Christiana (_____) Hodgkinson (c. 1788–1865) was my fourth great-grandmother, married to Robert Hodgkinson of Grantham Township on Canada’s Niagara Peninsula.
For decades, her maiden name and parentage have eluded me—and many other Hodgkinson researchers.
When I first discovered my descent from Robert and Christiana after posting on an old RootsWeb message board for Lincoln County, Ontario, back in 2006, another seasoned researcher cautioned me:
“People have been looking for Christiana’s maiden name for over 20 years. So far, no luck. There was speculation that she may have been a Corson as one of her daughters was named Catherine ‘Cor.,’ but all of that is pure speculation. No proof whatsoever.”¹
As I dug deeper, I found another popular theory suggesting Christiana might have been a Larraway. The Larraway family was certainly connected to the Hodgkinsons through the marriage of Robert and Christiana’s daughter, Eleanor Jane, to James Larraway in 1839.² Given the endogamy among settlers in Upper Canada, it wouldn’t have been surprising to find additional ties between the two families.
A distant cousin even mentioned a family Bible record in which Christiana’s maiden name was penciled in as Larraway, then crossed out, as if the writer weren’t certain.³ The theory was appealing: there were plenty of Loyalist Larraways in the Niagara Peninsula, including one Jonas Larraway, himself a Loyalist like Robert Hodgkinson’s father. And in 1829, Robert Hodgkinson placed a newspaper ad for a lost English watch inscribed with the initials “J.L.”⁴ Could that watch have belonged to his father-in-law, Jonas Larraway?
It was just the kind of tantalizing clue that keeps a genealogist awake at night. But despite its appeal, I was never able to find convincing evidence for this theory in the historical record. So, what was the truth of Christiana’s origins?
Christiana in the Records
Because of record loss, Christiana appears in only one census—the 1861 enumeration—which listed her as age 61 and born in Upper Canada.⁵ However, her daughter Elizabeth (Hodgkinson) Walsh stated in the 1900 U.S. census that her mother was born in New York.⁶
Christiana’s death notice, published in the St. Catharines Constitutional on 14 September 1865, reported that she was 77 years old at death, suggesting a birth circa 1788.⁷ Her grave marker at Victoria Lawn Cemetery records her death on 5 September 1864, “Aged 76 Yrs. & 8 M.,” implying a birth in December 1788 or January 1789.⁸ No surviving church records identify her parents or birthplace.
A Breakthrough with Full-Text Search
That was where my research stood—until recently, when I was playing with FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search feature. This AI-driven tool, introduced at RootsTech 2024, has revolutionized genealogical discovery by revealing text buried deep within unindexed images. I’d used it before to glean small clues, but this time, it changed everything.
A simple search for “Christiana Hodgkinson” in Canada, 1790–1866, surfaced a Revolutionary War pension file.⁹
My jaw hit the floor. This was the breakthrough I’d been looking for.
Christiana Hodgkinson was née Griffiths, or Griffis.
Somehow, amid the Loyalist settlement of Grantham, there was a family—my family!—who applied to the U.S. government for a pension they believed was owed to their patriarch for his Revolutionary War service.
The Pension File That Changed Everything
The 48-page file was pure genealogical gold. It revealed that Christiana was the daughter of James and Catherine (Froelich) Griffiths or Griffis and that she had at least six siblings, including Sarah Griffis, who married Francis Hodgkinson—the brother of Christiana’s husband, Robert.¹⁰
Suddenly, the puzzle pieces snapped together: two Hodgkinson brothers had married two Griffis sisters.
James Griffiths was the son of Peter from “Albanii” (Albany), and Catherine was the daughter of Barend Froelich. They were married 13 June 1783 at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Athens, Greene County, New York. It was stated that that “the family originally came from Wales and spelt their name Griffiths until after the Revolution, it was written Griffis, as it was shorter and more like the pronunciation.”
James Griffiths fought on the American side—unlike most of my ancestors of that era, who were Loyalists. A certificate dated 1852 from Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State in Albany, confirmed that James enlisted 1 March 1777 in Capt. Jacob Wright’s company, Second New York Regiment, commanded by Col. Philip Van Cortlandt. He served three years and was discharged 2 February 1780.
James and Catherine Griffiths migrated to Canada around 1800, settling in Grantham, where Catherine died 17 November 1835 and James died 18 December 1837. They were buried together in the Episcopal Burying Ground at Ten Mile Creek.
A Bureaucratic Saga
All this information appeared within affidavits filed in 1852 by their son Peter Griffis, who believed he and his siblings were entitled to their father’s pension as a Revolutionary War veteran. Among those documents was his sworn declaration describing his father’s service (Figure 1), and identifying his father’s heirs as himself, Mary Larraway, Sarah Hodgkinson, Christiana Hodgkinson, Lydia Courson, and Hannah Oustroudt.
Figure 1. Detail from Peter Griffis’s Revolutionary War pension affidavit. Underlined text highlights his father’s service history, stating, “…his Father was in the service of the United States the greater part of the Revolution, that he resided on the Wall Kill in Orange or Sullivan County during the Revolution and in Green County afterwards until the year 1800 when he removed to the Province of Upper Canada. The Deponent cannot state the dates or periods of the service rendered by his Father but remembers that he stated, that he served three years in a New York Regiment under Capt. Wright, that he enlisted for that period in the year 1776 or 1777, and thinks Colonel Van Courtlandt was the Colonel of the Regiment to which Capt. Wright’s Company belonged…”
Despite the certificate from the Deputy Secretary of State dated 29 September 1852 (Figure 2), the Pension Office equivocated, writing in March 1853 that the claim might be approved if James Griffiths’s identity could be firmly established:
“If his name was formerly Griffith, it can be proved by the production of the Family Record, or a certified Copy.… If the claim is a meritorious one, it is very remarkable that application has been deferred until this late day.”
Figure 2. Certificate by Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State, Albany, confirming James Griffiths’s Revolutionary War service under Capt. Wright and Col. Van Cortlandt.
Christiana Hodgkinson herself replied in an affidavit—signed in her own hand—attesting to her name, age, parents, and the date of her parents’ marriage, which was recorded in their family Bible brought to Canada around 1800 (Figure 3). Lawrence Corson also testified that he had examined that Bible and believed it to be an original record of James and Catherine’s marriage.
Figure 3. Christiana Hodgkinson’s affidavit featuring her signature at bottom right.
From 1853 to 1859, the family persisted. Their attorney defended the claim, explaining the name change from Griffith to Griffis and the delay caused by their Canadian residence. The pastor of Zion Lutheran Church sent a certified copy of the 1783 marriage record. In September 1859, Sarah Hodgkinson wrote again, still believing children could inherit pensions, and demanded payment for seven years of service at the rate of $8 per month with 6% interest over 77 years, which she calculated to amount to $3,776.46. Her angry letter went so far as to threaten legal action if denied.
You have to love her chutzpah.
Ultimately, the claim was rejected. Some confusion might have been avoided if the Pension Office had clearly stated back in 1852 that Revolutionary War pensions extended only to veterans and widows—not to their heirs. However, they didn’t state that until 1859, in their response to Sarah Hodgkinson. Meanwhile their earlier replies, suggesting that there was insufficient evidence linking James Griffiths the soldier with James Griffis of Grantham, seem puzzling. What are the odds that Peter Griffis could accurately describe the enlistment details of an unrelated James Griffiths?
Connecting the Dots
With the identification of James and Catherine (Froelich) Griffiths as Christiana’s parents, and Lydia (Coursin/Corson) as her sister, two loose ends finally made sense.
The death certificate for James George Welch (Walsh), son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hodgkinson) Walsh, incorrectly reported his mother’s maiden name as Griffith instead of Hodgkinson¹¹ The informant, his wife Jane (Lawder) Walsh, obviously confused her mother-in-law’s maiden name with that of Elizabeth’s mother.
Another clue appears in St. Mark’s Anglican Church Baptisms, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792–1856: on 3 January 1816, Barnabas Corson, son of Lawrence and Lydia, was baptized with sponsors Jno. (John) Hodgkinson and Jas. (James) and Catherine Griffiths.¹² It’s clear now that Barnabas’s mother, Lydia (Griffiths) Corson, chose her own parents, and her brother-in-law’s father, as godparents for her son.
Conclusions
The Pension Office’s handling of this case reveals both bureaucratic confusion and subtle bias. Their skepticism may have stemmed from the fact that the claim originated within a known Loyalist settlement in Upper Canada. Indeed, there exists a land petition from a Peter Griffis citing Loyalist service during the Revolution.¹³ That petitioner stated he came to Canada circa 1800, coinciding with Christiana’s family’s arrival. But the Peter Griffis who was Christiana’s brother was born about 1793—too young to have served—so the Loyalist claimant was likely a paternal uncle.
The Griffis family thus embodied the divided loyalties of that era: relatives on both sides of the Revolutionary War. James Griffis was certified to have served honorably on the American side, even if later bureaucrats buried that certification as the final page beneath forty-seven pages of correspondence in his file.
It’s also striking that the old theories weren’t entirely wrong. Christiana’s sisters really did marry into the Corson and Larraway families that researchers long suspected.
Looking back 173 years later, I’m oddly grateful that the Pension Office never clarified in 1852 that a pension claim died with the veteran and his widow. Had they done so, my fourth great-grandmother might never have submitted her affidavit—and her signature, a tangible link to her life, might never have been preserved.
Notes
Name withheld for privacy, author’s research files.
Library and Archives Canada, List of Marriage Licences Issued in Upper Canada (RG 5 B9), LAROWAY, James, and HODGKISON, Eliza [sic] Jane, 24 July 1839.
Name withheld for privacy, author’s research files.
The Farmers’ Journal and Welland Canal Intelligencer (St. Catharines, Ontario), 8 Apr 1829, p. 3, “Watch Lost.”
1861 Census of Canada, Canada West, Lincoln District 22, Grantham Sub-District 6, p. 4, Robert Hodgkinson household; LAC RG31, Microfilm C-1048–1049.
1900 U.S. Census, Erie Co., N.Y., Buffalo Ward 24, ED 212, Sheet 3A, Charles DeVere household; NARA T623, roll 1032.
St. Catharines Constitutional (14 Sept 1865), p. 3, death notice for Christina Hodgkinson.
Victoria Lawn Cemetery (St. Catharines, Ontario), monument inscription for Christiana Hodgkinson.
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Revolutionary War Pension File R4321, James Griffis or Griffiths; NARA M804, Roll 1133; digital image, FamilySearch.
Find a Grave memorial #99489809 for Sarah Hidgkinson (1787–1865), North Embro Cemetery, Oxford Co., Ont.; Niagara Peninsula Branch OGS, St. Mark’s Anglican Church Baptisms, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792–1856, p. 22.
Ontario Death Certificate 1924 no. 032688, George James Welch, 18 June 1924; FamilySearch database, “Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869–1937.”
St. Mark’s Anglican Church Baptisms, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792–1856, p. 23, entry for 3 Jan 1816, Barnabas Corson.
Upper Canada Land Petitions 1819, Vol. 206, Bundle G12, no. 44, Peter Griffis of Louth; LAC RG1 L3, Microfilm C-2030.
Many of us are familiar with the wonderful information that can be found in Catholic church records. Details such as parents’ names, dates of birth, and place of origin make these records well worth exploring. However, these church records can sometimes introduce mysteries that can only be explained through still deeper research.
One such mystery involves the marriage records I discovered for my great-great-grandfather, Andrzej Klaus, and his brother, Tomasz, which I discussed in a post back in 2017.[1] At that time, I noted that Andrzej’s mother was identified as Anna Słowik in the record of Andrzej’s marriage to Marianna Łącka, which took place at St. Stanislaus Church in Buffalo on 21 January 1891 (Figure 1).[2]
Figure 1: Detail from the marriage record of Andrzej Klaus and Marianna Łącka, showing Andrzej’s parents’ names as” Jakob K. i Anna Słowik,” and his place of birth as “Maniowo, Gal.” The record is in a mixture of Polish and Latin; “Gal.” is an abbreviation for the Galicia province of the Austrian Empire, and Maniowo is a misspelling of Maniów.[2]
Similarly, when Andrzej’s brother, Tomasz Klaus, married Wiktoria Rak at St. Stanislaus on 20 November 1900, the groom’s mother was identified as Franciszka Słowik (Figure 2).[3]
Figure 2: Detail from the marriage record of Tomasz Klaus and Wiktoria Rak, showing Tomasz’s parents’ names as “Jakób K. i Franciszka Słowik,” and his place of birth as “Mielecka Wola, Gal[icia].”[3]
That’s all well and good, except for the fact that I have good evidence that Andrzej and Tomasz were the sons of Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Liguz. Where does the name Słowik come in? Why did both her sons report this as their mother’s maiden name, why did Andrzej report her given name as Anna, and why am I so certain that her name was really Liguz?
The answers lie in church records created at the parish of St. Mary Magdalene in Szczucin, located in Dąbrowa County, in the Galicia province of the Austrian Empire. This was the parish that served the village of Maniów, where the Klaus family lived. Maniów is presently located in gmina Szczucin, Dąbrowa County, in the Małopolskie province of Poland. In 1981, the village was reassigned to a new parish, Our Lady of Fatima & the Rosary, which was established in the village of Borki. According to local custom, when a village is reassigned to a new parish, the church books for that village are transferred from the old parish to the new parish. So, it was in Borki that I first laid eyes on the books containing the baptismal records for my great-grandfather, Andrzej Klaus, and his siblings, even those those baptisms took place in Szczucin.
Church records revealed that Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Liguz were married on 16 September 1860 in Szczucin (Figure 3).[4]
Figure 3: Marriage record from Szczucin for Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Liguz, 16 September 1860.[4]
The Latin marriage record stated that the groom, Jacobus Klaus, was a Catholic, single, 30-year-old servant (famulus), and the son of Laurentius and Anna (née Zolowna) Klaus. Because the records were kept in Latin, Latin forms of given names were used. However, the individuals identified in the records would have been known to their communities by their Polish names, to Laurentius would have been called Wawrzyniec and Jacobus would have been called Jakub. (The name Anna is the same in Latin, Polish, and English.) Note also that the groom’s mother’s maiden name (Zolowna) was given in an old form not used today; the “-ówna” ending signifies an unmarried woman of the Zola family, although her name has also been spelled as Żala and Żola on other records. The bride, 24-year-old Francisca Liguz (Franciszka in Polish), was Catholic, single, and the daughter of Laurentius Liguz and Margaretha (Małgorzata) Warzecha. Witnesses were Adalbertus (Wojciech) Liguz and Joannes (Jan) Mamuśka.
Baptismal records identified eight children born to this couple:
Jan Klaus, born 09 October 1860 in Maniów,[5] died 13 May 1920 in Plymouth, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, USA;[6]
Józef Klaus, born 26 February 1863 in Maniów,[7] died 12 January 1874 in Wola Mielecka;[8]
Andrzej Klaus, born 25 November 1865 in Maniów,[9] died 14 June 1914 in North Tonawanda, Niagara, New York, USA;[10]
Michał Klaus, born 01 September 1867 in Maniów,[11] no death or marriage record yet discovered;
Paweł Klaus, born 28 May 1870 in Maniów,[12] died 14 March 1879 in Wola Mielecka;[13]
Piotr Klaus, born 28 May 1870 in Maniów,[14] died 22 July 1870 in Maniów;[15]
Tomasz Klaus, born 03 September 1872 in Wola Mielecka,[16] died 28 December 1911 in Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA;[17]
Helena Klaus, born 25 September 1875 in Wola Mielecka,[18] died 15 August 1878 in Wola Mielecka.[19]
Baptismal records from Galicia typically identify not only the parents of the child, but also the grandparents, the baptismal records for Andrzej Klaus and each of his siblings identified their mother as Francisca, daughter of Laurentius Liguz and Margaretha Warzecha.
Franciszka Liguz herself was born 6 February 1836 in Maniów, the oldest child of Wawrzyniec and Małgorzata (Warzecha) Liguz (Figure 4) .[20]
Figure 4: Franciszka Liguz’s baptismal record, which states that she was born 6 February 1836 in Maniów, house number 31, and baptized the next day. She was Catholic, female, and legitimate. Her father was Laurentius, a farmer (agricola), son of Joannes (Jan) and Catharina (Katarzyna) Liguz. Her mother was Margaretha, daughter of peasants (cmetho) Andreas and Agnes Warzecha. The midwife was Eva Dudaykowa, and the godparents were Franciscus Rogoza and Catharina Liguszka (Liguz), wife of Adalbert [Liguz] of Borki. The godparents were farmers (agricola). Franciszka was baptized by Fr. Michael Kuziel, Cooperator (assistant pastor).[20]
Her birth record identified her parents as Laurentius, son of Joannes and Catharina Liguz, and Margaretha, daughter of Andreas and Agnes Warzecha. Wawrzyniec/Laurentius Liguz and Małgorzata/Margaretha Warzecha were married on 28 May 1832 in Szczucin (Figure 5).[21] The marriage record identified Wawrzyniec as a 40-year-old widower, while the bride was just 17 years old. Parents’ names were not reported for Wawrzyniec, but Małgorzata’s father was named Andreas/Andrzej, consistent with the information reported on Franciszka Liguz’s birth record.
Figure 5: Marriage record from Szczucin for Laurentius Liguz and Margaretha Warzecha, who were married 28 May 1832.[21]
Wawrzyniec and Małgorzata had six children together:
Franciszka, born 06 February 1836 in Maniów,[22] date of death unknown;
Józefa Zofia Liguz, born 11 January 1838 in Maniów,[23] date of death unknown;
Jan Liguz, born 01 January 1840 in Maniów,[24] died 4 January 1840;[25]
Sebastian Liguz, born 01 Janaury 1840 in Maniów, [26] died 2 January 1840;[27]
Jan Liguz, born 13 June 1841 in Maniów,[28] died 8 September 1841;[29]
Józef Liguz, born 2 March 1844 in Maniów,[30] died 16 May 1846.[31]
The twins, Jan and Sebastian, both died within a few days of birth, and the younger son named Jan, born in 1841, died at the age of 3 months. Wawrzyniec Liguz died at the age of 55 on 6 November 1845, leaving Małgorzata as a 30-year-old widow with three children, ages 9, 7, and 20 months.
How Małgorzata supported her young family during the next three years is unclear. Church records described her late husband, Wawrzyniec, as a “hortulanus,” which was a peasant with a small, garden-sized plot of land.[32] They were residents of house number 31 in Maniów, but she was living at house number 40 at the time of her second marriage to Jan Podkówka, on 1 November 1848 in Szczucin, suggesting that she may have moved in with other family members after her husband’s death.[33]
Jan Podkówka was a 50-year-old father and widower when he married Małgorzata Liguz. The couple had two children together:
Tomasz Podkówka, born 5 November 1849,[34] died 16 November 1873;[35]
Agata Podkówka, born 1 February 1852,[36] died 6 March 1910.[37]
Jan Podkówka must have died before 27 January 1856,[38] because that was when Małgorzata married a third time, to another widower, Antoni Słowik.[39] Here, at last, is the answer to the mystery found in the Buffalo church records regarding the identification of Andrzej and Tomasz Klaus’s mother as Słowik rather than Liguz. Figure 6 shows a simplified version of Małgorzata’s family tree.
Figure 6: Simplified family tree for Małgorzata Warzecha Liguz Podkówka Słowik, which includes her parents, her husbands, and all her children. The chart does not include previous marriages of Jan Podkówka and Antoni Słowik. Her children’s spouses are shown, but the chart does not include all of Małgorzata’s grandchildren. Click image to enlarge.
