Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952 — #Genealogy, #Michigan

Stanczyk, was overjoyed at the announcement of the newest FamilySearch.org database:

Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952

The URL / Link is:  https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1968532 [bookmark it]

They just published it 29 April 2013 [after some issues were discussed]. No your eyes are not playing tricks, the FamilySearch.org website has had a makeover recently. It may be a unsettling if you have not visited the site in a while, but persevere, it is worth it.

Hurry and grab your dead relatives in case any controversy causes this database to disappear!

 

Niagara Falls Gazette – 1937 — #Genealogy, #Newspaper

Today’s blog is an intersection of some prior Social Network Analysis (aka Cluster Genealogy) and  EOGN‘s mention of FultonHistory.com (the website of Historic Newspapers). Stanczyk, waaay back discovered FultonHistory.com – An Historical Newspaper  (mostly NY) website. I was not aware that the owner (Tom Tryniski) was still adding content and that the content had grown to about 21.8 million pages, rivaling the Library of Congress’s efforts of digitized newspapers.  Each scan is a single page PDF document that is zoomable.

So  the idea presented itself, why not see if any ZASUCHA in Niagara Falls can be located in those 21.8 million scanned pages. I am happy to report a very good success. Take a look at the image. It is from Tuesday, January 19th, 1937 edition of the Niagara Falls Gazette. [You will need to click to read death notices - Jacobs, Geraud, Kochan, Laydon, Mahoney, Morrison and ZASUCHA].

Now I said this was a part of a long standing (i.e. “incomplete”) SNA project of mine. I am trying to do ELIASZ/ELIJASZ research by analyzing the affiliated families in the ELIASZ Social Network in Biechow/Pacanow (Poland) and Detroit/Toledo/Cleveland/Buffalo/Niagara Falls/Syracuse (USA).  My thesis is that all of these people are closely inter-related from Poland and they continued/extended their villages in the USA.

So by following these “genetic markers” (literally) of my family tree, the affiliated families, that I would be led to new facts about my direct lineage and possibly artifacts (pictures, etc.) of my ancestors. I was also hoping to lure my distant 2nd/3rd/4th cousins to me via this blog and my research in hopes of a second bump beyond my circumstantial info of the SNA. You see they would see their family names and realize the connection and we would be able to do that genealogy swapping of intelligence and/or pictures and documents.

First, an aside [skip ahead to next paragraph if you are not a ZASUCHA], the death notice transcription:

ZASUCHA – Died in Mount St Mary’s hospital, January 19, 1937, Andrew Zasucha, beloved husband of Catherine, father of Helen and Joseph, son of Martin in Poland; brother of Roman of this city. Funeral services at 9:30 Thursday, January 21, from his home, 423 Eighteenth street and 10 o’clock in Holy Trinity church. Burial at Holy Trinity cemetery.

That is some excellent genealogy info there for Andrew Zasucha of Niagara Falls who was born in Pacanow, [old wojewodztwo Kielce], Poland !

Now I am spending many hours in Ancestry/Ellis Island ship manifests, Ancestry city directories, censuses, WWI draft registrations,  etc. and now historic NY newspaper scans. I am matching people up (my nodes in the picture) and drawing lines connecting the people(nodes) to other people. I have to take some care to get the nodes right in order to draw inferences, so I tend to a conservative approach of keeping nodes separate until I have a high degree of certainty they are the same node. I use spreadsheets to collect a timeline of data and then match up people before drawing the picture. This is my SNA methodology.

I did this current project because I noticed that my grand-aunt Mary arrived to my grand-uncle John Eliasz and were in Niagara Falls (not Buffalo/Depew like most and not Detroit). I was always puzzled about why Niagara Falls. Who or What drew them there (Niagara Falls) before their sojourn to Detroit? Now grand-aunt Mary came from Ksiaznice in Pacanow parish from her brother-in-law Jan Leszczynski to her brother Jan Eliasz in Niagara Falls in 1910. All of these facts matched my family tree (except for the Niagara Falls which nobody alive had any memory of anyone living there). None the less, I slavishly recorded the address: 235 11th Street, Niagara Falls, NY.

Now let me digress. This is why I want the PLAC tag in GEDCOM to be elevated to a Level 1 tag. I want to do these analyses in my family tree. I want to find people who shared the same/similar places for family events and see if there is any connection that I am not aware of — i.e. SNA (aka Cluster Genealogy). I need it in the genealogy file and I need reports to allow me to search on place and to conform these places into a hiearchy for analysis.

Fortunately, Stanczyk still has a good memory. I was gathering data about: Zasucha, Zdziebko, Zwolski, Hajek, Leszczynski, Eliasz/Elijasz, etc. These are all families found in Pacanow parish who came to the USA and settled in: Buffalo/Depew, Niagara Falls, Syracuse, some moving onward to Cleveland, Toledo and my grandparents moving onward further from Toledo to Detroit. When I was recording addresses from the city directories, I noticed a few Zasucha being at the 235 11th street address. That address rang a bell in my memory and I went back through my family’s ship manifests to see who had been at that same address. That is when I saw that my grand-aunt and my grand-uncle had been there. So now I had a thesis that any ZASUCHA at 235 11th street the surrounding environs, would close family to my grand-aunt/grand-uncle and be direct ancestors of ANNA ZASUCHA, my great-great-grandmother, wife of MARTIN ELIASZ of Pacanow. In fact, I am pretty certain now that I have gotten this far in my SNA, that ANNA ZASUCHA had a brother(s) who had sons:   Martin,   Adam,    Josef,    Jan.  These four men had children as follows who came to Niagara Falls:

Martin (father of Andrew in the above death notice) – Andrew(the deceased), Roman, and Jan

Adam – Michal, John, Karol, Marya, and Feliks

Josef – Benedykt (son of Josef), Feliks (a 2nd much-younger Feliks, son of Benedykt)

Jan – Roman (a 2nd Roman), Teofil, Josef, and Pawel

Now the ones of greatest interest to me are the children of Adam. This is because Karol and his brother Feliks lived at 235 11th street, the same address that my ELIASZ ancestors had lived at, in the same year! That shows a pretty strong family connection in my family tree (I cannot say for your tree or not) whenever I find it happening. Of course, the other ZASUCHA of Niagara Falls are also of some interest to me as they ALL came from Pacanow. I can be pretty sure that everyone from Pacanow (or Biechow) parish is likely to share a distant (non-linear) family relationship as determined by connecting family trees.

So I owe some thanks to FultonHistory.com - An Historical Newspaper  (mostly NY) website and its creator  Tom Tryniski. Tom’s efforts have provided my the above death notice. I also found an Emil C. Mrozek (a physician) from Erie County, NY and his exploits of winning a bronze star in WWII. I also found an article of a Richard (aka Ryszard) Kryszewski who died tragically at the age of 18 in a car-train crash in Depew, NY. Now I had Richard’s cause of death from the newspaper article. So some articles are uplifting and some are tragic, but I collect them all for my ancestors.

