János Polyák was born on January 30, 1900, in Prikopa, Austria-Hungary. Nowadays, this village is called Priekopa and is in eastern Slovakia. János was baptized a few days later on February 4. He was the third child of his parents György Polyák and Borbála Ilyko, but his two older siblings had died in infancy. Shortly after János's birth, his father departed Europe for the United States, perhaps considering migrating his family across the Atlantic, but he ultimately returned and remained in Prikopa.
In the aftermath of World War I, Austria-Hungary was dissolved and the territory was handed over to the new nation of Czechoslovakia.
János married his first wife, Susanna Szincsák (Sinchak), on February 12, 1920, in Tibava, Czechoslovakia (a neighboring village of Priekopa). Their only child, Nicholas, was born in Priekopa on December 19, 1920.
János immigrated to the United States in 1922, heading to Monessen, Pennsylvania, to join his brother in-law, Michael Sinchak. He departed alone from Hamburg on October 26, 1922, aboard the S.S. Württemberg, and arrived at Ellis Island on November 9. According to his passenger manifest, he arrived with $25 in his possession and he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall with dark-blonde hair and blue eyes. In the U.S., he began using the name John Polack.
On December 26, 1923, while John was likely still in Pennsylvania, his wife Susanna passed away in Tibava. Family hearsay says that Susanna's death was partially caused by her returning to work in the fields too soon after the birth of Nicholas. Nicholas went to live with his grandmother, Anna Hvisgyák.
By 1927, John was living in Jersey City, New Jersey. On August 28, 1927, John married his second wife, Mary Lokaj, in Manhattan, New York. She was the daughter of János (John) Lokaj and Anna Fatula and was born in Ungordas, Hungary (now Vovkove, Ukraine), on April 16, 1906. She had come to the U.S. through Ellis Island on the S.S. Albert Ballin, which departed from Hamburg on April 10, 1925. Her father, John, lived in Pennsylvania but later moved to New York.
After their marriage, John and Mary relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, where John found work in a steel mill and likely made around 30 to 50 cents an hour, or 23 to 30 dollars per week. He rented an apartment at 4447 Douse Avenue for $18 per month. In Cleveland, their first child, John Jr., was born on July 10, 1929.
By 1932, the Polack family moved to Jersey City. John became employed by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. He and his wife had two more children:
Irene - 1932
George Robert - January 28, 1934
In 1936, John's son Nicholas immigrated to the United States. He was 15 years old and departed from Hamburg on February 11, 1936, on the S.S. Manhattan. The ship arrived at Ellis Island on February 19. (Notice that travel time by ship across the Atlantic had decreased from 14 days in 1922 to just 8 days in 1936.) Nicholas was 5 feet tall and had black hair and blue eyes. He joined the family and lived with them at 359 Woodward St., Jersey City. Their apartment was rented for $17 per month from owner John Szybunka, a native of Poland.
John worked for 40 weeks as a railroad worker in 1939 and made $720. In 2025, this is the equivalent of about $16,500 and equates to making around $21,450 per 52-week year. His wife Mary also worked as an aide in an office building and made $936 over 52 weeks in 1939 (about $21,800 in 2025).
During the mid-1940s, John became an assembly line worker at the General Motors factory in Linden, New Jersey, likely due to the new economic and labor opportunities that emerged after World War II. His wife no longer had to work in order to support their family. In 1948, his son John Polack Jr. enlisted in the Air Force. John Jr. was stationed in Guam in 1950, by which time the rest of the family was living at 434 Pacific Ave., Jersey City.