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.

Polish Resources – Cobbled from Ancestry.com/PGSA.org and Family Search – #Polish, #Genealogy

Stanczyk, put together a couple of pieces to make a NEW and useful Polish Genealogy database. First off, my email box had a weekly email from Ancestry.com.  This week’s Weekly Discovery is a boon for Polish Genealogists …

U.S. and Poland, Catholic Parish Marriage Index, Polish Genealogical Society of America,
1767–1931

Ok, the above link takes you to Ancestry’s newest database index (
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=70048&enc=1
) .  Which as the Link Name suggests is a Polish Catholic Parish Marriage Index. I was excited until I discovered that it was really just a re-issue of the PGSA.org ‘s  database:
http://www.pgsa.org/CzuchMarAll.php
. So if you are not a subscriber to Ancestry, you could just go to PGSA and use their database and get the same results. The PGSA even gives an LDS Microfilm #. So Stanczyk took note of an Anna Eliasz marrying Leon Zielinski in 1910 and the LDS MF#: 1578072 . I made a vow to look that record up in the LDS microfilm. So I was in the LDS Library Catalog verifying the microfilm # was correct and LO and BEHOLD (why is it always LO and BEHOLD — and not just BEHOLD), the Library Catalog says the images are online!!! They even provided a link:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/collection/1452409/waypoints

Now thankfully the database did specify 1910 and that the church was St. Stanislaus Kostka and even the Page# 204 was helpful. I used those pieces of info and the Family Search link to go to their web page:

• Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925

I selected the St. Stanislaus Kostka (Chicago) to go to the web page:

• Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925 St. Stanislaus Kostka (Chicago)

From there,  I picked Marriages, 1910-1915 (you need a free login to use their databases) and browsed the images until I got to page# 204 (which was actually image # 109 of 897) and on the left hand page was Leon Zielinski & at the bottom Anna Eliasz marriage record from the church. I got the actual date and parent names (including mother’s maiden name). See below …

I am not certain that Anna Eliasz is a relative or not because it did not provide the parish where Anna was born (and I seriously doubt Anna was born in Chicago in 1882). Her mother’s maiden gives me hope as that name does appear in my ancestral villages, so now I will have to find an Anna Eliasz birth record (or not) in Biechow/Pacanow parishes with parents Jan Eliasz & Mary Jurek.

 

The point of today’s article is that by joining the index in PGSA.org (or Ancestry.com) and using the index data with the browseable images from FamilySearch.org I was able to pull a new Church Parish record quite easily without leaving my house. It is the combination of the two resources from two separate websites that make a new and very useful tool. What do you think?

 

If you have Chicago ancestors (and in particular Polish ones) then you have an early Christmas or Chanukah Present. Drop me a comment of thanks, will ya?

Merry Christmas & Happy Chanukah and just in case,  Happy Holidays to the rest of my readers.

 

Parish Church Books (Registers) in Poland .. An Update

Stanczyk has previous written in one of his memes (“Use Polish Websites” #5) about the website called Parish Church Books  (
http://www.ksiegi-parafialne.pl/
).

Well on the Facebook page for the Polish Genealogical Society (in Poland) [written in Polish] was a mention of an update of the Parish Church Books website. It appears that our Polish breathren were very industrious in November and there were a great many updates.

For Example

on 28th-November-2011:

woj. świętokrzyskie
Działoszyce	chrzty, małżeństwa, zgony	Geneteka
Gierczyce	chrzty	Geneteka
Jędrzejów	małżeństwa	Geneteka

on 23rd-November-2011:

woj. świętokrzyskie
Bogoria	chrzty	Geneteka
Jedrzejów	małżeństwa	Geneteka

on 14th-November-2011:

woj. świętokrzyskie
Bogoria	chrzty, małżeństwa, zgony	Geneteka
Grzymałków	chrzty, małżeństwa, zgony	Geneteka
Koprzywnica	chrzty	Geneteka
Obiechów	chrzty, małżeństwa	Geneteka
Pińczów	małżeństwa	Geneteka
Tumlin	chrzty, małżeństwa, zgony	Geneteka

And those were just the last half of November and just for the Wojewodztwo (woj.) Świętokrzyskie (formed from the old former woj. Kieleckie) where Stanczyk’s ancestors were from. Just about all woj. are represented as having changes, so it is worth a look no matter which partition(Russian, Austrian, Prussian) of occupied Poland you have ancestors in.

Please see the bottom of Stanczyk’s former article for a listing of what each database abbreviation means and where it is found.

 

P.S.

Happy Birthday today for  Joseph Conrad (aka Korzeniowski   h. Nałęcz) the great author!

Feliks Elijasz, Roman Catholic Shoemaker – Found in Fold3.com Free WWII database

Stanczyk wants to tell you, my faithful readers, a story of Remembrance. This is a fitting tale, since it came from Fold3′s providing free access to its WWII databases for Veterans Day (also known as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day). It is the story of Feliks Elijasz, a Catholic Shoemaker from Warsaw, Poland. Feliks shares a last name with Stanczyk’s family, but there is no evidence that Feliks is an ancestor. This story is derived from an historical form (see the end of this article). This story is also another case of cognitive resonance, due to its connection to my wife and a friend she made a while ago and this woman who gave moja zona some significant historical photos earlier this week (just copies, not the originals).