Some people mock my genealogical research as chasing down dead people. My wife, Teréza, takes the learned Jewish position that I am doing a good deed (mitzvah) in keeping these ancestral memories alive. Tereza likes to call me the “Soul Keeper”. This blog of my musings is filled with my genealogical / family stories. Besides being a “cousin magnet”, this blog is my effort to record these stories.

 

PLACes: Biechow, Pacanow [in Poland],  Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo/Depew, Niagara Falls, Syracuse

NAMEs: ELIASZ/Elijasz, Kedzierski/Kendzierski, Leszczynski, Sobieszczanski, Fras(s), Mylek, Hajek, Mrozek, Kryszewski

Thinking About @Ancestrydotcom ‘s GEDCOM — #Genealogy, #GEDCOM

Ancestry.com (Twitter: @Ancestrydotcom ) is the proverbial 800 lb (362.87 kg) gorilla in the genealogical archive. You cannot miss him — mostly he’s lovable. So today after you read this blog post, Stanczyk wants you to tweet at him (see Twitter link above). I am hoping the big ape will make some improvements to their software. Hint .. Hint !

A couple of days ago (25-Feb-2013), I ran my PERL program against the GEDCOM file I exported from my family tree on Ancestry.com ‘s  website. That tree, the RootsWeb tree, and this blog are Stanczyk’s main tools for collaboration with near and distant cousin-genealogists (2nd cousins, 3rd, 4th, 5th cousins — all are welcome).

Quick Facts —

1. No invalid tags  - Good
2. Five custom tags – Also Good
3. CHAR tag misused – ANSI [not good]
4. My Ancestry Family Tree uses diacriticals: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ź ż   in proper nouns [not good]
5. Phantom Notes ??? [really not good]

So, Mr. Ancestry (sir) can you please fix #’s 3, 4, and 5, please?

CHAR -  I think Ancestry should use what is in the standards: ANSEL | UTF-8 | UNICODE | ASCII . I think this is easily do-able (even if all you do is just substitute ASCII).

This is not a picayune, nit-picky, persnickety, or snarky complaint. In fact, it leads right into the next problem (#4 above). Not only does Ancestry export the GEDCOM file as “ANSI”, it strips out my diacriticals too (as a result?). So now I have potentially lost valuable information from my research. For Slavic researchers, these diacriticals can be vital to finding an ancestor as they guide how original name was pronounced and how it might have been misspelled or mistranscribed in the many databases. Without the diacriticals that vital link is lost.

The last criticism is an insidious problem. Every time I exported the GEDCOM, I would get a note on one person in the tree. I would carefully craft the note on Ancestry, but what I received in the GEDCOM file downloaded would be different ???

I reported the problem to no avail and no response. This is not very good for an 800 lb gorilla.

Digging Deeper

I have since gone on to do some experiments and the results may astound you (or not). I copied the NOTE I was getting in my GEDCOM and saved it off to a text file, perplexed as to where it came from, since it was not the NOTE I was editing on Ancestry??? Now I did something bold. I deleted the note from that person on Ancestry and then downloaded the GEDCOM file again. Do you what I got? Wrong! I did not get my carefully crafted NOTE, I got yet another NOTE. I copied that note’s text and repeated my process of deleting the note and downloading the GEDCOM file a 3rd time. This time when I edited my GEDCOM file, I found MY note!!! But where/how did the other two notes come about? Why were there three notes? Why could I see and edit the 3rd note, but only get the first note when I downloaded the GEDCOM file? How did notes 2 & 3 get there? Why did I not get all three notes when I downloaded the GEDCOM? All good questions that I have no answer to. My suspicion is that Ancestry should not allow more than one EDITOR on a tree, other contributors should only be allowed to comment or maybe provide an ability to leave sticky-notes on a person [that does not go into a GEDCOM file]. I do not think the notes were created by their mobile app since I always saw my NOTE (and not the other two notes). I am chalking this up to an Ancestry.com bug and urging others who see strange things in their notes to take deliberate steps to unravel their notes. I hope Ancestry will fix this and let people know. I hope they fix all of items #’s: 3, 4, and 5.

So, my dear readers, I am asking you to tweet to Ancestry (as I will too) and  ask them for bug fixes. Perhaps if enough people tweet at @Ancestrydotcom, they will respond and not give us the cold  gorilla shoulder.

Social Network Analysis – A Genealogical Tool — #Genealogy, #RootsTech

Social Network Analysis has worked again!

This is a broad, umbrella-like, semantically overloaded term. In fact, this term is even known by aliases. GeneaBlogger, Thomas MacEntee, calls it “Cluster Genealogy“. Stanczyk calls it by a more modern term that immediately identifies and places this tool in a perfect context — Social Network Analysis (SNA for short). Both terms are defined by wikipedia pages — follow both links and decide for yourself what to call it, but whatever you call it, start using it in your genealogical research now!

Stanczyk has successfully used this technique three times now.

• Used to determine siblings for my great-grandfather Jozef Elijasz of Pacanow
• Inadvertent use in locating another line from  great-grandfather Tomasz Leszczynski
• Whimsical Use on an Affiliated Family Name that exploded in multiple dimensions

This article and the next article where I elaborate the steps for the last one in the list is my third success.

The first two list items are from two earlier blog posts:

1. Jozef Elijasz - Inferring unknown siblings from known siblings. A series of 3 articles.
2. Jozef Fras – Son of Agnes Leszczynski. Proving this Leszczynski family was mine.

Happenstance Scenario

The third research opportunity was a happenstance fluke. To test my connection to Ancestry, I did an Immigration search on ‘ZWOLSKI’. This is one of the affiliated names from Poland for our Elijasz family branch. I also knew that some Zwolski came to America and were related to my great-grandfather’s sister, Pelagia. So I did an Immigration search and clicked on the Passenger List Ship Manifest for Jan Zwolski. A mere random selection of Zwolskich. He arrived in 1910 on the Lapland. Jan was not from Pacanow or as far as I could tell any nearby village of my ancestors. Finally, he was going to Jamaica, NY, also not a locale known for members of my family tree. So I figured that my Ancestry was working since I could see the ship manifest, but this random person was not a candidate  for entry into the family tree.

Now the real genealogy began. I looked down the ship manifest to see if anyone else with Jan was from a nearby ancestral village. Looking down the page I found plenty, so I decided to focus on those affiliated family names that I had researched before in my Pacanow Social Network Analysis (#1 on the list). I started with the first Pacanow resident, Francisek [sic] Luszcz. He was going to  a Teofil Zasucha at 1319 Falls street in Niagara Falls, NY. Now I got interested Zasucha is a big SNA family name and it is the maiden name of my 2nd great-grandmother, Anna Zasucha Elijasz. The location also tugged at a memory from my research. I had a great-aunt (Mary Elijasz) who arrived in the USA in 1910 to her brother Jan Elijasz from a brother-in-law, named Jan Leszczynski in Zborowek and she went to her brother who lived in Niagara Falls. Looking further down the page, I even found a Jan Eliasz from Zborowek (not my great-uncle, but surely deserves a place somewhere in my tree, though his branch is yet missing) and Jan was going to Syracuse (where some distant Elijasz resided and also another Elijasz affiliated family, the Kedzierski, one of whom did marry my great-uncle Jan Elijasz). Alas this Jan came from a wife Maryanna, not a Pelagia.