At the time of her marriage to Antoni Słowik, Małgorzata was a 41-year-old mother of eight children, four of whom were still alive. Franciszka Liguz and Józefa Zofia Liguz were ages 20 and 18, respectively, while Tomasz Podkówka and Agata Podkówka were 7 and nearly 4 years old, respectively. Antoni and Małgorzata had two children together prior to his death on 4 April 1864:[40]
Katarzyna Słowik, born 14 February 1857 in Borki,[41] died 25 April 1902 in Delastowice;[42]
Ignacy Słowik, born 28 July 1859 in Borki,[43] died 5 October 1937 in Maniów.[44]
It’s unclear why Andrzej and Tomasz Klaus would have reported their mother’s maiden name as Słowik rather than Liguz, and why Andrzej would have reported her given name as Anna, rather than Franciszka. It may have been a simple misunderstanding of the question, providing her name at the time of their marriages, rather than her maiden name. It’s also possible that an error was introduced during recopying of the church books from St. Stanislaus in Buffalo; the fact that all the church records from St. Stanislaus appear to be in the same handwriting suggests that these are not original records.
Widowed for the third time at the age of 49, Małgorzata never remarried after Antoni’s death in 1864. Her oldest child, Franciszka, had been married for four years by the time her stepfather, Antoni Słowik, died. Małgorzata’s second child, Józefa Zofia (known as Zofia), had married Wojciech Krupa on 27 July 1862, so she, too, was living independently.[45] Tomasz Podkówka, age 14, was old enough to be a help to his mother, along with his younger sister, Agata Podkówka, age 12. Katarzyna and Ignacy Słowik were only 7 and 5 when their father died, and once again, it’s unclear how Małgorzata managed to support her family following her husband’s death, although it’s probable that she relied on assistance from additional family members.
Małgorzata Warzecha Liguz Podkówka Słowik died at the age of almost 77 on 7 January 1892, having outlived all three husbands, and five of her ten children.[46] Her death record, shown in Figure 7, identified each of her previous husbands. At the time of her death, Małgorzata was living in house number 33 in Borki, and further research may identify the owner of that home.
Figure 7: Death record for Margaretha widow of 1. Laurentius Liguz, 2, Joannes Podkówka, 3. Antonius Słowik, née Warzecha, age 77; causes of death, marasmus.[46]
Researching Małgorzata’s life revealed more than just names and dates—it uncovered a narrative of resilience, adaptation, and change. Her multiple marriages and the resulting blended family echo the complex structures many genealogists discover in their own research. Many questions still remain, but this is the nature of genealogical research; our ancestors left behind breadcrumbs, not roadmaps, and it’s up to us to piece together their stories with patience and persistence.
[1] Julie R. Szczepankiewicz, “And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: New Discoveries in My Klaus Family Research, Part I,” From Shepherds and Shoemakers (https://fromshepherdsandshoemakers.com/), published 8 August 2017, accessed 12 March 2025.
[4] Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Maniów, Akta małżeństw [Marriage records], 1860, 16 September, Klaus-Liguz; FamilySearch Library, film no. 1958428 Items 7-8.
[5] Roman Catholic Church, Sanktuarium Matki Bożej Fatimskiej – Różańcowej (Borki, Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolska, Poland), Baptisms, 1860, no. 20, Joannes Klaus; parish archive. Mother was recorded as “Francisca nata Laurentio Liguz et Margaretha Warzecha.”
[6] Pennsylvania, USA, Death Certificates, 1920, no. 60801, John Klaus, died 13 May 1920; imaged as, “Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1966,” database, Ancestry, (http://ancestry.com : 13 March 2025).
[7] Roman Catholic Church, Sanktuarium Matki Bożej Fatimskiej – Różańcowej (Borki, Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolska, Poland), Baptisms, 1863, unnumbered entries in chronological order, Josephus Klaus, born 26 February 1863. Mother was recorded as “Francisca nata Laurentio Liguz et Margaretha Warzecha.”
[8] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 15 March 2025), search result for Klaus deaths in Podkarpackie, 1874, no.4, Józef Klaus, son of Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Liguz, parish Książnice-Wola Mielecka, died in Wola Mielecka on 12 January 1874 at the age of 7 years, source: parish archives, indexed by Krzysztof Gruszka.
[9] Roman Catholic Church, Sanktuarium Matki Bożej Fatimskiej – Różańcowej (Borki, Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolska, Poland), Baptisms, 1865, no. 37, Andreas Klaus, born 25 November 1865. Mother was recorded as “Francisca nata Liguz fil: Laurentii et Margarethae natae Warzecha.”
[10] North Tonawanda City Clerk (North Tonawanda, Niagara, New York, USA), Death Certificates, 1914, no. 82, Andro Klaus, 14 June 1914.
[11] Roman Catholic Church, Sanktuarium Matki Bożej Fatimskiej – Różańcowej (Borki, Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolska, Poland), Baptisms, 1867, no. 20, Michael Klaus, born 1 September 1867. Mother was recorded as “Francisca nata Liguz fil. Laurentii et Margarethae natae Warzecha.”
[12] Ibid., 1870, no.18, gemini, Paulus, Petrus Klaus, born 28 May 1870. Mother was recorded as “Francisca filia Laurentii Liguz et Margaritha Warzecha.”
[13] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 13 March 2025), search result for Klaus deaths in Podkarpackie, 1879, no. 7, Paweł Klaus, son of Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Liguz, parish Książnice-Wola Mielecka, died in Wola Mielecka on 14 March 1879 at the age of 8 years, source: parish archives, indexed by Krzysztof Gruszka.
[15] Ibid.; a cross next to Petrus’ name indicates that he died, and the date “22/7 1870” is recorded under his name.
[16] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society] Geneteka, database (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 15 March 2025), search result for Klaus births in Podkarpackie, 1872, no. 23, Tomasz Klaus, son of Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Nygus [sic], parish Książnice-Wola Mielecka, born in Wola Mielecka on 3 September 1872, source: parish archives, indexed by Krzysztof Gruszka, accessed 15 March 2025.
[17] Roman Catholic Church of Corpus Christi (Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA), “Deaths, 1902-1916,” p. 68, 1911, no. 139, Thomas Klaus, 28 December 1911; Polish Genealogical Society of New York State.
[18] Ibid., 1875, #23, Helena Klaus, son of Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Nygus [sic], parish Książnice-Wola Mielecka, born in Wola Mielecka on 25 September 1875, source: parish archives, indexed by Krzysztof Gruszka.
[19] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database, (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 13 March 2025), search result for Klaus deaths in Podkarpackie, 1878, no. 28, Helena Klaus, daughter of Jakub Klaus and Franciszka Liguz, parish Książnice-Wola Mielecka, died in Wola Mielecka on 15 August 1878 at the age of 3 years, source, parish archives, indexed by Krzysztof Gruszka.
[20] Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolska, Poland), Maniów, Liber Baptizatorum, 1836, unnumbered entries in chronological order, Francisca Liguz, 6 February 1836; FamilySearch Library film no. 1958427, items 12-14.
[21] Ibid., Maniów, Akta małżeństw, 1832, Liguz-Warzechow, 28 May 1832; FSL film no.1958428, items 7-8.
[23] Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary Magdalene, (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Liber Baptizatorum, Maniów, 1838, no. 2, Josepha Sophia Liguz, born 11 January 1838; FamilySearch film no. 1958427, Items 12-14.
[24] Ibid., 1840, no. 2, Joannes Liguz, born 01 January 1840; FamilySearch film 1958427, Items 12-14.
[26] Ibid.,1840, no. 3, Sebastianus Liguz, 01 January 1840; FamilySearch film 1958427, Items 12-14.
[27] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database, (http://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 13 March 2025), search result for deaths in Malopolska, 1840, no1, Sebastian Liguz, son of Wawrzyniec and Malgorzata, Parish: Szczucin, Place: Maniów, Remarks: 1 day [old], date of death: 2 January 1840, Source: parish archive, Indexed by Marc68.
[28] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene parish (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Liber Baptizatorum, Maniów, 1841, no. 12, Joannes Liguz, 13 June 1841; FamilySearch film no. 1958427, Items 12-14.
[30] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene parish (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Liber Baptizatorum, Maniów, 1844, unnumbered entries in chronological order, Josephus Liguz, 2 March 1844, FamilySearch film no.1958427, Items 12-14.
[32] William F. Hoffman and Jonathan D. Shea, In Their Words: A Genealogist’s Translation Guide to Polish, German, Lain, and Russian Documents: Volume III: Latin (Language & Lineage Press, 2018), p. 272.
[33] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene parish (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Liber Matrimoniorum [Book of marriages], Maniów, 1848, Joannes Podkówka and Margaretha Ligus, nee Warzecha, 1 November 1848; FamilySearch film no. 1958428, Items 7-8.
[34] Ibid., Liber Baptizatorum, Maniów, 1849, no. 18, Thomas Podkówka, 5 November 1849; FamilySearch film no. 1958427, Items 12-14.
[35] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database, Geneteka.genealodzy.pl, (http://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 14 March 2025), search result for Podkówka deaths in Malopolskie, 1873, no. 57, Tomasz Podkówka, son of Jan and Malgorzata Warzecha, Parish: Szczucin, Place: Maniów, Remarks: 25 years [of age], died 16 November 1873, source: parish archive, indexed by Marc68.
[36] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene parish (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Liber Baptizatorum [birth records], Maniów ,1852, no. 5, Agatha Podkówka, 1 February 1852; FamilySearch film no. 1958427 Items 12-14.
[37] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene Parish (Szczucin, Malopolskie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Szczucinie,” Ksiega Aktów Zgonów od 1890 – 1913 [Book of Death Certificates from 1890 – 1913], p. 140, Maniów, 1910, no. 6, Agata Liguz, died 6 March 1910; digital image, Szukajwarchiwach (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl : accessed 16 March 2025), reference code 33/630/0/-/3, image 74 of 123.
[38] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene parish (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Akta małżeństw [Marriage records] 1786-1866, 1856, Maniów, unnumbered entries in chronological order, Antonius Słowik and Margaretha Podkowka, 27 January 1856; FamilySearch film no. 1958428, Item 3.
[39] There is no clear match in Geneteka for a death record for Jan Podkówka. An online conception date calculator indicates that Agata Podkówka would have been conceived between 20 April 1851 and 27 April 1851. That suggests that Jan Podkówka died between 20 April 1851 and 26 January 1856.
The only death for a Jan Podkówka in Małopolskie that comes close is that of Jan Podkówka, who died in Maniów on 1 December 1851. He was age 52, which suggests a birth circa 1799, consistent with his age at the time of his marriage to Małgorzata (Warzecha) Liguz, but he was reported to be the husband of Katarzyna, not Małgorzata. If this death record is the correct one for Jan Podkówka, husband of Małgorzata, then it’s curious that Agata Podkówka’s baptismal record from February 1852 did not mention that her father was deceased. However, it’s noteworthy that Jan and Małgorzata’s marriage record, and the birth record for their son Tomasz, indicate that he was living in house number 34 in Maniów. Agata’s birth record (presumably made after Jan’s death) indicates that she was born in house number 19 in Maniów, consistent with the prediction that Małgorzata would have had to move in with other family members after Jan’s death.
[40] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database, (http://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 17 March 2025), search result for Antoni Slowik in Małopolskie, Deaths, 1864, no. 4, Antoni Slowik, parish: Szczucin, place: Borki, remarks: house no. 33, 58 years, husband of Malgorzata Warzecha, died 4 April 1864; source: parish archive, indexed by Marc68.
[41] Ibid., search result for surnames Slowik and Warzecha in Małopolskie, Births, 1857, no. 5, Katarzyna Slowik, daughter of Antoni and Malgorzata Warzecha, parish: Szczucin, place: Borki, remarks: house number 33, date of birth, 14 February 1857, source: parish archive, indexed by Marc68.
[42] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene Parish (Szczucin, Małopolskie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Szczucinie,” Ksiega Aktów Zgonów od 1890 – 1913 [Book of Deaths from 1890 – 1913], p. 184, Delastowice, 1902, no. 2, Catharina Lasak, died 25 April 1902; digital image, Szukaj w Archiwach (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl : accessed 17 March 2025), reference code 33/630/0/-/3, scan 96 of 123.
[43] Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne [Polish Genealogical Society], Geneteka, database, (http://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 17 March 2025), search result for surnames Slowik and Warzecha in Małopolskie, Births, 1859, no. 11, Ignacy Slowik, son of Antoni and Malgorzata Warzecha, parish: Szczucin, place: Borki, house no. 33, remarks: house no. 33, date of birth, 28 July 1859, source: parish archive, indexed by Marc68.
[44] Ibid., search result for Ignacy Slowik in Małopolskie, Deaths, 1937, no. 7, Ignacy Slowik, parish: Szczucin, place: Maniów, remarks: age 78, husband of Helena Łaska, date of death, 5 October 1937, source: parish archive, indexed by Marc68.
[45] Ibid., search result for Zofia Liguz in Malopolskie, Marriages, 1862, Wojciech Krupa, son of Walenty and Marianna Krzyzek, and Zofia Liguz, daughter of Wawrzyniec and Malgorzata Warzecha, parish: Szczucin, remarks: groom’s age, 33, bride’s age, 24; place: Borki, date of marriage, 27 July 1862.
[46] Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene parish (Szczucin, Dąbrowa, Małopolskie, Poland), Księga Aktów Zgonów [Book of death certificates], 1890-1913, 1892, no. 1, Margaritha Liguz Podkówka Słowik nee Warzecha; imaged as “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Szczucinie, 1890-1932,” Szukaj w Archiwach (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/19224209 : 5 April 2024), Sygnatura 33/630/0/-/3, scan 5 of 123.
In my last post, I pieced together the relationships of individuals recorded on the Bogacki family monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Cheektowaga, New York (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 1: Front of the Bogacki monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York. Photo taken by the author, July 2014.
Figure 2: Back of the Bogacki monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York. Photo taken by the author, July 2014.
The individuals buried here are either descended from the patriarch and matriarch, Józef and Apollonia (Prusiecka) Bogacki, through their son, Antoni Bogacki, and his three wives, Anna Burczykowska (m. 1879), Jadwiga Tądrowska (m. 1892), and Jadwiga’s sister, Maryanna Tądrowska (m. 1901), or else they married into the family. Those who married into the family, in addition to Antoni’s two wives, Jadwiga and Maryanna, were Kazimiera (Pawlicka) Bogacka, who married Jan Bogacki; Wiktoria (Niewczyk) Bogacka, who married Władysław Bogacki; Eugenia (Michalska) Bogacka, who married Henryk Bogacki; and Edward Kurpisz, who married Marcyanna “Marion” (Bogacka) Kurpisz.
That leaves Elżbieta Siekierecka unaccounted for. Her burial in the Bogacki family plot suggests that she was a Bogacka somehow; was her maiden name Bogacka? Or was Siekierecka her maiden name, and she married a Bogacki, as suggested by her Find-a-Grave memorial? [1]
As it turns out, neither is true.
Elżbieta Siekierecka did not leave much trace in U.S. records. Her grave marker informs us that she was born in 1873 and died in 1923, and the New York State Death Index specifies her date and place of death as 1 February 1873 in Cheektowaga, New York.[2] She arrived in the the port of New York on 25 July 1921, so she resided in the U.S. for just 18 months prior to her death.[3]
Elżbieta arrived in the U.S. as a 42-year-old widow with two children, 11-year-old Marya and 9-year-old Antoni. Their ages suggest birth years of 1879, 1910, and 1912, respectively, which makes Elżbieta six years younger than what her grave marker suggests. Her passenger manifest identifies her as a farm laborer whose last permanent residence was “Pozen” (Poznań). Her nearest relative in the country from whence she came was her sister, Marcjanna Szule, who was living in “Staraleka Gub. Pozen.” This suggests the village of Starołęka Wielka, which is currently located in gmina Poznań, Poznań County, in the Wielkopolskie province of Poland. (“Gub.” here is an abbreviation for “gubernia,” which was an administrative division in the Russian Empire comparable to a province. Poznań was never under Russian control, so there was never a “Poznań gubernia.” Moreover, by 1921, Poland had regained its independence, so this village was located in the Poznań voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic.[4] Unfortunately, the clerk who prepared the manifest was apparently unaware of all that.)
Elżbieta was headed to Buffalo, New York, to her sister, “Marya Bogaeta,” living at 76 Rugby Avenue, which is actually Rugby Road on Buffalo’s north side. “Bogaeta” is pretty clearly a mistranscription of Bogacka, in light of present evidence, which would imply that Elżbieta was the sister of Marya (Tądrowska) Bogacka. Marya married Antoni in 1901, and he died in 1915, so she was his widow in 1921 when Elżbieta arrived in the U.S.[5]
Nonetheless, I had been expecting that Elżbieta would have been born a Bogacka, based on her burial in the Bogacki family plot, so my first thought was that the information on the passenger manifest was another example of a Polish immigrant employing a rather expansive definition of family relationships. In my research experience, Polish immigrants sometimes exaggerated the closeness of their relationships to their American contacts, referring to them as “in-laws,” “cousins,” or even “brothers” and “sisters” when there was no evidence for those relationships in historical records. Based on my experience, if Elżbieta were Antoni’s sister, it would not be unusual for her to identify Marya (Tądrowska) Bogacka as her sister, rather than her sister-in-law—especially since Antoni Bogacki was already deceased.
This was my working hypothesis when last I left off with my Bogacki research a few years ago. However, in recent weeks I’ve circled back to it, looking at the data with fresh eyes. That’s when I realized that Elżbieta Siekierecka wasn’t born a Bogacki at all, nor did she marry one: she really was the full sister of Marya (Tądrowska) Bogacka.
What tipped me off was her place of birth, recorded on the second page of her passenger manifest as “Kostrzynie.” Marriage records for Antoni Bogacki and Jadwiga and Marya Tądrowska identify the Tądrowskis’ birthplace as “Kostrzyn, Boruss[ia],” i.e. Kostrzyn, Prussia, as do baptismal records for five of Jadwiga’s children.[6] Jadwiga’s death record similarly identifies her birthplace as “Kostrzyn, Pos[e]n.”[7] The baptismal record for her youngest son, Zygfryd, identifies Jadwiga’s birthplace as “Kościerzyna, Boruss[ia],” which is a different place in Poland, but the body of evidence points to Kostrzyn as being the correct place of origin for the Tądrowski family.[8] The variant spelling recorded on the passenger manifest, “Kostrzynie,” reflects the grammatical declension inherent to the Polish langauge: to say, “I was born in Kostrzyn” in Polish, I would say, “Urodziłam się w Kostrzynie.” A similar conversation probably took place when the passenger manifest was recorded.
In order to prove that Elżbieta Siekierecka was a Tądrowska, I needed to find some evidence of her parentage. Her church burial record or death certificate would likely identify her parents, but a quick search in the PGSNYS databases was negative; she may have been buried from a church which is not indexed. For $11.00, I could request her death certificate from the Town of Cheektowaga (where she died), but why spend money unnecessarily? Her baptismal record or marriage record from Kostrzyn might be easier to find at FamilySearch.
Searching this collection requires a bit of patience and persistence, and sometimes a sense of humor. It seems that many of the volunteer indexers who helped to create this database had little to no familiarity with Polish given names, surnames, and Polish diacritics, or perhaps the entire index was AI-generated. I’ve noticed this same problem with other FamilySearch databases, such as, “Poland, Tarnow, Roman Catholic Diocese Church Books, 1612-1900.” These databases are rife with transcription errors, such as “t” for “ł,” “y” for “ą,” etc. Sometimes, it’s possible to guess what the name should have been based on the transcription. For example, the surname “Koztdwska” makes no sense in Polish, but it’s clearly Kozłowska in the original record. Similarly, “Riotrowski” should be Piotrowski, “Kapusienslia” is Kapuścińska, and the absurd “McHael” is Michael. Unfortunately, FamilySearch doesn’t offer an option to submit a correction to transcriptions in their database like Geneteka does, so these errors are likely to persist. Nonetheless, indexed records with errors are better than no indexed records at all, and wildcards can be used to advantage, even when the surnames were butchered by transcribers or are genuinely difficult to read in the original record.
