In a recent Facebook comment, I replied to someone:
“70 and 20 (as unseemly as it is) is nowhere close to any child being exploited by any adult. But go on 🙄: Julia Fosko was exploited at 18; Rosalia “Rosina” Korsch beginning at 14 at most (Samuel Munka was born in about 1848, and Rosina had Paul in about 1876); and Anna Munka about 12-14 (Michael Nagy Trudnak was about 24-26. 26-to 27-year-old Paul married about-20-year-old Anna Blasicsak, and Michael’s parents would’ve been horrified that their son married a girl instead of a woman. Michael’s own parents, the common-law spouses Maria Nagy and Mihály Trudnyak, were 31 and 28 when their oldest child, Aranka, was born; and Mária married off Aranka to an adult when Aranka was an adult. If Mihály Trudnyak were around in New Jersey in 1900-1902, Michael Trudnak would not have touched Anna Munka until she was at least 20.).
“There were also cases in my family that were borderline (e.g., One of my great-grandfather’s cousins was 19 when she married one of my great-granduncles, whom was 27. What didn’t help is that she gave her age as 21 on the marriage license, even though she wasn’t turning 20 until the February after her wedding. Almost as unhelpful: on her own marriage-license application, my great-grandmother who was the sister of that great-granduncle claimed to be 21 when she was still 20.).
“I’ve heard the excuses. I’ve seen the excuses. I’ve also seen the exceptions, and some of the victimizers’ parents were among the exceptions (Mihály Trudnyak brought his 15-year-old son to Pennsylvania in 1891, and so that the younger Mihály could avoid conscription. Michael Trudnak was in New Jersey near or with Anna Munka’s siblings Paul and Helen by 1900. In 1900, Michael and Anna lived under the name “Poornak”. In 1902, both Paul Munka and Anna Munka married.).
“Either way that you (literally and figuratively) do the math, “Back in the day” is a poor and an unpleasant excuse, especially when quite a few people bucked certain trends (Two more examples: the older Mihály’s parents were married in, respectively, their 40s and 20s. Mária’s parents were born in 1822 and 1821; and while their own parents should’ve waited to marry them off, they at least married a teenager to a teenager. Mária’s oldest sibling was born in 1838.).”
The real-life inspiration for part of the book is as you thought and worse. The 1900 Census discusses an Anna and a Michael “Poornak”; and Michael was born “illegitimate” to Mária Nagy and Mihály Trudnyak. I get that both of my Trudnak great-great-grandparents needed to hide being Jewish, and that the Nagy-Trudnyak themselves cohabitated outside of legally-recognized marriage. In no universe does that justify a 20s-year-old man exploiting a child, especially when he had examples of adults whom married (including common-law married) other adults. Anna Blasicsak, by the way, was born in 1882 (per her gravestone).
