother - who was now his step mother and us kids. However, my mother never told any of the neighbors that Tony wasn’t her true son. She treated him like he was her own. Tony realized that when he got older how nice it was growing up in a loving and caring family.

After Adam and his wife left for Lithuania, we never heard from them again.

Also, I don’t know the names of Marian (Eva Marie Bagdus Solosky) parents’ and I don’t have any official documents from Casimer and Marian.

My sister, Vern (deceased now) knew a lot. Vern was born in 1909. At one time Ann Bagdes Gretz wrote to me and asked some questions about what town in Lithuania her folks came from. So, I in turn wrote to Vern and asked all the questions Ann asked me. Vern wrote down the answers and sent them to me, and I mailed them to Ann. Now I wish I had made a copy and kept one for myself. I don’t know if Ann shared any of this information with her sisters Teresa Loneske and Agnes Crile.

I do remember one of the questions Ann asked in her letter and it was - Ask Vern if she ever heard of Andrew Bagdes. And the answer was “Yes, there was an Andrew Badges.”

At one time, my father Casimer, his wife Marian and my sister Vern went to Lithuania for a vacation.

My father took a Singer sewing machine to Lithuania because his family needed one. Can you imagine taking that on a ship? I don’t know how he did it.

After my father and my mother were married in November, 1923, in St. Mary’s in Philadelphia, PA, she decided she wanted a sewing machine. So, my father bought her a White Sewing Machine. She was always sewing something.