In this case, we’re in luck, because Jadwiga’s and Marya’s marriage records identify their parents as Wawrzyn Tondrowski/Tądrowski and Salomea Luberska, and this combination of given names is uncommon. And to its credit, FamilySearch‘s search algorithm recognizes that the Polish names Wawrzyn or Wawrzyniec are equivalent to the Latin name Laurentius, so it doesn’t matter which version of the name we use for our search.[9] A search for surname “*drowski” with father’s name Wawrzyn and mother’s name Salomea produces 11 baptismal records for children of this couple—including the three buried in the Bogacki family plot, Hedvigis “Tadrowski,” Elisabeth “Tydrowski,” and Marianna “Igdrowski” (Figure 3). All of them were baptized in Kostrzyn, just as expected, although the dates are off a bit from those reported on the Bogacki monument. Jadwiga/Hedwig Tądrowska was born 11 October 1863 (not 1866), Maria/Marya/Marianna (indexed as Igdrowski) was born 19 November 1865 (not 1867), and Elżbieta/Elisabeth (indexed as Tydrowski) was born 18 November 1872 (not 1873). [10]
Figure 3: Result of search for surname “*drowski,” father’s name “Wawrzyn,” and mother’s name “Salomea” in the FamilySearch database, “Deutschland, Preußen, Posen, Katholische und Lutherisch Kirchenbücher, 1430-1998.” Click image to enlarge.
Geneteka, being a Polish website, usually does a better job with transcribing Polish surnames and given names. As it happens, birth records from Kostrzyn are also indexed there, from 1820–1875, so all eleven of these Tądrowski/Tondrowski birth records should be included. Weirdly, a search for surname “T*” with given names Wawrzyn and Salomea only produced four of them (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Search result for births in Kostrzyn with surname T* and given names Wawrzyn and Salomea. Click image to enlarge.
It’s not clear to me why the other seven birth records aren’t found in this search. Maybe Geneteka is just being glitchy and temperamental, but this underscores the importance of checking more than one database, when available, and always consulting the original records before concluding that a particular event did not happen in a particular location.
We should be able to find Elżbieta’s marriage record to (_____) Siekierecki, and birth records for their children identified on the passenger manifest, Marianna and Antoni, as well as (_____) Siekierecki’s death record, for further confirmation that our conclusions thus far are sound.
A search for surname “Siekierecki” with mother’s name Elisabeth produces the children’s birth records (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Result of search for surname “Siekierecki” and mother’s name “Elisabeth” in the FamilySearch database, “Deutschland, Preußen, Posen, Katholische und Lutherisch Kirchenbücher, 1430-1998.” Click image to enlarge.
These records indicate that Marianna and Antoni Siekierecki were born 26 May 1910 and 30 April 1912, respectively, in “Provinz Posen, Preußen,” and but they don’t tell us where in “Provinz Posen” these births were recorded, nor is it possible to locate a handy coverage table like this one provided for the “Poland, Tarnow Roman Catholic Diocese Church Books” collection. [11] Presumably, this information is available when one views the images at a FamilySearch Center or Affiliate Library. Elżbieta’s husband is also identified as Vincentius (Wincenty) Siekierecki. A little more digging produces a death record for a third child of this couple, an unnamed son who died 10 February 1906. [12]
No amount of digging and creative wildcard searching turn up either a marriage record for Elżbieta and Wincenty Siekierecki, or Wincenty’s death record. This result is explained by the catalog entry for Kostrzyn; the magnifying glass icon next to specific collections indicates that Roman Catholic church marriage records were indexed from 1776–1878 with no apparent gaps, and that death records were indexed from 1776–1915 with no gaps after 1820. Since Elżbieta Tądrowska was born in 1873, her marriage took place well after the end of the indexed records, and Wincenty must have died after 1915. All is not lost, however. The Poznań area has good coverage in indexed databases; in addition to this indexed collection at FamilySearch, we can also try Geneteka, the Poznań Project, and BaSIA.
Geneteka has Kostrzyn marriage records indexed from 1818–1899, and Kostrzyn death records indexed up to 1912, so it’s unlikely that we’ll find Wincenty’s death, although we might possibly find his marriage to Elżbieta. However, a search for Wincenty Siekierecki is negative, even when the search is expanded to include all indexed parishes within 15 km of Kostrzyn, suggesting that the marriage took place in 1900 or later. The stated focus of the Poznań Project is on 19th-century marriages, and in keeping with that, they only have Catholic and civil marriage records for Kostrzyn indexed up to 1899. So, it’s unsurprising that a search here for Wincenty and Elżbieta’s marriage record is negative, confirming the Geneteka search result. We hit pay dirt at BaSIA, however. An “extended search” for Wincenty Siekierecki (as opposed to the basic search, which only allows entry of a surname) produces results in four geographic areas, including Kostrzyn-Poznań-Czerniejewo-Swarzęndz (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Result of search at BaSIA for Wincenty Siekierecki in the Kostrzyn-Poznań-Czerniejewo-Swarzędz geographic cluster. Click image to enlarge.
Results for the Kostrzyn-Poznań-Czerniejewo-Swarzędz cluster include Wincenty’s marriage record and his death record. Consistent with our expectations based on database searches thus far, Wincenty and Elżbieta were married in Kostrzyn on 30 April 1902, and Wincenty died on 12 November 1916 in Poznań. The marriage and death search results are both linked to digital images of those records from the State Archive in Poznań.[13] (Note that the marriage record covers two pages; the second page is here.) The marriage record identifies Wincenty Siekierecki as a butcher, born 14 December 1854 in Kozakowa (?), son of the deceased master saddler Joseph Siekierecki and his deceased wife Franciszka née Witczak, both last living in Kostrzyn. Elżbieta’s parents’ names and birth date agree with those reported in the indexed record of her baptism. Her father was described as a deceased master cooper, while her mother was still alive and residing in Kostrzyn.
So there we have it. Contrary to what burial in the Bogacki family plot might suggest, Elżbieta Siekierecka was not a Bogacka, nor was she married to one. Her connection to the family was tangential, through her sisters, Marya and Jadwiga (Tądrowska) Bogacki, who were two of the wives of Antoni Bogacki. Those researching the Tądrowski family will find ample material in indexed records from Poland. Happy hunting!
Sources:
[1] Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114761395/elzbieta-bogacka : accessed February 20, 2025), memorial page for Elżbieta Siekierecka Bogacka (1873–1923), Find a Grave Memorial ID 114761395, citing Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Cemetery, Cheektowaga, Erie County, New York, USA; Maintained by gravefinderStStans (contributor 47637865).
[3] Manifest, SS Potomac, departed Danzig 9 July 1921, arrived New York 25 July 1921, list 5, lines 18-20, Elzbieta, Siekierecka family; imaged as “New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7488/records/4028539363 : accessed 20 February 2025); National Archives Microfilm T715, RG 85, “Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004.”
[4] Tadeusz Bystrzycki, Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z oznaczeniem terytorjalnie im właściwych władz i urzędów oraz urządzeń komunikacyjnych [Index of Placenames of the Republic of Poland with corresponding governmental agencies and offices, including communication facilities], (Przemyśl and Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Książnicy Naukowej, 1933?), p. 1610, “Starołęka Wielka, wieś i. folw;” digital image, Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa [Wielkopolska Digital Library], (https://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/publication/7126/edition/12786/content : accessed 20 February 2025).
Roman Catholic Church of St. Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr (Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA), Marriages, Vol. II (1891-1931), p. 65, 1901, no. 35, Bogacki-Tondrowska, 4 June 1901; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4N-64QV-V?lang=en&i=1471 : accessed 20 February 2025); and
[10] “Deutschland, Preußen, Posen, Katholische und Lutherisch Kirchenbücher, 1430-1998,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FZC-MC5D?lang=en : accessed 21 February 2025), Hedvigis Tadrowski, born 11 October 1863; and
[12] “Deutschland, Preußen, Posen, Katholische und Lutherisch Kirchenbücher, 1430-1998,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FC2-KH55?lang=en. : accessed 21 February 2025), (_) Siekierecki, died 10 February 1906.
[13] Urzad Stanu Cywilnego Kostrzyn (pow. sredzki), [Civil registry office of Kostrzyn, Środa County] (Kostrzyn, Środa, Wielkopolskie, Poland), Heiraths-Haupt-Register [Marriage register], 1902, pp. 36-37, no. 18, Siekierecki-Tadrowska; married 15 April 1902; Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu [State Archive in Poznań], Sygnatura 53/1875/0/2/172; digital image, Szukaj w Archiwach (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1401374 : accessed 22 February 2025), scans 38 and 39; and
Urząd Stanu Cywilnego Poznań – obwód miejski, Księga miejscowa zgonów tom IV [Rejestr główny zgonów] [Main Death Register, Vol. IV], 1916, no. 2086, Vincent Siekierecki, died 12? November 1916; Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu [State Archive in Poznań], Sygnatura 53/1926/0/3/1416; digital image, Szukaj w Archiwach (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/23804447 : accessed 22 February 2025), image 217 of 564.
Many thanks to Jody Tzucker, Anne Callanan, Georg Patrzek, and Monika Deimann-Clemens of the Genealogical Translations group on Facebook for their German translation assistance.
Józef Bogacki (c. 1826–1919) and Apolonia (Prusiecka) Bogacka (c. 1822–1906) were some of my husband’s great-great-great-grandparents. They were Polish immigrants from the Prussian partition of Poland who settled in Buffalo, New York, along with some of their children, who were known to include Teka (Bogacka) Wolińska (1860–1906), and Antoni Bogacki (c. 1858–1915).
Although Tekla (Bogacka) Wolińska and her husband, Józef, are buried in a different location in the cemetery, there is a large monument for other members of the Bogacki family in St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Cheektowaga, New York (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 1: Front of the Bogacki monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York. Photo taken by the author, July 2014.
Figure 2: Back of the Bogacki monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York. Photo taken by the author, July 2014.
Of course, having so many names on a monument just begs their placement into a family tree.
Judging from the dates on the marker alone, Józef Bogacki and Apolonia Bogacka, born in 1826 and 1825, respectively, are the earliest generation shown. Maryanna Bogacka (b. 1867), Antoni Bogacki (b. 1858), Jadwiga Bogacka (b. 1866), and Elżbieta Siekierecka (b. 1873) comprise the next generation of the family, but we need additional evidence to establish their relationships.
Indexed records from the PGSNYS databases provide a quick-and-dirty clarification (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Search results from the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack” and given name “Ant” which reveal two marriage records. Click image to enlarge.
These results include two marriage records (marked in red) from St. Stanislaus for Antoni Bogacki, one to Jadwiga Tądrowska in 1892and the other to Marya Tondrowska in 1901.[1] The “Page” column provides the specific volume, page, and record number for locating the results in the the original church books. Since marriage records from St. Stanislaus are imaged at FamilySearch from 1874–1917, both of these records are readily available.
The marriage records identify Antoni’s parents are Josef Bogacki and Apollonia Prusiecka. Although the maiden names of Antoni’s brides are spelled somewhat differently, Tądrowska and Tondrowska are phonetically similar in Polish. The fact that his wives had the same maiden name suggests that they might have been sisters. A second search in the database collection for “Jadwiga Tadrowska” and “Marya Tondrowska,” confirms this suspicion; both were daughters of Wawrzyn (Lawrence) Tądrowski/Tondrowski and Salomea Luberska.
The search shown in Figure 3 for Antoni Bogacki also confirms that he died in 1915 at the age of 57, which suggests a birth in 1858, and these dates match those on the grave marker (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Search results from the PGSNYS database collection for surname “Bogack” and given name “Ant” which reveal his death record. Click image to enlarge.
Antoni Bogacki was buried from Transfiguration parish in Buffalo, and those images, too, are online at FamilySearch.[2] Church records from ethnic Polish parishes like St. Stanislaus and Transfiguration can be a wonderful source for evidence of place of origin, and in this regard, Antoni’s death record and marriage records do not disappoint. His death record reveals that he was born in “Chelmno, Pruss. Zach.,” while both the marriage records state “Chełmno, Boruss.” Borussia is the Latin name for Prussia, and Prusy Zachodnie is the Polish name for West Prussia, so all the documents point to the same location, the town of Chełmno which is presently located in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie province of Poland.
So far we’ve identified the parents, Józef and Apollonia, and three of the four individuals in the Bogacki “children” generation, Antoni and his wives, Jadwiga and Maria (Tądrowska) Bogacki. Elżbieta Siekierecka remains to be placed on the tree, but hers is an interested story, so we’ll come back to her.
Moving on now to the “grandchildren” generation, based on birth years recorded on the monument, we have Jan Bogacki (born 1886), Kazimiera Bogacka (born 1889), Wiktoria Bogacka (born 1887), Władysław Bogacki (born 1885), Marcyanna J. Kurpisz (born 1899) and a priest, Ks. Prałat [ksiądz prałat] Maksymilian T. Bogacki, whose dates of birth and death are specified as Paź. 6 [Październik, October]1895 and Gr. 17 [Grudzień, December] 1982. A search for Jan Bogacki in the PGSNYS databases produces a number of useful records, including his death notice, which was published in the Polish newspaper, Dziennik dla Wszystkich, on 1 May 1954, as well as the record of his marriage at St. John Kanty on 3 June 1908 to Kazimiera Pawlicka.[3] Another piece falls into place; Kazimiera is certainly the Kazimiera Bogacka who was buried in the Bogacki family plot. The databases additionally contain Jan’s baptismal record from St. Stanislaus parish in 1886.[4] The marriage record and the baptismal record both identify Jan’s parents as Antoni Bogacki and Anna Burczykowska and the baptismal record reiterates Antoni’s place of birth as Chełmno, Boruss[ia].
So, Anna Burczykowska was Antoni’s first wife, although she was not buried in the same plot with Antoni and his subsequent wives. A search for her grave at Find-a-Grave is negative, but PGSNYS member, Barbara Ruppert, has Anna Bogacka’s grave indexed at her Grave Finder at St. Stan’s website, which should always be checked when searching for final resting places of Buffalo’s Polonia.[5] Anna’s death record, indexed in the PGSNYS database, reveals that she died 5 December 1891 and was buried 7 December 1891, consistent with the burial date indexed at the Grave Finder website.[6] The death record also states that Anna was born in Chełmno, adding to the growing body of evidence for the Bogacki family’s origins.
Getting back now to the folks whose names were recorded on that monument, we’ve pretty well confirmed the relationship between Kazimiera and Jan Bogacki—she was his wife. However, it would be nice to find some additional evidence of her birth and death dates. Her newspaper death notice is useful here (Figure 5).[7] Not only does it confirm her date of death (which agrees with the date on the grave marker), it also confirms her husband’s name and the names of her children. But wait, there’s more: two of those names match with as-yet-unidentified names on the grave marker, Henryk/Henry and Eugenia Bogacki.
Figure 5: Death notice from The Buffalo News (Buffalo, New York) for Kazimiera (Pawlicka) Bogacka.
A match for Kazimiera Bogacka in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) with a date of death of July 1976, reports her date of birth as 23 October 1887.[8] This is off a bit from the date reported on her grave marker, 1889, but that kind of discrepancy is not unusual for individuals born in this era. Since Kazimiera’s marriage record indicated that she was born in Poland, we would need to locate her birth record in order to know definitively which birth date is correct, but that’s another question for another day.
Although the English equivalent of the name Kazimiera is Casimira, fellow Bogacki researchers should be aware that Kazimiera also used the name Catherine or Katherine.[9] It was not unusual for early 20th century Polish Americans to adopt an “American” name that differed from the etymological equivalent of that person’s Polish given name. If you compare Kazimiera/Catherine’s death notice shown in Figure 5 with the death notice of her husband, John Bogacki, published in The Buffalo News on 1 May 1954, you see that the names of the children are the same, although the couple’s oldest son, Charles, was recorded as “Carol” in his father’s death notice.[10] This, again, is due to a variant translation of the Polish name Karol (Charles).[11] If any doubt remains about these conclusions, consider John Bogacki’s obituary, published in the Cheektowaga Times, which identifies his wife as Kazimiera (née Pawlicki) rather than Katherine, and their oldest son as Charles J. Bogacki, rather than Carol.[12]
Since this research into Jan and Kazimiera Bogacki provided some preliminary information on Henry and Eugenia Bogacki, we may as well look them up in the SSDI and locate their newspaper death notices to confirm birth and death dates. Henry’s death notice reports his date of death as 4 March 1987, and the SSDI provides his date of birth, 8 November 1912.[13] Henry’s death notice also gives us Eugenia’s maiden name, Michalski, which is confirmed in Eugenia’s obituary, as well as in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, which goes beyond the SSDI to provide her parents’ names, John Michalski and Victoria Ledzynska, in addition to her dates of birth (27 June 1917) and death (8 March 1999).[14] Since Henry and Eugenia lived so recently, it’s unsurprising that their birth and death dates agree perfectly with those reported on the Bogacki family monument.
After this brief foray into the “great-grandchildren” generation, let’s move back now to placing the remaining “grandchildren” on the tree, Wiktoria Bogacka (born 1887), Władysław Bogacki (born 1885), Marcyanna J. Kurpisz (born 1899) and Rev. Maksymilian T. Bogacki (born 1895). Another search in the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack” with father’s name “Ant” and mother’s name “Anna” produces a slew of baptism, marriage, and death records (Figure 6) for children of Antoni Bogacki and Anna Burczykowska, as well as a couple death records for children of Antoni Bogacki and Marianna Tądrowska (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Search results from the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack” with father’s name “Ant” and mother’s name “Anna.” Click image to enlarge.
Underlined results include a baptismal record for Vladislaus Antonius Bogacki, who was born 17 January 1885 and baptized at St. Stanislaus, as well as the record of his marriage to Victoria Niwczyk [sic] at Corpus Christi parish. The baptismal record is available online at FamilySearch, and a digital image of the marriage record is available upon request from PGSNYS.[15] They look like a promising match for the Władysław and Wiktoria on the Bogacki monument. We can repeat our strategy of confirming death dates using the SSDI and newspaper death notices, assuming that Władysław probably adopted the name Walter in later years. Lo, and behold, a search for Walter Bogacki at Newspapers produces his death notice, which confirms his date of death and wife’s name, and the SSDI provides additional confirmation of birth and death dates.[16]
As it turns out, there’s no good match for Wiktoria (Niewczyk) Bogacki in the SSDI, which is not unusual for women in this era. Since her marriage record indicated that she was born in Posen, I’ll bet I can find her birth record in BaSIA, which is a vital records database which focuses on the Wielkopolskie province of Poland, where Poznań is located. In the interest of staying focused, however, I’ll defer that question for another day and get back to the problem of untangling the relationships between members of the Bogacki family identified on their grave monument.
