#prujan

[sonofswift]

Resolution: George Eugene Prujan

Following up on research done in February, here and here, there is finally resolution in the research into "The Captain" George Prujan.

The point of the research was to track down family members of The Captain to resolve a copyright issue with the book "Escape from Destiny," a biographical sketch by Philip J. Sipkov.

By posting these two posts and statements on Facebook, Twitter, and various social media, we were hoping for any response and finally got one.

The contact came September 21st from Kimberley Ball, George's granddaughter through his son, William Lakin (nee Eugene Prujan). Her father was George's only child, born of his first marriage, to Nadia. Nadia died in 1992 while Bill died in 1999.

With this information double checked, Kim gladly gave aois21 permission to reproduce photos from the print version of Escape from Destiny to a new eBook edition.

After sharing digital scans of the pictures with her, she was able to see the family resemblance through her dad and even with her own children. She'll get to learn even more once the book becomes available.

By doing a couple days of genealogy research, I was able to find some information for another person that will help her get to know her roots. Now that we have connected, this book can be released for a new generation of readers. If you're interested, preorders launch soon and the book will be available for download on Veteran's Day for $0.99. Just visit the aois21 market to find out more.

[sonofswift]

ReDaily Ancestor: Captain George Eugene Prujan

Part 2 of my research into "The Captain" to aid in the rerelease of the book Escape From Destiny by Philip J. Sipkov.

What I Found: Today is an online search day, done from home during this snowstorm. An initial Google search for "George Eugene Prujan" 1897-1986 only brought up links to this blog. I then adapted the search to "George Prujan" 1897-1986 and had some more options:

Here is a link to his record on the Social Security Death Index on DeathData.org

This memorial on Sysoon also uses information from the Social Security Death Index.

Here's the Ancestry.com page on the Prujan surname. There is no record on surnamedb.com

There is no information about the Prujan family on Wikitree. I may have to add some info in order to aid my search.

Success! I have found his obituary in the Historical Archives of the Washington Post. There was also an article about him called "Russian Horse, Russian Rider" by Michael Kernan ran on 5 Sept 1976 in the Metro section. I had to purchase both of these articles and only have access to them for 90 days.

I can't reproduce the Obituary due to permissions, but it identifies his date of death as 27 Apr 1986, with him dying of heart ailments caused by a stroke. It confirms some of the other data I had. It gives me a solid timeline in the U.S., arriving in 1923, settling in Quincy, Illinois, then in Cleveland, and moving to DC in 1960. It identifies his survivors as wife Tatiana, stepdaughters Nina Balint of Carmel Village, CA, and Helen Logvinov of Hendersonville, TN.; six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

The Post does not have an obituary for Tatiana. Here's an article about a Russian Easter Feast featuring her.

This page identifies Tatiana's date of death as 29 June 1996. It is confirmed on this page on Ancient Faces, which identifies her last residence as Bonners Ferry, Idaho, thanks to the Social Security Death Index.

This blog post references her as working at a Russian Orthodox Church in DC.

Tatiana's death information from the Social Security Death Index is repeated on DeathData.org.

Tatiana's daughter Nina (Balint in George's obituary) died on 29 May 2006 in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Here is a memorial to her on virtual-memorials.com.

Tatiana's other daughter Helen was involved in a car accident in 1960 in Florida. 

From what I can find online, Helen, and her husband, Vadim, are both still living in Nashville, TN.

This has been a good breakthrough day. Unfortunately the obituary had no information about his earlier marriages or any children from those marriages. A next step is to stop by Montgomery County records to find his Last Will and Testament. If you have any information about his family or are a member of his family, please contact [email protected], the new e-mail address for aois21 publishing, LLC.