From Shepherds and Shoemakers

Grandma Barth’s Box of Genealogical Treasures

Published on August 29, 2016 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz8 Comments

My husband’s grandmother, Joanna “Jean” (née Drajem) Barth was the family historian for her generation, and I loved her for it. I loved her for other reasons, too, of course, but listening to her stories about Buffalo’s East Side in her childhood and youth gave me such a vivid impression of Buffalo’s pious, hard-working Polish immigrants who brought with them their language, culture, faith, and traditions and created a microcosm of Poland in their new homeland. Grandma Barth was my Grandma-in-law for seventeen years before she passed away in 2008 at the age of 92, but she was mentally sharp as a tack until she died and an incredible font of family knowledge. She could tell me names, birth, marriage and death dates from memory for the entire extended family for several generations, with stories about each person, all in her East-Side Polish accent that was somehow comforting to hear.

Grandma Barth’s stories laid the foundation for my research into my mother-in-law’s family. In the spring of 1999, she traveled from Buffalo to our home in Illinois for our third son’s christening. I remember spending as much time as possible during that visit, cradling my baby in one arm while typing with my free hand, inputting all the family data from Grandma’s memory into Family Tree Maker. A few years later, she was back for another christening, this time for my daughter, in 2003. And this time, she brought with her a plastic shoebox that I came to refer to as, “Grandma Barth’s Box of Genealogical Treasures.”

This plastic box contained newspaper clippings, funeral home prayer cards (my family always called them “obrazki,” which means, “pictures” in Polish), and assorted scraps of paper on which Grandma had jotted down bits and pieces of family history. Never one to waste paper, most of these notes were written in Grandma’s neat, careful penmanship on the backs of junk-mail coupons for pizza and car washes. What she preserved was amazing. There were obrazki in there from the 1930s through the early 2000s. Her parents’ marriage certificate was there, along with other vital records. There were newspaper articles about her home parish, Corpus Christi, a collection of articles about Fr. Justin Figas (founder of the Father Justin Rosary Hour, a Polish-language radio program) and a series of “Anniversary Books” from Corpus Christi, arranged according to month. Each monthly book covers the years 1898 through 1997, and lists the names of all those who died in the parish during that month in each year.

I tried to photocopy as much of it as I could during her visit, but I recognized that care needed to be taken with this project. Some of these newspaper death notices had been trimmed into tiny, yellowed bits of paper not more than two inches square. Moreover, there was clearly an organizational system in place that must be respected. Grandma paper-clipped the scraps of paper together in batches, and put these individual batches into plastic storage bags according to the branch of the family tree to which they belonged. Grandma admitted that in some cases, she didn’t know exactly how some of these people fit into the family, she only knew that they were cousins, which made it all the more important to maintain the associations between the documents which she created through her organizational scheme.

As much as I wanted to photocopy all of it, there was only so much that I could do, given that I had a houseful of out-of-town guests visiting for my fourth child’s christening and only a few days’ time. Grandma told me there was no rush — she wanted me to have the box when she passed away. In the meantime, though, she wanted to share it with a cousin. I thanked Grandma wholeheartedly, congratulated myself on getting as much scanned as I did, and went back to raising my family and researching my family tree.

After Grandma passed away in 2008, we discovered that the box was missing. The cousin who was supposed to have it didn’t remember anything about it. My mother-in-law asked around the family, but no one seemed to know what happened to it. It was presumed to have been thrown out with the trash. It was an inestimable loss — I was sick at heart over the thought of so much family history, Grandma’s legacy, rotting in a landfill somewhere.

But as you can tell from the photo at the top, the story has a happy ending, and my worst fears never materialized. One day last spring, my Mom-in-law got a phone call from this cousin, saying he’d found a box of her mother’s things, and he’d like to return it to her. She called me immediately, and said, “I have some good news for you! Are you sitting down? My cousin found the box!” So this past weekend, several of us got together for breakfast, including Mom, her cousin, Grandma’s youngest sister, and me, and the box found its way back to me at last, looking exactly as I’d remembered it. Mom’s cousin also kindly shared with me some additional family history treasures from his personal collection. The poor man was so apologetic — Grandma never mentioned to him about her intentions for the box, and he had no idea what kind of treasure trove he was sitting on. I’m sure that my discoveries based on the contents of this box will fill quite a number of future blog posts, but it’s going to take some time to process and analyze all of this. In the meantime, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few of the “goodies” from the box.

Figure 1: Obrazek from the funeral of Agnieszka (née Jamrozik) Drajem, Grandma Barth’s paternal grandmother, who died 13 February 1946.

Figure 2: Notes from Grandma’s notebook regarding the family history on her mother’s side (Kantowski and Kończal).

Figure 3: Photocopy of newspaper interview with John and Mary Kantowski (Grandma Barth’s maternal grandparents), published circa 1934.

So you can see why I’m pretty excited! So far I’ve scanned 27 “batches” of clippings, and there’s still more to go. Here’s to you, Grandma Barth, with love and gratitude for all your love and diligence in preserving the family history for future generations to enjoy.

Tips for Hiring a Professional Researcher in Poland

Published on August 25, 2016April 4, 2020 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz13 Comments

If you’re like me, you prefer to do your own research, rather than hiring it out to a professional. Those moments when you find the long-sought record that finally gives you your great-great-great-grandmother’s maiden name are priceless, right? And if the records can be found on microfilm, online, or even by writing to one of the archives in Poland, that’s great. But sometimes it happens that the pastor of your ancestral parish has parish registers from the past 300 years sitting in his office, or the records are at diocesan archive which doesn’t respond to queries, and requires you to find a professional to search in person.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of people who have paid money up front — sometimes quite a bit — and maybe gotten a record or two before their “professional” falls off the face of the earth and stops responding to e-mails and phone calls. You don’t want to be in that situation, because often there is no recourse — most people in this case just lose whatever money they’ve put up. But hiring a pro doesn’t have to be a terrifying experience if you work with someone who’s experienced, honest, and fair. So how do you find the right professional?

1. Get recommendations before you hire.

As an admin for a couple Polish genealogy groups on Facebook, I often get messages from group members asking for recommendations for researchers, and I’m happy to share my experiences with you. There are also plenty of other group members who have used professional researchers, so ask around, send a message to one of the group admins, or request references from any researchers you’re considering.

2. Determine the scope and budget for the project.

Personally, I’m happy if my researcher finds the records of interest, uploads the images to a site like DropBox so I can access them, gives me a report on exactly what books and ranges of years were researched, and I’ll take it from there. But others are looking for a completely documented family tree, including a GEDCOM and a more detailed research report, including full translations of all the records. Obviously, the more work you need your researcher to do, the greater the cost, so bear that in mind as well.

3. Start with clearly defined research goals.

After you’ve decided what kind of final product you’re looking for, establish clear research goals to begin with. For example, “I would like to find my great-grandmother’s birth record in X parish, circa 1876, her parents’ marriage record, and any other records for her surname in this parish.” Prepare a concise summary for the researcher of what you already know about your family in Poland and your immigrant ancestor (name, approximate date of birth, names of parents and siblings who stayed in Poland, etc.) Stick to facts and keep the family stories and speculation to a minimum.

4. Expect to pay per hour of research, rather than per record.

A good researcher may be able to find two dozen records for your surname of interest in one hour’s time, or maybe only one record. Generally speaking, the earlier you go, the more “spotty” the records become. If the records aren’t indexed, that will also increase the time it takes to find them, because the researcher must skim through every record.

5. Get an estimate before you begin.

Most researchers require some of the money up front, whether in the form of a minimum retainer (e.g. 5 hours’ research time paid in advance), or according to other terms. Some will allow you to pay after the work is finished.

6. Understand what’s included, what’s not, and how billing is done.

Travel costs and donations for the parish or archive are usually billed separately. Time spent writing the research report and creating the GEDCOM might be billed separately from the research time in the parish or archive as well. A good researcher will break down the invoice for you. Full translations are usually not included, but you could negotiate a price if you’d like them. Key information extracted from each record, i.e. names, dates, godparents’ and witnesses’ names, etc., is usually included, but I’ve heard of researchers who did not provide this without an additional charge. Establish in advance what is provided so there are no surprises.

7. Good communication is key.

I personally would not hesitate to work with someone who only speaks Polish if he were highly recommended (there’s always Google Translate!). But if you choose to do that, understand that you might need to work a little harder to be sure both parties clearly understand the expectations.

8. Understand that there are no guarantees.

If a researcher visits a parish in search of your great-grandmother’s baptismal record, but finds nothing because you’ve incorrectly identified the parish, that’s on you. Or sometimes a researcher may travel to a distant parish to obtain your ancestors’ marriage record and DOES find it, but the record itself indicates that the bride or groom was from another parish, necessitating further research elsewhere. That happens. A good researcher should at least be able to document his efforts, showing you where he’s looked and how he’s spent his time, even if positive results are scarce.

9. Since travel costs are usually extra, it helps if you can find a researcher who is more or less in the same part of Poland as your ancestral villages.

I’ve heard of researchers who don’t overtly charge extra for travel within the country and travel all over Poland for records, but I suspect that they must be rolling this cost into their research time somehow.

10. Be sure you clearly understand the time frame over which the work will be done.

It might take a few months before the researcher has the opportunity to get to your work, but having to wait a year for results is excessive. Things can be especially slow if a visit to a parish is required, as some pastors aren’t enthusiastic about having a researcher come in and peruse their parish registers, and may put off granting an appointment. However, gentle persistence from your researcher will usually (hopefully, fingers crossed) win the day, and your researcher should keep you informed of his phone calls to the parish.

11. Research in Poland may not be as expensive as you think.

Years ago I was reluctant to hire a researcher in Poland because I feared the cost might run into thousands of dollars. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable it was. As an example, one researcher searched parish records for me from 1784-1826 (births, marriages and deaths), found 48 records during that time, and the charge was just $150 plus $10 for gas. In another instance, a researcher visited both the parish and the USC, found 56 records for me (between 1826 and 1880), and the cost was $115. Your mileage may vary, and results are not guaranteed, but I have been delighted by how much I have learned about my family from these records.

Hiring a professional researcher doesn’t have to be terrifying or break the bank, but it does take some effort to ensure that you and your researcher are communicating clearly and effectively. As long as both you and she understand the expectations in terms of research goals, final product, and billing, having a researcher find records for you can be a very satisfying way to further your research into your Polish roots. It may not be as much fun as a trip to Poland to do the research yourself, but it’s almost certainly much cheaper.

Good luck and happy researching!

Walter Wed Where? Wow! A Genealogical Breakthrough

Published on August 19, 2016October 8, 2018 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz7 Comments

The sweetest victories are the ones that took the longest time in coming. A couple days ago, I happened upon some documents that fundamentally changed my understanding of my Grzesiak family history, documents I’ve been seeking for many years. So there is some major happy dancing going on in the Szczepankiewicz house today, albeit limited to just one of its residents.

The Grzesiaks of Kowalewo-Opactwo and Buffalo, New York

In a previous post, I wrote a little about the family of my great-grandmother, Veronica (née Grzesiak) Zazycki. Veronica immigrated from the little village of Kowalewo-Opactwo in Słupca County to Buffalo, New York, where she was eventually joined by three of her siblings: Władysław (“Walter”), Tadeusz/Thaddeus, and Józefa/Josephine. Regarding Veronica’s oldest brother, Grandma told me that Walter had married an actress in Poland, whose name Grandma remembered as “Wanda,” but she didn’t want to leave her career, so he left her and came to the U.S. without her. There were no children from this marriage.

When I began to look for documentation for these family stories, I realized the situation wasn’t exactly as Grandma had portrayed it. The 1900 census (Figure 1) shows the Grzesiak family all living on Mills Street in Buffalo, consisting of patriarch Joseph, sons Władysław and Thaddeus, daughter Jozefa, and daughter-in-law Casimira — Walter’s wife of two years. Clearly, Walter’s wife DID come to Buffalo, rather than staying in Poland while he left without her – but her name was Casimira, not Wanda. The census goes on to state that at that time, she was the mother of 0 children, 0 now living, consistent with family reports.

