Americans Mary Bucar Begg

 Initially Mary went to live with her godmother in Braddock Hills, Pennsylvania. This was the beginning of a peripatetic childhood for Mary, and a lonely life for George.

For Mary Bucar the period following her mother’s death provided none of the opportunities for life that Emil Begg (her future husband) was enjoying. Initially her father sent her to live with her godmother in Braddock Hills. While such an arrangement included caring people, Mary, part of an outsider world in America, felt an outsider in the home. She would look back on fondness for those who cared for her, but a frightened child saw a frightening world without her mother, and with so little of her father. 

Editors note: per the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, George and Mary were boarders in a home at 95 Pennsylvania Avenue in Braddock - the family was the Ancolichs.  The building on that spot now was built in 1920. 

Within a few years, Mary was told she was to move in with her aunt’s family (her mother's sister) in Rankin, Mary was saddened by the loss of her life in Braddock Hills with the Ancolichs. The congested living on Fleet Street was in sharp contrast to the rural environment of Braddock Hills. Mary never knew why she had to move, but she was sure it was something she had done. Growing families, and the needs of her godmother’s family likely held precedence.

In 1930, George lost his job, and the financial strain on Mary’s aunt resulted in her asking George to find another situation for Mary. 

A butcher in a local butcher shop provided a solution for George Bucar. Ralph Yurich wanted some help for his wife in keeping house and raising their two children. He offered to have Mary live with his family. This also would provide an opportunity for Mary (now 15) to finish school. 

Ralph was well liked, and the position of butcher provided additional benefits. A butcher’s family, even if he didn’t own the shop, ate well. There were also opportunities to help friends obtain better cuts of meat. Such action created an indebted group of friends who could be called on when help was needed.

It did not bother George that Ralph was a Serbian-American. Old world ethnic differences carried little weight with George. Besides, Ralph’s wife, Mary, was a Croation-American, whose family had been involved from the start with the church in Rankin. So Mary Bucar tried again, this time as an “au pair” for Mary Begg Yurich.