There’s a good match for Marcyanna J. Kurpisz in the PGSNYS databases as Marcyanna Bogacka, daughter of Antoni Bogacki and his second wife, Jadwiga Tądrowska. The PGSNYS index points us to her baptismal record from St. Stanislaus, which confirms her date of birth as 10 January 1899.[17] Her death notice confirms that she died 4 May 1971, and identifies her as Marion H. Kurpisz, rather than Marcyanna J.[18] The different middle initials are easily accounted for if we suppose that her middle name might have been Jadwiga, after her mother; the English version of Jadwiga is Hedwig. The name Marcyanna is a variant spelling of Marcjanna or Marciana, which is the female form of Marcjan, which in turn derives from the Latin name Martianus/Martiana.[19] Etymologically, the name is not equivalent to Marianna (Polish), Marian, or Marion (English); “Martina” would have been closer to the original. However, as we saw previously with Kazimiera/Catherine Bogacka, there were no rules which required Polish Americans to adopt names that were etymologically equivalent to their original names. In fact, until the advent of Social Security, no one was even keeping track, so you might see early 20th century Polish Americans trying out a few different names until they settled upon one they liked.
Marion Kurpisz’s death notice also informs us that her husband was Edward J. Kurpisz, who is undoubtedly the Edward Kurpisz on the grave marker. Edward’s death notice provides his date of death, 9 March 1984, but doesn’t tell us how old he was when he died.[20] The record of his marriage to Marion saves the day, however, providing his precise date of birth, 14 March 1899, and parents’ names, Konstanty Kurpisz and Teodora Wdowicka.[21]
A number of records discovered thus far have mentioned the Right Reverend Monsignor Maksymilian T. Bogacki. He was the priest who performed the marriage for his sister, Marion, and he was also one of the officiants at her funeral Mass. Msgr. Bogacki was born on 6 October 1895 to Antoni Bogacki and his second wife, the former Jadwiga Tądrowska. He was baptized at St. Stanislaus, and a very nice obituary was published in The Buffalo News on 19 December 1982 (Figure 7).[22]
Figure 7: Obituary from The Buffalo News for Msgr. Maximilian T. Bogacki. Click image to enlarge.
At this point, we’ve established relationships between everyone on the Bogacki family monument except for Adam Bogacki and Elżbieta Siekierecka. Elżbieta will be the subject of a future post, but Adam is a bit of a mystery. The grave marker gives only one date for him, 1907, which is probably his death date. However, there are no good matches in broad searches of indexed historical records for an Adam Bogacki who died in Buffalo in 1907. Rather, I suspect that the grave marker may be in error, and the error may stem from conflating two different children of Antoni Bogacki and his third wife, Maria Tądrowska.
A search in the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack,” father’s name “Ant” and mother’s name “Mar” produces the two death records shown in Figure 8, from Transfiguration parish.
Figure 8: Death records from Transfiguration parish for Adam and Venceslaus Bogacki. Click image to enlarge.
This search result reveals that Adam Bogacki was born to Antoni Bogacki and Maria Tądrowska on 2 July 1905, and he and died the next day. His death record is available here.[23] Similarly, Antoni and Maria lost another son, Venceslaus (Wacław in Polish) Bogacki, whose death record states that he was born 26 September 1907 and died one day later.[24] Cemetery records may help determine whether it’s Adam Bogacki who was buried in the family plot, and the grave marker incorrectly identifies his year of death (more likely), or whether it’s Wacław, and the grave marker incorrectly identifies his name. By the way, if you’re wondering where their baptismal records are, it may well be that Adam’s and Venceslaus’s baptisms were recorded at Transfiguration. However, baptismal records are only available for this parish up through 1903.
To sum it all up, then, Figure 9 depicts a partial family tree for the Bogacki family, focusing on those members who are buried in the family plot at St. Stanislaus Cemetery. Stay tuned for the story of Elżbieta Siekierecka: Was she a Bogacka?
Figure 9: Partial family tree for the Bogacki family of Buffalo, New York, focusing on those members who are buried in the family plot at St. Stanislaus Cemetery (Figures 1 and 2). Click image to enlarge.
Roman Catholic Church, Corpus Christi parish (Buffalo, Erie, New York), Marriages, Vol. II ( October 2, 1900 – November 3, 1909), p. 248, 1909, no. 101, Bogacki-Niwczyk; Polish Genealogical Society of New York State.
[17] Roman Catholic Church of St. Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr (Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA), Baptisms, Vol. IV, (1895-1903), p. 310, 1899, no. 18, record for Marcyanna Bogacka, born 10 January 1899; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4N-643R-Z?cat=23415&i=1132&lang=en; : accessed 18 February 2025).
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about my family in this blog, but I’m just going to skip the explanations and excuses and get to the good stuff.
Maria Magdalena (Causin/Cossin) Roberts (1832–1894) was one of my long-time brick-wall ancestors whose family origins I was eventually able to discover. Born 14 August 1832 in Buffalo, New York to Alsatian immigrants, Joseph Antoine and Marie Agathe (Hensÿ) Cossin, she migrated to Detroit, Michigan where she was married on 12 May 1857 to German immigrant, Michael Ruppert/Roberts. Michael worked as a carpenter, and the couple remained in Detroit for the rest of their lives. Maria Magdalena—usually recorded as Mary—kept the house and raised eight children, four of whom outlived her. She died 27 February 1894 in Nankin, Michigan.
Although I was able to definitively identify her parents and their origin in the villages of Pfetterhouse and Seppois-le-Bas in the Haut-Rhin district of Alsace, many questions remain. Those early years between her birth in Buffalo and her marriage in Detroit remain a mystery, along with the fates of her parents. Where did they die? Did they, too, migrate to Detroit, or were they already deceased in Buffalo by the time of Maria Magdalena’s marriage? It’s been difficult to document the family with certainty in historical records from either Buffalo or Detroit, and the many variant spellings of the surname—ranging from the preferred Cossin, to Curzon, to Gosÿ—have added to the challenge.
Recently, I returned to my research on this family, hoping that a newspaper search might produce some new clues. To my delight and astonishment, I found the little article shown here, published in the Detroit Free Press on 7 August 1894—just over five months after Mary Roberts died.
Clearly, I’m not the only one who has sought Maria Magdalena’s whereabouts! I am certain that the woman described in the Personals ad must be “my” Maria Magdalena, who was born in 1832, and was still “Mademoiselle” in 1855, since she did not marry Michael Roberts until 1857. According to the ad, she was already living in Detroit by 22 April 1855, which adds another point to the timeline. Most interesting is the identification of a brother, Anthony, born in 1838, which is brand new information! Where was he born, Buffalo, Detroit, or somewhere else?
A quick search on Ancestry revealed that Y. J. Cicotte of Detroit was probably Y.G. Cicotte, who was enumerated in the 1870 census and was identified as a lawyer. The 1880 Detroit City Directory identified Julius Stoll of 185 Randolph Street as being in the Real Estate and Insurance business. It’s likely, then, that neither of these men was necessarily a friend of Maria Magdalena’s; they were merely professionals whose services had been engaged, first by Maria Magdalena herself in 1855, and then in 1894 by her friends in Alsace who wondered about her whereabouts.
Why did her “friends in Alsace” wait so long to seek her out? Was there some new development back home that led them to break the silence of nearly 40 years? The Detroit Free Press is digitized online at Newspapers for the entire period from 1855 through 1894, and this Personals ad is the only reference to any of these Cossins. If Mary’s friends in Alsace had made attempts to contact her previously through similar Personals ads, those ads should have turned up. Or was it Mary herself who broke off the correspondence, apparently without even informing them of her marriage?
The fact that these friends inquired only after Mary and her brother, but not her parents, suggests that perhaps Joseph Antoine and Marie Agathe were deceased before 1855. Previously, I’d checked the Buffalo, New York Death Index, 1852–1884 for evidence of their deaths, but did not find them. The cemetery where Mary Roberts herself is buried, Mount Elliott in Detroit, offers a database of records from five local cemeteries, and the Cossins are not found. However, the database appears to be incomplete, because I searched the names of five additional relatives known to be buried in that cemetery, and only one of them turned up in the database. So, I emailed the cemetery, and I’m waiting for their reply. Last year, I also checked death records for 1836–1857 from St. Louis parish in Buffalo, where Mary Cossin Roberts was baptized, and did not find them. However, it might be worth another look just in case I missed them the first time. I definitely need to check those baptismal records again for the birth of Anthony Cossin circa 1838.
Note: This story was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of Rodziny. It is reprinted here with permission.
Family stories are what draw many of us into researching our family histories. Back in the late 1980s, when I first began asking my husband’s grandmother, Joan (Drajem) Barth, about the family history, she shared with me a story about her father-in-law, Joseph Bartoszewicz, who was badly burned and injured in a fire when he was a young man. She recalled that the fire was in a sugar factory in the Larkin Building on Seneca Street in Buffalo, New York, and that her father-in-law had been a foreman in the factory. She also recalled that her mother-in-law, Katherine (Levanduski) Bartoszewicz had a brother or brothers who may have been killed or injured in the fire. Grandma couldn’t tell me much more about the Levanduski brothers; this was the family of her deceased husband, Henry Bartoszewicz/Barth, and “people didn’t talk about those things back then.”
My curiosity was piqued, but my early attempts to research both the Levanduski family and the Bartoszewicz family, and learn more about that fire, were thwarted by the many versions of surnames and given names that were in use by the family. The original Polish form of the surname, Lewandowski, was ranked 6th for popularity among Polish surnames circa 1990,1 and the family favored phonetic versions of the surname, such as Levanduski, Levendeski, and Levandoski, in the U.S. Similarly, documents related to the Bartoszewicz family contain variant spellings such as Bartosiewicz, Bartusiewicz, and Bartoszewski. Although Grandma was very specific about the fire taking place “in the Larkin Building on Seneca Street” in Buffalo, I could find no evidence from newspaper articles that such a fire took place in the appropriate time period, which she guessed was the early 1920s. Stymied by these road blocks, it was easy to defer this research, and investigate other family lines instead.
Over the years, as more documents and scanned newspapers became available online, I was able to gradually chip away at this puzzle, and uncover the tragic story of the Lewandowski family, and the disaster that was directly responsible for the loss of two lives—and was indirectly responsible for the loss of a third life. This, then, is their story.
The Lewandowski Family of Wola Czewujewska
The Lewandowski family originated in what is now the Poznań area of Poland, but was at that time the Posen province of Prussia. For the purpose of this story, we’ll exclude the family’s deeper origins, and begin with Stanisław Lewandowski and Marianna Woźniak, who married on 9 September 1882 in Rogowo (Żnin County).2 (Their marriage record was discussed in a previous post.) At the time of their marriage, Stanisław was a 22-year-old Knecht (farmhand or servant), living in Wola Czewujewska, and Marianna was a 19-year-old Knechtstochter (daughter of farmhands or servants), also living in Wola. Both were Roman Catholic. The Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, which is a gazetteer of places located within the German Empire, identifies Wola as a Rittergut, or landed estate, which suggests that Stanisław and Marianna were employed in service at the manor.3
Following their marriage, Stanisław and Marianna had two children, both born in Wola: Katarzyna (Catharina/Katherine), born 11 October 1883, and Jan (Johann/John), born 5 May 1885.4 On 10 April 1886, the Lewandowski family emigrated from Prussia, departing from the port of Hamburg, along with Marianna’s sister, Weronika Woźniak, and another relative, Michał Lewandowski.5 Further research is needed to determine precisely Michał’s relationship to Stanisław, but the fact that he was also from Wola, and was traveling with them, suggests that he was a relative, despite the popularity of the surname. Their departure manifest is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Emigration manifest from the port of Hamburg for the family of Stanisław and Marianna Lewandowski, as well as Marianna’s sister, Weronika Woźniak, and another probable relative, Michał Lewandowski. Click image to enlarge.
According to this manifest, Stanisław Lewandowsky [sic] was a 27-year-old laborer from Wolla, Prussia. His wife, recorded as Maria, was age 23, and their children, Kataryna [sic] and Jan, were ages three and one. All the information is consistent with expectations based on prior evidence.
From Stanisław to Edward, and Patrick to Peter
The Lewandowski family settled in the hamlet of Shelby in rural Orleans County, New York, about 40 miles northeast of Buffalo. Although a Polish parish—Sacred Heart church in Medina— would eventually be founded in Orleans County, there was no ethnic Polish parish there when Stanisław and Marianna arrived with their family in 1886. Instead, the family belonged to St. Stephen’s parish in Middleport, New York, about six miles away, and this is where the birth of their next child was recorded in 1888 (Figure 2).6
Figure 2: Baptismal record from St. Stephen’s church in Middleport, New York, for Patricius (Patrick) Levendeski, born 28 May 1888. Click image to enlarge.
This baptismal record testifies to the language barrier which the Lewandowski family encountered in rural Orleans County, which ultimately led to the adoption of the phonetic version of the surname, Levanduski, used by the family today. The record is written in Latin and states, “Junii 10. Baptizavi Patricium (per errorem Catherinam vocatum) natum 28 ult. ex Eduardo Levendeski et Maria Wisnaik. Sponsores Michael Wisnaik et Rosa Kotriss,” which translates, “I baptized Patrick (named Catherine by mistake), born on the 28th last [month], of Edward Levendeski and Maria Wisnaik. Sponsors [were] MIchael Wisnaik and Rosa Kotriss.” One wonders at the extent of communication difficulties that would lead the priest to baptize a child as Catherine, and then record the child’s name as Patrick, when this same child would ultimately be known as Peter in almost all historical records.
The fact that Stanisław was recorded as Edward here is also noteworthy. When I began my research, I had no idea that Edward was not the original name of Katherine Levanduski’s father, as my husband’s family was unaware of any name change. I only discovered this fact through correspondence with a distant cousin in Medina, Joe Levanduski, who found me back in 2007 through an Orleans County surname database hosted by New York GenWeb. Joe noticed that I was researching the Lewandowski/Levanduski surname and contacted me. He wrote, “I show Stanislaw Lewanduski….became a citizen in 1891, changing his name to Edward…. The story I got about the name change was great-grandfather worked in a quarry and they spelled his name wrong on his paycheck. He couldn’t get them to spell it right so it evolved to what it is today.”7 I’m ever grateful to Joe for tipping me off to that unexpected name change from Stanisław to Edward, since my efforts to obtain a passenger manifest and pursue research in Polish records had been unproductive prior to that point.
In 1891, Edward and Mary Levanduski’s fourth child, Joseph, was baptized at St. Stephen’s church (Figure 3).8
Figure 3: Baptismal record from St. Stephen’s church in Middleport, New York, for Josephus Levendeski, born 15 February 1891. Click image to enlarge.
The record states, “Feb. 17. Baptizavi Josephum natum 15 inst. ex Eduardo Levendeski et Maria Wisnaik. Sponsores fuerunt Andreas Hoffman & Veronica Lipkoski,” which translates from Latin as, “Feb. 17. I baptized Joseph, born on the 15th of this [month] of Edward Levendeski and Maria Wisnaik. Sponsors were Andrew Hoffman and Veronica Lipkoski.” Joseph’s godmother, Veronica Lipkoski, was none other than his maternal aunt, Weronika Woźniak, who married Stanisław “Edward” Lipkoski (or Lepkoske) on 22 June 1889 in Middleport.9
Edward Levanduski naturalized as a U.S. citizen on 14 September 1891 under the name Stanislaw Lewandowski in the Orleans County Court in Albion.10 His naturalization status was reflected in the 1892 New York State census, where he was recorded under the name “Adcker Lewenoboski,” shown in Figure 4.11
Figure 4: 1892 New York State census for the hamlet of Shelby, New York, showing the family of Adcker Lewenoboski [sic]. Click image to enlarge.
The family group described in this census record consists of 31-year-old Adcker Lewenoboski [sic], a laborer born in Poland and a naturalized citizen; his 29-year-old wife, Mary, 9-year-old daughter Catherine, and 7-year-old son, John, all of whom were also born in Poland and noted to be aliens. Additionally, the census identified the couple’s two U.S.-born children, 3-year-old Patrick and 1-year-old Joseph. Apart from the obvious miscommunication regarding the family surname and Edward’s given name, the names and ages of family members are all consistent with established evidence. Moreover, the family group listed immediately below the Lewandowski family is the family of Mary Levanduski’s sister, Veronica Lepkoske, who adopted the name Lena in the U.S.
In December of 1892, another daughter, Veronica, was born to Edward and Mary Levanduski.12 No death record has been found for her, but she was apparently deceased between March 1899 and 26 June 1900, when the census was enumerated.13 One more daughter, Anna Levanduski, was born in 1894.14 On 10 April 1896, Mary (Woźniak) Levanduski died of diffuse septic peritonitis at the age of 32, leaving Edward a 36-year-old widower and father of six children, with the oldest being 12 years of age and the youngest being not quite two years old.15 An expeditious second marriage was a necessity, and Edward’s bride was 29-year-old Antonina Budzińska, whom he married at St. Stephen’s in Middleport on 12 May 1896 (Figure 5).16
Figure 5: Marriage record for Edward Levanduski and Antonia [sic] Budzinski. Click image to enlarge.
Antonina, recorded occasionally as Antoinette, but most often called Anna, was born 5 January 1867 in Morhardsburg, known today as Morasy, to Jan/Johann and Katarzyna/Catharina (Łukomska) Budziński.17 Morasy is a mere 12 miles from Edward’s last residence in Poland, and it is likely that Edward and “Anna” were connected through the vast network of Prussian Poles who migrated to Western New York from Edward’s and Anna’s home counties of Żnin and Mogilno. Her marriage record to Edward states, “Tribus bannorum rite factis publicationibus conjunxi in matrimonio Edwardum filium Michaelis Levendeski et Elizabeth Rotka et Antoniam filiam Joannis Budinski et Catharinae Lukomski. Testes Laurentius Hoffman et Veronica Lepkoski fuerunt. (B) Jacobus J. Roche,” which translates, “After the publication of three banns, I joined in marriage Edward, son of Michael Levendeski and Elizabeth Rotka, and Antonia, daughter of Joannes Budinski [sic] and Catharina Lukomski. Witnesses were Laurence Hoffman and Veronica Lepkoski.”
Children came quickly for Edward and Anna. Anthony was born first, in 1897, followed by Ladislaus/Walter in 1898 and Martha in 1899.18 By 1900, when the family was enumerated in the census, the oldest three children—Katherine, John, and Patrick/Peter—are not listed with the rest of the family (Figures 6a and b).19
Figure 6a: First page showing the Edward Levanduski family in the 1900 census. Click image to enlarge.Figure 6b: Second page showing Martha Levanduski in the 1900 census. Click image to enlarge.
However, the census tells us that in 1900, Edward Lavendusky [sic] was employed as a quarry laborer. He owned his home (with a mortgage), and he could speak English, although he could not read or write. His naturalization status, date of arrival, length of marriage, age, and place of birth are all consistent with prior evidence. His wife, Anna, was a more recent immigrant, having arrived in the U.S. circa 1893, according to this record. The children were identified as 10-year-old Joe, born February 1890; 6-year-old Anna, born June 1894; 3-year-old Tony, born May 1897; 1-year-old Wallace, born August 1898, and 10-month-old Martha, born July 1899. Once again, all the data are approximately consistent with prior evidence, although Walter was recorded as Wallace. This is not surprising in light of the fact that his baptismal name was Ladislaus, which is the Latin form of the Polish name Władysław, a name which has no direct English translation. Men with this name often adopted the name Walter, but there were no hard-and-fast rules for this, as evidenced by Walter’s father’s choice to go from Stanisław to Edward rather than adopting the name Stanley, which was a more popular choice among men named Stanisław.
It’s not certain why the oldest three children were not mentioned here, but neither are there any definitive matches for Katherine, John, and Peter Levenduski anywhere else in the 1900 census. A miscommunication seems most likely; if the older children were away from the house when the census-taker came by, perhaps they were simply missed in the tally. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that all the children were still living at home in 1905 (Figure 7).20
Figure 7: The Edward Levanduski family in the 1905 New York State Census. Click image to enlarge.