Feliks Elijasz, was a Shoemaker (and as I said a Catholic). Feliks was born the 17th-November-1896 in Warsaw. At the time of this form’s creation, Feliks was living in Warsaw, on Okopowa 30 ( a street address). Warsaw was in occupied Poland at the time. His parents were Wiktor Elijasz (also a shoemaker in Warsaw) and Paulina Elijasz (nee Szczigolska), with whom he lived. Feliks was married to Janina Elijasz (nee Woclarksa). He and his wife had at least one child (20 years old). Feliks was an infantryman in the Polish Army from 1920 to 1921. [Since that is after World War I, it is probable that Feliks fought the Russian Bolsheviks in the border war of that time period.]

Feliks had the bad sense to do something for which he was arrested in Warsaw, on the 10th-August-1944. He was admitted to prison in Krakow, on the 13th-August-1944. Feliks died while incarcerated on the 2nd-March-1945. That is horrible! The horror is further compounded because that prison camp was liberated  just a month later on the 11th-April-1945. The prison camp was Buchenwald!!! The form is from the Buchenwald Camp documents, called, “Camp Records – Inmate Cards“, page 2177.  There a few other details (describing Feliks’ appearance, etc.). The file was discontinued, on the 16th-March-1945. So this entire remembrance was constructed by careful extraction from the historical document — which provided a treasure trove of detail to remember Feliks by.

Now the Cognitive Resonance part is about Buchenwald. Not two days earlier, my wife was given pages of photographs of the Dachau Trials (held at the same time as the more famous Nuremberg Trials). The pictures were of the prosecuted Nazis, the American Liberators, the witnesses, courtrooms, etc. I was able to identify the pictures as from the Dachau Trials, as there were other pictures taken (and published on the Internet) and the windows, light fixtures, room decor, etc, matched EXACTLY. These pictures were taken by a  Norristown, PA soldier (who has since passed). His pictures did NOT contain, the infamous, “Witch of Buchenwald” who was prosecuted at the Dachau Trials (and convicted), but the other pictures that I matched these newly discovered historical pictures to, did, contain, Ilse Koch (the Witch of Buchenwald, amongst other  appellations). Ilse Koch was the wife of the Buchenwald Commandant (Karl Otto Koch).

For the record my wife, has contacted the Shoah Foundation about this woman who has the original historical pictures that her father took in Dachau in 1945. So these pictures will be recorded/preserved for posterity by professionals. We did not handle the originals,  merely copies that the woman had given to my wife. I know the new pictures are from Dachau Trials, because the soldier signed the back of one picture with his name and his location (Dachau). He was the soldier who was assigned to photograph the proceedings (I do not know/think he was the only photographer) and he was also required to witness the death sentences carried out on at least  three different individuals (two of the Nazis for which it appears he has something akin to funeral cards for and Claus Karl Schilling, the camp doctor whom the soldier mentioned witnessing his death). That soldier/photographer was Carmen Frangiosa a man who witnessed and photographed history.

The Inmate Card of Feliks Elijasz …

Family Search Indexing Tool – #Genealogy – #Polish Radom 1866

Stanczyk wanted to take a moment to say, “Thanks”. You may recall I did my due diligence on the Genealogy Website Rankings. I added my own blog website for reference. At the time of the survey I was a little over 12.8 Million-th most popular website on the Internet. Out of the billions of pages, I thought that was a great start.

For kicks, I went to Alexa.com and inquired if my ranking had changed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was now the 10.3 Million-th most popular website. That is an improvement of 2.5 Million in about one month !   So I just wanted to say thanks. I am hoping to eventually crack the top 1 Milliion (with perhaps a dream of being in the top 100,000 some day). I asked for your support and I can definitely see that I received it. Thank You very much for lending me your eyes.

I am also looking for people to help me in my volunteer efforts. If you can read Polish (or even Russian, I saw two projects for Ukraine-Kiev church records), then you can join with me on one of two projects: Lublin and/or Radom. I chose Radom as it was close to my grandparent’s ancestral villages (Biechow/Pacanow).

Most projects are for English language records. Of those, many are in the USA, so you could pick your local area and get a local genealogy society or historical society to pitch in. It will provide more data for all of us to research. If you want to thank me, but only read English then perhaps you can pick from a project for: Philadelphia, Buffalo, Toledo, Detroit (or Michigan in general). This is another way you can lend me your eyes and feel good about doing some volunteer work (Random Act of Genealogical Kindness, anyone?).

Two Polish projects open at present.

As I said, I chipped in some effort to read one batch (of 12 birth church records). The records I was given in my first batch were from 1866 in the Radom diocese. This data (index and images) will be free to search from their website: FamilySearch.org (Europe Record Groups) .