So I thought to check Ancestry’s City Directories for Teofil Zasucha in Niagara Falls and up popped a 1915 address. Teofil was now at 163 13th street in Niagara Falls (as are all addresses today). I thought to look-up my great aunt’s address from her ship manifest, she was going to her brother at 235  11th street. No match … except the city directory showed two other Zasucha living at 235  11th street in 1915. OK, I was now officially beginning a new SNA and recording my data (a necessary step in SNA).

One final note, further down the page in the city directory of ‘Z’ names was an Albert Zdziebko. Now Zdziebko are quite rare, but they too are from the Pacanow area (and they are related to the great genealogist, Ceil Wendt-Jensen, the current PARI director). So this was becoming a full fledged SNA project. My Pacanow SNA project had just moved across the Atlantic to  Niagara Falls, NY.

Summary

This article and the next one on SNA are about my third use of SNA in my genealogical research. SNA (or Cluster Genealogy) are techniques described in Wikipedia pages (see links above) or another article in my Post Scriptum below. The first two projects were wildly successful with limited data. I had other follow-on successes as a result because I had done those two SNA studies — for example at RootsTech 2012, I found an 1876 marriage record of  Walenty Paluch to Magdalena Major. Neither of these two people were in my family tree when I read their record in Russian (so you know I was committing time/effort on a whim). The Paluch and Major were affiliated names from my 1st SNA project so I decided on that basis alone to read the 1876 marriage record. What did I find? I found that the two people getting married were each a sibling of  two of my paternal great-grandparents in my tree! So I added this married couple to my family tree. SNA is a technique to increase your confidence level in your research to take a guess/hunch/assumption from that level of statistical probability (which is what 10-25% ??) to a level well above 50% maybe as high as 99%. While this may or may not pass muster for a Genealogical proof,  it is actually good enough for civil court (where you just have to prove just 51%, not the 100% required in criminal court). It may open up new lines of research you were unaware of,  that come back to help with your existing ”brick-walls”.

Next

The next article will be the details of my SNA research and the results.

P.S. – Another post scriptum. Though I prefer the term Social Network Analysis, thus demonstrating my computer education/bias — I found a very early reference to the term Cluster Genealogy from March 1st, 1994 by a CG, named Connie Lenzen who published this article in National Geological Society Quarterly. Her goal was to develop a higher level of confidence in proving a female ancestor’s lineage when there is no certain paper trail to follow, but only indirect leads. You may want to read her article too. SNA has wide applicability in uncertain circumstances.

Ohio – Cuyahoga County – Cleveland 1884 — #Genealogy, #Marriage, #Elijasz, #Budka

Stanczyk is still trying to puzzle out these Cleveland, Ohio ELIJASZ. So I am hoping either a Budka or an Elijasz (aka ELIASZ) will see today’s blog and respond via an email.

Today’s image is from Ancestry.com on a dangling leaf in my tree. On the 22nd-September-1884, one Father Kolaszewski of Cleveland (Cuyahoga County, Ohio) recorded a marriage between Elizabeth Elijasz and Paul Budka. That is pretty much it for useful genealogical info on the image (see above).

If you have access to ancestry it is here .

Many of these Elijasz came from Pacanów (Russian-Poland partition). Some Cleveland Elijasz also came from across the Vistula (Wisła) River (rzeka) in the Austrian-Poland partition. I am hoping a Cleveland genealogist researching Elijasz or Budka who can look-up a few things for me:

1. What Catholic Church did Father Kolaszewski represent in 1884?
2. Can someone get access to Cleveland Catholic diocesan records for September 1884 and get a copy of the church record of this marriage?
3. I am seeking the parents’ names of Elizabeth (possibly Elzbieta) Elijasz and where she was born (Pacanów, Poland or some other village), and her birth date.

My thanks for reading today’s blog (plea).  If all you can answer is just the first question, that is still VERY helpful. So please do not feel you need to answer all of the questions.

Genealogy and Social Media — #Genealogy, #Facebook

There are 901 Million active Facebook users as of March 2012, according to HowManyAreThere.org  (http://www.howmanyarethere.org/how-many-facebook-users-are-there-2012/). Facebook is estimated to break one Billion users before 2012 ends (Mashable source:  http://mashable.com/2012/01/12/facebook-1-billion-users/). According to Gregory Lyons, a senior analyst at iCrossing, Facebook will reach the milestone in August [2012].

Do I have your attention genealogists? One seventh of the world’s population is on Facebook – perhaps your 2^nd and 3^rd cousins are there waiting for you to engage them in some family history. Skype has nearly 107 Million “Real Users” and recently hit 41.5 Million concurrent users !

So being social can help you reach more people who may have a piece to your family history. I have searched Facebook with modest success for the ‘ELIASZ’ or ‘ELIJASZ’ family name. Not everyone will friend you anymore.  I have had success in SKYPE finding an ‘ELIJASZ’ family member in my grandfather’s ancestral village of Pacanow in Poland. I once had a very lucky success with a social network in Poland, named nasza-klasa.pl (now more easily found at http://nk.pl/ ). Now this jester is minimally conversant in Polish and my “cousin” in Poland was zero conversant in English. But, I was able to use Google’s Translator (English to Polish and vice versa) with success although it did generate some laughter at times. The final result was a letter from Poland with a copy of my grandparents’ marriage record from the actual church book in Biechow, Poland! Nasza-Klasa also yielded two 2^nd cousins who were born in Poland (one since moved to the US) and we keep in touch via Facebook.

How else can you use social media to aid your genealogy? Write a genealogy blog (like this blog for example). I went to a recent Polish/Slavic genealogy seminar this year and spoke to a fellow blogger, Donna Pointkouski, who writes the genealogy blog, “What’s Past Is Prologue”. Donna called genealogy blogs, “2^nd Cousin Bait” . She said by writing about your genealogy searches, successes and family members, your blog can lure these more distant family tree members to you. It works because search engines like Google or Bing find your blog posts and index key words (tags/categories) and proper nouns in their databases and out they pop when 2^nd/3^rd cousins are trying to Google their family trees. Stanczyk has personally located two 2^nd cousins and one 3rd cousin via the blog. One 2^nd cousin even gave me a picture of a previously unknown grand-aunt from before 1910  — jackpot! I was then able to locate that grand-aunt in microfilm from the LDS Family History Library for her children’s birth records in Poland.

A couple more blog tips –  Sprinkle your blog posts with the lingua franca of your ethnic lineage to lure readers from your ancestral home. Finally on your blog software (WordPress,  Blogger,  Tumblr, etc.) – get the widget(s) to share your blog posts on your other social media accounts: Facebook,  Twitter,  LinkedIn,  Google+, etc.  Make sure you get the widest exposure possible to lure your family from all over. Ask family and friends to add your blog/tweets to their Flipboard and possibly ‘star’ the better posts for you to up your Klout.