Figure 1: Extract from the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, showing the Grzesiak family.

In the 1905 New York State Census (Figure 2), Walter and Casimira were still living in Buffalo, so the marriage lasted at least 7 years. Subsequent records (e.g. the 1940 Census) do indeed show Walter as divorced or a widower.

Figure 2: Extract from 1905 New York State Census showing Walter and Casimira Grzesiak.

Walter’s death certificate¹reports his ex-wife’s name as “Katarzyna Dutkiewicz (Figure 3), and the informant was his brother, Thaddeus.

Figure 3: Extract from Walter Grzesiak’s death certifcate.

Clearly, Thaddeus made a mistake with the first name, reporting it as Katarzyna (Katherine) instead of Kazimiera/Casimira. So how much faith should we put in his version of her maiden name, Dutkiewicz? Death records are often viewed with some circumspection, since someone other than the deceased is providing the information, and that person might be grieving or in shock. However, it was all there was to go on, and it seemed like it should have been a good start: Name, Kazimiera Dutkiewicz (or similar), born about 1880 (based on those census records), married to Władysław Grzesiak in Poland circa 1898.

The Hunt Is On!

Since Walter Grzesiak was born in Kowalewo-Opactwo, it seemed logical that he would have married somewhere in that vicinity, although not necessarily in that parish. Things get a little tricky with the records for Kowalewo-Opactwo in that time period. Records are not online, or on microfilm from the LDS, so one must write to the Konin Branch of the State Archive in Poznań to request a search. Moreover, although Walter was baptized in Kowalewo, that parish was temporarily closed from 1891-1910. Parish operations were transferred to the church in nearby Ląd, but after 1911, the parishes and their records were separated again. Unfortunately, the archive reported that there was no marriage record in Ląd for Władysław Grzesiak, or for any of his siblings, during this period.

Initially, this finding didn’t concern me too much. It’s traditional for a couple to marry in the bride’s parish, so this suggested merely that Kazimiera was from some other parish in the area. So how does one find a marriage in the Poznań region, when one has no idea what parish the couple married in? The Poznań Marriage Project, of course. For those who might be unfamiliar with this resource, the Poznań Project is an indexing effort conceived by Łukasz Bielecki, which is intended to include all existing marriage records for the historic Poznań region from 1800-1899. Currently, the project is estimated to be at least 75% complete, so there was a good chance I’d be able to find Walter and Casimira’s marriage in there. Frustratingly, there were no good matches, so I assumed that their marriage record must be among the 25% of existing records that remain unindexed. At this point, finding it would be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. I put this on the back burner and went back to more productive research on other family lines.

Until two days ago.

My Breakthrough

It seemed like a perfectly ordinary Wednesday afternoon. I paid bills, ran some errands, took the cat to the vet, and sat down to check e-mail. But if you’re like me, some small part of your brain is always thinking about genealogy, and suddenly it dawned on me: the family story was that Casimira was an actress. How could she have been an actress in a small village with a couple dozen farms? She must have been from a big city — Warsaw!

Immediately, I went to Geneteka, my favorite database for indexed vital records from all over Poland. Normally, I advise people to use documentation from U.S. sources to determine where their ancestors came from before they start randomly searching records in Geneteka, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I had a pretty specific idea of what I was looking for. But would the record be there? Geneteka is not complete — it’s a brilliant, ambitious idea, and new indexes for different parishes and different time periods are constantly being added, but it still represents only a fraction of the vital records available in the tens of thousands of parishes and civil registries across Poland. In this case, my hunch paid off, and Geneteka came through for me. I was stunned, absolutely stunned, when I saw what had to be their marriage record (Figure 4):

Figure 4: Geneteka search results for Grzesiak marriages in Warszawa between 1897 and 1899.

I hit “skan” to get a copy of the record itself (isn’t Geneteka great?!) and here it is, in all its glory:

The record is in Russian, because Warsaw was in the Russian Empire in 1898 when the event took place, so here’s my translation:

“223. Koło. It happened in Wola parish on the eighteenth/thirtieth day of August in the year one thousand eight hundred ninety-eight at five o’clock in the afternoon. We declare that, in the presence of witnesses Adam Franczak and Wincenty Płocikiewicz, both ecclesiastical servants of Wola, on this day was contracted a religious marriage between Władysław Grzesiak, age thirty-seven, miller of Koło residing, born in Ląd, Słupca district, son of Józef Grzesiak, owner, and his wife Maryanna née Krawczyńska, in the village of Borowo residing, and Kazimiera Marianna Olczak, age eighteen, single, with her mother residing, born in Warsaw, daughter of an unknown father and mother Paulina Olczak, seamstress, in Koło residing. The marriage was preceded by three readings of the banns on the 2^nd/14^th, 9^th/21^st, and 16^th/28^th days of August of the present year. The newlyweds stated that they had no prenuptial agreement between them. Permission was given orally by those present at the ceremony. The religious ceremony of marriage was performed by the Reverend Jan Kowalski. This document, after being read aloud, was signed by us and by the groom because the witnesses state that they do not know how to write.”²

Let’s break this down a bit. First, the double dates are often confusing to those who aren’t familiar with the format of Polish civil records, but they’re a result of the fact that Poland and Western Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar while Russia and the Eastern Europe continued to use the old Julian calendar. In order to have these records be clear to everyone, both dates were included on legal documents like this. The second, later date is the date according to the Gregorian calendar, which we would go by.

Second, Kazimiera’s name isn’t Dutkiewicz, as expected — but we’ll worry about that in a minute. The date of the marriage (1898) is correct, as is the groom’s name, and parents’ names. His age is a bit off (he should only be 30, not 37), but it’s not unusual for ages reported in these records to be very much “ballpark estimates.” Walter was actually born in Kowalewo, not Ląd, but if you recall, the parish functions had been transferred from Kowalewo to Ląd at this time, so perhaps this can be interpretted as a reference to that.

Getting back to Kazimiera, her age (18) matches with what we expected based on U.S. records. The priest doesn’t mention her budding theatrical career, but perhaps her star had not yet risen very far (if it ever really rose at all). So this is clearly the right marriage record. But how did we get from Olczak to Dutkiewicz?

The answer lies again in the indexed records of Geneteka (Figure 5):

Figure 5: Geneteka search results for marriage records with surnames Olczak and Dutkiewicz between 1880 and 1900:

It appears that shortly after Kazimiera’s birth in 1880, her mother Paulina married Tomasz Dutkiewicz. Whether Tomasz Dutkiewicz ever legally adopted Kazimiera is doubtful, but this certainly explains why she might have at least informally used the name of her step-father as her own.

But Wait, There’s More!

So all this is nice, right? But why is a marriage record for a great-granduncle really THAT exciting? As I mentioned, my great-grandmother Veronica emigrated along with three siblings, Walter, Thaddeus and Josephine. What we didn’t know until I began researching records from Poland, was that there were two additional siblings — Konstancja³and Pelagia⁴ — who did not emigrate.No descendant of the Grzesiak family in the U.S. that I interviewed was aware that these sisters existed. The Konin Branch of the State Archive in Poznań had no record of marriage for either of them, and I was planning to write again to request a search for their death records, assuming they might have died before reaching a marriageable age. However, I noticed that there was a marriage record for a Konstancja Grzesiak on the same page of Geneteka search results (Figure 4, result 2) that gave me Walter’s marriage record! Sure enough, the marriage record⁵reveals that Konstancja is the daughter of Józef Grzesiak and his wife, Marianna née Krawczyńska, residing in the village of Ląd.

Unfortunately, I still can’t find a birth record for Pelagia, and it’s still possible that she died before reaching a marriageable age. But the implications of these new data are tremendous for me. My great-grandmother arrived in the U.S. in March of 1898,⁶ and in June and August of that same year, her sister and brother each married in Warsaw, prior to most of her family joining her in Buffalo in 1900, while the one married sister stayed behind in Poland with her family in Warsaw. Wow! A little further digging confirmed that Konstancja also had children (Figure 6):

Figure 6: Geneteka search results for birth records in Warszawa mentioning surnames Cieniewski and Grzesiak:

So I might have cousins in Poland from this Cieniewski line! However, it’s interesting that there are only two births. Birth records for this parish, St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Adalbert, in the Wola district of Warsaw, are indexed from 1886 to 1908 without any gaps. Therefore one might expect to see more than two children born between their marriage in 1898 and 1908 when the records end. There is no evidence that they immigrated to Buffalo, no good matches in U.S. census records for this family in Buffalo or anywhere else. So where did they go?

The Grzesiaks of Kowalewo-Opactwo, Warsaw, Buffalo, and Borowo

One clue, in Walter’s marriage record, might point the way. It stated that he was the son of “Józef Grzesiak, farmer, and his wife Maryanna née Krawczyńska, in the village of Borowo residing” Borowo is new to me. This is the first time this place has been mentioned in connection with my family. And unfortunately, there are at least 20 places in Poland today by that name. But if Borowo was where her parents were living at the time of Konstancja’s marriage, maybe that’s where she and her young family eventually went to live. So which Borowo is correct?

Well, Konstancja’s marriage record, from just two months earlier, states that her parents were residing in Ląd. That, and the fact that there were no good matches for a place called Borowo that’s very close to Warszawa, suggests that this may be the correct place, Borowo in Konin County, about 22 miles east of the Grzesiak’s previous home in Kowalewo-Opactwo:

According to the Skorowidz Królestwa Polskiego, a nice period gazetteer of Russian Poland published in 1877, the village of Borowo belongs to the Roman Catholic parish in Krzymów, so that’s where we can look for records. Records are online and on microfilm, but only from 1808-1884, which doesn’t help us any with finding additional births to Konstancja and Julian Cieniewski after 1900. However, the Branch Archive in Konin has birth records up to 1911, so this is an obvious next step to take.

The Old Mill, Revisited

There’s one other really cool connection I’d like to make before I sum things up. In my previous post about my Grzesiak family, I mentioned my grandmother’s recollection that her mother Veronica’s family owned a grain mill near the parish church. Try as I might, I couldn’t find any reference to Veronica’s father being a miller. However, when I visited Veronica’s birthplace of Kowalewo-Opactwo on a trip to Poland last year, I was amazed to see this old windmill, missing its vanes, in close proximity to the church, exactly as Grandma described. So I found it fascinating that Walter’s marriage record described him clearly as a miller, even though a more general term (“хозяин,” meaning “owner,” but seemingly used as a non-specific synonym for “farmer” or “peasant”) was again used to describe his father, Józef. This makes me more convinced that the mill in the photo actually was a place associated with Veronica’s family. Maybe her father didn’t own the mill, maybe he just worked for the miller — but between the existence of this mill where it should be, based on Grandma’s story, and the fact that her uncle Walter was described as a miller, I think there’s good reason to believe that this was the mill that Grandma’s story referred to.

That’s a Wrap

So what general research insights can be gained from this?

Once again, my ancestors were more mobile than I expected them to be — and yours might be, too.

When I began my research, I really thought I’d find “the” ancestral village for each surname line and be able to go back for many generations in that same village. Time and time again, that seems to be the exception, rather than the rule. I was so blinded by my expectation that Walter would have met his bride some place near to where he was born, that I overlooked obvious resources, like indexed records for Warsaw on Geneteka, because it seemed too improbable. Logic requires us to search in the obvious places first — those associated with the family. But when searching in the obvious places doesn’t pan out, it’s time to think outside the box.

2. Family stories can sometimes hold the key.

If you are among the oldest generation in your family, it’s not too late to write down everything you remember from older relatives, for the next generation. But if you still have any older relatives remaining, talk to them! My third cousin and research collaborator, Valerie Baginski, told me that her grandmother always said that the family came from Warsaw, rather than Poznań, which was my family’s version of the story. Once we figured out that our Grzesiaks’ ancestral village was Kowalewo-Opactwo, closer to Poznań than Warsaw, we dismissed that mention of Warsaw. Since Warsaw was a bigger city than Poznań, we chalked up this discrepancy to our ancestors’ tendency to paint their place of origin with a broad brush, referencing the closest big city. Now we realize that it’s quite possible her great-grandmother mentioned Warsaw because she was one of the younger siblings who may have lived there for a time, while my great-grandmother mentioned Poznań because she was the first one to leave Poland, and may never have gone to Warsaw with the others.