Good Luck & Thanks again!

– Stanczyk

An Analysis of Biechow LDS Microfilm By Film/Year/Event

Its a rainy day today and Stanczyk threw himself at the unfinished Survey Spreadsheet of his grandmother’s ancestral village: Biechow (old woj./gubernia Kielce). So I made a pot of coffee and I started at the highest level.

My spreadsheet is for each of the years, 1792-1860 inclusive. So there is each year going down the leftside. I have each the three events: Birth, Marriage, Death (Urodzen, Malzenstwo, Zgonow) in separate columns. Please note in some years there are marriage banns (zapowiedz), so you may need to divide by three to get an idea of the actual number of marriages (round up to the next integer). The counts provided are the actual record counts in the church registers. For Biechow, I used LDS microfilm: 936660 .. 936664 inclusive (five film). Finally, I added a column of derived data, “Growth Rate”. This column is simply the number of births minus the number of deaths. Most years there is an increase. However, there are some negatives that show a population decrease. In one year (1831), I know for certainty, that there was a cholera epidemic. Hence a steep decrease in population in 1831. In other years, it may be pestilence/disease or it may be war or something else, but I have no info to explain the negative growth.

[click on read more to see spreadsheet data]  

Musing about the Cholera Epidemic of 1831

I frequently browse my blog’s web analytics (who refers, what they searched on, etc.). I noticed that someone landed on my blog searching about Cholera in the Biechow parish (in Piestrzec to be specific).

First let me take a moment to pay due to Rosemary Chorzempa(Toledo Genealogical Society, author) whose book, Polish Roots, was my first genealogy book and from whence I began the study of this craft. I still refer back to it — a real classic. I bring her book up because it has a timeline in it and one of the entries is 1831 – “First[sic Second] Asiatic Cholera Epidemic“. This is when Cholera came to the villages: Biechow, Piestrzec, Wojcza, Chrzanow, etc. Besides the obvious HIGH death rates, we also saw low birth rates too.

Stanczyk has mentioned this before, but one of my ancestors, Marcin Heliasz, age 50 (b. about 1781) was listed as death number 232 (the last one) and Marcin and number 231 did not even have death dates or witnesses. I surmise that the parish priest as he visited on or before the Feast of Epiphany to inscribe the door lintel with the three wise men’s initials (K,M,B) he found these two villagers dead. Their record is after the other records and the end of year notation the priest usually makes.

The number of deaths were between 49-88 (from 1816-1827). Then 1828- 122 deaths, 1829- 149 deaths, 1830- 142 deaths, perhaps these might have been due to a growth spurt, but in 1831- 232 deaths (and cholera was noted in the church registers). In 1832- 80, 1833- 61, 1834- 71. So we see a return to normal death rates of the early 1820′s. This may also reflect the low birth rate in 1831- just 46. Typically, the birth rate exceeds the death rate by a handful (or a couple dozen in times of plenty) in this parish.

So for the year 1831 with only 46 births and then 232 deaths meant this parish had a net drop in population of 186 in ONE year! If we assume/project from the Parish Censuses (at the top of this blog) that Biechow’s parish population was between 1800-1900 people, then in one year they lost about 10% of the people ! Perhaps half a million Europeans died during this epidemic. In many countries there were actually Cholera Riots — as people were suspicious of their governments.

For more information on epidemics or Cholera Epidemics see Wikipedia.

#Jewish #Genealogy – A Continuing Homage to Moja żona – Biechow 1820

I am continuing my efforts to retrieve/extract the Jewish records from the Catholic parish of Biechow  (an homage to moja dobra żona, Tereza) during the years when the Catholic Church was ordered to act the civil registration authority for all parties/religions.  My previous postings were for the years 1810-1819  inclusive.

These are the Jewish Births from 1820 recorded in Biechow parish. Ergo, this posting brings us upto: 1810-1820 inclusive. The prior post is here .

As per usual, I give permission for all Jewish data that I have been posting to be included in the JRI project. In 1820, there were four Jewish births out of a total of 111 births recorded in the Biechow parish. That works out to be 3.6% of the total.

Year: 1820      Priest: Jozef Parzelski         Gmina: Biechow     Powiat: Stopnica     Departement: Krakow      111 Total Births     LDS Microfilm#: 936660

Record #8     Date: 1/24/1820

Father: Szmul  Abramowicz,  Handlarz, Age 30, Piestrzec   House #77 (recorded as Karol Jaworski’s house)

Mother: Wiktula z Berkow, age 36

Baby: girl Chanka

Witnesses:  Leyb Berkowicz, Handlarz, age 26 Piestrzec & Judka Moskowicz, Handlarz,  <no age>, Piestrzec

—-

Record #13     Date: 2/5/1820

Father: Leyb  Szlamkiewicz,  Szkolnik, Age 50, Wojcza  House #2

Mother: Faydosz z Herszkow, age 30

Baby: boy Szlama

Witnesses:  Walsa  Jaskowicz, Pakiarz, age 40 Biechow & Mendla Moskowicz, Pakiarz,  <no age>, Wojcza