Lastly, you may want to put your family tree online. Some of my greatest finds have come from collaborating with other genealogists on Ancestry.com. It is the largest collection of genealogists and paid genealogy subscribers — serious genealogists. These people found me and my family who as it turned out were a part of their family tree too. I cannot count the number of family members I have met from Ancestry.com. Let me tell you that my greatest finds were from a woman whose family I and my father thought were only friends from the “old country” whose families renewed their friendship here in the US. From this woman (Kim), who I helped out by reading her grandparents’ marriage record from a Polish church in Detroit. What do the two of us discover, but her great-grandmother was an ELIJASZ from Pacanow. As it turned out, her great-grandmother was my great-grandfather’s sister and that the two of us shared a great-great-grandfather — we were 3rd cousins! So we were blood relatives not just family friends as our parents had thought. I found out my father was her father’s best man — neither of us knew that beforehand. Her grandmother (Rose Wlecialowski) was a best friend of my grandmother. I thought I had never met this third cousin … wrong!  She had photos of me in her family pictures. We were so young neither had memories of the other. She had pictures of me as a 3 year old child that I did not have, with my young father on her grandmother’s farm. She had a picture of my young grandmother from the 1930′s with her grandmother!  This was a B-O-N-A-N-Z-A!

I found her great-grandparents’ marriage record from Pacanow and had it copied from the church book. I translated it from Russian for her (and for my records too). It confirmed that we were indeed 3rd cousins and shared great-great-grandparents (Martin Elijasz & Anna Zasucha). I also eventually found the birth record from the first child that my paternal grandparents had together over in Poland and little Wladyslaw Jozef Elijasz had Rose Wlecialowski for his god-mother. Her grandmother was a god-mother to one of my “uncles”. Poor little Wladyslaw died in infancy and never made the trip to America with my grandparents and my aunt Alice. My father and the rest of my aunts and uncles were born here in the US.

So you see, your family is out there. You just don’t know it yet. Use the social networks, USA and overseas versions. Write a blog to lure your cousins. By all means join Ancestry.com too and upload your family tree to Ancestry.com. These will grow your family tree more completely than you could if you eschewed not to use the Internet. Make your family tree mobile — load it to your iPhone and start collaborating in the Cloud. You will thank me later!

–Stanczyk

Elijasz born (ur.) in Kiev, Raised in Pacanow ??? #Polish, #Ukrainian, #Genealogy

16-May-2012

Dear Diary,

I have been meaning to write for so long … Wish you were here! Diary, my blog today is about an interesting story that I am trying to chronicle. I do not know the beginning, or the end, nor much in the middle either — but that will not stop me from starting my story.

Diary, as you may recall, I wrote previously about the “Polish Declaration of Admiration and Friendship for the United States”, a set of 111 volumes produced by the newly re-created Republic of Poland in 1926. They wished to honor the USA on its 150th Birthday (in recognition of their friendship and support by Casimir Pulaski & Taduesz Kosciuszko in our Revolutionary War). So, 1926 was 1776+ 150 (sesquicentenial). In an amazing national effort, the government officials and schools all across Poland signed their autographs in a huge multi-volume, “Happy Birthday” wish to the USA.  111 Volumes of people signing this emblem of goodwill.

This jester knows of two places on the Internet where you can peruse the images of these books (volumes). One is the USA in the Library of Congress, in their European Reading Room.

In Poland, there is the Genealogical Society of Poland (aka genealodzy.pl) that has the images and a searchable database of the names that have been transcribed (a work in progress).

Aaah, I see that they still have not added my contributions.  But if you go to Volume (Tom) 13, Page (Strony) 419 and also page 420. You will see the signatures of the children and their school teachers.

So I noticed that page 419 was a young man named Czeslaw Elijasz. Ok I knew that was NOT my own father, but I wondered at who this child was that in 1926 signed his signature just a bit before my father Czeslaw Eliasz would be born. Fortunately, I thought to turn the page, because on page 420 were two Elijaszow:  Zygmunt Elijasz and Irena Elajszowna [sic]. Now Irena’s signature caught my eye because it appears she is dyslexic and transposed the ‘a’ and ‘j’ in her last name. This marked her as a close relative to my grandfather, who also would occasionally also transpose letters (ex. the ‘s’ and ‘z’) when signing his name. So we see there were three near relatives from a Pacanow school (see stamp image from page 420,  below).

Well I once (23-April-2011) wrote that I was seeking anyone related to one of those three children. Well yesterday, a granddaughter of Czeslaw Elijasz wrote to me (alright, emailed me — these modern times) !  Let me quote the lovely Paulina …

Dear Sir,

While looking for the information about my family I have found the page

http://mikeeliasz.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/1926-polish-declarations-of-admiration-and-friendship-for-the-united-states/

and your question: Does anyone from Pacanow know of Zygmunt or Czeslaw or Irena Eljasz|Elijasz|Eliasz who would have been a school child in 1926?

Well, my grandfather (the father of my mother) name was Czesław Eliasz (born in 1915 in Kiev) but lived and grow up in Pacanów. Than he married and moved to Nowy Korczyn and run there his own bakery.
Is he the person you are maybe looking for?

Best regards,
Paulina Sieczak

Volume 13, Page 419, Czeslaw Elijasz

Oh, how surreal, a letter-within-another-letter — very literary indeed. So dear diary, this is  where I will end today’s entry. I shared my genealogy with Paulina in hopes that she can make  a match between her family and mine. I’ll write you again soon dear diary.

Dear diary, please note that Czeslaw is on 8th line from top (on far right, above Kazimiera Glowniak)

Pacanowie, okregu Stopnickiego (on page 420)

Kedzierski/Kendzierski TimeLine — #Polish, #Genealogy, #Timeline

You must forgive Stanczyk, dear reader, as life has called me away from my writing and research of late. But in the snatches of time I have been able to wrest away from my responsibilities I have been researching one of the more interesting branches in my family tree, the Kędzierski line (aka Kendzierski along with many Americanized spellings, that I will not enumerate).

You may wish to study this timeline image I have included in today’s article. If you click on it, it will take you a page produced from a spreadsheet with the data more easily digestible.

For Americans, our most interesting ancestors are the intrepid ones who managed to find their way from the old country to our shiny shores to join the milieu we call these United States of America.

Interesting Artifacts

What makes this affiliated family (from the Elijasz/Eliasz branch point of view) so interesting is their old world artifacts that help to tell the story of the days in Poland. Their story is filled with a Russian Passport, Polish Church Marriage Record (in Russian/Cyrillic) from 1902, a Certificate of Completion from a Count’s Mill, some Forms from Haller’s Army Enlistment as well as Ship Manifests or Naturalization Certificates.

Now most of my family reside in one ancestral village for long periods of time (after WWI that changes). This Kedzierski family (see late 19th century photo at the bottom) seems to have had some mobility, because they are not found in just one place. Indeed, without these many artifacts, I should not expect to be able to find their records anywhere at all.