3. Pay your dues.

This last “insight” is a shameless plug for Geneteka, the database for indexed Polish vital records that enabled me to find my Grzesiaks in Warsaw. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with it, Geneteka is a project sponsored entirely by volunteers from the Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne (PTG, or Polish Genealogical Society), in Poland. Although all the indexing and photographing of vital records (for Geneteka’s sister site, Metryki, which I wrote about previously) is done by volunteers, funds are still required to pay for servers to host the websites. If you’ve used Geneteka and found it helpful to you, please consider making a donation to the PTG. Let’s help them to help us find our ancestors!

Walter’s marriage record was a puzzle piece that’s been missing for a long, long time. It just goes to show you that you never know when that great idea will hit, or when serendipity will strike, so keep chipping away at those brick walls. Stay thirsty, my friends.

Sources:

¹New York, Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, County of Erie, City of Buffalo, Death Certificates, #2600, Death certificate for Walter Grzesiak, 25 April 1946.

²“Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej sw. Stanislawa i Wawrzynca w Warszawie,” Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne, Metryki.genealodzy.pl: Projekt indeksacji metryk parafialnych (http://metryki.genealodzy.pl/), 1898, Malzenstwa, #223, record for Wladyslaw Grzesiak and Kazimiera Marianna Olczak, accessed on 17 August 2016.

³Roman Catholic Church, Sts. Peter and Paul the Apostles Parish (Kowalewo, Słupca, Wielkopolskie, Poland), Kopie księg metrykalnych, 1808-1879, 1872, births, #5, record for Konstancja Grzesiak.; FHL #1191028 Items 1-4.

⁴“Akta stanu cywilnego Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej Kowalewo-Opactwo (pow. slupecki)”, Narodowego Archiwum Cyfrowego, Naczelnej Dyrekcji Archiwów Panstwowych, Szukajwarchiwach (Szukajwarchiwach.pl), Ksiega urodzen, malzenstw i zgonów, 1869, births, #48, record for Pelagia Grzesiak, accessed on 21 June 2016.

⁵“Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej sw. Stanislawa i Wawrzynca w Warszawie “, Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne, Metryki.genealodzy.pl: Projekt indeksacji metryk parafialnych (http://metryki.genealodzy.pl/), 1898, Malzenstwa, #142, record for Julian Aleksander Cieniewski and Konstancja Grzesiak, accessed on 18 August 2016.

⁶Ancestry.com, Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1948 and 1954-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006), http://www.ancestry.com, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Records of the US Customs Service, RG36; NAI Number: 2655153; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, record for Veronika Gresiak, accessed on 21 July 2016.

Featured Image:

Wodzinowski, Wincenty. Wesele. Digital image.Http://muzeuminstrumentow.pl/. Muzeum Ludowych Instrumentów Muzycznych W Szydłowcu, 18 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Aug. 2016. This painting from 1896 seemed very fitting for my cover photo, since it depicts a wedding celebration very close to the time when Walter and Casimira married.

Productive Insomnia

Published on August 14, 2016September 13, 2019 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz5 Comments

We genealogists often have a sense that our ancestors want to be found. It sounds a little crazy or superstitious, but I think there might be something to it. Judy Russell wrote about this serendipity in genealogy recently, and her post got me thinking of instances when I’ve had similar experiences. My favorite example occurred when I awakened suddenly one night with one thought: “Take another look at that passenger manifest for the Lewandowski family.”

The Lewandowskis (or Levanduskis, or Levindoskis….) of Orleans County

Katherine Lewandowski (or Levanduski, as the family came to spell it in the U.S.) was my husband Bruce’s great-grandmother. She emigrated from Poland with her parents when she was about three years old, and the family settled in the village of Shelby in Orleans County, New York. Now the funny thing was, I wasn’t actively researching this family when I woke up with this sudden insight. I could almost understand it, if I’d been researching them before I went to bed, and my subconsious brain came up with this great idea while I slept. But in this case, my subconscious brain must have been working overtime, because I hadn’t given any thought to the Levanduskis in about a year. But this thought just wouldn’t fade away. After tossing and turning for another half hour, I finally gave up and went downstairs to rev up my laptop and pull up the image of the passenger manifest.

I should backtrack for a moment here to explain that finding this particular manifest was something of an accomplishment for me. I discovered Katherine’s parents’ names from the record of her marriage to Joseph Bartoszewicz in 1907 (Figure 1):

Figure 1: Marriage record for Joseph F. Bartoszewicz and Katherine Levinduski, 1907. Katherine Levanduski and Joseph Bartoszewicz 1907

The marriage record stated that Katherine’s parents were Edward Levinduski and Mary Wozniak, and this information facilitated the identification of the family in census records for Orleans County. Mary was only seen in one census record, that for New York State in 1892 (Figure 2), as she passed away in 1896 (1).

Figure 2: Extract from the 1892 New York State Census for Shelby, Orleans County, New York, showing the family of Edward Levanduski.

Edward Lewandowski fam 1892 NY State Census crop

The family’s names are a bit mangled here — Edward is recorded as “Adcker,” his son Peter has become Patrick, and the surname looks more like “Lewenoboski,” than “Lewandowski.” But the ages, birthplaces, and location match up very well with family recollections and other documentation.

By 1900, we see Edward “Lavindusky” married to his second wife, Anna (Figure 3). His son, Joe, and daughter Anna from his first marriage are still living at home, but the other children (Katherine, John and Peter) are apparently living independently. He also has three children with his second wife: Tony and “Wallace,” (probably known to his parents by the Polish name Władysław, he becomes Walter in later records), shown on this page, and Martha, who appears at the top of the next page.

Figure 3: Extract from the 1900 U.S. Federal Census for Shelby, Orleans County, showing the family of Edward Levanduski.

1900 census for Edward Lavenduski family

This census tells us (among other things) that Edward was born in “Poland (Ger)” — in other words, he was an ethnic Pole from the Prussian Partition who immigrated in 1886 and was already naturalized by 1900.

Finding their *&%# Passenger Manifest

My next step was to look for his passenger manifest. Frustratingly, I wasn’t finding it, no matter how I tweaked the search parameters. I assumed I was looking for a family group, although I realized that it was also possible that Edward came first and sent for his wife and children later on. But I thought I had enough information to go on that this should have been straightforward: immigration year about 1886, father Edward Lewandowski, born about 1858; mother Mary (probably Marianna, in Polish), born about 1856; children Katherine (in Polish, Katarzyna), born about 1883, and John (Jan in Polish, Johann in German), born about 1885, all coming from Prussia. But I just couldn’t find them.

Sometimes, when faced with this problem, it helps to obtain a copy of the individual’s naturalization records. For naturalizations that took place after 1906, the Petition for Naturalization will often tell the name of the ship, the port of entry, and the specific date of arrival of an immigrant, as seen in this petition for Katherine Levanduski’s husband, Joseph Bartoszewicz (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Extract of Petition for Naturalization for Joseph Bartoszewicz, showing arrival at the port of Philadelphia, PA on the 12th day of October, 1890, on the vessel Pennsylvania.

Joseph Bartoszewicz Petition for Naturalization crop.png

However, prior to 1906, naturalization records were less standardized, and these tend to state only the country from which the immigrant renounced citizenship, rather than providing any specifics about how or when he arrived in the U.S. The fact that Edward Levanduski was already a naturalized citizen by 1900 meant that his naturalization records might be nice to have, for the sake of completeness, but they weren’t likely to give me any significant hints.

A Critical Clue

My breakthrough came one day when a distant cousin of my husband’s found me through a Rootsweb message board, and sent me the following message: “I came across an old web site where you were researching Edward. An uncle recently gave me some of our history and we are maybe looking for the same Great-grandfather. If this email is still active get back to me.” (This is Reason #503 why it pays to post online about the ancestors and geographic areas you’re researching.) When I contacted him, he wrote that his Uncle Walter Lewandowski told him that Edward Levanduski’s name was originally Stanisław! You could have knocked me over with a feather. Stanisław?! It’s not uncommon for Polish immigrants with traditional Slavic names like Stanisław to choose to Anglicize them in their attempts to assimilate into American culture. But most men named Stanisław choose a name that’s got some phonetic similarity, like Stanley, rather than something completely different, like Edward.

Armed with this information, it was easy. I found their Hamburg Emigration manifest, shown below (Figure 5). The departure date was 10 April 1886, the father was Stanislaus Lewandowsky, age 27, from “Wolla,” Prussia, with his wife, Maria, age 23, and children Kateryna, 3, and Jan, 1. Bingo! A perfect match! I was so excited to try to figure out where “Wolla” might be that I paid no attention to the names below theirs on the manifest.

Figure 5: Extract from Hamburg Emigration manifest for Stanislaus Lewandowsky and family.

Lewandowski family passenger manifest

Or at least, not consciously.

“I see dead people….”

But my subconscious brain had my back, or maybe the spirit of Weronika Wozniak was talking to me in my sleep, just like in the movie, The Sixth Sense. But whatever it was, something woke me up on the night of November 17, 2o13, and I just had to check that manifest again. And when I did, I noticed the two passengers mentioned after my Lewandowski family: Weronika Wozniak and Michał Lewandowski. If you remember from that marriage record in Figure 1, Stanisław “Edward” Lewandowski’s wife, Maria, had the maiden name of Woźniak.

By this point I was wide awake, so I spent the next few hours running through records online to see where this discovery might lead me. I had to wade through a bit of a mess with the various surname and given name changes that were typical in the Polish community in Orleans County, but by 5:30 am, when Bruce came downstairs, shaking his head, I had new information on his family to report. My preliminary evidence, which I shored up later with additional documentation, indicated that Weronika Woźniak settled near Edward and Mary Levanduski in Shelby, New York, became Veronica “Lena” Wisnock, and married Stanisław “Edward” Lepkoske/Lepkowski. My guess — and I still don’t know the answer to this definitively — is that Veronica will end up being a younger sibling to Maria Woźniak Levanduska. I’m sure the answers lie in the vital records in Poland, as the U.S. records seem to be inconclusive on this question, but suggesting a common father, at least. Interestingly, this Stanisław also adopted Edward as his name in the U.S. Two Stanisław-to-Edward transitions in the same tiny town makes me wonder if someone (parish priest, maybe?) was really pushing the idea that men named Stanisław should prefer Edward over the more-common Stanley when choosing a name to go by.

A Lightbulb Moment

Edward and Lena Lepkoske had eight children, including a son, Joseph, who married Margaret Wisnock (probably a distant cousin on his mother’s side). Suddenly, the 1920 Census for my husband’s grandfather’s family made so much more sense (Figure 6). In 1920, Bruce’s grandfather, Henry, was a baby living at what his family considers to be the Bartoszewicz family home at 929 Smith Street in Buffalo. But in 1920, the Bartoszewicz family weren’t the only ones living there — it was also the home of Anthony and Frances Lewandowski and Joseph and Margaret Lipkowski.

Figure 6: Extract of 1920 U.S. Federal Census for the families of Anthony Lewandowski, Joseph Lipkowski and Joseph Bartoszewicz. 1920 United States Federal Census10 crop

When I first located this census record, Anthony Lewandowski’s presence there seemed natural. He was the oldest son of Edward Levanduski and his second wife, Anna Budzynska, and so half-brother to Katherine Levanduska Bartoszewicz. The house at 929 Smith Street was a multi-family home, so at that time, I didn’t think about the presence of the Lipkowskis too much, figuring they were just friends of the family, distant cousins, or maybe just unrelated boarders. But if I’m correct with my hypothesis that Marianna and Weronika Wozniak were sisters, then this would make Joseph Lepkoske first cousin to Katherine Levanduska Bartoszewicz.