By 1905, 22-year-old Katie and 21-year-old John were both employed as servants. Peter, age 17, and his 15-year-old brother, Joseph, were employed as day laborers, like their father. Anna, Anthony, and Walter were at school. Little Martha Levanduski, whose brief life was captured in the 1900 census, enumerated in June, died in August of that year.21 By 1905, the family had come to include two new members, as well: Mary Levanduski, born in 1901, and Josephine, born in 1903.22 The Levanduski family was now complete.
On 29 April 1907, Katherine Levanduski wed Joseph Bartoszewicz at St. Stephen’s parish in Middleport (Figure 8).23 Joseph was the son of Stephan/Stefan Bartoszewicz and Joanna Olszewska, and like Katherine, he was born in the Prussian partition of Poland and came to the U.S. as a small child.24 As evidenced by their marriage record, Joseph was a resident of Buffalo in 1907. The witnesses to the marriage were Joseph’s sister, Anna Bartoszewicz, and Katherine’s brother, John Levanduski. On 15 December 1907, Katherine Bartoszewicz gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter whom they named Anna.25
Figure 8: Marriage record from St. Stephen’s church in Middleport for Joseph Bartoszewicz and Katherine Levanduski, 29 April 1907.
The Buffalo Cereal Company
By 1909, the family was living at 23 Townsend Street in Buffalo, and Joseph was employed as a foreman at the Buffalo Cereal Company plant, located at the intersection of Elk Street and Abbott Road, about two miles from his home (Figure 9).26
Figure 9: The Buffalo Cereal Company plant as it appeared in 1908.
The Buffalo Cereal Company was established in 1901, and the plant was completed in 1902. According to A History of Buffalo: Its Men and Institutions: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, published in 1908,
“The plant consists of two groups of buildings, conveniently arranged and divided into eight sections, consisting of elevator, cereal mill, feed mill, drying and cleaning house, transformer house, and three warehouses. The buildings occupy a space of about seventy-five by three hundred and ninety feet, and are substantially built of brick and stone, with the exception of the elevator, which is of the usual crib construction and covered with corrugated iron. The plant is operated by electrical power from Niagara Falls, of which it has an installation of about seven hundred horsepower.
The elevator is equipped with the latest machinery for handling grain, and has an excellent system of dust collecting, which makes this part of the plant remarkably clean. …
The cleaning and drying house is a six-story fireproof building, constructed entirely of brick and steel, with the exception that the floors and bin work are constructed of reinforced concrete. One end of this building contains two large Hess driers, which have a capacity of several thousand bushels of corn and oats per day. These driers are operated by separate motors, and the drying is done entirely by steam, the operation thus being made practically free from all danger of fire. …
The company has shown steady growth since its organization, the milling plant alone giving employment to over one hundred men.”27
The emphasis on both the cleanliness of the plant, and its sturdy, fireproof construction, was probably intended to reassure readers regarding its safety and modernity in an era when flour mill explosions were regularly reported in the newspapers. A quick search for “flour mill explosion” or “grain mill explosion” in Newspapers or in the free digital newspaper archive, Old Fulton New York Postcards, suggests that the explosive nature of flour dust was recognized as early as the 1870s, and this problem continue to be an industrial concern even today. While most of us don’t think of flour as particularly hazardous—and in typical home settings, it’s not—flour dust is highly combustible. In order for flour dust to explode, certain conditions must be met: the flour must be finely dispersed in the air, in a confined space, and in the presence of an ignition source—such as a spark caused by static electricity.28 These conditions are all found in grain mills, and they all combined to create the explosion that caused the deaths of Joseph and John Levanduski, and seriously injured Joseph Bartoszewicz.
From Bartoszewicz to Bartek and Levanduski to Lendes
As I mentioned in the beginning, my early attempts to document this family tragedy were hampered by a lack of factual evidence. As with most family stories, Grandma’s account of the “fire in the sugar factory in the Larkin Building” contained a kernel of truth, but the devil is in the details. Buffalo had a number of grain mills back in the day, and without knowing the exact location or time period of the event, it was difficult to discover more information. Moreover, I was searching newspapers for the family surnames as they were usually encountered: phonetic variants of Bartoszewicz and Levanduski. What finally gave me my breakthrough, however, was a short entry in my research notes, where I recorded a comment from Grandma that Katherine Bartoszewicz used the name Bartek informally, circa 1930. This fact was confirmed by the 1909 Buffalo City Directory, in which Joseph Bartoszewicz appears twice, under the name Bartoszewicz, and also under the name Bartek (Figures 10a and b).29 In both entries, he was listed as a foreman, living at 23 Townsend Street.
Figure 10a: Joseph Bartosiewicz in the 1909 Buffalo City Directory.Figure 10b: Joseph Bartek in the 1909 Buffalo City Directory.
When I repeated my newspaper searches using this surname, at long last, I was able to locate articles about the fire at the Buffalo Cereal Company plant in 1910. And the Levanduski brothers? They were using the name Lendes! Figure 11 shows one of many newspaper headlines regarding the disaster.30
Figure 11: Front page of the Buffalo Evening News, 12 pm edition, on 5 January 1910 reporting the explosion at the Buffalo Cereal Company plant. Click image to enlarge.
The Explosion
On the evening of 4 January 1910, with 30 men at work in the plant, the yellow corn mill of the Buffalo Cereal Company exploded into flames. The explosion was believed to have been caused by dust accumulations that were ignited by sparks from a dynamo. Eleven men were in the yellow corn mill where the explosion occurred, and the rest were in the white corn mill, the 8-story grain elevator, and the warehouse. The group of eleven men included Joseph Bartek, foreman of the night crew, and Joseph Lendes. Joseph Lendes had been sent to the top of an 85-foot tower to keep clear the mouth of the grain spout while his brother-in-law, Joseph Bartek, worked below with the other men.
The explosion completely destroyed the grain elevator and the yellow corn mill. Four men were reported to have died in the explosion and the resulting three-alarm fire, identified as Joseph Lendes, Frank Gloecki [sic], Fred Laney, and Louis Krennan. Of Joseph Lendes, the article states, “nothing could be found. The little platform on which he had stood at the time the explosion occurred was wrecked, and the roof was completely torn away. That the man escaped with his life seems improbable.” Nine more men were injured, including John Landers [sic] of 23 Townsend Street, Joseph Bartek, Chris Schultz, John Shea, George Seligman, Fred Tryon, John H. Willis, Paul Fisher, and John Gorski. John Landers was reported to be a bag sewer, who suffered “face, hands, and body burns” and was sent to Emergency Hospital, “recovery doubtful.” (The former Emergency Hospital is presently known as Sheehan Memorial Hospital.30) The article continued to report that of all the injured, John Landers was burned the worst. Joseph Bartek, the night foreman, was also sent to Emergency Hospital and was reported to be seriously burned, but “may recover.” The men who had been working in the other areas of the plant were reported to have fought their way through the smoke and flames to drag the injured men to safety.
The Buffalo Evening News published the story of the explosion at noon, 3 pm, and 5 pm on January 5. By the time the 5 pm edition was published, the story had been updated to include photos of some of the victims, including Joseph “Bartek” Bartoszewicz and John “Lendes” Levanduski (Figure 12). These were the only photos of Joseph Bartoszewicz and John Levanduski which my husband’s family had ever seen.
Figure 12: Photos of Joseph Bartoszewicz and John Levanduski, identified as victims of the Buffalo Cereal Company plant explosion. Click image to enlarge.
The Buffalo Courier reported on the same disaster, but in their article, John Landers was called John Lendes and Joseph Bartek was called Joseph Bortek.32 The Courier specified the relationship between John and Joseph, stating, “Joseph Landes, a brother of John, who is at Emergency Hospital, is another of the missing. John Landes said that his brother was working only a few feet away from him and he could not understand how they became separated even in the confusion following the explosion.” Interestingly, the Courier‘s report omits any mention of Frank Gloecki or Glodecki among the missing and presumed dead. The article further reported that some of the injured were initially taken to Crotty’s saloon at 82 Abbott Road, where the ambulances were summoned by Crotty, and, “When John Lendes was being carried to the ambulance from the saloon he became half crazed with pain and broke away from the attendants. He ran for half a block before he was captured by the doctors and then had to be overpowered before he could be taken to the hospital.”
The Aftermath
In the days and weeks that followed, the Levanduski family’s personal tragedy continued to unfold in the newspapers. On January 6, the Buffalo Commercial reported that Fred Laney, initially thought to have been killed in the explosion, was found alive, but that Joseph Lendes and Frank Glodecki remained unaccounted for. The frozen ruins were being searched for their bodies, but fire engines were “still pumping water on the smoldering mounds of grain.”33According to the Commercial, Joseph Bartek and Chris Schultz were still in the Emergency Hospital but were recovering, while John Lendes and the others were still in serious condition. On January 10, the Buffalo Times reported that John Lendes died of his injuries.34 The article erroneously reports John’s age as 44, rather than 24, and similarly misstates Joseph’s age as 38, rather than 18. Despite this discrepancy, the article states that both of them lived “at the home of their sister, Mrs. Joseph Bartek, at No. 23 Townsend Street,” and continues, “Bartek, who was foreman at the elevator, was among those who received injuries at the fire and is now at the Emergency Hospital. Owing to his condition he was not informed this morning of the death of his brother-in-law in the same ward of the hospital in which he is lying.” John Levanduski was reported to be the fifth fatality from the explosion, with the other victims identified as Oscar Lawn [sic], Frank Gloeck, and Frank Zydell, and Joseph Lendes.
By January 11, Christopher Schultz had died, and Joseph Bartek had taken a turn for the worse (Figure 13).35 Both men had been initially considered to be doing well and likely to recover. By the 13th, grim headlines suggested that Joseph Bartek might not recover (Figure 14).36
Figure 13: Article from the Buffalo Evening News reporting the death of Christopher Schultz.
Figure 14: Article from the Buffalo Evening News reporting the worsening condition of Joseph Bartek.
On January 15, the Buffalo Evening News reported that the body of Joseph “Lendes” Levanduski was recovered from the ruins (Figure 15).37 The article noted that Mrs. Joseph Bartek, sister of the deceased, “was called away from the bedside of her husband at the Emergency Hospital to identify the body of her brother.” By January 30, Joseph Bartek was still reported to be in the hospital, and the body of Oscar Lonn (or Lawn) was discovered.38 Incredibly, Frank Gloecki, who was initially identified as a victim of the explosion, was found to be alive, having never been at work on the night of the fire. As the article states, “Detective Jerry Condon of the Louisiana Street [Police] station, went to Gloecki’s home at No. 45 Roberts Street yesterday afternoon and found him leisurely sitting down, smoking a pipe and oblivious to all the harrowing tales that had been printed concerning his death.”
Figure 15: Report from the Buffalo Evening News of the recovery of the body of Joseph Lendes from the ruins of the Buffalo Cereal Company’s plant.
Figure 16: Report from The Buffalo Times of the recovery of the body of Oscar Lonn.
Eventually, Joseph Bartoszewicz was able to recover from that fire to the extent that he was able to return to full-time employment. However, the physical and psychological trauma of this fire left scars that remained with him until his dying day. His story remains to be told at another time.
Lendes, Lewandowski, and Levanduski, Revisited
Although all the details of the tragedy at the Buffalo Cereal Company plant on the night of 4 January 1910 lined up well with that kernel of truth in Grandma’s story, I nevertheless obtained copies the death certificates for both John and Joseph Lendes. Joseph’s death certificate is shown in Figure 17.39
Figure 17: Death certificate for Joseph Lendes, date of death recorded as 14 January 1910.
The death certificate corrects the error reported in the newspaper that Joseph was 38 years old, and identifies him as the 19-year-old son of Stanislaus Lendes and Mary Wozniak, both born in Germany. (Joseph was only 18 in January 1910, but would turn 19 in May.) His date and place of birth, 16 May 1891 in Middleport, New York, agree with prior evidence. Joseph was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, located in Lackawanna, New York, on 16 January 1910.
John’s death certificate is shows in Figure 18.40
Figure 18: Death certificate of John Lewandowski, 10 January 1910.
Despite having been identified in the newspapers as John Lendes, John’s death certificate gave him back his original surname, John Lewandowski. His sister, Katherine Bartoszewicz of 23 Townsend Street was the informant, and she identified their parents as Stanislaus Lewandowski and Mary Wozniak. As with the death certificate for his brother, Joseph, the document corrects John’s age as it was erroneously reported in the newspaper, from 44 years to 24 years, 8 months, and 4 days. He was reported to have been born 6 May 1885 in Germany, consistent with prior evidence, and he was buried in St. Stanislaus Cemetery. His cause of death was “burns, accidental,” as a result of having been “caught in burning building.” Interestingly, John was reported to have been a resident of Buffalo for only one year, while Joseph had been a resident for four years. It may be that the information regarding Joseph’s residency is incorrect, since Katherine Bartoszewicz herself had likely only been a resident of Buffalo for the three years since her marriage in 1907.
John Levanduski’s death was also reported in the local Polish newspaper, the Polak w Ameryce (Figure 19).41
Figure 19: Death notice for Jan Lewandowski from the Polak w Ameryce, 11 January 1910.
The death notice reads in translation,
“On Monday, the 10th day of January in the year 1910 at 7:10 in the morning, departed this world after short and heavy suffering, after having received the Sacraments, of holy memory,
Jan Lewandowski
The late Jan Lewandowski was born on 6 May 1885 in the Grand Duchy of Poznań. He came to America in 1885, 24 years ago. The funeral will be held on Wednesday, 12 January, at 9:45 a.m. from the home of the bereaved at 23 Townsend St. to the church of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr, and afterwards to the place of eternal rest. To this sad rite the bereaved are invited.
Stanisław Lewandowski, father, Katarzyna and Anna, sisters, Piotr, brother, and Józef Bartoszewicz, brother-in-law.”
The information on the death notice agrees with all the previous evidence for John Levanduski’s place and date of birth, arrival in the U.S., and the names of his surviving father and full siblings. The death notice was obtained courtesy of the Polish Genealogical Society of New York State, following a search of their databases. The PGSNYS also offers this guide for translation of these death notices.
Every family has its share of loss, sorrow, and tragedy, and the Levanduski family was certainly no exception. Unfortunately, the family stories that draw us into genealogical research don’t always have happy endings, but the tragic stories are no less worthy of being told. Although John and Joseph Levanduski left no descendants to remember them and to say their names, their story was preserved in the paper trail of newspapers and documents. With a little persistence, that story has come to light. Rest in peace, John and Joseph Levanduski.
2“Urząd Stanu Cywilnego Rogowo-Wieś, 1874-1913,” (Rogowo, Żnin, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland), Akta małżeństw, 1882, no. 38, Stanislaus Lewandowski and Marianna Wozniak, 9 September 1882; digital image, Genealogiawarchiwach (https://www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl/ : 04 March 2022), images 39 and 40 of 68, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Bydgoszczy Oddział w Inowrocławiu, Sygnatura 7/540/0/2.2/26.
3 “Wola 1)” [Wola, Znin, Bromberg, Posen, Preussen], Searchthe Meyers Gazetteer (https://www.meyersgaz.org/ : 04 March 2022), citing Uetrecht, E. (Erich), Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs, 5th edition, Leipzig and Wien: Bibliographisches Institut, 1912, p 1180.
4 “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego Rogowo-Wieś, 1874-1913,” Akta urodzeń, 1883, no. 208, Catharina Lewandowska, 11 October 1883; digital image, Genealogiawarchiwach (https://www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl : 04 March 2022), image 209 of 268, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Bydgoszczy Oddział w Inowrocławiu, Sygnatura 7/540/0/2.1/28; and
“Urząd Stanu Cywilnego Rogowo-Wieś, 1874-1913,” 1885, Akta urodzeń, no. 93, Johann Lewandowski, 5 May 1885; digital images, Genealogiawarchiwach (https://www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl : 04 March 2022), image 93 of 262, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Bydgoszczy Oddział w Inowrocławiu, Sygnatura 7/540/0/2.1/34.
5Manifest, SS Sprite, departing Hamburg, Deutschland, 10 April 1886, p. 559, lines 11-15, Lewandowsky family and Weronika Wozniak; imaged as “Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934,” database with images, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com/ : 04 March 2022); citing Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Bestand: 373-7 I, VIII (Auswanderungsamt I). Mikrofilmrollen K 1701 – K 2008, S 17363 – S 17383, 13116 – 13183.
6Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), “Church Records, 1878-1917,” Baptisms, 1878-1901, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 10 June, Patricius Levendeski, born 28 May 1888; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : 3 March 2022), FHL film no. 1378522, item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 19 of 154.
7 Joseph J. Levanduski, Jr., Medina, New York, email to Julie Szczepankiewicz, 14 March 2007; Correspondence with Joseph Levanduski, privately held by Julie Szczepankiewicz.
8Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), “Church Records, 1878-1917,” Baptisms, 1878-1901,1891, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 17 February, Josephum Levendeski, born 15 February 1891; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: 05 March 2022), FHL film no. 1378522, item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 23 of 154.
9Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), “Church Records, 1878-1917,” Marriages, 1878–1900, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 1889, June 22, Eduardus Lipkoski and Veronica Wisnaik; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : 6 March 2022), Family History Library film no. 1378522, item 4/DGS no. 8273181, image 128 of 154.
10New York, Supreme Court, Orleans County, Petitions for Naturalization, 1887-1893, vol. 5, p. 291, Stanislaw Lewandowski, 14 September 1891; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : 06 March 2022); image 169 of 278.
11New York, State Census, 1892, Orleans County population schedule, Shelby, Election District no. 3, page 15, Adcker Lewenoboski household; digital image, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com : 6 March 2022), citing New York State Education Department, Office of Cultural Education. New York State Library, Albany, NY.
12Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), Church Records, 1878-1917, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 1893, 1 January, Veronica Levenduski, born 26 December 1892; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : 7 March 2022), Family History Library film no. 1378522 item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 26 of 154.
13 Death records from St. Stephen’s in Middleport are available from the date of Veronica’s birth through March 1899, and there is no death record for her. There is also no good match in the “New York, U.S., Death Index, 1852-1956,” searching for “?e??nd?sk*” in 1896 +/- 5 years.
14Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), Church Records, 1878-1917, Baptisms, 1878-1901, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 1894, 24 June, Anna Levendeski, born 14 June 1894; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : 7 March 2022), Family History Library film no. 1378522, item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 27 of 154.
15 Town Clerk, Shelby, Orleans, New York, Death Register, unknown range of dates, no. 72, Mary Levenduski, 10 April 1896; Shelby Town Hall, 4062 Salt Works Rd., Medina, New York.
16Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), Church Records, 1878-1917, Record of Marriages, 1878–1900, unnumbered entries in chronological order, Levendeski et Budzinski, 12 May 1896; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : 7 March 2022), Family History Library film no. 1378522, item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 132 of 154.
17Roman Catholic Church (Niestronno, Mogilno, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland), “Ksiegi metrykalne, 1722-1952,” Akta urodzen 1866-1913, 1867, no. 1, Antonina Budzinska, born 5 January 1867; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : 7 March 2022), Family History Library Film no .2151453 item 5/DGS no. 8120936, image 873 of 1037.
18 Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), Church Records, 1878-1917, Baptisms, 1878-1901, 1897, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 28 February, Antonius Levendeski, born 23 February 1897; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: 07 March 2022), FHL film no. 1378522, item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 30 of 154; and
Ibid., 1898, 14 August, Ladislaus Lavenduski, born 8 August 1898; image 33 of 154; and
Ibid., 1899, July 23, Martha Levinduski, born 14 July 1899; image 63 of 154.