I usually use the timeline tool to help me establish where/when to look for USA documents. Today in Poland, two weeks later in the USA (at some port, often Ellis Island), then on to some alluring American city for a few generations. But this time, I needed the timeline to place where in Poland to look for documents for this rather mobile family.

Places in Poland

Actually the proper context would be Polish Places in the Russian-Poland partition of the Russian Empire. The earliest location seems to be Kroczyce, the location of Pelagia Kedzierska‘s birth. By the time her younger brother Ludwik comes along, he is born in Stopnica.We find the next Kedzierski child, Wlodzimierz, being born in either Samsonow or Tumlin (multiple documents, multiple birthplaces). For Jan and Tadeusz we have no knowledge yet of their birthplaces.

So lets move forward in time. In 1902, the 15th of September 1902 to be precise, we find our first document of the Kedzierski family. Pelagia Kedzierska marries my grand-uncle Jan Elijasz in Pacanow parish (both newlyweds live in Pacanow village). But wait a second, Pelagia’s part of the marriage record indicates she was born in Kroczyce and raised in Pacanow. It was from this document that we first learn the parent’s names.

In 1906, we find some very interesting documents for Lucyan (aka Ludwik, aka Louis) Kedzierski. The Certificate of Completion, says that Lucyan was employed in Count Renard’s Mill in Dębowa Góra near Sosnowiec from March 19th, 1906 until October 29th, 1906. It appears this completion, qualifies him for a passport. We find Lucyan with a Russian Passport, stamped 6th October, 1906 (just before completion) followed by a ship manifest arrival in Ellis Island, 16th November, 1906! That’s a pretty tight timeline — the 19th century moved swiftly.

Lucyan’s Ship Manifest indicates that he came from Ninska/Nioska/Niwska none of which could be found on a map and that he was born in Stopnica (mispelled on ship manifest, but spelled correctly on his Naturalization Certificate) and he was going on to Schenectady, NY (although he ended up in Syracuse, NY from which we have most of the rest of his documentation).

Next we move on to 1914. This was actually the first document found many years ago. On a 7th March 1914 NYC (Ellis Island) ship manifest (aboard the Graf Waldersee) from Hamburg (departed 18th February), I found a Jan ELIASZ from his wife Pelagia in Pacanow going to Buffalo (to a friend???  Andrzej Widamski  –no record of this friend). At first I was not even sure that this was MY Jan Eliasz (who knew there were so many Jan Eliasz). In my novice years I either ignored or the images were so poor, I did not notice a manifest marking (originally in pencil) with a line between Jan Eliasz and the man above, Wlodzimierz Kedzierski. On the line’s arc was written “br-i-l”, an abbreviation for their relationship being brothers-in-law. So Pelagia was Wlodzimierz’s sister (aaah, a maiden name). Wlodzimierz indicates he is coming from Bobrek (north of Oswiecim) and that he was born in Tumlin.

Moving forward to 1917, we have Lucyan’s WWI Draft Registration and also his Naturalization Certificate. These are good for confirming other facts that link this family together.

Finally, in 1917 & in 1918 we find Wlodzimierz’s enlistment in Haller’s Army (Jozef Haller) papers. Now Wlodzimierz is the only person I have seen that enlisted twice (once in Detroit in 1917 and a second time in Pittsburgh in 1918). This was very fortuitous! Wlodzimierz Kedzierski is unique in the USA. He is the only Wlodzimierz Kedzierski ever in the USA. Ok you may be skeptical, but he uses the same birthdate on both forms and he lists his brother Lucyan in Syracuse, NY on both forms as his closet US contact. On one form he lists his wife as his closest contact in Poland and the other he lists his sister Pelagia as his closest contact (both are in Pacanow in 1917/1918). On his 1918 Pittsburgh form, he lists his parents (Kazimiera & Julian) to be notified of his recruitment and they are living in Pacanow in May 1918.

Back: Kazimiera, Pelagia, Julian
Front: Theodore(baby), Louis, Jan, Wlodzimierz

So as a result of Wlodzimierz’s  double attempt we have a fairly complete picture of the family. Now add in another genealogist supplying pictures of Jan (who became Jean in Montreal) and Theodore who we had a picture with an inscription on the back to his “brother Ludwik” from Louis Kendzierski’s personal effects. So now we arrive at the promised family photo recently supplied by a distant cousin and then given to me. Enjoy!

Almost Wordless Wednesday – Toledo Parishes — #Polish, #Genealogy

A Map of Toledo, Ohio.

The dark rectangles (with the year numbers) are the Catholic Churches of Toledo.

The Polish settlements are noted with the German given name for the region: kuhschwanz (cow’s tail). ELIASZ  –  MYLEK  -  SOBIESZCANSKI (SOBB) were St. Anthony parish members.  Saints (SS.) Peter & Paul was an an even older Polish parish !

Ancestry Adds 1940 US Census ED Maps — #Genealogy, #1940, #Census

Stanczyk, saw that Ancestry.com released/updated the 1940 US Census, Enumeration District Maps. It actually says ‘and Descriptions’ in its database title, but for the life of me I did not see any textual descriptions nor any images of words other than Legends and stray comments on hospitals, asylums, nunneries, etc (which were interleaved in the whitespace of the maps).

I queried on the ED I got from Steve Morse’s One-Step website (unified census page) that let me convert 1930 EDs into 1940 EDs. I used ED 84-590 (where I expect to find my grandmother and her children — including my father).

I did an exact search on 84-590 and Ancestry showed me an option for either the city map or the county map. While the county map was interesting, the city map of Detroit was what I was after. I clicked on the link to view the city map for ED 84-590, but what I got was page 1 of 46 pages (not the page where 84-590 was). Well I “gutted it out” and browsed sequentially through all of the pages searches from one corner to the opposing corner reading each and every ED until I found ED 84-590 on page number 40.

That kind of brute force search was not a total waste. I did confirm 84-590 was correct ED that I should search on Monday when they release the 1940 US Census. I was also able to confirm my Vespeks ED as either  84-1246 or less likely (since it is for the prior address) 84-1252. Perhaps my dedicated readers will note that this is the one ED (it gave 84-1244 or 84-1245 — which were close) that was wrong in Steve Morse’s webpage lookup. The fault as I said before was not Steve Morse, but the US government providing inaccurate mapping of the 1930 ED to the 1940 ED, but the description of the EDs on Steve Morse’s lookup image did give me a look at the other descriptions nearby and I was able to divine that 84-1246 should be the one I search. Well this also points out the value of Ancestry’s new database. I was able to look at ED Map and confirm that 84-1246 was correct ED and that 84-1244/1245 EDs were near misses to the known address I had.

I was also able to verify that ED 84-583/584 would probably contain my Galiwks and Wlecials [assuming they are in enumerated in Detroit and not at the Macomb county farm address]. I could see how close they were to  St. Adalbertus church and the the last known addresses I had and how they were all closely clustered in the same area (not obvious from the addresses).

