Mount Vernon Cemetery – Philadelphia

This is Mount Vernon cemetery. Now before you think this the George Washington’s Mt Vernon, it is not that one. This is a cemetery in Philadelphia nearly next door to Philadelphia’s famous, historical Laurel Hill cemetery that is on the hill above Philadelphia overlooking the Schuykill River (quite a lovely vista — in fact today the jester met an artist at the Mt Laurel cemetery painting a landscape on an absolutely beautiful day surrounded by these wonderful cemetery monuments).

Mount Vernon Cemetery to my horror is now a nearly defunct cemetery. There appears to be very little in the way of funds to maintain this lovely old cemetery. Overgrowth is obvious, the paths for cars is overgrown and truly I needed the caretaker to guide me through and not run over any tombstones. The picture at the top of this blog is obviously an old image. The entrance which is what the picture shows,  is now very much overgrown and disheveled and looks nothing like the image. I spoke to Norman the caretaker and he said that almost all families are no longer providing for upkeep. I felt for Norman as he is very local and doing his best to keep this cemetery together on something less than a shoestring budget.

This cemetery has Drew Barrymore’s ancestors (find-a-grave) ! This jester does not have family interred here. I would however be willing to help Norman do a project to capture the genealogy from his records and the tombstones and develop some kind of saleable product to help sustain this cemetery. But realistically, unless the lovely Drew Barrymore were to  provide some kind of endowment fund or help raise funds for this cemetery, it will  become perpetually defunct and eventually go back to the state of Pennsylvania for guardianship. My guess  is that  if anything happens to Norman, this cemetery will die. Death of a Cemetery.

Mount Vernon Cemetery Philadelphia                 28-February-1856   —  2010?

Struck!

Today’s musing comes from three tragic stories. There is a thimbleful of genealogy here. Stanczyk was perusing a tome in his library of a Norse saga.  It struck me with the power of a missile how similar were these three stories  and this jester was astounded.

Here are my protagonists:

Odin and Frigg had a son the beloved and good Baldur. Baldur was so loved by all, including his mother, Frigg. So Frigg extracted an oath from all manner of things not to harm Baldur. All things gave an oath, but  mistletoe which was too young to swear an oath.

Genealogy: Odin + Frigg -> Baldur

Peleus and Thetis had a son Achilles. Thetis, the good Greek wife she was knew her son would grow up to be a warrior. So to protect her son, she took Achilles to the river Styx and lowered him into the waters whose miraculous properties would make Achilles impervious. Except, she dunked Achilles, by holding onto his left heel.

Genealogy: Peleus + Thetis -> Achilles

Adam and Eve had a son Cain. Cain after murdering his brother Abel was cursed by God to be ostracized and  Cain was marked so that no living thing would kill him. The curse had a time limit, until the 7^th generation of Cain.

Genealogy: Adam + Eve -> Cain->Enoch->Irad->Mehujael->Methushael->Lamech->son

In all three cases, (Baldur, Achilles, and Cain), they were shot and died. Baldur dies when Loki ferrets out that mistletoe is the only thing that did not give an oath and he fashioned a dart of mistletoe. While the Norse were having fun throwing things at Baldur who could not be hit or hurt, Loki directed, Hod,  to fire the mistletoe dart at Baldur killing him. Achilles was killed by Paris with an arrow shot in the Trojan war, striking the only spot on him that was not impervious, his heel. Finally, we have Cain being shot by the blind Lamech, who was directed by his own son to fire at something in the woods. Therefore, Lamech’s son, the 7^th generation of Cain caused Cain’s death. In two of the stories, a blind man is directed to kill the protagonist. All three protagonists die of a missile being fired at them. In all three cases, the protagonist was impervious except/until:  mistletoe, unprotected heel, or 7^th generation.

As I researched this blog, I was astounded a second time, that the story of Cain’s death is NOT in the Bible. Just Cain’s curse and his generations are recorded in the Bible. It is funny how this jester had joined two separate stories in his mind and then sourced it solely from the Bible.

Striking parallels indeed. Please do not shoot me any emails over this blog.

Dziennik Polski [Detroit]

Dziennik Polski (“Polish Daily”). Many times this has been used as a title for a local  Polish language newspaper. This jester originally came from Detroit, MI where we too had such a newspaper. One day I was having a meal  with mój ojciec (my father). I had decided to go to the Library of the State of Michigan in Lansing the next day and I was going to do my first foray into reading an historical newspaper on microfilm. The newspaper I selected was Dziennik Polski; I am not even certain why I chose that newspaper, perhaps it was an article I read in the PGSM’s Eaglet newsletter. Now Michigan was blessed with many Polish language newspapers:

• Dziennik Ludowy
• Glos Ludowy
• Ognisko Domowe
• Robotnik Polski
• Dziennik Polski

And those were just from Wayne County. I was going to try and find the birth announcements for my father and his siblings and perhaps I’d also find some death notices too.