—-

Record #54     Date: 6/30/1820

Father: Mendel  Moskowicz,  Pakiarz, Age 36, Wojcza  House #64

Mother: Serla z Lewkowiczow, age 36

Baby: girl Rucka

Witnesses:  Moska  Szymolowicz, Pakiarz, age 36 Wola Biechowska & Zelman Majorkiewicz, Pakiarz,  <no age>, Biechow

—-

Record #79     Date: 8/2/1820

Father: Zelman Steyberg,  Handlarz, Age 29, Biechow  House #46

Mother: Malka z Jaskowiczow, age 24

Baby: boy Herszla

Witnesses:  Jaska Wolfowicz, Pakiarz,  44, Biechow & Moska  Szymolowicz, Pakiarz, <no age>,  Wola Biechowska

–Stanczyk

#Jewish #Genealogy – A Continuing Homage to Moja żona – Biechow 1819

I am continuing my efforts to retrieve/extract the Jewish records from the Catholic parish of Biechow during the years when the Catholic Church was ordered to act the civil registration authority.  My previous postings were for the years 1810-1818. inclusive.

These are the Jewish Births from 1819 recorded in Biechow parish. Ergo, this posting brings us upto: 1810-1819 inclusive. The prior post is here .

Before I begin, I have been watching the evolution of names in the church register and I thought I would offer a few observations. First off, I am a gentile genealogist. So my treatment of Jewish names as rendered in the Polish language with its complex grammar is suspect — but I am learning.

So earlier I have been struggling with the surname: Golbarka or Goberka (also rendered as Golbarkow). First off, the assumption of ‘bark’ vs ‘berk’ due to poor writing and page condition is definitely off. I now know the name is Golberg (or we would probably render in 20th century English as Goldberg/Goldburg). I think I will keep the Golberkow ending as this is the grammatical construct for referring to the family as when writing the woman’s maiden name.

Notice I have decided to drop the ending ‘a’ on men’s names — which I am also thinking I should do on many first names as well, but my lack of experience with Jewish names of the 19th century Poland causes me to wonder how to apply what William Hoffman calls, ‘The Chopping Block’ to both first and last names when Jewish. So forgive me when I write: Moska, Mendla and Herszla(which in 20th century America I’d write as Herschel as in Herschel Walker). I know I need to drop the ending ‘a’, but I am not certain as to how to write those names, so I leave them as I find them for someone more expert than I to correct. My apologies in advance.

We see three births out of 104 total births. That represents a population of about 2.88% of the total parish population. So we are in the range of 3% +/- 0.25% which seems to be what I have seen in previous years. Again realize I am trying to give an in idea of the Jewish population in proportion to the entire population of the parish in (not intimating that the Jewish peoples are participants in the church parish activities). The 3% represents a modest growth from the 2.6% in Biechow census from 1787. [See Parish Census at the top of this blog]. According to that same census, the entire set of parishes in the surrounding area was about 6.4% Jewish.

My reason for doing this assessment is to convince the JRI, that it should at some point visit all Catholic parishes to pull out the remaining Jewish people without looking at the amount of effort required to yeild such tiny results. We know they are there  — do not leave them behind. After my Social Network Analysis, I am thinking that these non-shtetl Jews are a kind of glue between the surrounding towns/shtetls.

The assessment also shows that Jews and Catholics lived side by side and not segregated [in this very rural area very near to the Austria-Poland partition]. Now this may only be true in Poland and not the rest of “The Pale of Settlement” as defined by the Czars of the Russian Empire. According to Wikipedia,  Jews (of the Pale) were not forbidden by the Czars from rural areas until 1882.

Year: 1819      Priest: Jozef Parzelski         Gmina: Biechow     Powiat: Stopnica     Departement: Krakow      104 Total Births     LDS Microfilm#: 936660

Record #38     Date: 4/17/1819 [about 1 month earlier than the 5/15/1819 record date]

Father: Mosiek Golberg,  Arendarz, Age 34, Wojcza   House #60

Mother: Fraydla z Jakow, age 32

Baby: girl Cyra

Witnesses:  Moska Samulowicz, kaczmarz, age 36 Biechow & Mendla Abramowicz, pakiarz,  <no age>, Wojcza

—-

Record #53     Date: 7/7/1819

Father: Nat Belel,  Mlynarz, Age 25, Wojcza   House #3 (listed as Jozef Pawelec ‘s house)

Mother: Rucha  z Golberkow, age 22

Baby: girl Eydla

Witnesses:  Mendla Abramowicz, pakiarz,  28, Wojcza   &  Moska Szmulowicz, pakiarz, <no age> Wola Biechowska

—-

Record #104     Date: 12/23/1819

Father: Jasek Wolf,  pakiarz, Age 45, Biechow   House #48

Mother: Blima  z Chaymowicz, age 38

Baby: boy Herszla

Witnesses:  Zalman Stemberk(Stemberg??), pakiarz,  28, Biechow   &  Berka Chaymowicz, Handlarz, <no age>  Biechow

–Stanczyk

Post Office Department – Stanczyk’s Mailbag

From the Post Office Department

From my Mail Bag …

 

FROM:   MaryAnne
MaryAnne asked about “readability” of the blog,

REPLY:

The format of the blog/website is due to wordpress (my blogging software and website provider). Their programs/widgets dictate the “style” which I have very little control over. I will try and write using a bigger “format” (ex. Heading 4 instead of paragraph). I cannot write in all bold as that will actually make things harder to read for more people.