My only complain is that Ancestry should take you to the correct page for your ED and not force you to do a brute force, page-by-page search. Detroit was a LARGE city in 1940 — imagine NYC, LA, Chicago or Philadelphia where were (and still are) larger than Detroit; Those would be awful searches.  For my friends that have Polish family in Hamtramck, not to fear, there are only four pages to comb through. For the few people that I have emailed through the last few months about CHENE St project, just go to image/page 40 of Detroit (or click on the link) you are near my grandmother’s ED.

Archives.gov says you have 2 days and about 16 hours (and counting) to ready yourself for the 1940 US Census. Good Luck!

Boleslaw Wlecialowski born(ur.) 6-Nov-1892 – died(zm.) 8-Mar-1961

Stanczyk is killing time until April 2nd and research can begin in earnest on the 1940 US Census.

Wlecialowski, Boleslaw

One of my focus points will be Boleslaw Wlecialowski, my first cousin, twice removed. I have had problems locating him in the US Censuses. So I am hoping 1940 will be different.

Boleslaw, like many Polish-Americans, “Americanized” his name. So Boleslaw became Bill — very alliterative. Of course, if your name is Bill, then your formal name must be William. So we find records for Boleslaw under Boleslaw, Bill or William.

Here is a brief summary of Boleslaw Wlecialowski ‘s  life as I can document it:

Father:	Maciej Wlecialowski (1868 – after 1918)
Mother:	Katarzyna Elijasz    (1863 - after 1918)
Individual Facts
Birth	6 Nov 1892	Kwasów, Swietokrzyskie, Poland
Arrival	6 Jul 1910 (age 17)	Going to uncle Jan Elijasz in 7829 Burke Ave, Cleveland, OH [same addr in August 29th]; New York, New York (on SS Vaderland)
Arrival	29 Aug 1910 (age 17)	from father Maciej Wlecialowski in Pacanow, Stopnica, Kielce, Poland    to uncle Jan Elijasz, 7829 B; New York, New York
Arrival	29 Aug 1910 (age 17)	Line #2Series: T715,   Roll: 1542,     Frame: 328, 327; on USS Vaderland in NYC at Ellis Island
Residence	22 Dec 1913 (age 21)	from brother Leon’s Ship Manifest SS Pretoria arrival of same date; 449 Grady Ave, Detroit, MI
Residence	1915 (about age 23)	from 1915 Detroit City Directory; 67 Playfair, Detroit, MI
Residence	5 Jun 1917 (age 24)	from World War I Draft Registration; 15 Playfair St, Detroit, MI
Arrival	21 Jul 1920 (age 27)	Going to sister Rozalia Gawlik, Detroit, MI.  Returning from WWI (Haller’s Army);
Residence	31 Dec 1924 (age 32)	3121 Nevada St, Detroit, Wayne, MI; From Decl. Of Intent
Residence	14 Jan 1929 (age 36)	3121 Nevada St, Detroit, Wayne, MI; From Nat’l Petition
Residence	1929 (about age 37)	from 1929 Detroit City Directory; 3121 Nevada St, Detroit, Wayne, MI
Death	8 Mar 1961 (age 68)	Macomb County, MI
Burial	11 Mar 1961 (age 68)	Mt Olivet Cemetery

Let me put some of the above into a narrative form.

Boleslaw Wlecialowski was born (ur.) November 6th, 1892 (Gregorian date) in the Russian-Poland partition village of Kwasow in the parish of Pacanow, Poland (gubernia of Kielce). His parents were Maciej Wlecialowski & Katarzyna Elijasz (my great, grand-aunt) — hence Boleslaw is my first cousin, twice removed. I have Boleslaw’s church record (#171 of Pacanow parish 1892 Births) written in Russian (Godparents: Jozef Slawamowski & Marrianna Elijasz).

He arrived at Ellis Island on July 6th, 1910 on the SS Vaderland. He was coming from his father, Maciej Wlecialowski in Pacanow, Stopnica, Kielce, Poland and his destination was his uncle, Jan Elijasz in 7829 Burke Ave, Cleveland, OH  [hence, Stanczyk's interest in the Cuyahoga County/Cleveland OH Elijasz families].

He made his way to Detroit, MI where his older sister Rosalia Wlecialowski Gawlikowski lived. He was living at 449 Grady Ave, Detroit, MI, when his brother Leon arrived at Ellis Island on the SS Pretoria arrival on 22 Dec 1913.

Archiwum Diecezjalne w Kielcach – Pomoc — #Polish, #Genealogy

Stanczyk,

Recently, I asked for help (pomoc) from a genealogy society in Poland (PTG). I asked if anyone in their society (via their forum) could tell me what holdings the, Archiwum Diecezjalne w Kielcach (The Diocessan Archive in Kielce) has for the village of Pacanów.

This is the village of my grandfather, Jozef Elijasz and his parents Jozef Elijasz/Marianna Paluch, and Jozef’s parents: Marcin Elijasz/Anna Zasucha.

I am hoping to visit the Church Archive or to have a Polish genealogist visit the Church Archive in Kielce for me to do some research.

I’ll let my readers know what happens!

Genealogy This Week … #Genealogy, #Technology, #Polish, #GroundHog

To Stanczyk, it appears that 2012 has gotten off to a sluggish start (genealogically speaking). How about for you genealogists (email or comment)? Well that is all about to change !   Lisa Kudrow‘s Who Do You Think You Are?, returns this Friday with Martin Sheen as the subject.

RootsTech 2012 kicks off this week too. Did you notice, they have an app (its free) for that? Even better they will STREAM some of the conference for the benefit of all genealogists !   Kudos to Roots Tech — All Conferences (genealogical or not should do these two things: app and stream conference proceedings). This should definitely jump start genealogy.

Read these blogs. Yes, I am telling you its ok to read other blogs than this one. These people are “official Roots Tech bloggers”.

I discovered that I missed one of my holiday blogs (in my backlog) about the happy married couples in Pacanów parish from 1881. So I will post the names of 40 Happy couples and what record # (Akt #) they are in the Pacanów parish church book.  This is two years after my great-grandparents got married, but there is still a Jozef & Mary who are getting married (Jozef Elijasz). I once had to sort out the two Jozef Elijasz from 1879 and the one from 1881 who all married women named Mary in the village of Pacanów! Genealogy is hard.

Oh and Punxsutawney Phil will make an appearance this week and offer his weather prognostication skills (I really think his predecessor Pete was much better and more alliterative too). I am pretty sure Phil & Pete are German, so you will need a German genealogy site for their lineage. Quaint tradition (Pennsylvania), dragging a Ground Hog from its home to ask him about weather. I think Bill Murray’s movie captured it well. So be careful what you do this week, or you may be repeating it a few times.