It’s interesting to note that the census taker in Buffalo automatically wrote these names with their correct Polish spellings (Lewandowski, Lipkowski) rather than with the phonetic versions (Levanduski, Lepkoske) the family used in rural Orleans County. Census records for Orleans County also show some Lewandowski families who persisted with the correct, original spelling, and of course, there are many Lewandowski families in Buffalo, as well, so it remains to be determined exactly which families are related, and how. There seemed to be a lot of back-and-forth movement between Buffalo and Orleans County for members of these families, and tracking the movement of the family members geographically, given the diverse spellings of the surname, can be challenging. “Lewandowski” is among the most popular Polish surnames, so caution must be taken in researching, because there are probably quite a few Lewandowskis who were living in Buffalo in the early 1900s who were unrelated to these Lewandowski/Levanduskis.

All in the Family

One final point of interest here: This census shows Anthony’s wife, Frances, under her married name of Levanduski. But it’s interesting to note that her maiden name was Lepkoske — and she was none other than the daughter of Edward and Lena Lepkoske and sister of Joseph Lepkoske! To sum up, Joseph and Frances Lepkoske were full siblings. Joseph married Margaret Wisnock/Wozniak, who is probably his distant cousin. Frances married Anthony Levanduski, who is the half-brother to Katherine Levanduska, whose mother was a Wisnock/Wozniak. And Joseph and Frances Lepkoske are probably first cousins to Katherine Levanduska Bartoszewicz, assuming that Weronika Wozniak and Mary Wozniak are sisters. Whew!

For now, this research is on the back burner for me, due to time constraints. But my work is certainly cut out for me when I’m ready to return, as there are a lot of unanswered questions. Here are the final take-home messages with which I’d like to conclude:

1. Be sure to utilize ALL the information available from a given source.

Don’t do what I did and focus on one piece of information (the Lewandowskis’ place of origin, “Wolla,” — which, by the way, I was eventually able to locate) to such an extent that you ignore other valuable clues contained in the source.

2. Pay attention to your ancestors’ FANS (Friends, Associates and Neighbors).

The FAN principle was elucidated by Elizabeth Shown Mills as a strategy for learning more about our ancestors through careful analysis of indirect evidence. In hindsight, I might have suspected a connection between the Lepkoske and Levanduski families even without that passenger manifest, because census records often show their families living in close proximity or listed sequentially. This approach can be especially helpful when researching ancestors with common surnames.

3. Follow your hunches.

Whether you believe it to be serendipity, wild coincidence, luck, the promptings of your subconscious mind, or nudges from Great-Grandma up in heaven, every genealogist seems to have these stories. Go with it, and see what turns up.

Sources:

Shelby, Orleans, New York, “Death Records”, 1896, April 10, record for Mary Levenduski.

On Research Distractions and Why a Good Archivist Can Be Your Best Friend

Published on August 4, 2016September 23, 2021 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz4 Comments

I’ve never been one of those family historians who likes to stick to researching just one family line until it’s “complete” and then start another line. For one thing, in our hobby, each answer (i.e. a person’s name) leads to two more questions (his or her parents’ names). Sometimes a new bit of data can turn up unexpectedly, which prompts me to drop the research I’d been working on and follow the new trail for a while to see where it leads. This tendency toward distraction is sometimes referred to as “genealogical ADD,” and there are plenty of internet memes which suggest that this is a good way to waste a lot of time with little to show for it in the end. However, I often find that taking a break from a line and coming back to it later helps me to see the research with fresh eyes, allowing me to make new connections in the data that I’d missed previously.

I’ve discovered that the secret to making progress while jumping around in my research is to keep good research notes. I use Family Tree Maker, which currently offers options for both “person notes” and “research notes.” I use this section to keep a research journal, where I analyze my data, brainstorm hypotheses, plan my next steps, and keep track of phone calls and correspondence with archives, collaborators, churches, cemetery offices, etc. Sometimes it takes time before a reply is received, so rather than sitting by the phone with bated breath, I move on to other research tasks.

The other day, something prompted me to take a look at where I’d left things with my Dodds line from St. Catharines, Ontario. Robert Dodds was one of my great-great-great-grandfathers on my Dad’s side of the family, born in England on 28 January 1817, according to the 1901 Census of Canada. He died on 16 August 1906, according to his civil death certificate, and is buried in St. Catharines in Victoria Lawn Cemetery, Section G. Unfortunately, this civil death certificate does not reveal Robert’s parents’ names, which I need to know in order to further my research. His marriage record might also mention his parents’ names, but unfortunately, that’s been difficult to locate as well.

Robert married Catherine, whose maiden name has been variously reported as Irving¹ or Grant.² Most sources agree that Catherine was born in Ontario of Scottish parents, rather than having herself been born in Scotland, as suggested by the death record of her daughter (my great-great-grandmother), Martha Agnes (née Dodds) Walsh.¹ Robert and Catherine probably married circa 1839-1840, since their oldest daughter, Hannah Dodds, was born 20 January 1841. However, early records for Upper Canada/Canada West are very spotty, as many did not survive, and it’s not clear exactly where Robert and Catherine married, or even in what faith.

Robert Dodds reported his faith as Methodist in 1861, Church of England in 1871, Methodist in 1881, and Church of England again in 1891 and 1901. Catherine Dodds reported her faith as Methodist in 1861, Presbyterian in 1871, and she died in 1872. Rather conveniently, the Methodist and most of the Presbyterian churches in Canada merged with some other Protestant faiths in 1925 to become the United Church of Canada, so their archive is an obvious place to check for the marriage record. About 30% of the Presbyterian churches in Canada chose not to participate in this merger, and these non-concurring or continuing Presbyterian churches became the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Again, their archive is another obvious place to check. However, many congregations have retained their own records instead of sending them to the archives, so it’s important to know where the marriage took place.

This brings me to the second problem, determining where they married. It’s common to use census records to track the movement of families and individuals, but unfortunately, the first time we see Robert and Catherine in the census is in 1861, when they are living in Grantham and are already the parents of seven children. As mentioned previously, it’s likely that Robert and Catherine were married circa 1840, so the 1842 Census for Canada West would be an obvious place to search for the young family to see if they were already in Grantham at that point, or if they were elsewhere in the province. Unfortunately, most of the returns for this census did not survive, including those for Lincoln, Elgin, and Glengarry Counties, which are the three counties associated with this family based on other records. The situation is not much better with the 1851 Census. As luck would have it, and despite the fact that many returns for the Lincoln District did survive, the returns for the Township of Grantham and the City of St. Catharines did not.

By 1871, the family had moved to Yarmouth Township in Elgin County, where Catherine died in 1872 and is buried in Union Cemetery. Her grave transcription reads, “DODDS / In Memory of / Catharine / wife of / Robert DODDS / died / June 12, 1872 / aged 54 yrs. 1 month & 22 days. / My children dear assemble here / A mother’s grave to see / Not long age I dwell with you / But soon you’l dwell with me.” (I find that transcription especially compelling in a morbid sort of way.) Catherine’s death certificate states that she was born in “Martin Town,” that she was Presbyterian, and that she died at the age of 53, which would suggest a birth year of 1819. Her grave marker suggests a birth date of 20 April 1818. “Martin Town” points clearly to Martintown, Glengarry County, Ontario, a place settled by immigrants from the Scottish Highlands, which is consistent with what we know of Catherine’s Scottish parentage.

The original Presbyterian Church that served Martintown was St. Andrew’s in Williamstown. Marriage records for this church are indexed here for the time period from 1779 to 1914 “with a couple of gaps.”³ However, closer inspection reveals that there are no marriage records past 1815. In fact, this index seems to correspond to the collection of St. Andrew’s church records available on microfilm from the LDS, which exhibits the same gap from 1818 until 1855. And as luck would have it, that gap neatly encompasses both Catherine’s birth record, circa 1818, as well as the record of her marriage, if it took place in this parish, circa 1840. So at this point, we can’t say whether the negative result is because the record no longer exists, or because Robert and Catherine Dodds did not marry in this parish. For kicks, I checked all the indexed births, marriages and deaths for the surnames Grant and Irving, even though the particular range of years I need is not available. Interestingly, I discovered that the surname Irving does not exist anywhere in these indexed records, although the surname Grant is quite common in the parish.

So where does that leave us? Well, at this point, I still don’t know where Catherine and Robert might have met and married. It might have been at St. Andrew’s in Williamstown, but if that’s the case, then the record may no longer exist. I still don’t know Catherine’s parents’ names, although the data seem to point toward Grant as a more likely candidate for her maiden name than Irving. But even in the absence of birth and marriage records, it occurred to me that I could still try to find church burial records for both Catherine and Robert, and perhaps by some miracle, these might contain their parents’ names, even though the civil death records did not.

I struck out fast with Catherine’s death record. I contacted Union United Church, which is the descendant of the original Union Wesleyan Methodist Church which operates the cemetery in which Catherine was buried, to inquire about burial records. Unfortunately, I was told that they, “have no records that date that far back any longer either.”⁴Robert’s church death record seemed a bit more promising, as there were a number of Anglican churches in St. Catherines by the time of his death in 1906. To help me determine which one might have his death record, I telephoned Victoria Lawn Cemetery, where he is buried. The secretary was very helpful. She informed me that Robert Dodds’ interment was handled by MacIntyre Funeral Home, and “Rev. R. Kerr” was the pastor who performed the services. A quick Google search shows that Rev. Robert Kerr (or Ker) was the rector of St. George Anglican Church in St. Catharines. A bit more digging revealed that burial records from St. George have been microfilmed and are available from the archive at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. I contacted them immediately to inquire about obtaining a look-up.

And that was when “real life” and other research pulled me away, and I put my Dodds line on the back burner again. I wrote that e-mail to the archivists at McMaster University back on 4 September 2014, almost two years ago. Almost immediately, I received one of those standard, “thank you for your inquiry, one of our archivists will be in touch with you shortly,” e-mails, and then nothing further. I didn’t think about it again (obviously!) until just recently. Flash forward to earlier this week, when something made me look back at my Dodds research. In reviewing my notes, I realized that I’d never received a reply from the archivist at McMaster. So I wrote to them again, mentioning my previous e-mail from September of 2014.

Lo, and behold! I received a reply from a library assistant, informing me that one of the archivists, Bridget Whittle, had replied to me back in 2014, but the e-mail was sent accidentally to the Research Help department. She forwarded Bridget’s old e-mail to me:

“Your email was forwarded to us here in the Archives. Thank you for your inquiry. I’ve had a look at St. George’s Church in St. Catharine’s and there was no burial record for Robert Dodds in 1905 or the surrounding years. Is it possible it was a different church in St. Catharine’s?”⁵

How about that? She’d actually taken the time to review the microfilm for me, no charge!

I wrote back to her to explain the conversation with the cemetery office at Victoria Lawn, and wondered if perhaps Rev. Robert Kerr ministered at more than one parish in St. Catharines, which might account for the lack of burial record at St. George. Bridget replied,

“Given the information you received from Victoria Lawn Cemetery, it really does sound like it should be St. George’s to me. I checked again, just to be certain that I hadn’t missed it somehow, but he’s definitely not there.

I checked all the other churches in St. Catharines that had burial records for that time and didn’t see Robert Dodds in any of them (or records suggesting that Robert Kerr was performing services there). I’m not certain whether this means that for some reason the entry was never made or if there is some other place it might be. I have checked the vestry records for the time as well as a miscellaneous file in the hopes that there would be something, but again, came up short.

While all this is unfortunate, I’m afraid that for the names of his parents, you wouldn’t be likely to get it from the burial record anyway. I know you said you were having a hard time tracking down his marriage record, but that would be more likely to have the information.

Do you know if he was married in St. Catharines? Around 1840 is pretty sparse record wise, but I would be happy to have a look if you know the city he was married in.⁵

Wow! It just makes my day to encounter someone so wonderfully helpful. Of course I replied with more information regarding my search for their marriage record. Bridget’s response was both thoughtful and on-point:

Thanks for going through all of those details. I can see why you’re running out of options. Based on your information I checked a few of the other churches (namely the one in Grantham and a few that are now part of St. Catharines, but were not at the time). Frustratingly, I’ve still come up with nothing new. I was hoping I might catch a baptismal record for Hannah, at least so that we knew we were on the right track, but still nothing.