But I suspect the problem is really your browser. Fortunately, most browsers now allow a “zoom” feature. I can give you help with either Internet Explorer or Firefox(Mozilla) browsers.

In Internet Explorer (popular in Windows computers), you would hit ‘Alt-X’. That is press and hold the ‘Alt’ key next to spacebar, and while still holding down the ‘Alt’ key press ‘x’. Hence Alt-x. This will bring up a “contextual” menu near the top of your browser window. “Zoom” is the third choice. It will bring up a list of zoom-levels. I recommend 125% or 150% for you. That should improve the readability for you.

In Firefox, you press “Ctrl-Shift-+” to zoom in and “Ctrl–” That is Control-plus to zoom in and Control-minus to zoom out. As with the “Alt” key, the “Ctrl” key must be pressed and held down while you type the other key(s).

Let me know if you use another browser. I do have Safari for Windows (sadly Stanczyk is making do with a Windows computer instead of his beloved MAC).

If the “zoom” feature improves your ability to read my blog, then I will not make any changes. You may also want to have someone to adjust the contrast/color on your monitor for you too. I know I had to really tinker with these Windows computers to get the colors to give me the proper contrast. This was something I took for granted in the MAC world.

Stanczyk too has “very aged” eyes from years of working on computers. Thanks MaryAnne!

 

—————————-

FROM: Jonathan

Jonathan asked about Pacanów and Kłoda, his Pytko family,  and how hard it is to read “Old Russian”.

REPLY:

Jonathan, thanks for writing. As for emails – you can send me A church record and I will be happy to read it for you and send you a translation of the “Old Russian” (pre-1918 reforms). You can write to me at: Stanczyk@eliasz.com . OK?  Any pictures you send me via email may or may not be used in the blog as part of the answer [fair use].

As for Pacanów, the LDS have four microfilm of the Pacanów(Busko-Zdroj) in Kielce(old woj.). There are a few Kłoda villages. Is yours the one near Radom? That Kłoda has parish of Magnuszew (no microfilm for this parish). Here are the four microfilm (1875-1884) for Pacanów(Busko-Zdroj):

Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1875 – FHL INTL Film [ 1192351 Item 10 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1876-1877 – FHL INTL Film [ 1192352 Items 1-2 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1878-1881 – FHL INTL Film [ 1807621 Items 8-11 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1882-1884 – FHL INTL Film [ 1807622 Items 1-3 ]

Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów = Birth, Marriage, Death records.

I have seen Pytko/Pytka in Pacanów and Świniary parishes.

–Stanczyk

Church Metrical Books … Embellishments, Oddities, and Notations #2

Today’s Church Metrical Book meme is on Marginalia. This margin note is from the birth of Tomasz Elijasz (Record #130) born (ur.) 6-September-1881 in Pacanow parish. Tomasz was the son of Ludwik Elijasz and Elzbieta Miklaszewski.

Your eyes are not fuzzy, both record and the marginalia are written in Cyrillic (Russian). Stanczyk loves reading marginalia, because it is almost like gossip. I read it from the context of the vital record of the birth. “So little Tomasz. I see you are going to grow up and marry(malz.) Marianna Wojczyk on 19-February-1912 and it will be recorded in the Pacanow church book as record #34 of 1912 Marriages.”

It is almost like you are acting in the role as a cleric angel for God. You know the future of this little baby!

Now I like these margin notes because I can often find the female Elijasz being married off. Once they are married, I often lose track of them, so these margin notes may be a last chance to find them until I see a death notice, if I do not have their marriage record. Since this is Russian-Poland, the records are in Russian from 1868-1918. Sometimes, the margin note is in Polish (say if the marriage happened in/after 1918). So you will have a Russian birth and Polish marriage notation.

So how is it that not every birth  record has a margin note? Well the list of possibilities should include…

1. The baby died in infancy or childhood
2. The “baby” emigrated before being married
3. The “baby” never married before dying
4. The “baby” got married somewhere else (in another parish/country or perhaps only a civil marriage)

Every once in a while you will see a priest still record the marriage if it was in another country or parish and the catholic priest of the remote locale wrote the priest in Pacanow. Not always, but sometimes this happens.

#Polish #Genealogy – Useful Websites … #5 Online Databases in Poland

Stanczyk is a Data Architect by trade. So if it is one thing I love it is databases. This posting is all about some online Polish Databases. The Parish Church Books is a website that collects and indexes and keeps it up to date . It points you to the website, but it is written from a Poland point of view. So I have decoded the website index and made them into LINKS (URLs) so you can click on them and go to the resource from their list. Enjoy!

