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Hungarian relatives find 'family' in America
A story in Saturday's Observer-Reporter about a Hungarian family searching Washington for the grave of a long-lost relative resulted in a reunion with those who actually knew the man.
Jonás Bodi Sándor emigrated from Hungary in 1907, finding work as a miner in Chartiers Township. He left a wife and two sons behind and Americanized his name as John B. Sandor.
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Once news of the Sándor family's successful quest was published, those who knew John B. Sandor began a search of their own, tracking down the visiting Hungarians and inviting them to a coincidentally planned party at the home of Toni Craig in South Strabane Township.
"All my friends stood and clapped when they came in," said Craig, an employee of the Observer-Reporter. "It was just such a heart-wrenching story and a beautiful Saturday. These people are not blood relatives at all, but they're like our family.
"I knew him all my life. He was like a grandfather to me," Craig said of Sandor. "My uncles built him a home next to my grandmother's house."
Sandor's nickname was "Goffy," derived from his godson Stephen's inability to pronounce the word "godfather," Craig said.
Sandor made his home with the Vorum family. "My mother was a Vorum," Craig explained.
After the death of Karoly Vorum in 1934, Mary Vorum took in boarders and she was listed on Sandor's draft registration card as his emergency contact.
The Sandors also visited Meadow Lands and saw the home on Panorama Drive in South Strabane Township that the Vorums built for him and saw what is left of his car, a Hupmobile.
"One of my brothers gave his grandchildren his cuff links" and another of Sandor's possessions, a box containing lead type used by printers, Craig said.
Craig, who cares for Vorum and Sandor graves at Immaculate Conception Cemetery, showed the Sandor family pictures, which she plans to duplicate, of their ancestor.
"We met the Vorum family," reported Barnabas Sandor, 18, in an e-mail message this week. He described them as a picture of kindness.
"We (ex)changed address and phone number, so it was an unbelievable meeting," he wrote. His parents, Gabor and Maria, sister Liza and grandfather Gyula Sándor were returning to Hungary by way of New York City, and Craig said they invited her to visit them in Budapest.
"When they stood and looked at the hills from Panorama Drive, they said it looked like the hills in Hungary," she said. "They all became family members of ours. We were his family. That's all there was to it."
