My ancestral village, PACANOW, was indexed for BIRTHS (1875-1908). I was able to verify it was correct with my grandfather (whose Birth Record I have) and a few others. I also found some I did not know about !!!   I only wish they had the images (like in METRYKI database). Thank you: Wojciech Liśkiewicz (who I think was the indexer)!

Later in the day they(he) also added MARRIAGES(1875-1908) too.

Stanczyk loves the history of our nation (USA). The U.S. history is much younger than our European ancestral villages. But, in 2013, we will celebrate and remember the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3rd, 1863  on its 150th anniversary.
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Philadelphia is the cradle of American Civilization. During the Fourth of July Celebration  (Welcome America), in addition to the normal July 4th celebrations, there will be additional events this year, the 150th after the battle of Gettysburg.
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Philadelphia

Philadelphia ‘a living monument’ to the Civil War [Philadelphia Inquirer article]

There are so many historical and genealogical things to experience beyond the fireworks & concerts:

• Reading of the Declaration (by Independence Hall) on July 8th
• Visit Laurel Hill Cemetery – General Meade is buried here above the Schuykill River
• Civil War Reenactors in Gettysburg (before and after the 4th)
• Constitution Center
• Liberty Bell
• Civil War Museum
• Historical Society of PA (1300 Locust Street, Phila.)

Related

• Map: Civil War left its mark on Philadelphia
• More on Gettysburg’s 150th anniversary
• Military Graves locator

Stanczyk, was not intending to write a blog post today. I hope Genealogy Moms are having a wonderful day today  … too.

Yesterday, I was researching on FamilySearch.org. On a lark, I thought I would look at Croatia. In particular at Tenje. I did that because my maternal grandmother, Roza Göttler (aka Gottler/Goettler/Gettler). From her ship manifest, I knew her to come from Tenje (which was Austria-Hungary, then Jugoslavia, now presently Croatia). This explains the ever changing ethnicity throughout the US Federal Censuses. I did indeed find Gottlers in Tenje. I did not find my grandmother’s parents or my grandmother … unfortunately the years available online would not meet my needs. But something unusual happened. I found other affiliated family names: Eisenbeiser and Elter. So I am now convinced that Tenje (the Roman Catholic records) is where I will find my maternal grandmother.

That was so uplifting, on a lark, I thought I’d search for my maternal grandfather’s village. His was a bit of a problem too. Differing country names (like Roza Gottler), but his village name changed often too, so even though I had ship manifest, Declaration of Intent, and finally a Petition for Naturalization, I was still uncertain where he was from. I was pretty sure he was from the same area as Roza Gottler. My paternal grandparents were both married once, before they married each other and had my mother. So my grandfather emmigrated alone and my grandmother emmigrated with her first husband (John Reiner). Over the years, I developed many clues which I collected even though they did not fit together. This weekend, the clues came together! These stray clues allowed me to verify that the records I was viewing were my own family. What a gift on Mother’s Day weekend. I found both of her family parents’ families  this weekend!

It turns out that my grandfather was born in Sarvas (now in Croatia) and in the same district as Tenje. So all those sources: Sawas is from Ship Manifest , then  Storvish is from Declaration of Intent, and  Dowash is from the Petition for Naturalization. The first Vespek birth record I found spelled the village as Starvas. These are all the same place! Some were slightly misspelled. Now I can see it. So in the same FamilySearch project in two different villages I found my maternal lines. Some direct lines, some indirect branches, others are affiliated families.

So I have set a fairly high level of confidence in these findings. As such, I believe I have found my Great-Grandfather Vendelin Vespek’s birth record. This is not 100% certain and I have to find 1 or 2 missing pieces to make it a 100% certain. For those who are second (or 3rd) cousins researching in the Vespek family tree pay attention to the remainder and download the image at the top.