Parish Church Books –
http://www.ksiegi-parafialne.pl/

The above Polish website (from Poland and in Polish language) attempts to gather in one place index all interesting projects where Church Parish Indexes are being collected in online databases. This page is updated often. This makes it an excellent website for your bookmarks/favorites (or add it to delicious).

Index of Databases

BASIA –
http://www.basia.famula.pl/en/

Geneteka -
http://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/

Lubgens.Eu –
http://lubgens.eu/portal.php

Pomorskie TG –
http://www.ptg.gda.pl/index.php/ptgnews/action/basesearch/

The Pomorskie Genealogical Society (Pomorskie TG) website needs some explanation. It has a menu named “PomGenBase“;  Click on menu, then on the submenu, “Search PomGenBase” and click on the final submenu (one of five: Christenings, Marriages, Deaths,  Cemeteries or Monuments) to search.

Poznan Project –
http://bindweed.man.poznan.pl/posen/project.php

T.G.Z.Cz. –
http://www.genealodzy.czestochowa.pl/pl/start

#Polish, #Genealogy – Social Network Analysis work is progressing…

My Social Network Analysis is progressing, albeit slowly. Stanczyk is drawing his diagram and the bookkeeping is terrible. How do you distinguish one dot (person) from another? It is forcing me to make each dot much bigger so I can record a distinguishing bit of info. I have more lines than I thought because …

You have a father, a mother, a baby, 2 wtinesses, 2 God Parents (sometimes more) [in birth records], 2 sets of parents [in marriage records].

So here are my family names that I am working with: Elijasz, Zasucha, Paluch, Odomski, Wlecial, Miklaszewski, Zwolski, Major, Wojtys, Siwiec, Piotrowski, Lewinski, and my discarded names ( Grudzien/Grudnia, Poniewirski, Janicki, Pytka, and Kordos). The surprises  are that I needed to add Piotrowski and Lewinski and that I had to discard Janicki. We had no family knowledge or record of Piotrowski or Lewinski and I did have knowledge of Janicki (various spellings). Now dropping a name means less work. But adding a name means going back to the beginning and searching for them too. A lot more work.

Early on I have already found a new female (Tekla Elijasz) relative under her married name (Wojtys). So there is some fruit. But I can see some foreshadowing from the research already. First off my research is already predicting two new siblings(Ludwik and Petronella) for my great-grandfather Jozef Elijasz (as I suspected), one person inconclusive,(Franciszek) and the new TEKLA is an issue. If she is truly a new relative then she is most probably a sibling of my great-grandfather. However, there is another TEKLA in that era (although  the birth years are 3-5 years apart) and the looseness of ages in the Polish church records is presenting a challenge. If TEKLA is the exisiting TEKLA, then the research is telling me(predicting) that my great-great-grandfather (Martin Elijasz) has another  brother Gaspar/Kasper. The age of the “new” TEKLA fits in the gaps of my great-grandfather’s siblings so I cannot eliminate her on that basis. In fact the ages of all the “new” predictions seem to fill in the gaps of my great-grandfather’s siblings.

One of my candidate relatives also has church records in the adjoining Biechow parish, so I will need to look at her family name (and the new Tekla) in those parish records too, so more of my research parameters are being tweaked. I also had a finding of one social network dot having a Kalucki God Mother. Now this Kalucki is exceeding rare in the records I have access to. My Kalucki fixation is because my grand-aunt Genowefa Leszczynski married a Kalucki (source from an obituary of my grand-uncle Michael Leszczynski). Also, the lady in Poland who sent me my grandparent’s marriage records (Elzbieta Heliasz Kapusta) has her great-grandfather showing up in my research and he is connected to some of the same families she mentioned (Siwiec,  Zwolski) and I know Wojtys from American relatives of Elzbieta. So once again another reconfirmation that Heliasz are really Elijasz (and both are really ELIASZ, i.e. that all three are the same family name) .

#Polish #Genealogy – Blaziej Kalucki + Maryanna Plutow 1881 Marriage in Zborowek

This week Stanczyk is culling for Kalucki. My grandmother’s sister, Genowefa Leszczynska, married a man named Kalucki. I assume they got married in either Biechow or Pacanow or maybe Zborowek.

The only reason I know about Kalucki is that when my Grand-Uncle Michael Leszczynski passed away, his obituary listed his surviving sister Genowefa with a married name of Kalucki. Genowefa stayed in Poland with her brothers, Jozef, Szczepan and Wincenty.

I believe it was Genowefa who used to write to my aunt Alice (aka Aleksandra) Eliasz Stickney. So if anyone Knows a Kalucki or is related to Blaziej Kalucki (Zborowek) email me.