I have put a call into the Archivist for the Niagara Diocese, Archdeacon Rathbone, to see if we can figure out how it is that all of that information about Robert Dodds can be recorded at the cemetery and then not show up in the burial register. He’s away today, but I’ll let you know what I come up with.

The records we have here don’t go as far east as Yarmouth, East Elgin. That falls under the Diocese of Huron. If you haven’t been in touch with them already, you can reach them here: http://diohuron.org/what/HR/archives.php

You probably know this already, but the Methodist church in Canada merged with a few others to become the United Church. If you go hunting for the Dodds’ under the Methodist connections, you’ll want to get in touch with them: http://www.united-church.ca/leadership/church-administration/united-church-canada-archives

And good grief! I see what you mean about that 1901 census. I’m inclined to agree that it’s Jany [the month of Robert Dodds’ birth], but it’s a shame that it is so difficult to read (and that the UK census doesn’t go back that far). I will let you know what the Archdeacon has to say. Hopefully he’ll have some other lead.⁵

So what are the take-home messages in all of this?

1. Keep good research notes.

You never know when life is going to intervene and you might have to put down your research for a while. As long as you have good notes, it should be easy to pick up again when you’re ready.

2. Follow up with all your leads (even if it’s two years later).

E-mails do get lost sometimes. If you don’t hear from someone for a while, don’t assume he or she was ignoring you.

3. Be sure to reach out to the librarians and archivists in the geographic areas in which you’re searching.

They are a fantastic resource — typically knowledgeable about the history of the area in addition to knowing what records, maps, finding aids, and reference works are available, and where to look for them. Nothing beats local knowledge. The search may continue for my elusive Robert and Catherine Dodds, but at least it’s nice to know that I’ve got some allies in my quest.

Sources:

New York, Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, County of Erie, City of Buffalo, Death Certificates, 1935, #4549, Death Certificate for Martha Dodds Walsh.
Death record for Hannah Dodds Carty, eldest daughter of Robert and Catherine Dodds (click link for details and image).
Per information at the parent website (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onglenga/), this index was created from, “‘St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,’ (aka the Rev. John Bethune records); Williamstown, Charlottenburgh Twp., Glengarry, Ontario. Transcript by Dr. K. A. Taylor Registers of births, marriages and burials: 1779-1914 (original and typescript versions). MS 107 Reel 1. File contains transcriptions from 1779 up to 1839 with a couple of gaps.”
Whitehead, Karen. “RE: [Cemetery] Availability of Church Records.” Message to the author from unioncemetery.uucc@gmail.com. 4 Sept. 2014. Email.
Whittle, Bridget. “RE: Question submitted through Ask a Librarian chat.” Message to the author from archives@mcmaster.ca. 3 Aug. 2016. Email.
Featured image: Gordon, Bruce. Photo of St. Andrews United Church Cemetery. Digital image.Find A Grave. Find A Grave, Inc., 1 Sept. 2014. Web. 4 Aug. 2016.

Online Translation Aids

Published on July 24, 2016July 29, 2016 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz2 Comments

Newcomers to the Polish Genealogy group are often intimidated by the prospect of translating records in foreign languages. Poland’s complicated history has dictated that vital records may be found in Latin, Polish, German, or Russian. However, fluency in these languages is not required for successful genealogical research. Vital records tend to be very formulaic, and with practice, one can learn to translate them with relative ease. The very best translation guides that I’ve found are not online. They are a series of books written by Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman, entitled, In Their Words: A Genealogist’s Translation Guide for Polish, German, Latin and Russian Documents. Volume I: Polish, Volume II: Russian, and Volume III: Latin have already been published and purchasing information can be found here at the authors’ website.

Less comprehensive assistance can be found online. Although machine translators (e.g. Google Translate) can be useful from time to time, their use is often best limited to individual words or short phrases, particularly when dealing with old texts which may be written in an old-fashioned, “wordy” or flowery legal format. There are a variety of websites that can assist, in a pinch, with translating documents. I made a list of some that I’ve found most helpful for the Polish Genealogy group, grouped by language.

Multi-lingual translation aids (these pages provide assistance with translation of Polish, Russian, German, and/or Latin, to English):

https://sggee.org/research/translation_aids.html

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Poland_Civil_Registration-_Vital_Records

The entire article in the above link is very informative, but scroll down about ¼ of the page to get to the translation examples.

Polish:

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Poland_Genealogical_Word_List
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~polwgw/terms.html
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~polwgw/trans.html
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Polish_given_names

A word about given names: A common problem with “translating” Polish given names into English is that some old Slavic names simply have no exact translation. By “exact,” I mean that typically, if there is a Christian saint with a particular name, that saint’s name is the basis for translation. So the traditional Slavic name Wojciech is commonly translated as Adalbert because St. Wojciech took the name Adalbert at his confirmation. Names like Władysław, Stanisław, Bronisław, etc. commonly use the Latin form as the “correct” translation (e.g. Ladislaus, Bronislaus, Stanislaus). People with those names who immigrated to English-speaking countries often assumed names that were similar visually or phonetically to their original names, but there were no hard-and-fast rules about these things. So Władysław often became Walter, Stanisława often became Stella, and Pelagia often becamse Pearl — but other choices were possible, and ultimately it was up to the individual what name he or she decided to use after immigration. I have two individuals on my husband’s side of the family who were baptized as “Stanisław,” but became “Edward” in America. So it’s best to keep an open mind about given names when researching.

Russian:

http://zofiafederowicz.com/akta-metrykalne/?setlang=enhttp://www.learn-russia.com/lessons/alphabet.php
http://allbell.tripod.com/cursive/russalph.html
http://masterrussian.com/blalphabet.shtml
http://www.pitt.edu/~armata/cyrillic.jpg
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Russian_Genealogical_Word_List
http://files.lib.byu.edu/family-history-library/research-outlines/Europe/Russia.pdf

Latin:

http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/default.htm

The above link is for a Latin tutorial that might suit those who really want to learn Latin, but may be more comprehensive than necessary for those who only want to know enough to translate church records from Polish parishes.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01022a.htm

The above link is for a helpful list of ecclesiastical abbreviations, which are very common in Catholic church records.

http://genealogy-quest.com/glossary-terms/latin/
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Latin_Genealogical_Word_List http://www.genealogy.ro/dictionary/

The preceding three links are all for Latin genealogical word lists, so there’s some overlap among them.

http://archives.nd.edu/latgramm.htm
http://www.worldlingo.com/en/resources/latin_dictionaries.html

This link (above) includes additional Latin links to dictionaries and word lists.

German:

http://c.ancestry.com/cs/media/social-research-german-civil-registration.pdf

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/German_Word_List
http://www.odessa3.org/collections/articles/link/illness.txt

The above link is specifically for German to English translations of illnesses and causes of death.

http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Englisch/Sutterlin.htm
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Germany_Handwriting

The preceding two links provide assistance with recognizing “old German” Suetterlin script.

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/ethnic/german_terms.html
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Prussian_Poland_Civil_Registration

I hope these links are helpful to you in your research. If you know of some great sites that I’ve missed, please let me know! Happy researching!

Using Facebook for Genealogy

Published on July 19, 2016August 8, 2017 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz6 Comments

When one thinks of useful tools for genealogy research, social media might not be the first thing that springs to mind. But social media in general, and Facebook in particular, can be a powerful addition to one’s genealogy “toolbox.” In this article, I’d like to explain how Facebook genealogy groups can be used effectively in genealogy research, as well as some “do’s and don’t’s” for participating in these groups.

Why Use Facebook for Genealogy?

If you’re not on Facebook, you might not realize that there are over 9,000 genealogy-related groups and pages on Facebook. And that only counts the ones where the primary language of communication is English! Genealogist Katherine R. Willson has done for Facebook what Cyndi Ingle (creator of the popular “Cyndi’s List“) has done for genealogy websites, by compiling and indexing a list of all the genealogy groups and pages on Facebook, and making it available in a searchable PDF form on her website. In addition to groups which focus on research in all fifty states, there are county and regional groups, groups, groups focusing on research in a specific country, and groups which focus on subjects like DNA, adoption, reuniting family Bibles with their families, strategies for getting organized, military history, lineage societies, and everything in between. If you can think of a special interest that falls under the larger umbrella of genealogy research, chances are good that someone has started a group or page for it on Facebook. Looking for an easy way to share your own research progress and family photos with interested members of your extended family? You can create your own Facebook group and invite them to join!

At this point, you may be wondering about the difference between a group and a page. Per Facebook’s explanation, pages are typically created and managed by an official representative of an organization. So if you’d like to keep up-to-date with the latest news, events and tips shared by the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts, for example, you can “like” their Facebook page and their posts will appear in your newsfeed. Typically there’s not as much discussion on a page as there is in a group, which is a place where people can discuss a common interest, share photos, etc. Groups don’t usually represent an organization that exists outside of Facebook, and therefore they have no official representatives.

To give you an example of the power of these groups, last October, I posted in the German Genealogy group. I had decided to dust off my research on some of my German lines, so I posted a question about whether the church in Roding, Bavaria would have records for the village of Obertrübenbach, since I had discovered that there was also a church in Obertrübenbach itself. One of the group members, Klemens (Mente) Pongratz, commented on my thread. Mente is a local historian and part-time archivist for his hometown in Germany, and many years ago he had created an index for vital records in the parish of Roding. He happened to have this index on his home computer, and in a matter of minutes, he found the baptismal record for my great-great-grandfather as well as additional records for this family back to 1717, and was able to provide the specific record number and fiche numbers necessary for obtaining scans from the German archives! What a pleasure to find someone else researching in the same area, who really knows the local history, the archives, the language and the culture, and is so willing to share his expertise! This is exactly the kind of connection which Facebook groups facilitate, and the kind of magic which I find so satisfying to help create in the Polish Genealogy group.

Polish Genealogy on Facebook

I can’t write an article about using Facebook for genealogy without putting in a plug for the Polish Genealogy group, for which I’m an administrator. Polish Genealogy was founded in 2008 by Michael Mulholland, a librarian and avid genealogist from Arlington Heights, Illinois. In 2013, recognizing that the group was approaching 1,000 members and was getting to be too much for one person to manage, he added me and some others as additional admins. Michael is largely emeritus now and not actively involved in the day-to-day maintenance of the group, but the community he envisioned lives on. We now have close to 9,000 members from around the world, united in our common pursuit of our Polish roots, and active admins include Valerie Warunek, Beth Whitson, Waldemar Chorążewicz and Johanna Maciejczyk-Leck.

Group members in Polish Genealogy range from beginners to professionals, and offer free assistance with research direction, deciphering handwriting or translating records (English, Polish, Latin, Russian, German, Ukrainian, etc.), and locating vital records online or offline, as well as offering camaraderie. Facebook groups are a little like a genealogy conference or genealogical society meeting that’s taking place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, where you can celebrate successes, brainstorm, learn new strategies, and vent about frustrations, brick walls, and DNA matches that never reply to your messages. A dedicated, core group of volunteers is typically on hand to offer assistance, as their personal schedules allow, but everyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion.

It’s not uncommon for a new member to post in the group with just a document or two, and maybe a vague recollection that, “Grandma’s family was supposed to be from somewhere near Warsaw,” and have the group work the problem collaboratively, so that by the end of the discussion, in real time, Grandma’s birth record from Poland has ultimately been produced. I can’t promise results like this, of course — some problems are more challenging than others. But at the very least, we can usually suggest next steps to take so that the group member can continue his or her research.

How do I join?

It’s pretty easy. If you’re not on Facebook, create an account at Facebook.com. Once you’re logged in, you can find groups by typing keywords in the search box at the top of the page, shown here:

If you type in “Polish Genealogy,” for example, it will take you to group’s page, where you’ll see a button that says, “Join Group.” Once you do that, one of the admins will have to approve your request to join. Polish Genealogy is considered a “Closed Group” on Facebook. Contrary to what one might think, that does NOT mean that we don’t accept new members. What it means is that posts and comments made in the group won’t show up in the newsfeed of group members’ Facebook friends who aren’t in the group, as can happen if a group is public. Here is more information about privacy levels in Facebook groups.

