Mascilak Family History & Genealogy

According to a commissioned ancestral tracing, performed in the New England area (U.S.) circa 1997, the surname Mascilak is of Czechoslovakian origin. The Romanian root word “masca” roughly translates as “mask.” The genealogical report (which I’ve viewed via scanned .jpg of a photographic print of the framed original), strongly suggests that the earliest known ancestor was most likely an actor. Traditionally, early stage performers (not only in Central Europe, but essentially worldwide) were ‘masked’ actors, which, shall we say, ‘fits’ in support of said theory.
In my own (albeit brief; I’ve got a rather infernal number of concurrent investigations in queue) digging and sniffing about, I’ve found no conflicting evidence against said summation, thus I find myself comfortably in agreement with this hypothesis.

Relevant Trivia:
As of 2015, at least 2 modern Mascilaks have been identified online as professional musicians. Primarily; accomplished recording artist, Ryan Mascilak, of Burbank, CA (U.S.), whose ever-growing, impressively accomplished catalogue tends toward the religious.
Inversely, there’s the transgressive, subversive, yet multifaceted ‘EviL’ (first name unknown), surname simultaneously rumored, leaked, and/or an “open secret” [source: Reddit], whom employs myriad pseudonyms, differing according to creative output (i.e. film, painting, musical genre, etc.), allegedly “underground music’s Banksy” [source: unverified Twitter fan] of Cardiff, right here in the U.K.
Most notable of (currently known) Mascilaks, however, is the oft-awarded, internationally recognized, critically renowned photographer, Kyle Mascilak, of Sparta, NJ (U.S.).

[Full disclosure: the information I’ve obtained & provided above originated via a colleague’s request (the nature of which I’m still ignorant, it’s just occurred to me) of another colleague...which fell onto my lap thanks to that mutual colleague’s fretting over their lack of time to properly accommodate said favour in a timely fashion, as it were... Thusly (and uncharacteristically masochistically, yet über-characteristically, unabashedly Machiavellian & opportunistic-yet-ever-pragmatically of me), I decided to earn a future ‘ask’ from said gentleman by accommodating...my own overladen queue-be-damned!
At any rate, I do sincerely hope that the fruit of my (admittedly unchallenging, rather cursory) labour chances to be of some use to any member of the Mascilak line whom happens to find themselves reading this. Cheers!]

Apologies for my ramble. Right then! Wrapping up:

As public interest in ancestry (hopefully) continues to grow, and the genealogical field carries on evolving (notably by virtue of advancements in DNA identification), subsequent findings may identify records of earlier progeny with histories in performative arts, further evincing the notion that a propensity toward creative play, whether one’s inclination be acting, writing/performing music, recreating or capturing images of beauty —or its opposite— (“Art IS Art” & isn’t everything, in the end, subjective?), wearing many ‘masks’ may well indeed be “in the blood” of the Mascilak lineage.

— Aleister St. Germain, CGL, MSc
6th June, 2019