191900 United States Federal Census, Orleans County population schedule, Shelby township, Enumeration District 110, sheets 21A and B, family no. 543, Edward Lavendusky household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/ : 9 March 2022), citing NARA publication T623, 1,854 rolls, no particular roll specified.
20 1905 New York State census, Orleans County population schedule, town of Shelby, Election District 2, page 43, lines 3-13, Edward Levenduski household; database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : 9 March 2022), “New York, U.S., State Censuses, 1880, 1892, 1905” > 1905 > Orleans > Shelby > image74 of 80.
21“New York, U.S., Death Index, 1852-1956,” database with images, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/ : 9 March 2022), Martha Levenduski, 13 August 1900, Shelby, New York, certificate no. 32891.
22 Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York, USA), Baptizorum Registrum, 1899-1943, p 15, unnumbered entries in chronological order, Josepha Levinduski, born 17 February 1903; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : 10 March 2022), “Church Records, 1878-1917,” FHL film no. 1378522, item 1/DGS no. 8273181, image 70 of 154; and
23 Roman Catholic Church, St. Stephen’s parish (Middleport, Niagara, New York), “Record of Marriages, 1900 – ?”, p 18, 1907, unnumbered entries in chronological order, 29 April, Bartoszewicz & Levinduski; Holy Trinity Parish (Parish created by merger of St. Stephen’s in Middleport with Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s parishes in Medina), 211 Eagle Street, Medina, New York.
24 Manifest, SS Pennsylvania, arrived 13 October 1890, p 3, lines 19-29, Bartuszewitz family; imaged as “Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962.” database with images, Ancestry (http://search.ancestry.com : 12 March 2022), citing National Archives at Washington, D.C., “Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Record Group No. 85, series T840, roll no. 14, image 345 of 860.
25 Supreme Court of Erie County, New York, Petition for Naturalization no. 2653, Joseph Bartoszewicz, 9 February 1914; Erie County Clerk, 92 Franklin St., Buffalo, NY 14202.
26 Buffalo Street Directory 1909, no author or original publication data available, p 168, entry for Bartosiewicz, Joseph, accessed as browsable images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/ : 12 March 2022), path: “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” > New York > Erie > Buffalo > 1909 > Buffalo, New York, City Directory, 1909 > image 82 of 482; and
Hausauer-Jones Printing Company, A History of the City of Buffalo: Its Men and Institutions: Biiographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, (Buffalo, New York: The Buffalo Evening News, 1908), pp 123-124, “The Buffalo Cereal Company;” e-book, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/ : 12 March 2022).
27 Ibid.
28“Reducing the Risk of Explosion in Flour Mills,” Hafcovac (https://www.hafcovac.com/blog/ : posted 16 January 2020, accessed 12 March 2022).
29 Buffalo Street Directory 1909, no author or original publication data available, p 167,entry for Bartek, Joseph, and p 168, entry for Bartosiewicz, Joseph, accessed as browsable images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestraccessed as browsable images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/ : 15 May 2020), path: “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” > New York > Erie > Buffalo > 1909 > Buffalo, New York, City Directory, 1909 > images 81 and 82 of 482.
30 “Explosion Wrecks Plant, Kills Three Men and Injures Nine: Spontaneous Combustion Cause of $150,000 Conflagration at Buffalo Cereal Company, Abbott Road and Elk Street.,” Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New York), 05 January 1910 (Wednesday), 12 pm edition, p. 1, cols. 1–3; 3 pm edition, p. 1; 5:00 pm edition, pp. 1 and 5; digital images, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com/image/351516885/ : 14 March 2022).
31 “Sisters of Charity Hospital (Buffalo, N.Y.),” Social Networks and Archival Context (https://snaccooperative.org/ : 14 March 2022).
33 “Laney is Alive: Was Thought to Have Been Killed in Cereal Company Explosion. Two Still Missing. Frozen Ruins Are Being Searched for Bodies of Lendes and Glodecki,” The Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York), 6 June 1910 (Thursday), p. 10, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com :14 March 2022).
34“Dies While His Brother’s Body Lies in Debris: John Lendes, A Victim of Buffalo Cereal Company’s Fire. Bodies of Joseph Lendes and Three Other Men Still in the Ruins,” The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York), 10 January 1910 (Monday), p 4, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : 14 March 2022).
35“Sixth Victim of Cereal Company Fire,” Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New York) 11 January 1910 (Tuesday), p 11, col. 6; digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : 15 March 2022), image 27 of 32.
36 “May Be Third Death in Same Family,” Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New York), 13 January 1910 (Thursday), p. 11, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : 15 March 2022), image 27 of 32.
37“Joseph Lendes’ Body Found in the Ruins: First of Four Victims of the Buffalo Cereal Company Fire to Be Recovered,” Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New York), 15 January 1910 (Saturday), p. 1, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : 15 March 2022), image 1 of 24.
38 “Lonn’s Charred Body Is Found: Third Victim of Cereal Plant Fire. Gloecki Turns Up Alive,” The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York), 30 January 1910 (Sunday); digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : 15 March 2022), image 29 of 63.
39 City of Buffalo, Bureau of Vital Statistics (Buffalo, Erie, New York), “Death Certificates,” 1910, no. 95, Joseph Lendes, 14 January 1910, Erie County Clerk’s Office, 92 Franklin St., Buffalo, New York.
40 Ibid., no. 422, John Lewandowski, 10 January 1910.
41Polak w Ameryce (Buffalo, New York), 11 January 1910, death notice for Jan Lewandowski, Polish Genealogical Society of New York State, Buffalo, New York.
In my last post, I discussed the challenges inherent to researching a family whose documented surname variants strayed from the usual etymological and phonetic path. As previously noted, Antoni Szyfrynowicz was an individual whose name was recorded with a number of variant spellings, and who was documented in historical records spanning an area of more than 4,000 square kilometers. Is it possible, then, that there was more than one Antoni Szyfrynowicz? Since genealogical research is all about resolving questions of kinship and identity, how do I know that all of the records I’ve found are for the same Antoni?
Antoni and Anna (Naciążęk) Szyfrynowicz: Digging Deeper with “Alternate Facts”
By and large, I think the evidence pretty consistently describes the same individual, although there are a few conflicts within the data set that need to be resolved. Let’s take a closer look at what we know about Antoni Szyfrynowicz, and discuss a bit of methodology along the way.
My favorite method for keeping track of evidence for individuals in my family tree is the use of “alternate facts.” Different software platforms offer different methods for viewing alternate facts within your tree. If you keep your tree on Ancestry, you can enable this feature by selecting the profile of an individual in your tree, and then, in the “Facts” view, selecting “Filter” and ticking the boxes for “Name and Gender” and “Alternate Facts” as shown in Figure 1. When these “Name and Gender” alternate facts are enabled, it’s possible to view the different spellings found for Antoni’s surname and the sources attached to each.
Figure 1: Top portion of the profile page for Antoni Szyfrynowicz from my family tree on Ancestry, showing “Alternate Facts” and “Name and gender” displays enabled. Click image to enlarge.
I’m a Family Tree Maker (FTM) fan, and I especially like FTM’s display of this same information in a way that’s more visually compact, via the “Person” view for Antoni Szyfrynowicz (Figure 2). Note that FTM synchronizes with Ancestry, so updates to my FTM tree offline can be synced to my online tree, and vice versa. (Please note that I’m not affiliated in any way with FTM or its producer, Software MacKiev, I just like this product.)
Figure 2: Person view for Antoni Szyfrynowicz from my tree in Family Tree Maker, showing preferred facts and alternates, with occurrences of each fact tallied. Click image to enlarge.
The key utility in both of these applications is the ability to add “alternate facts,” in addition to a designated “preferred fact,” and to attach source citations to each. By doing so, you’re able to visualize those preponderances of evidence as they develop, and you can adapt your “preferred facts” accordingly. It was through this method that I was able to decide that the preferred version of my great-great-grandmother’s maiden name shouldn’t really be Maciążek, as was recorded on my great-grandfather’s marriage record, but rather Naciążek.
In order for this system to work, it’s necessary to extract every fact from each historical source discovered in the research, and attach it to the relevant person in the tree. As an example, the death record for Antoni Szyfrynowicz is shown in Figure 3.1
Figure 3: Death record from Dmosin parish for Antoni Szyfrynowicz, who died 10 February 1862.
The record states,
“14. Osiny. Działo się we wsi Dmosinie dnia dziesiątego Lutego, Tysiąc Ośmset Sześćdziesiątego Drugiego Roku, o godzinie drugiej w wieczór. Stawili się Jan Janaszek, parobek we wsi Osinowie zamieszkały lat dwadzieścia ośm, i Kazimierz Latka, służący Kościoła z wsi Dmosina, lat trzydzieści ośm mający, i oświadczyli: że w dniu dzisiejszym o godzinie ósmej rano umarł Antoni Szyfrynowicz, bedarz [sic] we wsi Osinach zamieszkały, urodzony we wsi Kamionie lat sześćdziesiąt ośm mający, syn Józefa i Maryjanny z Ziółkowskich, małżonków Szyfrynowiczów mularzy zmarłych. Zostawiwszy po sobie owdowiałą żonę Annę z Naciążków. Po Przekonaniu się naocznie o zejściu Antoniego Szyfrynowicza, Akt ten stawającym pisać nie umiejącym przyczytany, przez Nas tylko podpisany został. [Signed] Xiądz Franciszek Kostecki, Kommen[darz] Parafii Dmosińskiej, Utrzymujący Akta Stanu Cywilnego”
In translation,
No. 14. Osiny. This happened in the village of Dmosin on the tenth day of February in the year one thousand eight hundred sixty-two, at two o’clock in the evening. Jan Janaszek, a farmhand residing in the village of Osiny, having twenty-eight years of age, and Kazimierz Latka, a church servant of the village of Dmosin, having thirty-eight years, appeared and declared: that on this day, at eight o’clock in the morning, Antoni Szyfrynowicz died, a cooper residing in the village of Osiny, born in the village of Kamion, age sixty-eight, son of the spouses Józef and Marianna née Ziółkowskich, deceased masons. He leaves after himself his widowed wife, Anna née Naciążek. After visual confirmation of the death of Antoni Szyfrzynowicz, this Act was read to those present, who are unable to write, and was signed only by us. [signed] Fr. Franciszek Kostecki, Pastor of the parish of Dmosin, Performing the Duties of Civil Registrar
Based on this translation, this record can serve as a source for Antoni Szyfrynowicz’s
name,
occupation in 1862,
date of death,
residence in 1862,
year of birth,
father’s name,
father’s occupation,
mother’s name, and
wife’s name
—at minimum. The record does not explicitly state that the burial took place on the date of the record, but some researchers infer that. It also sometimes happens that the witnesses were relatives, and when that is the case, the same record can also serve as evidence for their names, years of birth, places of residence, and occupations. So, once I’ve created a source citation for this death record, I can attach it to at least nine different facts, and four people, in my family tree. The same process is applied to every other historical document I discover for my family and attach to my tree. If you build your tree using documents found online through Ancestry’s subscription databases, Ancestry will walk you through this process to a certain extent. However, it’s just as important to create and attach source citations to facts in the tree for documents found elsewhere.
It takes some discipline to commit to crafting a unique citation for each source in your tree, but the benefits to doing that are huge. In fact, the most important piece of advice I would give to any budding genealogist is to cite sources thoroughly and consistently, for every piece of information you add to your family tree. While I I don’t consider myself an expert in writing source citations, I do my best to adhere to the principles and examples found in Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. To make things easier, FTM offers a source citation generator that roughly follows Mills’ structure, and the citations can be further refined manually. Whether or not my source citations are entirely perfect, I think (hope) they serve the purpose of allowing other researchers to understand where I found a particular piece of evidence: what source document, and where that source document can be located, whether online or offline, so that my research is reproducible. Better still, going forward, I will never again have to wonder where I found a certain bit of information. (As for the information added to my tree when I was a baby genealogist, going back and adding proper source citations is a work in progress.)
When all the evidence for Antoni Szyfrynowicz is tallied in this fashion, here’s what we know:
Date of birth
Antoni Szyfrynowicz was born between 1793 2 and 1803,3 but most probably between 1794 and 1795, based on the fact that five of 11 independent sources point to a birth circa 1794–1795.1,4,5,6,7 Although an 11-year range in estimated date of birth based on age reported in vital records may seem a little broad to some researchers, it’s not uncomfortably so, in my mind. His death record states that he was born in Kamion, which is ambiguous, since there are multiple places in Poland by that name. However, the fact that he was married circa 1822 to Anna Naciążek, who was born in Giżyce,8 suggests that he was born in the village of Kamion located 16.5 km/10 miles northeast of Giżyce.
Occupation
Despite the fact that Antoni was noted to be residing in a dozen different villages between 1823 and 1862, he was almost always recorded as a bednarz (cooper). Only two records mention another occupation: the birth record of his daughter, Marianna Szyfrynowicz, who was born in Kiernozia in 1836,9 and the marriage record of that same daughter, Marianna, from Oparów in 1855.10 In both of those records, Antoni was noted to be a szynkarz (innkeeper). That same marriage record presents another conflict in the evidence: it describes Marianna as, “Córka Antoniego już zmarłego i Anny z Naciążków Małżonków Szyfrynowicz, szynkarzy, urodzoną w Kiernozi parafii także (?) a zamieszkałą w Oporowie w służbie we Dworze zostająca lat dziewiętnaście mający.” In translation, “Daughter of Antoni, already deceased, and Anna née Naciążek, the spouses Szyfrynowicz, innkeepers, born in Kiernozia, parish likewise, and residing in Oporów in service at the manor, having nineteen years of age.”
That’s a bit more problematic. In this record, not only was Antoni recorded with a different occupation, but he was also reported to be already deceased, in contrast to the death record shown in Figure 3 which indicates that Antoni Szyfrynowicz, a cooper, died in 1862 at the age of 68. This does seem to suggest that there were two different men named Antoni Szyfrynowicz, both born around the same time, one a cooper who died in 1862, and one an innkeeper who died before 1855. But here’s why I don’t think that’s the case:
Wife’s Name
Antoni’s wife was recorded as Anna in all 17 documents discovered to date, nine of which specify a maiden name of Naciązek, and four of which indicate a reasonable misspelling thereof. Two more don’t identify her maiden name at all. The only real outlier is the death record for Józefa “Szufrynowicz” from Bielawy, which identifies her mother as Anna Strzelecka, which we’ll get to in a moment.11 Both of these surnames, Naciążek and Szyfrynowicz, are relatively rare. Naciążek is so rare, that there are only 150 instances of this exact surname found in the Geneteka database, which currently contains nearly 48 million indexed entries. Of those 150 instances, all of the indexed entries from the Łódź province are related to this family, and many (or most) of the entries from the Mazowieckie province are related as well. While it’s a little more difficult to estimate the popularity of the Szyfrynowicz surname due to the large number of variant spellings, a search on just that spelling indicates only seven entries in Geneteka, all of which pertain to this family. What are the odds that there were two different men named Antoni Szyfrynowicz, living concurrently in the same general part of Poland, both of whom were married to women named Anna Naciążek?
Negative Evidence
If we suppose that there were two different men named Antoni Szyfrynowicz, one of whom died before 1855 and was the father of Marianna, we might expect to find a corresponding death record. Extensive searching in Geneteka did not produce any promising matches, although the possibility remains that such a record exists in an unindexed parish. Similarly, if there were another Antoni who was married to Anna Strzelecka, we might expect to find a record of that marriage somewhere, or a death record for Anna (Strzelecka) Szyfrynowicz. Extensive searching in Geneteka did not produce any likely matches for those records, either. It’s also important to consider that the two occupations, innkeeper and cooper, are not mutually exclusive. It may be that Antoni was, at different times in his life, both an innkeeper and a cooper.
At this point, I think the data are reasonably consistent, pointing to the existence of only one Antoni Szyfrynowicz, who was an itinerant cooper from the Łowicz area, who sometimes kept an inn; who was married to Anna Naciążek, and who died in 1862, but apparently skipped out on the wedding of his daughter, Marianna, in 1855, and was misrecorded as being deceased. These conclusions are nonetheless preliminary and speculative, and some of them might be disproved with further research. This is why the Genealogical Proof Standard requires “reasonably exhaustive research” as its first requirement. Additional evidence—particularly from non-metrical records—can likely be discovered for Antoni Szyfrynowicz that will help to clarify our present understanding of his life story.
Sources:
1Roman Catholic Church, Dmosin parish (Dmosin, Brzeziny, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Dmosinie, 1808–1920,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1862 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates,1862), Zgony [deaths], no. 14, Antoni Szyfrzynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1456d, Jednostka: 1862 / UMZ-1862, Katalog: Zgony, Plik: 010-015; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi [State Archive in Łódź].
2Roman Catholic Church, Żychlin parish (Żychlin, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Żychlinie, 1808–1911,” [Civil Status Records of the Roman Catholic Parish in Żychlin, 1808 – 1911], Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1833 r. [Birth, marriage, and death certificates, 1833], Urodzenia [Births], no. 52, Paulina Sitnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1757d, Jednostka: 1833 / UMZ-1833, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 052-059; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
3 Roman Catholic Church, Wiskitki parish (Wiskitki, Zyrardów, Mazowieckie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Wiskitkach, 1826 – 1911,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1843 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates, 1843], Urodzenia [births], no. 15, Wincenty Apolinary Szafranowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 12 April 2023), Zespół: 0061d, Jednostka: 1843 / Księga UMZ-1843 r., Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 010-015; citing Archiwum Państwowe m. st. Warszawy, Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim.
4 Roman Catholic Church, Bielawy parish (Bielawy, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Bielawach, 1809 – 1877 r.,” [Civil Status Files of the Roman Catholic Parish of Bielawy, 1809 – 1877], Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1852 r. [Birth, marriage and death files, 1852], zgony [deaths], no. 9, Paulina Szyfnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1409d, Jednostka: 1852 / UMZ-1852, Katalog: zgony, Plik: 009-014; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
5 Roman Catholic Church (Śleszyn, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Sołek–Śleszynie, 1810-1875,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Birth, marriage and death certificates], 1830; Urodzenia [births], no. 36, Joanna Sypnorowicz; indexed by anton_burza, Geneteka (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 12 April 2023); image copy obtained from indexer, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi, Sygnatura 39/1675/0.
6Roman Catholic Church, Leszno parish (Leszno, Warszawa Zachodnia, Mazowieckie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Lesznie,1826–1913,” Ksiega Duplikat do zapisywania Akt Religijno-Cywilnych Urodzenia Malzenstw i Zeyscia dla Parafii Leszno na Rok 1841 r. [Duplicate Book of Religious Civil Certificates of Birth, Marriage, and Death of the Parish of Leszno, 1841], Urodzenia [Births], no. 9, Marcella Agnieszka Szifnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 12 April 2023), Zespól: 0071d. Jednostka: 116, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 004-009.jpg; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim.
7Roman Catholic Church, Plecka Dąbrowa parish (Plecka Dąbrowa, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Pleckiej Dąbrowie, 1810-1918,” Księga urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Book of births, marriages, and deaths], 1847, zgony [deaths], no. 4, Joanna Szyfrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka– Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : accessed 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1627d, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
8 Roman Catholic Church, Głowno parish (Głowno, Zgierz, Lódz, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Głownie, 1808 – 1919,” 1868, Deaths, no. 18, Anna Szyfrzynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/: accessed 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1474d, Jednostka: 1868 / UMZ-1868, Katalog: Zgony, Plik 15-18.jpg.