With 1.65 billion active monthly users, Facebook users represent a cross-section of humanity, and not everyone in that community is going to be benevolent. In our efforts to screen out the bad guys (fake profiles, spammers) we admins carefully review the profiles of new applicants to the group, looking for indications of an interest in genealogy. Sometimes profiles are set up to be very private, and they don’t give us much to go on. In those cases, I will often write a brief note to applicants individually to inquire further about their research interests. So if you apply to join the group, and it’s been a few days and you still haven’t heard anything, please check your Facebook messages.

Messages? What messages?

Every Facebook user has three message boxes, all of which can be accessed by clicking on the little speech bubbles icon, shown here:

Message box

Once you click that, you’ll see two of your message boxes:

Message requests

The “Recent” box is where messages end up from people who are already your friends on Facebook. The “Message Requests” box is (ideally) where you can find messages from people who aren’t already your friends on Facebook. You have the option to read those messages, and then accept them or delete them. However, within “Message Requests” there’s another box that even many Facebook-savvy people don’t think about, which is the “filtered requests” inbox. This is where messages are sent when Facebook algorithms determine that they’re likely to be spam. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case, and it seems as though every time I think to check it, there’s at least one legitimate message in there.

Filtered requests

With so many groups to choose from, how do I decide?

Facebook groups can be a fantastic asset to your research, but it’s impossible for anyone to keep up with a hundred different groups. So you might want to pick a few to start with and focus only on those. When choosing which Facebook groups might be most beneficial to your research, be sure to check out the group’s description, shown here, prior to clicking “Join Group.”

Sometimes these descriptions contain special instructions, such as a request to message one of the group admins when you submit your request to join, if your profile has high privacy settings. Following these instructions will expedite your admission to the group and make the admins’ lives easier. Trust me on this one, admins spend a lot of time vetting new members and screening out spammers, and I’m thrilled when applicants actually follow those instructions and contact me first, so I don’t have to write to each and every person with a private profile who would like to join one of my groups.

So maybe now you’ve selected a few Facebook genealogy groups and have joined them. What should you do to derive maximum benefit from them?

The “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” of Facebook groups

1. Do read the pinned post.

The pinned post is found at the top of the group’s page, just under the cover photo, and contains the rules for that particular group. Most admins have the goal of maintaining a respectful, friendly environment, and keeping posts on topic, but some are more specific than others about how this is to be achieved. In the Polish Genealogy group, for example, our focus is genealogy, so questions about Polish culture are more appropriate for our sister group, Polish Culture, Food and Traditions. Similarly, discussions of Polish genetic genealogy are tolerated, but they’re more appropriate for the Polish Autosomal DNA group, or one of the other genetic genealogy groups.

2. Do check out the group’s files

Files can be found here: files

The files contain lists of valuable websites for Polish research, tutorials on how to use those websites, lists of professional researchers in Poland, online translation aids, the group’s alphabetized surname registry documents (where members can list their surnames of interest and the geographic areas associated with those names), and more.

3. Do search the group’s history

files

You might find that your question has already been discussed previously, or you might find others who are working in the same parishes or on the same families. I can think of several occasions when group members have discovered that they’re related to one another, and it could happen to you!

4. Do be sure to get your data organized before you post, and give us specifics.

Example of a good post: “My great-grandfather was Joseph Zielinski, born abt. 1892 in Poland. His passenger manifest says he was born in Miszczewice but other records say Warsaw or Sochaczew. He immigrated to North Tonawanda, New York and his marriage record gives parents’ names as Stanley Zielinski and Mary Kalota. I’m trying to find his birth record and any other records for the family in Poland.”

Example of a poor post: “My great-grandfather was John Kowalski. Has anybody heard of him?”

5. Don’t expect others to do your research for you.

Although group members will often bend over backwards to help people, we are all volunteers. Everyone has jobs, families, lives outside of Facebook, and his or her own research to attend to. It’s possible that someone might find you several records for your family in Poland, but it’s also possible that he will give you a link to the appropriate vital records collection online and you’ll have to do the research yourself. Many group members have learned to translate documents in Latin, Polish, German and Russian, at least well enough to pick out the names of their ancestors. If you get stuck, you can always post again and ask for further assistance. But mostly the group is about giving people fishing poles and teaching them to fish, rather than handing them their fish on a silver platter. Attitudes of entitlement don’t engender much sympathy.

6. Don’t be thin-skinned.

Online interactions are always fraught with a bit of peril, because they lack the tone of voice and body language that allow us to distinguish between gentle, good-natured teasing and frank hostility. I always try to read people’s comments in the best possible light, and recognize that in Facebook groups, as in life, there are some people I’d enjoy having a cup of coffee with, and others I’d prefer to avoid. If someone rubs you the wrong way, let it go and move on. Also, be aware that some of our group members don’t really speak English — they use Google Translate for all their comments. Because of that, they try to keep their comments brief and to-the-point, which can sometimes sound harsh. Be as patient with them as you’d like them to be with you in a foreign-language group.

7. Do get to know the group’s “regulars.”

If you lurk in the group for a while, even when you don’t have a specific question to post, you’ll get a sense about which members are most knowledgeable and offer sound, reliable advice most consistently. Occasionally it happens that a relative newbie will offer advice or make a statement that maybe isn’t sound, well thought-out, or factual. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not all opinions are equally well-informed. You are the ultimate authority on your own family history, so you should take whatever advice you receive and evaluate it critically to see if it makes sense.

8. Do remember to thank those who helped you.

It sounds like a simple thing, but we’ve all had it happen that we share our time and expertise with someone who never even bothers to say “thank you.” This is especially irksome when a volunteer has gone so far as to provide scans of records, or translations. Be gracious and grateful, and you’ll find that people will be more willing to help you again in the future.

Facebook groups really offer something for everyone. You might break down a brick wall or two, or even meet some cousins. No matter what your level of proficiency, you’re sure to learn something new, and maybe even make some new friends. In particular, I welcome you to check out Polish Genealogy, Genealogy Translations, and the Polish Culture, Food and Traditions group, which are three of the groups I admin. And if you’ve got a success story about how Facebook genealogy groups have helped you, I hope you’ll share it in the comments. Happy researching!

Search Tips for Beginners in Polish Genealogy

Published on July 8, 2016March 12, 2018 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz4 Comments

Note: Please see the revised and updated version of these search tips here. However, the original post appears below.

In the Polish Genealogy group on Facebook, we get a lot of people who are brand-new to researching their family history. To help keep the regular volunteers from getting burned out by saying the same thing over and over again, I wrote up this quick list of search tips and linked it to the pinned post, so that we could refer newcomers to it and help them get started. Although I wrote it specifically for Polish research, many of the same principles apply no matter what ethnicity your immigrant ancestors were. The key to continuing research in the Old Country is to find records from the New Country that mention the immigrant’s specific place of birth. So if you’re reading this blog and you’re new to genealogy, my suggestions to you are:

1. Get a book. Researching your Polish genealogy is quite a different thing in some ways from researching one’s U.S. ancestry. To help you familiarize yourself with the history and geography that are essential to your understanding of researching your family in Poland, it’s a good idea to get a beginner’s guide to Polish genealogy. There are quite a few books on the subject. You might want to check Amazon (search “Polish Genealogy”) for reviews.

2. Start with yourself and work backwards. Interview older family members, if any are still around, and ask them questions about everything they remember about their immigrant ancestors. If all your older family members are deceased, don’t panic – their paper trail is still there, and that’s what we all use to document those family stories anyway.

3. Check out the sites for “one-stop shopping,” like www.familysearch.org, www.ancestry.com, www.fold3.com, etc. Family Search is free, and the paid sites can probably be accessed free of charge at your local public library. These sites are good for gathering census records, passenger records, military records, and other types of basic documentation. Please note that the information available on these sites represents only the tip of the iceberg for what’s out there. Most of the documents you’ll need are still sitting in churches, courthouses, archives, and libraries, waiting for you to discover them. In this era of immediate gratification via the internet, people sometimes begin with the unrealistic expectation that somewhere, someone out there has done all the work for them. While this might be true (to a point) if your ancestors have been living in the U.S. since Colonial times, it’s much less likely to be true if your ancestors arrived here from Poland just a generation or two ago. Don’t forget that genealogy still requires patience, persistence, time, and good-old fashioned research done with letter-writing, phone calls, and personal visits, if possible.

4. Do your homework in U.S. records before attempting to trace your family in Poland. It’s a common mistake for people to find one document with a place of birth on it (most likely misspelled) and to try to use that to begin tracing their family in Poland. Be patient. In many cases, there are multiple towns and villages in Poland with the same name (think of researching a U.S. place called “Springfield”). It’s a good idea to obtain several documents with place of birth information so you can compare them before trying to research in Poland. It’ll save you time (and maybe money) in the long run.

5. Absolutely make every effort to obtain vital records from the church your immigrant ancestors attended in the U.S. I cannot state that strongly enough. Church versions of marriage and death records are much more likely to contain your immigrant ancestor’s precise place of birth in Poland than are the civil equivalents. Moreover, these places were probably recorded by a Polish priest, so they’re likely to be spelled more or less correctly. You should also obtain baptismal records for the children of your immigrant ancestors. These frequently contain an “ex loco” portion that will tell you where the parents came from. Not every record will contain that information, so be thorough: if you know that your great-grandmother’s sister also immigrated and lived in that same parish, get her marriage record as well as your great-grandmother’s record. Get ALL the baptismal records, not just for your own direct line of descent. Documents from collateral lines can often provide that critical breakthrough you need.

5a. Don’t know what parish your ancestors attended? Find their address in the census records. Parishes had defined geographic boundaries (still do!) and people were not likely to “shop around” for a parish they liked, as is often the case today. People in the group can often assist with identifying the correct parish, so ask if you need help.

5b. Before you write to that parish, check the Family History Library catalog at www.Familysearch.org to see if records for that parish were microfilmed. If so, it’s often faster to order the microfilm than to wait for the (tired, overworked) parish secretary to get around to replying to your genealogy request.

5c. If you do need to write to the parish, keep in mind that the primary function of the parish staff is to meet the spiritual needs of their congregation, NOT to fulfill genealogy requests. Make sure to enclose a donation for the parish, and be prepared to wait a while. It’s best to request only a few records (1-3) at a time, keep your letter brief, and be as specific as you can. If you’re requesting a marriage record, for example, obtain the civil equivalent first – that way, you already know the exact date of the event. Be sure to ask for a clear digital photo or photocopy of the parish register, rather than a typed extract, which Catholic parishes sometimes provide as proof that a sacrament was administered in their parish. Explain that the original record may contain information that’s vitally important to your search, so you need the full, original record. If they hesitate due to “privacy concerns” suggest that they cover up the other entries on the page with a sheet of paper, so that only the key entry (and the column headings, if there are any) are showing. Be polite and respectful — churches are under no obligation to provide copies of their records, so it’s an act of kindness if they choose to do it. It’s okay to follow up with phone calls, e-mails or letters if a decent interval (4-6 weeks) has gone by and you still have not received a reply. When you do receive your records, remember to send a thank-you note.

6. Obtain other key records to obtain in order to determine place of birth in Poland:

a.Passenger records. Family Search, Ancestry have these, and you can find records specifically for the Port of New York from www.ellisisland.org (after 1892) and www.castlegarden.org (before 1892)

b. Naturalization records. Pre-1906, they might not give specific place of birth info, but after 1906 they almost certainly will. My ancestors are from Buffalo (in Erie County) New York, so I have always been able to obtain these records by visiting/calling/writing to the Erie County Court building. However, you may need to try the National Archives (http://www.archives.gov/research/naturalization/) or the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy) Post-1906 records can be goldmines. They often contain not only the place of birth of the man who was becoming a citizen, but also the place of birth of his wife. Remember that, prior to the Cable Act of 1922, a woman’s citizenship was a reflection of her husband’s (see http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html for more information). So prior to 1922, you’ll want to look for the naturalization records for the husband of your female ancestors.

c. Military records. World War I draft registration cards will often provide a specific place of birth.

