Frajkor

Frajkor is a name originating from Eastern Slovakia, primarily Zemplin and Saris counties, and probably from the Vranov nad Toplou district. Some Frajkors in the United States and Canada sometimes have anglicized the name to Fraykor or Fraikor. Frajkor family members are known to live today, or have lived in the past, in Vranov, Secovce, Vechec, Juskova Vola, and Strazske. At one time, there was a Frajkor family in Trebisov. The name derives, apparently, from an ancestor who fought with mercenary troops in Serbia against the Turks in the early 19th century. Such mercenary battalions were largely recruited in the Austrian/Hungarian dominions and were known in German as "Frei-Batalions" or "Frei Korps" (free battalions -- free corps) because they were not regular national soldiers. A book on military uniforms of Serbia circa 1813 shows a soldier dressed in a typical uniform of the time of what is described in German as a soldier of the "Serbische Frei-Batalion" and in Slavic Latin script as "Srpski Frajkor". The name is unusual even in Slovakia. Almost all the Frajkor/Fraikor/Fraykor families of America are related, usually through the family at Juskova Vola, from which emigration was heavy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.