9Roman Catholic Church, Kiernozia parish (Kiernozia, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Kiernozi, 1810-1888 r,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1836 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates, 1836], Urodzenia [births], no. 14, Marianna Szyfrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1508d, Jednostka: 1836 / UMZ-1836, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 10-15; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
10Roman Catholic Church, Oparów parish (Oparów, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Oporowie, 1808 – 1919,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Birth, marriage and death certificates], 1855, Małżeństwa [marriages], no. 14, Michal Trafalski and Maryanna Szyfrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 12 April 2023), Zespół: 1606d, Jednostka: 1855 / UMZ-1855, Katalog: Małżeństwa, Plik: 12-15; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
11 Roman Catholic Church, Bielawy parish (Bielawy, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Bielawach, 1809 – 1877 r.,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1848 r. [Birth, marriage and death files, 1848], zgony [deaths], no. 140, Józefa Szufrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023); Zespół: 1409d, Jednostka: 1848 / UMZ-1848, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 127-140; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the kind assistance of Roman Kałużniacki in reviewing my transcription and translation of Antoni Szyfrynowicz’s death record, and for his helpful comments.
Recently, I wrote about the challenges inherent to genealogists as they track name changes and variant surname spellings used by their immigrant ancestors. I used the example of the Batkiewicz/Bartkiewicz/Watkiewicz/Wątkiewicz family of Buffalo, New York, who informally changed their surname to Bitner/Bittner between 1910 and 1915. Although Polish surnames would seem to be especially susceptible to such changes, similar examples can be found across all ethnic groups, and even the “simple” Irish surname, Walsh, has been recorded with multiple variant spellings, ranging from Welch and Welsh to Breatnach, according to Irish researcher John Grenham.1
However, I’ve encountered another such example that’s so much fun, that I just have to share it. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may recall my ongoing quest to identify parents and place of birth for my great-great-grandmother, Antonina Zarzycka, whose maiden name was variously recorded as Naciążek, Raciążek, and Maciążek. Last fall, I was finally able to locate birth and death records for her which confirmed that her parents were Franciszek and Marianna (Kowalska) Naciązek. Of course, one discovery leads to another, and Franciszek Naciążek was identified as the son of Piotr and Małgorzata (__) Naciążek.2 Furthermore, there’s evidence that Piotr and Małgorzata had a daughter, Anna, who married Antoni Szyfrynowicz,3 and that’s where the variant-surname mayhem begins.
Introducing Antoni and Anna Szyfrynowicz/ Zytnerowicz/Szufrynowicz/Sypnorowicz… Whatever!
The picture that has emerged from the research thus far looks like this: Anna Naciążek was born to Piotr and Małgorzata (__) Naciążek between 1798 and 1804 in the village of Giżyce, in what is now Sochaczew County, Poland. She was born during that brief historical interlude when this area was under Prussian control, between the final partition of Poland in 1795 and the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. (Further information on Poland’s changing borders can be found here.) She married Antoni Szyfrynowicz circa 1822, estimated from the 1823 birth of their oldest child discovered to date. However, the picture of these earliest years of Anna’s life is clouded by a lack of available evidence.
Significant gaps exist in collections of vital records for Giżyce from both the Archiwum Diecezji Łowickiej (diocesan archive in Łowicz) which has no birth records prior to 1826, and no marriage records prior to 1827, as well as the Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim (state archive in Grodzisk Mazowiecki), which has limited birth, marriage and death records from the first half of the 19th century (1810, and 1823–1825 only). Furthermore, I believe that all the early 19th-century (and earlier) records from the parish archive have now been transferred to the diocesan archive, as discussed previously, so there’s no hope of finding additional records onsite at the parish to fill those gaps. This means that Anna’s birth record, her marriage record, and the birth records of any children born prior to 1823, may no longer exist, which complicates the research.
Nonetheless, we know that Antoni and Anna had a daughter, Katarzyna Marianna Zytnerowicz, who was born in Giżyce on 29 April 1823.4 Following Katarzyna’s birth in Giżyce, the family migrated to the village of Walewice in Bielawy parish, some 46 km/29 miles away, where their son, Ignacy Szufrynowicz, was born on 3 February 1825.5 Five years later, a daughter, Joanna Nepomucena Sypnorowicz, was born in the village of Śleszyn on 9 October 1830.6 Another daughter, Paulina Sitnerowicz, was born on 17 June 1833 in Budzyń,7 and the following year, Antoni and Anna suffered the loss of their daughter, Joanna, on 10 May 1834, while still living in Budzyń.8 At least within that parish, the same spelling of their surname was used consistently, and Joanna’s surname was recorded as Sitnerowicz on her death record, never mind the fact that she was Sypnorowicz when she was born.
By 1836, the family had migrated yet again, this time to Kiernozia, where their daughter, Marianna Szyfrynowicz, was born on 26 March 1836.9 Following a six-year gap, they emerged in the historical records in Leszno, 56 km/35 miles east of their previous residence in Kiernozia. Another daughter was born in Leszno—Marcella Agnieszka Szifnernowicz, on 16 January 1841.10 1843 found Antoni and Anna in Wiskitki, where a son, Wincenty Apolinary Szafranowicz was born on 8 January 1843.11 He died in Wiskitki two months later, on 12 March 1843 under the name Wincenty Appolinary Sznuffrynowicz.12
Antoni and Anna’s youngest known child was another daughter named Joanna who was born 24 May 1844 back in Śleszyn.13 She was baptized as Joanna Sitnerowicz, but was recorded as Joanna Szyfrynowicz when she died at the age of three on 3 March 1847 in Tomczyce.14 By 1848, the family had returned to Walewice, where their eight-year-old daughter, Józefa Szufrynowicz, died on 13 November 1848.15 Józefa’s birth record has not yet been located. Her age at the time of death suggests a birth circa 1840, but the fact that Anna and Antoni’s daughter Marcella was born in January 1841, suggests a greater likelihood that Józefa was born earlier, circa 1839.
At this point, it’s not known where the family was living at that time. Leszno would be a possibility, since that’s where Marcella was born. However, birth records for Leszno are indexed in Geneteka for the entire period from 1808–1916 with no gaps, yet Józefa’s birth record is not found. Moreover, there are no promising matches in any indexed parish within the present-day Mazowieckie or Łódzkie provinces, which most likely suggests that Józefa was baptized in a parish whose records have not yet been indexed for that time period. Alternatively, her birth record may no longer exist.
Eighteen-year-old Paulina Szyfnerowicz died on 1 February 1852 while employed as a housekeeper at Walewice Palace.16 Her sister, Marianna Szyfrynowicz, married Michał Trafalski on 17 June 1855 in Oporów,17 but died two years later in Wola Owsiana, on 24 October 1857.18 Their father, Antoni Szyfrynowicz, died on 9 February 1862 in the village of Osiny.19 A map showing the family’s travels between 1822 and 1862 is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Map of the Szyfrynowicz family’s migrations, which took place between 1822–1862, after Antoni and Anna’s probable marriage in Giżyce, and up to Paulina’s death in Walewice. Google Maps. Click image for interactive map.
Anna herself died six years later, in the village of Wymyśłow, on 7 August 1868. Her death record, written in Russian, is shown in Figure 2.3
Figure 2: Death record from Głowno parish for Anna (née Naciążek) Szyfrynowicz. Anna’s name is underlined in red, written first in Russian, then in Polish (Анна Шифриновичъ/Anna Szyfrynowicz). Her maiden name was similarly recorded (Націонжекъ/Naciążek) and is also underlined in red. Parents’ names (Піотра и Малгожаты Націонжекъ) are underlined in green.
This is the only record discovered to date which identifies Anna’s parents as Piotr and Małgorzata, thus appending her to my family tree. In translation,* the record states,
“No. 18. Wymysłów. It happened in the town of Głowno on the eighth day of August in the year one thousand eight hundred sixty-eight at four o’clock in the afternoon. Filip Jagiełło, age thirty-two, and Marcin Nadolski, age twenty-six, manorial farm servants, living in the village of Wymysłów, appeared and stated that yesterday, at two o’clock in the morning, Anna Szyfrynowicz, née Naciążek, died, a widow of her deceased husband, Antoni Szyfrynowicz, laborer living in the village of Wymysłów, born in the village of Giżyce, daughter of the deceased spouses Piotr and Małgorzata Naciążek; she leaves behind her daughter Marcella; the deceased was age seventy. After visual confirmation of the death of Anna Szyfrynowicz, this document was read to those present and was signed only by Us due to their illiteracy. [signed] Rev. Stanisław Biekalski, Keeper of the Civil Registers, Głowno Parish.”
The fact that only one daughter is mentioned in the death notice suggests that Anna outlived eight of her nine children, although death records have not yet been discovered for the oldest two children, Katarzyna and Ignacy. Marcella’s story continues through vital records, and additional documents pertaining to the parents and siblings of Antoni Szyfrynowicz could probably be located; however, the examples shown thus far pertaining to Antoni and Anna’s immediate family are sufficient to illustrate the challenges inherent to this research.
Researching the Szyfrynowicz Family in Geneteka
All of this evidence for the Szyfrynowicz family was discovered thanks to the Polish vital records database, Geneteka. The surname variants, and the number of occurrences of each, are summarized in the table shown in Figure 3.
Surname Variant
Occurrences Found in Vital Records
Sitnerowicz
3
Sypnorowicz
2
Szafranowicz
1
Szifnerowicz
1
Sznuffrynowicz
1
Szufrynowicz
2
Szyfnerowicz
1
Szyfrynowicz
5
Zytnerowicz
1
Figure 3: Surname variants found in vital records documenting the family of Antoni and Anna Szyfrynowicz, and the number of occurrences found for each variant.
In addition to the wildly divergent surname variations observed with the Szyfrynowicz surname, Anna’s maiden name was found to be all over the place, as well. Although Naciażek was the spelling used in nine historical records,4, 8, 9, 10, 12,14,16,17,18 there were two instances of Maciążek,6,13 and one each of Maciorek,11Naciąszek,7 and Zaciąska.5 Additionally, Anna’s maiden name was identified as Strzelecka in the death record of her daughter, Józefa.15 However, in light of the body of evidence, this can be considered a more egregious recording error, rather than a benign etymological or phonetic variant. In records pertaining to my great-great-grandmother, Antonina (Naciążek) Zarzycka, the surname variant Raciążek was also used on eight of the 22 documents which identified her maiden name. Nonetheless, Naciążek was the predominant variant found for her, as well.
Polish surname variants tend to arise based on common etymology, and similar phonetics. The surname Grzesiak, for example, derives from the given name Grzegorz (Gregory),20 so variant spellings found in historical records for the same individual or family might include Grzesiek, Grzeszak, Grzeszczak, Greześkiewicz, etc. Similarly, members of the Bartoszewicz family might be recorded as Bartosiewicz, Bartusiewicz, and Bartoszewski. A simple wildcard search in Geneteka is usually an effective strategy for dealing with these issues. A search for “Bart*” will include all etymological and phonetic surname variants that begin with these four letters. However, research into the Szyfrynowicz family is complicated by the lack of common etymological or phonetic patterns found in the first few letters of the surname, as shown in Figure 3. The only pattern found within all examples of the surname is the “-owicz” ending. Unfortunately, Geneteka does not permit the wildcard character (*) to be used as the first letter of a surname in such a way that it helps to resolve this problem. To clarify, it’s possible to perform a search for the surname, “*owicz,” but results do not include all indexed Polish surnames ending in “-owicz.” Instead, the asterisk is ignored, and results include surnames that begin with “Owicz-” as well as surnames that were undecipherable to the indexer and contain a question mark (?) or an ellipsis (…).
For this reason, searches for records pertaining to Antoni and Anna’s family were accomplished more easily by using Anna’s maiden name as a search term, rather than her married surname. The wildcard strategy was somewhat more effective that way, since a search for “Naci*” will include results for Naciążek, Naciak, and Naciąszek. However, the search must be repeated for “Raci*” and “Maci*” in order to tease out all possible variants related to those spellings. In contrast, wildcard searches for Anna’s married surname employing “S*” or “Z*” are too broad, yet the inclusion of even a second character in the search string makes them already too narrow, based on the list of surnames shown in Figure 3. Research into the Szyfrynowicz family was further complicated by the family’s migrations, which spanned villages located in both the present day Łódzkie and Mazowieckie provinces. This fact necessitated the repetition of all searches in both provinces, since searches in Geneteka are limited to one province at a time. All of these factors illustrate the importance of thinking broadly when devising strategies for searches in Geneteka.
This research into the Szyfrynowicz family illustrates the slipperiness of the “original surname” concept. Many researchers are under the impression that surname changes and variant spellings are a problem unique to immigrants to the U.S. or Canada. If they are able to trace their family back to records from the Old Country, they reason, it will be possible to identify the one, true version of the surname. Unfortunately, the reality is rarely so simple. In the case of the Szyfrynowicz family, the preferred version of the surname was found on only five of 17 vital records pertaining to the family. Sometimes, the best you can do is to keep gathering data, until a preponderance of evidence is obtained.
2 Roman Catholic Church (Sochaczew, Sochaczew, Mazowieckie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Sochaczewie, 1781-1901,” Księga małżeństw, 1826-1842, 1826, no. 7, Franciszek Naciążek and Marianna Kowalska; Archiwum Diecezjalne w Łowiczu, ul. Stary Rynek 19 A, 99-400, Łowicz, Polska/Poland; and
Roman Catholic Church, Kocierzew Południowy parish (Kocierzew Południowy, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Kocierzewie, 1812 – 1918,” Księga urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1844 r. [Book of births, marriages and deaths, 1844], Małżeństw [Marriages], no. 34, Franciszek Naciążek and Marianna Siekiera, née Kotlarska; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1514d, Jednostka: 1844 / UMZ-1844, Katalog: Małżeństwa, Plik: 034-035.jpg.
3Roman Catholic Church, Głowno parish (Głowno, Zgierz, Lódz, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Głownie, 1808 – 1919,” 1868, Deaths, no. 18, Anna Szyfrzynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/: accessed 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1474d, Jednostka: 1868 / UMZ-1868, Katalog: Zgony, Plik 15-18.jpg.
4 Roman Catholic Church, Giżyce parish (Giżyce, Iłów, Mazowieckie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Giżycach, 1810–1928 r.”, Akta Narodzonych w Roku 1823 [Birth Certificates, 1823], no. 8, Katarzyna Maryanna Zytnerowicz; digital image, Metryki GenBaza (https://metryki.genbaza.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023), citing Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim, Sygnatura [Reference code] 73/66/0.
5Roman Catholic Church, Bielawy parish (Bielawy, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Bielawach, 1809 – 1877 r.”, Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1825 r. [Birth, marriage and death files, 1825], Urodzenia [births], no. 10, Ignacy Szufrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych. (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1409d, Jednostka: 1825 / UMZ-1825, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 08-11.jpg; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
6 Roman Catholic Church (Śleszyn, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Sołek–Śleszynie, 1810-1875,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Birth, marriage and death certificates], 1830; Urodzenia [births], no. 36, Joanna Sypnorowicz; indexed by anton_burza, Geneteka (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023); image copy obtained from indexer, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi, Sygnatura 39/1675/0.
7Roman Catholic Church, Żychlin parish (Żychlin, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Żychlinie, 1808–1911,” [Civil Status Records of the Roman Catholic Parish in Żychlin, 1808 – 1911], Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1833 r. [Birth, marriage, and death certificates, 1833], Urodzenia [Births], no. 52, Paulina Sitnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1757d, Jednostka: 1833 / UMZ-1833, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 052-059; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
8Ibid., Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1834 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates, 1834] Zgony [deaths], no. 31, Joanna Sitnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1757d, Jednostka: 1834 / UMZ-1834, Katalog: Zgony, Plik: 29–36; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
9Roman Catholic Church, Kiernozia parish (Kiernozia, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Kiernozi, 1810-1888 r,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1836 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates, 1836], Urodzenia [births], no. 14, Marianna Szyfrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1508d, Jednostka: 1836 / UMZ-1836, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 10-15; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
10Roman Catholic Church, Leszno parish (Leszno, Warszawa Zachodnia, Mazowieckie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Lesznie,1826 – 1913,” Ksiega Duplikat do zapisywania Akt Religijno-Cywilnych Urodzenia Malzenstw i Zeyscia dla Parafii Leszno na Rok 1841 r. [Duplicate Book of Religious Civil Certificates of Birth, Marriage, and Death of the Parish of Leszno, 1841], Urodzenia [Births], no. 9, Marcella Agnieszka Szifnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023), Zespól: 0071d. Jednostka: 116, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 004-009.jpg; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim.
11 Roman Catholic Church, Wiskitki parish (Wiskitki, Zyrardów, Mazowieckie, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Wiskitkach, 1826 – 1911,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1843 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates, 1843], Urodzenia [births], no. 15, Wincenty Apolinary Szafranowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023), Zespół: 0061d, Jednostka: 1843 / Księga UMZ-1843 r., Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 010-015; citing Archiwum Państwowe m. st. Warszawy, Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim.
12Ibid., Księga urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1843 r. [Book of births, marriages, and deaths, 1843], zgony [deaths], no. 56, Wincenty Appolinary Sznuffrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów Akt Metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023, Zespól: 0061d, Jednostka: 1843 / Ksiega UMZ-1843 r., Katalog: Zgony, Plik: 053-060.jpg; citing Archiwum Państwowe m. st. Warszawy, Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim.
13 Roman Catholic Church (Śleszyn, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Sołek – Śleszynie, 1810 – 1875,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Birth, marriage and death certificates], 1844; Urodzenia [births], no. 28, Joanna Sitnerowicz; indexed by anton_burza, Geneteka (https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ : 24 March 2023); image copy obtained from indexer, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
14Roman Catholic Church, Plecka Dąbrowa parish (Plecka Dąbrowa, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Pleckiej Dąbrowie, 1810-1918,” Księga urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Book of births, marriages, and deaths], 1847, zgony [deaths], no. 4, Joanna Szyfrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka– Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : accessed 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1627d, citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
15 Roman Catholic Church, Bielawy parish (Bielawy, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Bielawach, 1809 – 1877 r.,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1848 r. [Birth, marriage and death files, 1848], zgony [deaths], no. 140, Józefa Szufrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl : 28 March 2023); Zespół: 1409d, Jednostka: 1848 / UMZ-1848, Katalog: Urodzenia, Plik: 127-140; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
16 Roman Catholic Church, Bielawy parish (Bielawy, Łowicz, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Bielawach, 1809 – 1877 r.,” [Civil Status Files of the Roman Catholic Parish of Bielawy, 1809 – 1877], Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1852 r. [Birth, marriage and death files, 1852], zgony [deaths], no. 9, Paulina Szyfnerowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1409d, Jednostka: 1852 / UMZ-1852, Katalog: zgony, Plik: 009-014; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
17Roman Catholic Church, Oparów parish (Oparów, Kutno, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Oporowie, 1808 – 1919,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów [Birth, marriage and death certificates], 1855, Małżeństwa [marriages], no. 14, Michal Trafalski and Maryanna Szyfrynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1606d, Jednostka: 1855 / UMZ-1855, Katalog: Małżeństwa, Plik: 12-15; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
18Ibid., Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1857 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates, 1857], zgony [deaths], no.68, Maryanna Trafalska; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1606d, Jednostka: 1857 / UMZ-1857, Katalog: Zgony, Plk: 61-68; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
19Roman Catholic Church, Dmosin parish (Dmosin, Brzeziny, Łódź, Poland), “Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej w Dmosinie, 1808 – 1920,” Akta urodzeń, małżeństw i zgonów, 1862 r. [Birth, marriage and death certificates,1862), Zgony [deaths], no. 14, Antoni Szyfrzynowicz; digital image, Skanoteka – Metryki: Baza skanów akt metrykalnych (https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ : accessed 28 March 2023), Zespół: 1456d, Jednostka: 1862 / UMZ-1862, Katalog: Zgony, Plik: 010-015; citing Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi.