7. Leave no stone unturned. As family historians, our job is to document the lives of our family members, so be thorough. Think beyond the basics, and check out additional sources for information about your family. As an example, the Polish Genealogical Society of America has a database of insurance claim files from the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. The application for life insurance often has fantastic medical and personal information about the applicant (number of brothers and sisters still living, age at which parents died, etc.). Buffalo’s Polish-language newspaper, the Dziennik Dla Wsystkich, published from 1911-1957, provides a fascinating look into the lives of our ancestors. Even if you don’t read Polish, you can scan through and find stories and photos of your family, and post them here in the group for translation. If you have ancestors from New York State, also be sure to check out the newspaper archive at www.fultonhistory.com, which contains keyword-searchable newspapers from all across New York State, from the late 1800s until about the 1980s.

8. Join a Polish genealogical society, either nationally (the Polish Genealogical Society of America, http://www.pgsa.org) in an area where your ancestors lived, or where you live now. Examples include the Polish Genealogical Society of New York State (www.pgsnys.org), the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan (www.pgsm.org), the Polish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and the Northeast (www.pgsctne.org), the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts (www.pgsma.org), etc. Typically their websites have useful databases and resources (i.e. the Polish letter writing guide at the PGSA site) and they have meetings at which you can connect with others researching their Polish heritage in your area.

Hopefully these tips will help you get started in researching your Polish family in U.S. records. When you’re ready to make the leap into Polish records, the real fun begins. All of us in the Polish Genealogy group on Facebook are looking forward to sharing your joys and frustrations on your genealogical journey, and helping out when we can. Happy researching, and remember that there’s no such thing as a stupid question – we’re here to help.

Fun with Genetic Genealogy

Published on July 2, 2016July 8, 2016 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz5 Comments

A couple days ago, I checked my autosomal DNA matches at Ancestry and discovered a new DNA match with a familiar surname, Ptaszkiewicz, in his family tree. I wrote to him immediately, and to my pleasant surprise, he wrote back, expressing an interest in collaborating to determine definitively how we’re related. At this point, I suspect that my new cousin, M. Snyder (name used with permission), and I are double fourth-cousins once removed. So what does that mean?

One of my great-great-great-grandmothers was Anna Ptaszkiewicz, born 29 April 1834 in Kołaczyce,¹ in what is now the Podkarpackie province of Poland, but was the Austrian Empire at that time. She was the youngest of five children born to Franciszek Wojciech Ptaszkiewicz and Salomea Sasakiewicz. Anna had an older brother, Franciszek, who was born 23 March 1827² and here’s where the plot thickens: Franciszek and Anna married twin siblings. Franciszek Ptaszkiewicz married Anna Łącka on 15 November 1852³and Anna Ptaszkiewicz married Jakub Łącki on 26 November 1861.⁴ Anna and Jakub Łącki were the oldest children of Franciszek Łącki and his second wife, Magdalena Gębczyńska, born 24 July 1835:⁵

Figure 1: Baptismal record for Jakub and Anna Łącki⁵ Jacobus and Anna lacki birth crop

Franciszek and Anna (née Łącka) Ptaszkiewicz had eight children, including a daughter, Katarzyna, who was born 10 October 1864.⁶ It is this daughter, Katarzyna, whom I believe might be the same as “Cousin M’s” great-grandmother, Katherine/Catherine (née Ptaszkiewicz) Grzebińska.

Catherine (née Ptaszkiewicz) Grzebińska, was born in November 1866, in Austrian Poland, according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census⁷, shown in Figure 2. Experienced researchers know that our ancestors weren’t always as precise when reporting their birth dates as we are today, so the birth dates for these two Catherines, October 1864 and November 1866, are well within the ballpark range for them to be the same person.

Figure 2: 1900 United States Federal Census for Kate Grzebinski [sic]⁷ 1900 census Grzebinski

Moreover, “Kate” settled in Buffalo, New York, as did her putative double first cousin, Marianna (née Łącka) Klaus, who was my great-great-grandmother.

Although all of this looks promising, there’s still no “smoking gun” yet — no definitive evidence that would confirm that “Cousin M” and I are related through this particular surname line. It would be nice to find a marriage record in Kołaczyce or Buffalo for Katarzyna Ptaszkiewicz and Jan Grzebiński. It would also be nice to find a passenger manifest or church records for “Cousin M’s” Catherine Ptaszkiewicz, indicating that she was from Kołaczyce. And there’s a good chance that we’ll be able to find those church records. A search of the records in Kołaczyce for marriages of the children of Franciszek Ptaszkiewicz and Anna Łącka was already on my to-do list. And it should be easy to determine if Catherine Ptaszkiewicz Grzebińska was from Kołaczyce, since her oldest children were probably baptized at St. Stanislaus Church in Buffalo. Not only are records from St. Stan’s easily searched on microfilm, but they also reliably indicate the place of birth of the parents of the baptized child, as shown here in this baptismal record⁸ for my great-grandmother Genowefa Klaus, daughter of Marianna (née Łącka) Klaus (and granddaughter of Anna Ptaszkiewicz).

Figure 3: Baptismal record for Genowefa Klaus indicating father as Andrzej Klaus from Maniów, Galicia and mother as Marya Łącka from Kołaczyce, Galicia.⁸ Genevieve Klaus baptismal record crop

So we know what we need to find in terms of documentation, and we have a plan to get it. But right now, what we have is DNA evidence. Both “Cousin M” and I have uploaded our raw DNA data to GEDmatch, which is a free site offering tools for analyzing and understanding one’s autosomal DNA results. Among the useful tools at GEDmatch is a chromosome browser, which provides a graphic depiction of our match, including the number of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) included in it. As is shown in Figure 4, “Cousin M” and I share a 29.3 centimorgan stretch along Chromosome 9:

Figure 4: Graphic depiction of match from GEDmatch.com. Red lines indicate base pairs with no match, yellow lines indicate base pairs with half match, green lines indicate base pairs with full match, blue bar indicates a matching segment greater than 7 centimorgans. Chromosome 9

GEDmatch estimates 4.5 generations to our most recent common ancestor (MRCA). That’s just about right. It’s actually 5 generations to the MRCA for “Cousin M” and my Mom, as shown in Figure 5. (Since I’m one generation removed from my Mom, I fall on the second page of this chart, not shown here.)

Figure 5: Relationship Chart for me and Cousin M through Łącki ancestors. Relationship 1 (through Łącki)

And it’s the same relationship through our Ptaszkiewicz ancestors, as shown in Figure 6. Since Marianna Łącka and Katarzyna Ptaszkiewicz are double first cousins, meaning they share all four of their grandparents in common, they share about as much DNA as half siblings. If that’s as clear as mud, you might find this explanation to be helpful.

Figure 6: Relationship Chart for me and Cousin M through Łącki ancestors. Relationship 2 (through Ptaszkiewicz)

So I’m pretty excited about all of this! This is a beautiful example of how genetic genealogy can complement, extend, and confirm results obtained through traditional documents-based research. I can’t wait to dive into the records in Kołaczyce and Buffalo to find the documentation that will allow us to stamp this case as “solved.” In the meantime, please feel free to share your latest DNA mysteries or success stories in the comments. I’d love to hear how DNA results are helping you with your own research.

Sources:

¹Roman Catholic Church, St. Anna’s Parish (Kołaczyce, Jasło, Podkarpackie, Poland), “Urodzenia, 1826-1889”, Stare Kopie, 1834, April 29, record for Anna Ptaszkiewicz. [date of birth] 29.04.1834, [date of baptism] 29.04.1834, [house number] 56, [child’s name] Anna, [father’s name] Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz sutor, [mother’s name] Salomea Patre Francisco Sasakiewicz nata, [godparents] Nicolaus Sękowski Hava Francisci Wiejoski uxor Civis.

²Roman Catholic Church, St. Anne’s parish (Kołaczyce, Jasło, Małopolskie, Poland), “Księga urodzeń, 1784 – 2015”, 1827, baptismal record for Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz. [Date of birth] Martius 23, 1827, [Date of baptism] Martius 25, 1827, [House number] 53, [Child’s name] Franciscus, Catholica, Puer, Legitimi, [Father] Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz sutor civis, [Mother] Salomea patre Francisco Sasakiewicz nata, [Godparents] Paulus Wiejoski, Francisca Mathai Kowalski uxor, cives.

³Maciej Orzechowski, “Kołaczyce Marriages,” Marriage record for Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz and Anna Łącka, transcribed from the collection, “Roman Catholic Church records, St. Anna’s Parish (Kołaczyce, Jasło, Małopolskie, Poland), Śluby, 1826-1889,” Stare Kopie, record #6 on the spreadsheet. [Number] 20, [Date] 15.11.1852, [House number] — , [sponsus (groom)] Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz sutor filius Francisci Ptaszkiewicz ac Salomea nata Francisco Sasakiewicz oppidariorum, [Aetas (age)] 25, [Viduus] — [House number] — , [sponsa (bride)] Anna Łącka filia def. Francisci Łącki ac Magdalenna nata Joanne Gębczyński ooppidari, [Aetas (age)] 18, [vidua] — , [Testes] Josephus Dutkiewicz pellio Antonius Kołeczek textor.; report to Julie Szczepankiewicz, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA, 9 January 2015; Excel Spreadsheet held by Julie Szczepankiewicz, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.

⁴Roman Catholic Church, St. Anna’s Parish (Kołaczyce, Jasło, Podkarpackie, Poland), “Śluby, 1826-1889,” Stare Kopie, 1861, #11, marriage record for Jacobus Łącki and Anna Ptaszkiewicz. [Record number ]11, [Marriage date] 26.11.1861, [House number] 308, [Groom] Jacobus Łącki filius def. Francisci Łącki ac Magdalenna nata Joanne Gębczyński oppidari, [age] 27, [house number] 77, [Bride] Anna Ptaszkiewicz filia Francisci Ptaszkiewicz ac Salomea nata Francisco Sassakiewicz oppidario, [age] 26, [witnesses] Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz oppidarius Laurentius Kowalski sutor.

⁵Roman Catholic Church, St. Anna’s Parish (Kołaczyce, Jasło, Podkarpackie, Poland), “Urodzenia, 1826-1889”, Stare Kopie, 1835, Record for Jacobus Łącki and Anna Łącka. [date of birth] 24.07.1835, [date of baptism], 25.07.1835, [house number] 191, [babies’ names] Jacobus et Anna Gemelli, [father’s name] Franciscus Łącki figulus, [mother’s name] Magdalena patre Michaele Gębczyński nata, [godparents] Constantinus Niedzielski Magdalena Michaelis Gałkiewicz uxor Michael Gałkiewicz Catharina Constantini Niedzielski uxor Civis.

⁶Maciej Orzechowski, “Kolaczyce Births”, Baptismal record for Catharina Ptaszkiewicz, transcribed from the collection, “Roman Catholic Church records, St. Anna’s Parish (Kołaczyce, Jasło, Małopolskie, Poland), ‘Urodzenia, 1826-1889,’ Stare Kopie.”, record number 66 on the spreadsheet. [Record number] 53, [Date of birth] 10.10.1864, [Date of baptism] 11.10.1864, [House number] 308, [Child’s name] Catharina, [Father] Franciscus Ptaszkiewicz sutor, [Mother] Anna filia Francisci Łącki et Magdalenna nata Gębczyńska, [Godparents] Josephus Forys ruricola in Bukowa Catharina uxor Leonhardi Kolbusz ruricola in Bukowa; report to Julie Szczepankiewicz, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Original report made on 9 January 2015; most recent update on 2 April 2015, all on the same spreadsheet; Original held by Julie Szczepankiewicz, Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

⁷Ancestry.com, 1900 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004), http://www.ancestry.com, Year: 1900; Census Place: Buffalo Ward 11, Erie, New York; Roll: 1027; Page: 37A; Enumeration District: 0083; FHL microfilm: 1241027. Record for Kate Grzebinski, accessed on 2 July 2016. http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1900usfedcen&h=78760547&indiv=try

⁸Roman Catholic Church, St. Stanislaus Parish (Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA), Baptisms, 1874-1903, 1897, #620, baptismal record for Genowefa Klaus.; 371 vol. 1.