#Polish #Genealogy – Major, Zasucha, Zborowek, Ksiaznice Miscellanea

Dateline Zborowek, 2-June-1878 -  This marriage announcement was slightly delayed.  Maryanna Zasucha, age 38 of Komorow, daughter of Sebastyan & Apolonia (nee Cygan) Zasucha married  Walenty Golen, age 23 of Wojcza [Editor: An early cougar], son of Jozef & Maryanna (nee Midorowicz) Golen. This was witnessed by: Toma Zasucha (age 37) & Jozef Plieta.

I am posting this as I am searching for Zasucha in and around Pacanow who may be related to great-great-grandmother Anna Zasucha, who married Marcin/Martin Elijasz of Pacanow. So I am thinking perhaps these Komorow Zasucha of the Zborowek parish may possibly be related.

Here is some miscellanea of the parish of Zborowek – made up of the following villages: Zborowek, Biskupice, Komorow, Orzelec, and Zalesie.  Parish  Ksiaznice (who records were noted in the 1878 Zborowek as a separate parish-within-a-parish) is made up of the following village(s): Ksiaznice [Editor: ???].

The Ksiaznice Question

Which leads to another question of Stanczyk’s. Why are there three parishes in the same vicinity: Pacanow-Ksiaznice-Zborowek. These fine parishes are closely surrounded by Biechow and Beszowa parishes. Can someone from Poland explain to me how this parish arrangement arose? At the very least, Ksiaznice seems excessive even for Poland.

Major Miscellanea

Stanczyk emailed a Kornelia Major of SwietoGen Genealogical Society. I am hoping for a return email. Hence the above marriage record posted. I am also give my great-grandmother’s (Aniela Major) info below in hopes there is a family connection between us and you can fill me in on a portion of the family tree (drzewo genealogiczne) or help me with Pacanow church records.

Aniela Major was born (urodziny): 31-July(Lipca)-1866 in Piestrzec, Poland  and married Tomasz Leszczynski on 22-October(Padz.)-1885 in Pacanow. Aniela was the daughter of Martin Major of Piestrzec and  Katarzyna Ozarowicz. That is sum total of my knowledge of the Major family.

So, proszę,  Kornelia Major or any other Major in SwietoGen or elsewhere in the region, email Stanczyk .

#Polish #Genealogy – Biechow Parish Clergy, including visiting clerics …

I decided to update the info from the SwietoKrzyskie Digital Library, in the book, “Historical Description of Churches, Cities, Monuments, & Memorials of Stopnica“, written by Jan Wisniewska in 1929 . I found that info in the book was very accurate indeed. What I did notice was his info was incomplete. So Stanczyk went through his images and compiled a more complete list. Please compare the image at left with my spreadsheet data:

Years	Cleric
1326-	Boguslaw ?
1391-	Konrad ?
1531-	Stanislaw Biechowski
1553-	? Gladysz
1610-	Aleksandr Lukomski
1641-	Joachim Parzniewski
1664-	Fran. Gogolinski
1668-	Marcin Humienicki
1671-1675+	Jozef Walcerz
1674-1675+	Albert Tryescinski
1693-	Kazimierz Rogala
1717-	Ludwik Siemieradzki
1727-	Zacharias Stakowski
1727-1730+	Antonius Ciolek Zaleski
1731-1759	Kasper(Gaspar) Sebastyan Zabrowski
1738-1748+	Karol Szaykowski
1753-1757, 1769-1782+	Camirus Zabkowski
1759-1764	Valentinus Szeligowski
1759+	Augustyn Zagoborski
1760-1763	Wojciech Basa Radoszowski
1760+	Casmirus Kayski
1763-1769	Matheus Sowicki
1764+	Franciscus Muszenski
1764-1777	Laurentius Lalosinski
1777-1780	Josephus Ignatius Malczewski
1778+	Sebastianus Skwarcz
1782+	Augustyn Filipowski
1779-1782+, 1792-1796	Wojciech(Adalbertus) Wdowskiewicz
1787-1797	Kajetan Aleksander Boniecki
1792-1794	Nicolaus Kotlinski
1796+	Carolus Binkowski
1796+	Alexius Debski
1797-1828	Jozef Parzelski
1797, 1806(Pacanow), 1827	Jan Gliszczynski
1797+	Dominicus Cyranski
1798-1799	Laurentius Gomborski
1798-1825+	Jozef Gierasinski
1800+	Felix Smukrowicz
1801+	Petrus Draskiewicz
1801-1806	Samuel Snorski
1806+	Domincus Boznowicz
1806-1808, 1827-1828+	Franciscus Stawiarski
1809-	Placidus Janicki
1809-1810	Fracnciscus Maykowski
1810+	Josephus Szwanderski
1811+	? Pasternik
1815-1817	Ludovicus Filipowski
1819+	Jacobus Walichowski
1819+, 1825+	Jozef Krzewski
1821-1822	Floryan Milewski
1825-1847	Jan Kanty Bielski
1848-1852	Jozef Stanko
1852-1907+	Michal Krolikowski
1910	Franciszek Dworak
1919	Jozef Banasik
Year(s)	Visiting Clerics (Parish/Monastery)
1720′s-1730′s	Jan Trzeminowski (Pacanow)
1720′s-1730′s	Michal Handzynski (Beszowa)
1720′s-1730′s	Atanasius Jedrzeykiewicz(Beszowa)
1720′s-1730′s	Christianus Ochozki (Beszowa)
1720′s-1730′s	Michal Kolowski (Trzes??)
1760′s	Josephus Kotlinski(Pacanow)
1770′s	Ignatius Glowacki(Pacanow)
1792	Laurentius Kloscenski(Pacanow)
1793	Nicolaus Dabrowski(Swiniary)
1796	Jacobus Walichowski
1796	Jan Gliszczynski(Swiniary) [see above]

