THE SEARCH FOR PAULÍNA’S GRAVE - PART 1

In the spring of 1998 Matt and I went to Hodonín in an attempt to find Paulína’s grave. We hired Gabriela Pilniková, a university student in Bratislava, as our translator. The year before we had met some medical scientists from Slovakia who were doing research through an exchange program at the University of Iowa. They provided us with Gabriela’s contact information so she could accompany us to translate records. 

We first started at the Town Hall in Drahovce. They had records of Paulína's birth and her marriage to Štefan, Sr., but there was no information about her death or the location of her grave. So we set out to Hodonín in our rental car.

Our first stop in Hodonín was City Hall. We went to the records department and through Gabriela I told them that I was looking for my grandmother’s grave. I said her name was Paulína Miklová and that she had worked at the Bishop’s Farm. The city clerk listened closely to what we were asking and then responded that she had no such records at City Hall, but that we should check at the Bishop’s Farm, which was directly across the street. Whenever Steve mentioned the Bishop’s Farm, I imagined farm fields in the countryside like the painting pictured here. So I was surprised when we walked outside of City Hall and went across the city street to find the Bishop’s Farm – a tall stucco wall that held the Bishop’s Palace behind it. This must have been the administrative office for the Bishop. I assume the farmland was somewhere near the city. (More about the search for Paulína’s grave in the next post.)

Here is a picture of the City Hall in Hodonín where I was directed to the Bishop’s Farm, which is across the street on the left side of the photo.