✦ The Petras Family ✦
George & Martha Petras
Newark, New Jersey · Livingston, New Jersey · Brick, New Jersey
Parents of Jacqueline Martha Petras O'Brien
Four generations of women — Kelly O'Brien · Jacqueline Petras O'Brien · Martha Rebecca Castle Petras · Catherine Veronica Olivet Castle
George & Martha · Earlier years
George John Petras Jr.
George John Petras Jr. was born December 15, 1913, in Newark, New Jersey — the son of Slovak immigrant George Gyorgy Petras and his wife Mary Margret Kuklisak. He grew up at 148 South Street in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood, the American-born son of parents who had crossed an ocean to build something new.
George Jr. attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He spent more than twenty years as the owner and operator of G.J. Petras Automotive Tools and Equipment in Livingston, retiring in 1968. After retirement he worked as a deliveryman for Shirt and Slacks Uniform Co. in Hillside Township, and as a school bus driver for Kevin Koner Co. in Caldwell. He was a member of St. Dominic's Roman Catholic Church in Brick, the National Airplane Owners Pilots Association, and the American Association of Retired Persons.
George and Martha lived in Livingston for thirty-five years before moving to Brick, New Jersey, in their later years. He died on January 8, 1992, at Point Pleasant Hospital, at the age of 78.
Parents: George Gyorgy Petras (1890–1965) & Mary Margret Kuklisak (1893–1961)
Married: Martha Rebecca Castle · c. 1936
Occupation: Owner, G.J. Petras Automotive Tools & Equipment, Livingston · 20+ years
Settled: Newark → Livingston (35 years) → Brick, New Jersey
Died: January 8, 1992 · Point Pleasant Hospital, New Jersey · age 78
Buried: Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover, New Jersey
Martha Rebecca "Gigi" Castle
1916 – 2009 · Mother · Homemaker · Past President, Ladies Auxiliary, VFW Post 7122
George & Martha · 50+ years together
Martha Rebecca "Gigi" Castle Petras
Martha Rebecca Castle was born June 1, 1916, in Newark, New Jersey. Known to her family as Gigi, she was the daughter of Catherine Veronica Olivet Castle — the great-grandmother who appears in the four-generation photograph at the top of this page, four women spanning a century of the same family line.
Martha was a homemaker who poured her energy into her community. She served as past president of the Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 7122 in Newark, was a Girl Scout leader, a member of the Mother's Club at Mount St. Dominic's Academy in Caldwell, a member of the Oratory Mother's Club in Summit, and a parishioner of St. Philomena's Roman Catholic Church in Livingston. She attended Seton Hall College.
Martha and George were married for fifty-six years. She predeceased him by seventeen years, outliving her husband of a half-century by nearly two decades — and outliving her son John Michael by five years. She died on October 18, 2009, in Brick, New Jersey, at the age of 93, survived by two sons, a daughter, seven grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren.
Mother: Catherine Veronica Olivet Castle
Married: George John Petras Jr. · c. 1936
Settled: Newark → Livingston → Brick, New Jersey (from 1985)
Died: October 18, 2009 · Ocean Medical Center, Brick · age 93
Buried: Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover, New Jersey
The Petras Family Roots in Slovakia
George John Petras Jr. was the American-born son of a Slovak immigrant. His father, George "Gyorgy" Petras, left the village of Orechová at eighteen years old and sailed to America in 1909, settling in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood, where he married fellow Slovak immigrant Mary Kuklisak and built a family. That story — of a young man crossing an ocean and building something new — is told in full on the George Petras family page.
Read The George "Gyorgy" Petras Story →Family photographs shared by the Petras family
Their Children
Three children of George & Martha Petras
George John Petras III
Born 1936 · Union, New Jersey
Eldest child
John Michael Petras
1944 – 2014 · Newark, NJ
Postal Clerk, USPS Livingston · 25 years
Jacqueline Martha Petras
Born 1947 · Warner Robins, Georgia
Married Lt. Col. Michael Joseph O'Brien, USAF · View her family →
John Michael Petras
April 22, 1944 – July 26, 2014
John Michael Petras was born April 22, 1944, in Newark, New Jersey — the middle child of George and Martha Petras. He grew up in Newark and spent his adult life in Livingston, New Jersey, where he worked as a postal clerk for the United States Postal Service for more than twenty-five years, retiring in 1992. He was a parishioner of St. Philomena's Roman Catholic Church in Livingston, a member of Durand Lodge #179 Free & Accepted Masons, Salaam Temple AAOMNS of Livingston, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon.
In later years he moved from Brick to Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. He died on July 26, 2014, at Seacrest Village Nursing Center in Tuckerton, at the age of seventy. He was survived by his daughter Heidi Cushman and her husband Jeffrey of Little Egg Harbor, his brother George Petras III, his sister Jackie O'Brien, four grandsons, and a granddaughter.
Buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover, New Jersey · on the same stone as his grandmother Mary Kuklisak Petras
Photo Gallery
George & Martha Petras through the years
George & Martha · Earlier years
George & Martha · 50+ years together
Four generations · Kelly · Jackie · Martha · Catherine Veronica Olivet Castle
Castle Petras · Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover, NJ
Inscription · George J. 1893–1965 · Martha R. 1916–2009
Petras family stone · Gate of Heaven Cemetery
Documents & Records
Obituaries, cemetery records, and family milestones
George John Petras Jr.
Obituary · Brick Township · January 1992
Martha R. Petras
Obituary · Brick · October 2009 · Age 93
John Michael Petras
Obituary · Asbury Park Press · July 2014 · Age 70
Castle Petras Marker
Gate of Heaven Cemetery · East Hanover, NJ
Petras Family Stone
John M. Petras & Mary Kuklisak Petras · Gate of Heaven Cemetery