This is Major … Major = Maycher (also Majcher, Maicher)

Jakob MAYCHER from Biechow Parish 1880

Stanczyk has been trying to find someone to help him confirm that MAJOR (pronounced by my family in USA as My-Her and misspelled in USA as Meyer) was the Russification of the Biechow family name that has been in Biechow at least since the 1670′s (as far as the record goes back) of Maicher/Maycher/Majcher. In fact the Maicherowich have married the Eliaszow for many years.

Now I have a good friend Jasek of Krakow (a native Pole) who has helped me with my genealogical research (since we both have family from the same ancestral villages). I first proposed to that ELIASZ = HELIASZ = ELIJASZ and after some time and mutual research he agreed with me. I said that ELIJASZ was just the Russification of ELIASZ due to Russian/Cyrillic transliteration. As I said, Jasek accepted my findings and blessed what he called this name “evolution”.

So when I proposed that MAJOR=MAICHER/MAJCHER/MAYCHER and gave my reasons (i.e. no MAJOR before Russian Partition and no MAICHER after the Russian Partition, etc.). I was taken back by my friends, “Perhaps”. If it is one thing I knew about the very polite Poles, is that they will not say you are wrong — unless they know you very well. So instead of a “I don’t think so” or an outright, “I believe you are wrong”, Jasek said, “Perhaps” in an unconvincing fashion that crushed my hopes.

So today as I was looking at microfilm images verifying the Priest names, I was looking at Biechow parish  Marriage Record #4 from 1880. I was interested because, I saw the groom’s name was MAJOR and I thought perhaps he was a brother to my great-grandmother (Aniela Major Leszczynska). So I looked at the record closely to see who the parents of JAKOB MAJOR were. Now when I did, I got excited, because I found the mom was Sofia Heliasz (always good to find those female relatives and their married names). I then noticed that the groom’s father was Antoni MAJOR. I then tried to find a Sophia/Zofia Eliasz/Heliasz in my family tree in the appropriate era and see if I had one that married a Maicher. Lo and Behold, I had my long sought after proof.

I had a Zofia Eliasz married to Antoni Maicher and that they were born about 1814. So when I saw that their Jakob was age 39 in 1880 (implying birth about 1841, when the parents would have been about 27) and I saw that he was born in Piestrzec, the same village where the parents were married, his birth of 1841 is after the 1832 marriage date of the parents.  I knew I had a match. Not only did  I have MAJOR=MAYCHER, I also had a bonus of HELIASZ=ELIASZ [long since convinced of this]. Now this was significant as I had my first proof across the Russian language boundary to the pre-1868 Polish language days.

#Jewish #Genealogy – A Continuing Homage to Moja żona

I am continuing my efforts to retrieve/extract the Jewish records from the Catholic parish of Biechow during the years when the Catholic Church was ordered to act the civil registration authority.  My last posting was for the years 1810-1815 inclusive.

These are the Jewish Births from 1816 in Biechow parish. For the record, there is not any record of 1817 on the microfilm. Ergo, this posting brings us upto: 1810-1817 inclusive. The prior post is here .

Year: 1816      Priest: Jozef Parzelski         Gmina: Biechow     Powiat: Stopnica     Departement: Krakow      93 Total Births

Record #11     Date: 1/31/1816

Father: Dawid Matusowicz, Pakiarz, Age 22, Biechow   House #23

Mother: Estera z Isserow, age 20

Baby: Jasek

Witnesses:  Jaska Walsowicz, pakiarz, age 38 & Rzelika Chaymowicz, kaczmarz,  <no age>

—-

Record #24     Date: 3/17/1816

Father: Layzar Kabmanowicz, Pakiarz, Age 38, Piestrzec   House #33

Mother: Rywka z Chaykow, age 40

Baby: Hima (40)

Witnesses:  Judka Faycer, arendarz, age 38 & Jaska Jaskowicz , arendarz, <no age>

—-

Record #38     Date: 5/23/1816

Father: Abram Menkier, Pakiarz, Age 40, Woycza   House #2

Mother: Channa z Fercykow, age 24

Baby: Icek

Witnesses:  Rzelika Chaymowicz, Kaczmarz, age 50 & Giecta Moska, pakiarz,  <no age>

That is it for 1816 only 3 out of 93 total  = 3.22% of the births in the “parish”.

JRI you are welcome to use this data and/or incorporate this into your databases.

–Stanczyk