NOTES:

Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1949 Roman Catholic (Rimokatolička crkva), Sarvas

Corresponding LDS MF #’s - 1739003 Items 4-5,  1739004 Items 1-7

Sarvaš Births (Rođeni) 1847-1865  [for Vespek, Kasper, Kantner, Fechtig, Emert, Platz, Zorn]

URL: FamilySearch Sarvas, Croatia  [image 66 of 298]

Birth 8th / Baptism 9th – November – 1858

Vendelin son of Vendelin Vespek & Catherine Kaschper (aka Kasper)
born in Sarvas, House #43

Godparents:  Tobias Jobst & Joanna Kreines

See Also …

Tenje (Osijek) – FamilySearch.org [for Gottler, Eisenbeiser, Elter]

URL:  Tenje

P.S.

Even though most of the records are in Latin, there are still records in Croatian.So for my Polish genealogy researchers, I would hasten a tip. As I was doing this I saw month names that were close to month names for Polish. Croatian is a Slavic language (albeit Southern Slav). So when I saw LISTOPAD (Croatian), I was immediately thinking NOVEMBER (in English), because LISTOPAD in Polish = November in English. But in Croatian, LISTOPAD = October. Surprise!

From Google Translator:

January, February, …, December – (English)

Sijecanj, Veljaca, Ozujak, Travanj,  Svibanj, Lipanj, Srpanj, Kolovoz, Rujan, Listopad, Studeni, Prosinca – (Croatian)

Lisa Cooke (@LisaCooke)

Digitized historic Sanborn Fire Maps are available from the Digital Public Library of America … a t:  http://pinterest.com/pin/14847873744179015/

At first I was hopeful, but alas only maps from GA, KY (only Frankfurt?), and San Franciso (CA). For genealogists in those locales these are a treasure trove of info about the historic residences.

See Also:

Library Of Congress – http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/sanborn/

Wikipedia – http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_Maps

JERUSALEM (AP) – Once a year, Israel’s Jewish war veterans don suit jackets and uniforms dripping in Red Army medals, the shiny bronzes and silvers pinned to their chests in tight rows like armor. About 500,000 Jews served in the Soviet Red Army during World War II. Most of those still alive today – about 7,000 – are said to live in Israel. Every year on Victory Day, which falls on Thursday this year …

Read Full Story

An excellent piece detailing how European Jews fought against the Nazis in the Allied Forces.

So indeed Dzhokhar running over his brother’s head and torso was as responsible for death as the bullet wounds. Who am I to second guess the ME (medical examiner)?

Still it sticks in my craw that he said both.

I guess we will have to abide by this wishy-washy pronouncement.

Click on picture to see another article.

The Constitution of May 3, 1791 (Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja) was drafted between October 6, 1788, and May 3, 1791, when it was adopted by the Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The contitution’s adoption was preceded by a period of agitation with the Convocation Sejm of 1764 and the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as the Commonwealth’s last elective monarch.

The constitution had sought to prevail over and eliminate the anarchy, caused by  the Liberum Veto, which had put the Country/King at the mercy of any single Sejm deputy who chose, or was  bribed by an internal interest or external foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by the Sejm. The constitution’s adoption met with immediate hostilities, both political and military by the Commonwealth’s neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, the Commonwealth’s ally Prussia, broke its alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was effectively defeated by the three Empires: Russia, Prussia, & Austria-Hungary (aka Hapsburg).

[NOTE the parallels between this Sejm's  use of liberum veto  and the U.S. Congresses of 2008-present who have abused/utilized omni-present obstructionist tools: filibuster and cloture to keep the Obama administration for achieving its goals.]

British historian, Norman Davies describes the legal document as “the first constitution of its type in Europe”; Other historians documented it as the world’s second oldest codified national constitution after the U.S. Constitution, which was effective on March 4, 1789 — just two years earlier.

The Commonwealth’s 1791 Constitution remained in effect for all of 14 months and 3 weeks. It would be a long time until the Second Republic would re-emerge after World War I and Poland would re-appear and be a free republic again.

[Source Material from Wikipedia]

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!