Juraj Jánošík was born in Terchová in 1688 and christened in the parish register at Varín, down the valley. Even that is not tidy: the register carries two entries, one for 25 January and one for 16 May, and historians have argued over which belongs to him. As a young man he joined the kuruc army — the Hungarian rebels of Francis II Rákóczi, who were fighting the Habsburg emperor — and he is listed on a muster roll of 2 December 1707 under captain Viliam Winkler. He may have been at the battle of Trenčín on 3 August 1708, where the rebels were beaten badly. When the uprising collapsed he was taken into the emperor's army instead, and posted as a guard at the castle prison in Bytča.Juraj Jánošík sa narodil v Terchovej v roku 1688 a pokrstili ho vo farskej matrike vo Varíne, nižšie v doline. Ani to však nie je jednoznačné: matrika má dva zápisy, jeden k 25. januáru a druhý k 16. máju, a historici sa dodnes sporia, ktorý patrí jemu. Ako mladík vstúpil do kuruckého vojska — k uhorským povstalcom Františka II. Rákócziho, ktorí bojovali proti habsburskému cisárovi — a v mustri z 2. decembra 1707 je vedený pod kapitánom Viliamom Winklerom. Možno bol aj v bitke pri Trenčíne 3. augusta 1708, kde povstalci utrpeli ťažkú porážku. Keď sa povstanie rozpadlo, odviedli ho do cisárskeho vojska a postavili ako strážneho k hradnému väzeniu v Bytči.