*I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the kind assistance of Monika Deimann-Clemens in reviewing my translation of Anna Szyfrynowicz’s death record.
Back in 2017, I retold a story that is enshrined in our collective family’s memory: the day when my dad, then- 1st Lieutenant Harry W. Roberts, Jr., survived a potential tragedy in Vietnam by ejecting out of the cockpit of his damaged F-100 fighter jet. In that article, I cited the transcript of the radio conversation that took place between Dad, the control tower, and his flight lead, Lt. Col. Sydney Johnson, in the minutes before, during, and after Dad’s ejection from his aircraft. Since that retelling, I’ve come into possession of additional documentation of this event: the letter which Dad wrote to Mom and the rest of the family back home in December 1968, as well as his Caterpillar Club certificate.
The Letter
The letter shown in the image gallery below was recently discovered in some boxes of family archival documents.1 Dad’s ejection from his aircraft took place on 18 December 1968, and the letter was typed on 22 December, just a few days after the event. It contains the story of the bailout in Dad’s own words. I was surprised that the letter was typed, but Dad recently verified that he had access to a typewriter while stationed in Vietnam. The few handwritten bits on the first and last pages are clearly Dad’s handwriting. The letter itself was scorched, which suggests that it had been in possession of my paternal grandparents when their home was destroyed in a fire set by an arsonist in 1978.1
My annotated transcript of the letter is as follows; comments and clarifications are included within brackets.
“22 December [1968]
Dear Elaine, and everyoneelse, (Please read this to my mom and dad)
This letter is intended for everyone since I don’t have time to repeat the identical story to all. I have been exceptionally busy the last few days. Besides my ejection, the next day Jules [1st Lt. Julius J. Thurn] and I had to move into other quarters. Most of my things are still in boxes yet. Add to that the mountains of paperwork involved with something of this nature and you have one busy guy.
Briefly, about the bailout, there isn’t much too much I can say without getting technical which would either bore you or lose you.
On Dec. 18, I was number four in a four ship mission up north, out of country. After takeoff, I noticed fumes in the cockpit. This in itself is no big thing, but could be an indication of something amiss. [In the 2017 interview, Dad commented that the fumes, in and of themselves, weren’t grounds to abort the mission, because sometimes that would happen when the mechanics would change the jet engine oil.] Anyway, I proceeded to the tanker, got refueled and we continued to head up north. By now the fumes were getting pretty thick. Still all the instruments were reading normal. I decided to plug in the afterburner to see what that would do—if something was going to happen, I wanted it before we were in the actual target area—for there, emergencies are complicated by having bad guys all around. As I lit the burner, I immediately lost oil pressure, which isn’t good. Col. Johnson [LTC Sydney Johnson] (#3 in the flight) and I started to turn to our closest alternate, Da Nang, about 140 miles away. Up to now we still had our bombs and drop tanks. The situation began to deteriorate when I got an engine oil overheat light. This coupled with my dwindling oil pressure meant that I was in “deep serious.” Turbine engines don’t run very well without oil; i.e. a car engine runs about 5,000 RPM—a turbine runs about 20,000 RPM so when the oil goes it will go shortly thereafter.
[p. 2]
I had originally planned to dump my load in the bay by Da Nang as I landed, but the way things were going I had to drop it over land. About 50 miles out from Da Nang my oil overheat light went out. This may sound like a good deal to you, but it didn’t mean that my oil had cooled down, but more likely, I had no more oil to heat up. My problems were complicated more by the fact that I couldn’t get rid of my one drop tank which had 1200# of fuel in it. This tended to make the aircraft want to roll to the left side all the time. About 30 miles out I experienced two explosions from the engine section. You know that big hole in the front of the plane (air intake) well a flame shot out that dude about 100′ in front of the plane. That’s pretty hard to do especially at 300 knots. Flames were also coming out the rear. That’s symetry [sic] for you! After the explosions the engine continued to run. I still intended to make an emergency landing at Da Nang. At 15 miles from the [air] field, I experienced two more explosions from the engine this time much more severe than the first two. Up to this point I was concerned, but I felt the plane would hold together. These last two really got my attention. After the explosions the engine tore itself apart and stopped. As they say at the Buffalo Bills [football games], it was now a new ball game. The rest of the events happened quite rapidly. I couldn’t land the plane, flamed out because I was too heavy with fuel, and there was a good possibility that it would tear itself apart before it hit the ground.
[p. 3]
I just turned it to the water and slowed it down a bit, said something to Col. Johnson about the plane coming unglued and get out of my way. Being somewhat of a coward, I closed my eyes when I went out. That rocket seat is quite a ride. Johnson looked back and said later he thought that I was going into orbit. Everything worked as advertised and the chute opened automatically. I had stepped out at 9,000′. Believe me, it took almost 10 minutes to descend to the water. I could see where the plane hit the water. That gave me a few butterflies, [but] it was a lot better looking down at it than being in it. On the way down the only thing that I could think about was my new hat I bought a few days earlier. It was in the plane.
When I hit the water, it was beautiful. Warm and wet. I did everything just as they showed us in sea survival school and there were no problems. I climbed into my little raft. By this time they had me spotted. In about ten minutes they picked me up by horse collar.
You know when I climbed into that raft I actually sat there and laughed. I couldn’t believe everything went off without a hitch. We have had a lot of accidents around here where guys in the same circumstances came out of the thing injured or not at all. After they picked me up I got P.O.ed because they shot my raft up. I wanted to take it back to use on the beach. They cost $90.00 each. Anyway I did get to keep my butt as a souvenir. Although I can honestly say I kept my cools throughout the bailout, I didn’t sleep too well that night. The next day I expected to have a
[p. 4]
sore back, but I didn’t have an ache anywhere.
As soon as they got me to DaNang they take you to a hospital for complete tests and x-rays. This is standard procedure. The next day I was busy filling out forms etc., and the following day, I was flying again. I didn’t feel apprehensive about flying again, but you get a strange feeling inside as you look at the cockpit again—the first time since I left it unexpectedly. Once you strap in and start up, it’s the same thing all over again. If anything, I came out of the whole ordeal with a little more faith in our ejection system.
So that’s it. I don’t think they will release this to the news soon if ever, for various reasons which I will tell you about some day later. Basically it has to do with aircraft losses, not that they are exceptionally high, but I think more for political reasons.
As I said before, I’m OK. excellent, and don’t worry, I won’t make a habit of this sort of thing. I much prefer landing them myself. I hope you all had a nice Christmas. I know I will.
Love
Harry
P.S. the photo inside [?] is the helicopter that picked me up.” [No photo was found with the letter, and no photos of helicopters that might have been the intended enclosure have been discovered to date among Dad’s Vietnam photos.]
What impresses me about Dad’s letter is the remarkable consistency between the version of the story that he wrote in December 1968, and the version that he related to me 49 years later, in 2017. Despite recent research which suggests that memories are malleable, the details in these two accounts—initial fumes in the cockpit, the left drop fuel tank which failed to jettison completely, etc.—are identical, although Dad’s later rendition included additional details which he may have lacked the time to include in his letter. Perhaps it was the stress of such a near brush with death that made the memory of this event so indelible. The only significant discrepancy is that Dad later recalled having to return to the cockpit of a new plane the next day, whereas the letter states that he flew again on the second day after the incident.
“The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin. The nationality of the person whose life was saved by parachute, and ownership of the aircraft are not factors in determining qualification for membership; anybody who has saved their life by using a parachute after bailing out of a disabled aircraft is eligible. The requirement that the aircraft is disabled naturally excludes parachuting enthusiasts in the normal course of a recreational jump, or those involved in military training jumps.”2
Dad’s use of a parachute to bail out of his disabled aircraft was subsequently authenticated, earning him membership in the Caterpillar Club. His certificate is shown below.4
Although “it’s a club that nobody wants to join, once admitted, membership comes with bragging rights and a sense of pride.”5 I’m pleased to have found this certificate, and I hope that further exploration of the family archives will result in the rediscovery of Dad’s Caterpillar Club pin, as well.
Within the larger context of U.S. military history, Dad’s bailout is merely a footnote, meriting a brief mention in historical accounts of the 136th Tactical Fighter Squadron.6 In our family history, however, this was a pivotal event, from which Dad learned lessons that he has carried with him for his whole life. I’m thrilled to have both his first-hand account, and his Caterpillar Club membership certificate, as documentation of that event.
Sources:
1 Harry Woodrow Roberts, Jr. (Tuy Hoa Air Base, Tuy Hòa, South Vietnam) to Elaine Roberts, letter, 22 December 1968; privately held by Julie Szczepankiewicz, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 2023.
3“Caterpillar Club,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/ : 20 March 2023); version from 9 January 2023, at 17:58 (UTC).
4 Switlik Parachute Co. (Trenton, New Jersey, USA), Caterpillar Club membership certificate issued to Harry W. Roberts, Jr., 18 December 1968; privately held by Julie Szczepankiewicz, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 2023.
6 Joseph B. Speed, Major, USAF, “Forgotten Heroes—U.S. ANG Fighter Squadrons of Vietnam,” (Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air Command and Staff College, Air University, 2006), p. 22. “The same could be said for Lt Harry Roberts on December 18th. Lt Roberts was forced to eject from his aircraft after his jet lost oil and had subsequent engine failure. He parachuted into the ocean and was picked up after spending a ‘very refreshing’ 15 minutes in the Gulf of Tonkin. The cause of the crash was suspected enemy gun fire shortly after takeoff.”
The featured image shows 1st Lt. Harry W. Roberts, Jr. (center), and two unidentified servicemen with an F-100 SuperSabre c. 1968. The image is from the private collection of Harry W. Roberts, Jr. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.
In January, I started a new term as President of the Polish Genealogical Society of New York State (PGSNYS). I’m excited to be serving in this role, despite the learning curve that comes with any new position. Although my duties as President have cut into my available time for research and writing, I’m rolling up my sleeves and giving it my best effort, because I believe in the work that the PGSNYS is doing.
Some of you may be wondering if there’s still a role for traditional genealogical societies in era of internet genealogy—whether the focus is Polish research, or anything else. I confess that there was a time in my life when I, too, wondered if the success of Facebook genealogy groups might spur the demise of traditional genealogical societies. And don’t misunderstand me; I’m still a fan of Facebook genealogy groups, for all the reasons I wrote about previously. While parts of that post are outdated (Facebook has changed quite a bit since 2016!), Facebook groups continue to be great resource for genealogists. However, I believe that traditional genealogical societies serve as a complement to Facebook groups, offering unique value, and they deserve our support. Here’s what your membership to a genealogical society provides:
Personal Research Assistance
Most genealogical societies offer some form of personal research assistance to their members, in the form of planned outreach events like PGSNYS’s spring and fall Genealogy Fairs, or the upcoming spring conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts (PGSMA), with the theme, “Whom Do I Ask? Grandma and Grandpa Are Gone.” The genealogical community is typically generous, and most societies have experienced researchers among their members who are willing to offer some guidance for those who are just starting out. Bear in mind that “research guidance” doesn’t mean that the society’s volunteers will create an entire family tree for you, but they can often suggest resources and strategies to help you further your research goals. In some cases, a donation to the society is requested in exchange for simple look-ups, or more in-depth research in local resources, performed by volunteers from the society. The Ontario Genealogical Society is one group whose services I have personally used for onsite research into records pertaining to my ancestors living in the Niagara Peninsula.
Access to the Society’s Newsletter or Journal
Whether it’s Rodziny, published by the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA), the Western New York Genealogist, published by the Western New York Genealogical Society, PGSNYS’ own Searchers, or the scholarly National Genealogical Society Quarterly, most or all genealogical societies offer some form of publication which is a benefit of membership. These publications typically contain articles written by society members about their own family history research, which illustrate their use of methodology and resources. Additional content may include book reviews, research library acquisitions, website tutorials, and news regarding the society’s upcoming events and current projects. Reading about the methods used by other researchers for breaking through their brick walls can give you insight into how to break through some of your own. Sometimes you may even discover articles that pertain to your own family history research, written by distant cousins. Journal and newsletter editors are always looking for new material, so consider writing up a story or two from your own family history research to share with a larger audience.
Since genealogical society publications are such an important resource, it’s worth mentioning that the Allen County Public Library offers a subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals. The Periodical Source Index, or PERSI, can be searched free of charge at the website of the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center (Figure 1). The database currently includes more than 3 million citations, and relevant search results can be ordered from the library. The cost is $7.50 per order form (up to six articles) prepaid, and then 20 cents per page for copying, or free email delivery.
Figure 1: Home page for PERSI at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center website.
Educational Presentations
Genealogical society meetings usually involve a lecture or presentation on some topic related to the group’s focus. During the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, most societies had to adapt their meetings to a videoconference (Zoom) format. While many of us missed the in-person interactions at society meetings, the switch to videoconferencing offered access to genealogy lectures hosted by societies located all over the globe, for the first time in history. Although the pandemic is largely behind us, videoconferencing is here to stay. Many societies have opted to continue hosting their meetings by Zoom, or to host hybrid meetings, with a speaker presenting for a local, live audience, while simultaneously Zooming the lecture for out-of-area society members or those who prefer to join remotely. This has been a boon for many who are researching Polish ancestors, due to the increased availability of lectures from researchers located in Poland.
The format of educational presentations will vary, and may include a brief business meeting for the host society prior to the lecture. These business meetings can also be informative, as they offer attendees a chance learn about the society’s ongoing projects and upcoming events. Presentations are usually free for members, and sometimes free for the general public, although some societies charge non-members a nominal fee, to help defray the cost of bringing in speakers. Genealogical society lectures are an excellent opportunity to learn about cutting-edge resources and methods in the fast-paced, ever-changing world of internet-driven genealogy. And while the national conferences like the National Genealogical Society (NGS) conference or RootsTech, or regional conferences like NERGC, offer connection with researchers and topics on a large scale, the smaller conferences hosted by organizations such as the Polish Genealogical Societies in Massachusetts (PGSMA), Connecticut (PGSCTNE) and Chicago (PGSA) are an opportunity to focus on ethnic research in those areas where your ancestors lived. Attending a genealogy conference held in a city where your ancestors lived provides an opportunity for onsite research in local libraries, archives, and cemeteries, as well.
Discounts on Society Publications and Services
Some genealogical societies, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan, maintain online stores where one can purchase printed books and digital media. Members can log in to get a discount on their purchases. Research services are often discounted for society members as well, and some of the offerings of these local societies are unique and extremely valuable to researchers. PGSA, for example, offers a database for Polish Roman Catholic Union of America (PRCUA) life insurance claims. The PRCUA had branches throughout the U.S. in cities with Polish communities, and the database contains just over 61,000 entries. If you find your ancestor in the database, this is your lucky day, because death claim packets can be genealogical goldmines. Claim packets dated after 1912 usually include a death certificate, as well as the original insurance application, an example of which is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Application for life insurance from the PRCUA for Wojciech Drajem, 6 February 1915. Source: Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, Applicant’s Certificate (Zeznania Kandydata) for Wojciech Drajem, 6 February 1915, claim no. 22169, certificate no. 112904.
This example, which was discovered through the PGSA database, pertains to Wojciech Drajem, a Polish immigrant to Buffalo, New York, and information on just this page includes his date of birth, parents’ given names, approximate ages of his parents at their time of death, number of siblings and their ages and causes of death, health information, address, and a signature. (See here for a discussion of this document in the context of my Drajem research.) This page is just one of the eleven pages contained within his death claim packet. Copies of individual death claim packets are available from PGSA for the modest price of $10 per name for members and $15 for non-members.
Support for Unique, Local, Digitization and Indexing Projects
Opportunities abound for researchers who are willing to volunteer a little time to index or transcribe historical records. While such opportunities exist nationally and internationally, with organizations ranging from FamilySearch and the National Archives to Geneteka, local genealogical societies are often in need of volunteers for indexing as well. Indexing historical record collections from places where your ancestors lived is a great way to immerse yourself in the surnames, pedigrees, and history of those communities. Both PGSNYS and PGSCTNE have ongoing indexing projects for collections such as PGSCTNE’s Polish-American marriage records and anniversary book records, and PGSNYS’s Dziennik dla Wszystkich death notices and funerary prayer cards (obrazki). If you have Polish-American ancestors who settled in these areas, it’s definitely worth a search in these societies’ databases to see if you can find your family there. Figure 3 shows an image of a funerary prayer card for Wojciech Drajem which I recently contributed to the project. Some of the cards in the collection are in Polish, while others are in English. Translation assistance for Polish obrazki and death notices can be found in this guide, prepared by the PGSNYS.
Figure 3a: Image from funerary prayer card (obrazek) for Wojciech Drajem, my husband’s great-great-granduncle (or 3x-great-uncle).
Figure 3b: Funerary prayer card (obrazek) for Wojciech Drajem. This obrazek is part of a collection given to me by my husband’s grandmother.
Buffalo’s Polish-language newspaper, the Dziennik dla Wszystkich [Everybody’s Daily] is a significant source of information about the daily lives of Polish immigrants and first- and second-generation Americans of Polish descent in Western New York. Details about their civic contributions, social and professional lives, and community roles, can help add “flesh” to the “bare bones” of names and dates in our family trees. In order to make the contents of the paper accessible to researchers, PGSNYS went above and beyond the creation of their database of death notices published in the Dziennik, and initiated a project to digitize entire issues of the paper. Images of papers digitized to date have been uploaded to NYS Historic Newspapers, where they are keyword- and surname-searchable by optical character recognition (OCR). Please note that as of this writing, the site seems to be having an issue with the search engine, and searches were returning no results even for words known to be contained within the text. The issue has been reported to the Northern New York Library Network that administers the site, and hopefully it will be fixed soon. In the meantime, issues of the paper can still be browsed, which means that images are available for death notices discovered in a search of the Dziennik database.
Camaraderie with Other Genealogy Fanatics
Let’s face it, genealogy is a passion that not everyone “gets.” Not everyone gets excited about taking photos in a cemetery, or is exhilarated by the discovery of a “new” ancestral village. Lots of folks just don’t care if you’ve discovered a new set of 4x-great-grandparents. Genealogical societies offer a chance for connection with other like-minded individuals, who can celebrate your discoveries with you, and empathize with your frustration about those “brick walls” in your family tree. They may even be able to help you brainstorm some strategies. When you join a genealogical society based in one of your ancestral cities or towns, there’s a good chance that some of the members will share an interest in one or more of your ancestral surnames, in addition to an interest in the local history of that place. You may even discover distant cousins and research collaborators within the membership.
Finally, if you think those genealogical societies are worth your membership dollars, you may also discover that they’re worth your time. I’ve enjoyed collaborating with my colleagues from various genealogical societies over many years, and some of those collaborations have turned into friendships. What’s more, I enjoy the satisfaction that comes from our combined efforts achieving fruition, whether in the form of a successful educational event, or a new contribution to a digital archive or database. So, despite that learning curve with the presidency of PGSNYS, I know I’m not alone. We have a great mixture of experienced, longtime members on our board of directors, as well as some enthusiastic, knowledgeable newcomers, who bring a variety of skills to the table. Together, we’re committed to making the PGSNYS the best that it can be, in service to the Polish-American genealogical community with roots in Western New York.
Check out some of the Polish genealogical societies mentioned here, or these located in Minnesota, Cleveland, Toledo, and Texas. There’s a lot to discover!
From Shepherds and Shoemakers 