Name Changer – Eliasz becomes Eliasz-Solomon – #Polish, #Jewish, #Catholic, #Genealogy

Stanczyk like almost all genealogists wrestles with names. What is in a name? Well if your name has Slavic roots then your name will be like a Polish sausage made from a family recipe, with no two ever completely alike. As a jester, I could appreciate John Ryś ‘s article, “Dealing With Sound Equivalents in the Polish Language“, from the PGSA’s Fall 2011 Rodziny journal, pages 20-22. What caught my eye and my heart’s fancy was the sub-title, “How Can One Possibly Misspell a Simple Three-Letter Name…”. Indeed! This jester empathizes with John Ryś. My own family, as I have always joked about, is very unlike Polish names. Look it has three vowels … out of six letters !  How could you possibly misspell that ??? Well this is about names — but not their difficulty or their many misspellings for which Slavic names are legendary — a real genealogical nightmare.

This article is about name changes. Let me just state up front, that my own name has been changed. As of 10-January-2012, my family has legally changed its name and is hence forth called:  ELIASZ-SOLOMON. This jester “hyphenated” his name to reflect and to honor my wife’s family. Her name became inverted from Solomon-Eliasz to Eliasz-Solomon so that all of us in the burgeoning family of ours (including our sons) would have the same name, spelled the same way. What’s in our name?

Let me break it down this way. ELIASZ (also spelled Elijasz, Heliasz, and Eljasz — misspelled/mistranscribed too many ways to enumerate) is Polish for ‘ELIJAH’ the prophet from the Old Testament who was translated by God. You might think it is a Jewish name since that is its etymology. If it is so, I have not found it to be so for my family for whom I have Catholic records back into the 1690′s. There are in fact Jewish Eliasz (and many other variations besides those listed above) and I have often remarked on this fact to my father. For it was common for Jewish families when they were forced to adopt permanent family names to select a family name from the Bible. That leads me to the second/Jewish part of my name, SOLOMON. Everybody, just about the whole world, knows that SOLOMON is from the great, wise king SOLOMON (third and last king of the unified kingdom of Israel). Solomon in America, is the reverse of Eliasz. It is mostly a Jewish family name, although there a good number of Anglo-Saxon Solomons (usually spelled Salomon or Soloman). Of course, the Jewish and the Christian versions of the Solomon name are often spelled the other way engendering more confusion on the name.

So we are a PROPHET-KING family  name now.

Now most Central European genealogists, know our ancestors changed their names quite often, to our dismay — since there was no Internet to record these changes and make them public for future genealogists. In my own family lines through just my paternal grandmother alone, we see that LESZCZYNSKI (also a king name) became LESTER. We also see that SOBIESZCZANSKI became SOBB. So name changes are nothing new for my family (and I assume for yours as well). In fact,  name changes have been happening for a long while. Recall that JACOB had his name changed to ISRAEL (“wrestles with God”).

Contrary to popular notion our ancestors did not change their name going through Ellis Island. Your name coming into the USA had to match the ship manifest and ticket,  so no names were changed (although I am quite sure that some Americans came here under an assumed name — using the tickets purchased by another person). The most common way was to change the name on the NATURALIZATION papers (which is no doubt how the mis-notion of changing the name coming from Ellis Island started). My own aunt Alice was Aleksandra on the Ship manifest (1913) and on US Censuses until she changed her name when she became a US Citizen and adopted Alice.  Our ancestors did a name change to  “Americanize” their names, often quite humorous in their attempt to do so.

Of course, for centuries women have changed their names when they got married. Now a days, women and men adopt hyphenated family names at marriage. It is unclear what the next generation afterwards will do when two already hyphenated people marry; as it seems unlikely they will adopt a four name hyphenation as a family name out of a practical matter (computer systems hate extremely long names — just look at the social network software: Facebook or Twitter). So name changes will become a regular hurdle for modern genealogists to get over (particularly so when one considers divorce rates).

Here is a little info for genealogists unfamiliar with the process:

1. A petition is filed with the court (in the county where the person lives)
2. The name change is published in two newspapers (pre-determined by the court)
3. A judge will issue a decree declaring the name change

Afterwards, the normal paper records will document the name evolution from old name to new name for the individual. But it will be best to check both names. Besides court records or newspapers, I have seen the name change annotated in church records too!

So future descendants whoever you may be. Be forewarned, ELIASZ-SOLOMON was once ELIASZ or SOLOMON. That should be obvious. But for my descendants and my wife, Tereza,  it all started in 10-January-2012 — please take note. I am also offering an apology to future genealogists for further muddying the waters on whether or not the name is Catholic or Jewish — just deal with it. Legal Decrees are shown below …

C. Michael Eliasz-Solomon

Tereza D. Eliasz-Solomon

Pearl Harbor – A Day That Will Live In Infamy – #History, #Genealogy, #Family

Today is the 70th Anniversary of the day Pearl Harbor was Sneak Attacked by the Japanese — that caused the USA to officially enter into World War II.

Most of the Greatest Generation of Americans would be 83 years old or older — my own father is now 85 (center, front Navy man). It is just him and my uncle Ted (back, left Army man) who remain alive now.

How fortunate for my Busia, that her four sons returned to her (in Detroit) alive. My uncle Joe (2nd from left in back Army) was stationed in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor was attacked. My uncle Steve (left-most, front Navy man) joined Joe there in Hawaii briefly for a war time reunion / shore leave.

From 1941 to 1945, receiving a telegram was something to dread. My grand-aunt, Antonina (Toledo) awaited her four sons too. God Bless my family, but eight men returned from the war safely to resume their lives. Alas, for Antonina and her ailing heart, receiving a telegram about one her sons was too much for her sickly heart and though her sons survived the war, she did not survive that telegram bringing news from the war.

In my wife’s family her uncle Milton, a 2nd Lt. in the Army is buried at Arlington National Cemetery (he had survived WWII too). Her own father had finished his service to country in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards — just two weeks. He died from that service. He contracted mesothelioma (asbestos poisoning) from his final two weeks — but was fortunate enough to raise a family before succumbing 42 years later to this hidden War-time scourge.

Detroit was the Arsenal of Democracy, shifting from cars to tanks/planes. Many people do not realize that population shift that war caused. A Huge migration from the South swelled the population of Detroit as workers were required to keep the factories running 24x7x365. I still remember eating Southern “cuisine” in diners in the greater Detroit area decades after the war.

Back East, the Shipyards were busy building the warships with their armaments. The USS Dixie (AD-14), Tender Destroyer that my own father served on was built right here in Philadelphia (launched on 27 May 1939) — probably in that Navy Ship Yard. A far cry from that 1913 September day that my grandmother arrived in Philadelphia. How funny for a Midwestern boy, that Philadelphia would be where my grandmother arrived, where my father’s WWII ship was made and where I would wind up living and raising a family with my Philly girl.

Before, I started genealogy 15-16 years ago, I did not know my grandmother arrived in Phillly (we thought Ellis Island like my grandfather and so many others). I did not know that ship my father served on was built here. I had not even moved to Philly yet. Destiny draws you to these places and then you discover that the history of your family preceded you. Full circle.

Remember the Day of Infamy (70 years ago) !    Remember 9/11/2001 too, now ten years ago.  Family History Marches on.

