My father's family came from Slovakia. My grandfather grew up in Drahovce, about an hour's travel from Bratislava, the capital. He emigrated to the United States for better opportunities when he was 19, before World War I. He left behind his parents and two sisters, the younger of which was the mother of Cyril Kudela, the gentleman you see here.
My grandfather's departure essentially split the Petráš family in two. He wrote his family but never returned to Slovakia. We knew we had relatives in Slovakia but no one quite knew how many or where. My father's sister was the only one who maintained a line of communication with the family in Slovakia. I was able to contact them in 2004 and we were able to visit them in 2006. I saw my great-grandfather's grave during that visit.
Cyril is a few years younger than my father. I don't know for sure when this picture was taken, but I suspect in the late 1960s. That looks like Cyril's daughter Iva behind him. I can't determine the make of the motorcycle, but it's probably a 350cc Jawa, a bike made in Czechoslovakia.
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