Writing to Archives in Poland

Published on June 26, 2016July 8, 2016 by Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz6 Comments

A few days ago, I wrote to the Konin branch of the Polish State Archive of Poznań to request a search for death records for Pelagia and Konstancja Grzesiak, who were two sisters of my great-grandmother. This is pretty routine for me now, but when I first began researching Polish vital records, I was intimidated by the thought of writing to an archive in Poland. I worried that it would be prohibitively expensive, and I worried about translating their correspondence in an era before Facebook groups and Google Translate. However, writing to the archives is pretty straightforward, and should be a standard research strategy for anyone researching Polish ancestors. In this post, I’ll walk you through the process of writing to an archive to request records for your family in Poland.

Why Write to an Archive?

Although it’s true that more and more vital records from Poland are coming online every day, thanks to the efforts of both the state archives and the various Polish genealogical societies, there are still plenty of records that are not available online or on microfilm from the LDS. Some of these records can be found in the diocesan archives, some are in the state archives, and some may still be at the parishes themselves. You might need to rely on multiple sources to find records in the range of years you need to thoroughly document your family history.

As an example, for my Grzesiak’s ancestral parish in Kowalewo-Opactwo, the LDS has both church and civil records available on microfilm. However, upon closer examination, we see that the civil records only go from 1808-1865, then there’s a two-year gap, after which coverage extends from 1868-1879. The church records might be helpful in tracing some of my collateral lines forward in time, since they begin in 1916, but they aren’t useful for finding ancestors. Those records go all the way up to 1979 (with gaps), which is interesting, given that Polish privacy laws typically restrict access to such recent records.

Microfilm is great, but online access is even better, and in the years since I began researching this family, records for Kowalewo have come online for those same years from 1808-1879, including that same gap from 1866-1867. One might conclude that the records from 1866-1867 were destroyed, since they don’t appear in either the online collection from the Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu Oddział w Koninie (State Archive of Poznań Branch in Konin) or on the LDS microfilm. However, that’s not the case, those records DO exist. How do we know this?

Baza PRADZIAD: The Vital Records Database for the Polish State Archives

Baza PRADZIAD can be searched quickly, easily, and in English to see what vital records are held by the various state archives for any given parish or civil registry office. Note that you must know the parish or civil registry office for your village of interest. If I search for records for Wola Koszutska, which is a village belonging to the parish in Kowalewo, I won’t get any hits. But I can find records for ancestors born in Wola Koszutska by knowing that their vital events would have been recorded at the parish in Kowalewo. Although Polish diacritics aren’t supposed to be important when searching this site, I’ve had it happen on occasion that a search without diacritics comes up empty, but redoing the search with diacritics gives good results. Maybe that was due to cybergremlins, or maybe there are bugs that only affect certain parishes, but it’s something to consider if nothing turns up the first time you search. There are ways to set up your keyboard to allow for Polish diacritics, but if you haven’t done that or don’t know how, there’s always this site which works in a pinch so you can copy and paste your proper Polish text into the search box.

Now, let’s take a look at what comes up in Baza PRADZIAD for Kowalewo (Figure 1):

Figure 1: Baza PRADZIAD Search Screen

Figure 1 shows the search screen, and as you’ll see, I got results only by entering the town name. There are options for restricting the search by entering the “commune” (i.e. gmina), province, religion, or type of event you’re looking for, but you really don’t need all that, and sometimes simple is best.

Figure 2: Baza PRADZIAD Results from Search for “Kowalewo”:

Figure 2 shows the top part of the search results; if you were to scroll down, there are a few more entries for “Nowe Kowalewo” below this. Note that there may be multiple parishes or registry offices with the same name that come up in the search results. However, when you click “more” at the far right, you can see which place is referenced by looking at the province, as shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3: “More” information on the first entry (“małżeństwa, 1808-1819, 1821-1890, 1911”) of the search results for Kowalewo:

Let’s consider these search results a bit more carefully. In Figure 2, we see that there are two collections of marriage records (małżeństwa) for Kowalewo. The first collection, boxed in red, covers marriages from 1808-1819, 1821-1890, and 1911. This collection belongs to the Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu Oddział w Koninie, as we can see from Figure 3 which comes up when we click, “more.” The second collection, boxed in green (Figure 2), covers marriages from 1828-1866. If we obtain more information about that collection (Figure 4), we realize that both collections are for the same Kowalewo, and they’re stored in different archives!

Figure 4: More” information on the second entry (“małżeństwa, 1828-1866”) of the search results for Kowalewo:

These records belong to the Diocesan Archive of Włocławek. Now, at this point you might be thinking, “Hey, isn’t this site supposed to be for the search engine for the STATE Archives? What’s a diocesan archive doing in the search results? And does this mean that I can expect to find all the holdings of the diocesan archives catalogued here?”

Welcome to the murky world of archival holdings in Poland. It would be great if there were one, central repository for all vital records in Poland, and if those holdings were completely catalogued, and if that catalogue were searchable online at only one website. But as my mother always says, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Although you may find that some diocesan archives have their holdings catalogued in Baza PRADZIAD, not all do. So I generally think of this as a catalogue for the holdings of State Archives, and if any diocesan results come up as well, that’s icing on the cake.

Now let’s go back to Figure 2. If you compare the boxes in red, blue and yellow, you see that these represent marriages, births (urodzenia) and deaths (zgony) for the same range of years. This makes sense, because frequently parishes would keep one parish register for each year, divided into three sections. Looking further at Figure 3, we notice the “dates” and “microfilms” underlined in purple and yellow, respectively, and herein lies the answer to the problem of our two-year gap in microfilmed and online records that exists from 1866-1867. As you can see from the text underlined in yellow, the archive also has those same microfilms, with the same gap. But their total collection, underlined in purple, includes years which are not available on microfilm. Whereas online and microfilmed records end in 1879, the archive also has births, marriages and deaths from 1880-1890, in addition to having births, marriages and deaths to fill that gap from 1866-1867.

How Do I Write to the Archives?

First, you want to make sure that the records aren’t available any other way (e.g microfilm or online), before you write, as archival research is generally slower and more expensive than obtaining records by these other methods. Popular websites for Polish vital records include Szukajwarchiwach (“Search in the Archives” or SwA), Metryki.GenBaza (or just, “GenBaza”), Metryki.Genealodzy.pl (or just “Metryki”), Poczekalnia (“Waiting Room,”), Genealogiawarchiwach (“Genealogy in the Archives”, or GwA), the digital collections for Poland available from the LDS, and others (mentioned on this list, starting at the bottom of page 3). If you’re not familiar with these sites and don’t know how to use them, visit us in Polish Genealogy and we’ll help you out. To determine whether your parish of interest has been microfilmed by the LDS, check the Family History Library catalog.

If it looks like your records of interest can only be found at one of the archives, you can send an e-mail to the address found in your Baza PRADZIAD search results (see above). You should write in Polish. Since this is professional correspondence, this is not a good time to break out Google Translate. Instead, use one of the letter-writing templates that are available online, either from the LDS or the PGSA. Alternatively, you can post a translation request in one of the Facebook groups (Polish Genealogy or Genealogy Translations) and a volunteer will probably assist you with a short translation, if you ask nicely.

How Much Will It Cost?

The cost of archival research depends on how many years they have to search, whether or not they find anything, and which archive you’re writing to. You might think it would be standardized across the country, but that hasn’t been my experience. I have paid as little as 4 zlotys ($1) to the Archive in Grodzisk for two records found after a search of marriages over a 12-year period, and as much as $30 to the Archive in Konin after a search of marriages over a 9-year period that turned up empty. (In that case, it’s possible that the girls died before reaching a marriageable age.) It’s important to have very clear, specific research goals in mind, however. Sending the archive a request that’s too vague, such as, “please search all your records for Kołaczyce for the surname Kowalski” or too broad, such as, “please search all your death records for Kołaczyce from 1863-1906 for Łącki deaths” is probably not advisable. For that kind of research, it would be better to hire a professional in Poland who can visit the archive for you in person.

What Happens When They Find My Records?

When the archive has completed their research, they will reply to notify you of the results. The letter or e-mail will be in Polish; if you need assistance with translating it, I would again recommend those Facebook groups (Polish Genealogy or Genealogy Translations). If they found records, they will summarize their findings, but you will not receive copies until you make payment. If they didn’t find anything, they will still charge you a search fee for the time they had to spend looking.

How Do I Make Payment?

The archives will only accept payment by direct wire transfer to bank account number specified in their correspondence. They do not accept personal checks, credit cards, cash, or PayPal. Here’s where it gets tricky: most U.S. banks charge high fees for international wire transfers. However, there are alternatives to paying your bank. You can set up a wire transfer with a company like Western Union or Xoom, where the fees are typically much lower. If you live in a community with a Polish travel agency, you can often ask them to wire money for you for a small fee. Or, you can ask a professional researcher in Poland to handle the transaction for you, and you can reimburse him or her via PayPal. (Be sure to add in a tip if the researcher does not specify a charge for his or her time).

When Will I Get My Records?

Again, your mileage may vary, based on the archive in question, but in general, I’ve gotten results within a week or two after payment has been made. Be sure to attach your payment receipt to your return e-mail to the archive. I’ve always received my records in the form of digital images sent via e-mail, but I’ve heard from others who say they’ve always received hard copies.

That’s pretty much all there is to it! Writing to archives in Poland doesn’t have to be an intimidating process, nor will it necessarily break the bank. As long as you have clearly defined research goals and a relatively small range of years for them to check, archival research can be quite affordable. If you’ve been on the fence about writing to an archive, I hope this encourages you to go ahead and give it a try. And if you do, please let me know how it turns out. Happy researching!

1. Get recommendations before you hire.

2. Determine the scope and budget for the project.

3. Start with clearly defined research goals.

4. Expect to pay per hour of research, rather than per record.

5. Get an estimate before you begin.

6. Understand what’s included, what’s not, and how billing is done.

7. Good communication is key.

8. Understand that there are no guarantees.

9. Since travel costs are usually extra, it helps if you can find a researcher who is more or less in the same part of Poland as your ancestral villages.

10. Be sure you clearly understand the time frame over which the work will be done.

11. Research in Poland may not be as expensive as you think.

The Grzesiaks of Kowalewo-Opactwo and Buffalo, New York

The Hunt Is On!

My Breakthrough

But Wait, There’s More!

The Grzesiaks of Kowalewo-Opactwo, Warsaw, Buffalo, and Borowo

The Old Mill, Revisited

That’s a Wrap

Once again, my ancestors were more mobile than I expected them to be — and yours might be, too.

2. Family stories can sometimes hold the key.

3. Pay your dues.

Sources:

The Lewandowskis (or Levanduskis, or Levindoskis….) of Orleans County

Finding their *&%# Passenger Manifest

A Critical Clue

“I see dead people….”

A Lightbulb Moment

All in the Family

1. Be sure to utilize ALL the information available from a given source.

2. Pay attention to your ancestors’ FANS (Friends, Associates and Neighbors).

3. Follow your hunches.

Sources:

1. Keep good research notes.

2. Follow up with all your leads (even if it’s two years later).

3. Be sure to reach out to the librarians and archivists in the geographic areas in which you’re searching.

Sources:

Multi-lingual translation aids (these pages provide assistance with translation of Polish, Russian, German, and/or Latin, to English):

Polish:

Russian:

Latin:

German:

Why Use Facebook for Genealogy?

Polish Genealogy on Facebook

How do I join?

Messages? What messages?

With so many groups to choose from, how do I decide?

The “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” of Facebook groups

1. Do read the pinned post.

2. Do check out the group’s files

3. Do search the group’s history

4. Do be sure to get your data organized before you post, and give us specifics.

5. Don’t expect others to do your research for you.

6. Don’t be thin-skinned.

7. Do get to know the group’s “regulars.”

8. Do remember to thank those who helped you.

Sources:

Why Write to an Archive?

Baza PRADZIAD: The Vital Records Database for the Polish State Archives

How Do I Write to the Archives?

How Much Will It Cost?

What Happens When They Find My Records?

How Do I Make Payment?

When Will I Get My Records?