John Elijasz Eliasz Elias

In Michigan, the Big Boy restaurants are owned by the ELIAS Brothers (as opposed to Bob’s or Frisch’s in other parts of the USA). In fact, in MI the Elias name is somewhat common, especially among Italians and Syrians. So unless I see a name like Boleslaw Elias or Wladyslaw Elias — I tend to filter those names out as NOT Polish.

My Grand-Uncle Jan Elijasz was born in Pacanow on 6th-December-1880 the first born child of Jozef Elijasz and Maryanna Paluch. I have his church birth record. I also have his marriage record to Pelagia Kedzierski (also in Pacanow). I have his Ellis Island ship arrival record (as Eliasz) with his brother-in-law Wlodzimierz Kedzierski. Once Jan/John was here in the USA, his name varied back and forth between Elijasz and Eliasz, before settling on Eliasz. I have in the US Censuses from 1920 and 1930. I also had his WWI Draft Registration (which referenced my grandfather Jozef as the nearest contact). But I could never find a record of his death.

I constantly searched for him in Mt Olivet cemetery and its records, after all my grandfather, his brother was there (as were others). My father and one uncle told me he died after my grandfather (a short time my uncle said). My dad remembered a train going by the cemetery at the burial (he was young). So I searched for cemeteries in Detroit and also in Macomb County (last known residence from 1930 Census) that were near to railroad tracks and called cemetery after cemetery (year after year in case they found new records). Annually around the new year, I would post a searching-for plea in the MI genealogy mailing lists and Yahoo groups for MI (Wayne/Macomb). I even started researching historical newspapers of MI, vowing to search the entire decade of the 1930′s until I found him. That is how my efforts with the Dziennik Polski newspaper came about.

One year a fellow genealogical researcher (with Mt Clemens Public Library), Ann Faulkner, took pity upon my annual plea — being familiar with my Dziennik Polski efforts and she, unbeknownst to me, undertook a small search for the death of my great-uncle John Eliasz using the information I supplied in my posts. Well I have told this story before in my blog, about how this kind woman found John Eliasz and I was certain it was him because she found an obituary and a church burial record (transcription) that listed enough other details for her and I to confirm that this John ELIAS was my grand-uncle John Eliasz. With this info I did order his death certificate (see below). The death certificate listed my great-grandparents’ names, so I had yet another further confirmation. I have to admit if I had seen ‘John Elias’, I may have ignored it due to not being “Polish enough” and due to the fact that Syrians and Italians from MI outnumbered the Polish Eliasz by a good bit. I might have missed it, but Ann fortunately, did not.

I cannot explain how my grand-aunt, Mary Eliasz Gronek who reported his death had not corrected the various people, writing his obituary, his church burial record, and even his death certificate. My dear grand-aunt had a horrible record of mis-dating her brothers’ birth dates on their death certificates — so it is a VERY good thing I have their birth records from the church in Pacanow to have the correct dates. On my grandfather’s death certificate, she had even filed an affidavit to correct his birth date (which was very nearly correct) to a very much wrong birth date — I had so many birth dates for my grandfather, that if I had not found his birth record, I would NEVER have known anything more than a consensus birth of “late March 1885″ [ignoring my grand-aunt's May 15, 1887 which was an outlier guess]. Who knew you could file an affidavit to change data on a death certificate? Has any other genealogist encountered such an affidavit? How would I go about finding such an affidavit? Genealogy is very complex, having to winnow the truth from so much inaccurate chaff.

Quite a name evolution huh?  Elijasz to Eliasz to Elias. My grand-uncle John’s name kept getting shorter. Is it any wonder; since his paper trail was disappearing as fast as his last name over time. It is a major reason why I list the family tree as Elijasz/Eliasz/Heliasz which are all correct versions (Elias just being a typographical error). I have also had to accept Elyasz and Eljasz too as variants. Never mind that I have seen ELIASZ Polonia in St Louis, MO area “Anglicize” their name to Ellis. I have to feel sympathy for Donna Mierzejewski-McManus (fellow Polish genealogy blogger) as she sifts through the MANY variants of her Mierzejewski name.

There are quite a few morals to this over long tale…  Be persistent, Collaborate with others (particular experts in regions), Use Historical Newspapers, Do RAOGK for others, be creative in finding a way around genealogical road blocks. But genealogists who research Slavic names, must be prepared to try many, many variants of their last names, over and over again in ALL searches. You may have to go back to prior searches and retry a new name variant when you find the new variation.

 

John Elias (sic) Death Certificate

Mt Olivet Detroit, MI Cemetery – #Polish, #Genealogy

Earlier in the week I had dropped a quick spreadsheet of some people in my family (or for whom I had performed a RAOGK). It also was accompanied by a map of the Mt Olivet Cemetery (shown to the left).

Mt Olivet is part of the Mt Elliott Cemetery Association which is made up of the following cemeteries:

Mt Elliott,  Mt Olivet,  Resurrection,  All Saints,  Guardian Angel  and The Preserve cemeteries. They also have an online database that you can search for your ancestor here: http://mtelliott.com/genealogy .

The map seems to indicate that there are about 75-85 sections to the cemetery (Most are numbered, but the annex sections have Letters). I have section maps for Sections: 15, 24, 52 and L. These section maps have family names (probably of the original deed-holder family)  written in the boxes.

I would like to collect the entire set of section map pictures. So my plea to you, my readers is do you have a scanned map of any of the sections of Mt Olivet (Detroit) cemetery?

If you have any or all of these Section Maps, then can you email these images (preferably in JPG/JPEG), but I will take any format you have. The image needs to be clear enough to read the names in the boxes. Let me show you an example (a portion) of what I am looking for:

Ok readability is highly variable. Obviously they can write smaller than can be read. But what I am trying to do is read…

“Pitlock”, Plot 1223,  “Chojnaski”, Plot 1222, etc.

These are sometimes called Plot Maps. The one here is a snippet from Section 15.

The three most desired Section Maps are: Section 54 (where my father’s infant brother, Henry is buried) & Section 57 (where my grandfather Joseph is buried) and Section G where my aunt Sally and her son/my cousin Stephen is buried .

Thanks Internet!

Just Another Mt Olivet Monday

A bit late …

Mt Olivet Monday (Detroit, MI)

Here is a list of family buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery on Vandyke Rd, in Detroit, MI.

The last two rows are a bit of RAOGK that I did for Maureen Mroczek (whereby I sent her pictures) of her ancestors headstones.

Here is a map of Mt Olivet Cemetery:

Death Date	Last Name	First Name	Section	Lot# / Tier#	Grave
8/3/1967	Eliasz (Prusinski)	Sabina F.	G	1344
1/19/1963	Eliasz	Stephen E Jr	G	1355
1/29/1923	Eliasz	Henry	54	16	346
1/6/1930	Eliasz	Joseph	57	2	114
8/6/1981	Gawlikowski (Wlecial)	Rose	15	1255
7/18/1943	Gawlikowski	Adam	15	1255
5/15/1967	Wlecial	Leon	15	1255
3/8/1961	Wlecialowski	Boleslaw	15	1255
	Mroczek	Kazimier	51	41	945
	Mroczek	Mary Kozlowska	55	12	215