This 2nd letter was received from Charles Suhor...

 January 21, 2000

         Hi. Kids and Other Family--

         Some good family news here. First, photocopies of the note and pies that I got from our Australian cousins. You’ll recall that they met up with Mary Lou and me in Croatia in 1990 after Mark sent me the genealogy chart with Anthony (Antun, in Croatian), Mark’s family, and our in-common ancestors dating back to the 1500s. Then, we went to visit them and their parents in Australia in 1993. Mark and Ida have since married and have 2 lovely kids. If they ever get to the US, you’ll enjoy meeting them I’m sure.
        
         The big news now--while in N.O. last week I successfully hunted down Antun’s obit in the New Orleans Times-Picayune of November 1905. The November 15 obit, the day after his death, was short:
        
         SUHOR--On Tuesday, November 14, 1905, Captain Anthony Suhor, Sr., beloved husband of Jean Hondareyte, aged 42 years, 10 months, and 16 days, a native of Dalmatia, Austria, and a resident of this city for 22 years.
        
         Some explanation. Ben notes that Croatia, Yugoslavia, was at that time a part of the Austrian Empire; so as we know, Antun was by birth and culture a Croatian from Nakovanj, near Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. The info about 22 years in New Orleans would mean he arrived there around 1883, when he was 20 or 21 years old. But we had always heard he arrived as a teenager, perhaps after jumping ship. So either our info was wrong or he came to the US earlier and lived elsewhere before settling in New Orleans. Aunt ML says that the latter could be true, since he supposedly crossed the Pacific at one time and navigated the Mississippi before becoming a highly specialized Bar Pilot, taking boats safely from the Gulf through the treacherous sand bars in the Passes leading up to the mouth of the Mississippi River.
        
         The next day, November 16, the “Guide to the News” briefs on p. 3 setup a full-length news story headlined “A Dramatic Death.” (copy enclosed). I don’t know where they got the name “Antonio” in the guide. Again, we know from the genealogy chart that his name in Croatian was Antun, Americanized to Anthony sometime early on when he arrived in the US.
        
         Captain Antonio Suhor, the bar pilot, died while bringing the ship Sabine into the Passes.
        
         The “Dramatic Death” news story was a revelation. Apparently Antun had enough status to warrant this kind of attention, and/or the dramatic nature of his passing was seen as very newsworthy. In any case, this clears up the things we were wondering about when we saw the minutes of the Bar Pilots’ Association and were wondering if his death was somehow connected with the wrecking of another ship, called the Ayala. No such thing. The Sabine was the craft he was to take in when he died, and the circumstances are clearly described. His “ill-health” as noted in the story is consistent with family lore that he had the flu and was considering getting someone else to do the Sabine run.
        
         Well, I’ll let the rest speak for itself. Deborah sends her love.

Charles