Surprise

At any rate, as we eat a meal together I told my father that I was going to the State Library and perhaps read some newspapers. Out of the blue and for the first time, my father tells the family how his mother, Walerya, used to read the Dziennik Polski newspaper! What serendipity he mentioned the exact newspaper I was going to research. So I was armed with birth dates and off I went secure in the knowledge that my new idea would be successful. For if my busia read the newspaper, then surely she must have put announcements into to it too. Now the more experienced genealogists are probably laughing at that naiveté. Well I did not find my father’s birth being announced. However, I did find my uncle Thaddeus’ birth being announced and the street address was one my father had recalled to me in an earlier conversation. Well you can imagine I was hooked on this charming little Polish language newspaper.

I was certain, that I’d find my great uncle Jan’s death announcement – but I did not have the date, just that it was after my grandfather’s death (06-January-1930). So I would just gut it out and search this newspaper for all of the 1930’s decade until I found him. By now you must realize that this  is a daunting task. Each microfilm contains about 2-3 months of newspapers and I found I could do one microfilm in a single day. By my math I would need 40 days at the Library or possibly on average maybe only 20 days. Of course, I no longer lived in Michigan, so that posed a problem. Of course, they also did not have every day on the microfilm either, so it just might not be on the microfilm. Finally, it was during the Great Depression, so death announcements would not be there unless you paid for them; That was certainly going to be a problem for my widowed grandmother with 7 kids to feed.

Well Stanczyk is still pursuing this enterprise, albeit more slowly due to the tough economic times. I enjoy the genealogy and also the history preserved in these newspapers. I also get some kind of surreal connection to my grandmother by putting myself in her place and reading these historical newspapers in her native tongue. I have painstakingly gathered some expertise on this newspaper and gathered info the PGSM Eaglet, my own research and the work of the PGSCTNE and have built an index now with over 20,000 names. Because this is a Polish language newspaper, it is largely a story of the Poles who settled in Detroit, MI (and of course Hamtramck). I have that index and my collected research available here on Rootsweb website:  Dziennik Polski .

Read your local newspaper or that of your grandmother’s. Read the Second World War, through your grandmother’s eyes. It is horrific to see Hitler and Stalin splashed across the pages of the 1920’s and 1930’s and to know that they eventually will collectively kill nearly 40 million people – back then, for busia  it was news, now for this jester it is history. History carries a much greater impact when read through the context of your ancestors and the newspapers of their lives.

Biechow & Pacanow databases…

Yesterday this jester wrote about an interaction with another genealogist and how it caused me to do my research in a different way and how by doing this survey, I was able to find two small related Elijasz facts buried in another family’s church record.

The blog was not suitable for three column (or even nicely viewable in single column). So I wanted to publish the database on my Rootsweb page. So here is Pacanow 1883 Births .

I have done surveys of some years records and published them onto the Internet. The reason I do this is draw other genealogists to me, by their Googling their family tree and finding my pages and then querying me to see if we are related in some way. Over the years I have run into many genealogists and/or distant cousins who have supplied vital or emotionally  priceless photos.

Here are my Biechow parish databases too:

1810 Biechow Births

1811 Biechow Births

1812-1831 Survey

So if your ancestral village was in Biechow parish or Pacanow parish send me your query. Perhaps we are related somewhat closely. Or if your name is the following list (these are just Biechow/Pacanow family names):

Eliasz, Elijasz, Heliasz, Leszczynski, Wlecialowski, Paluch, Zasucha, Zwolski, Odomski, Kedzierski, Kalucki, Kordos, Siwiec, Wojtys, Gawron, Fortuna,  Grudzien, Piotrowski, Juda, Bebel, Bordziak, Bugaj, Kostyra, Podolski, Wrobel, Wrzesnia, Watroba, Gula,  Janicki, Kapusta, Baran, etc.

Why not send me a query?

Pacanow 1883, A Survey of Births

Stanczyk wanted to take another look at the church records in Pacanow. Recently, I was emailed  by a Zwolski ancestor whose Jan Zwolski had married a Petronella Elyasz[sic]. So I went combing through the Zwolski records and sure enough I found a Petronella Elijasz married to a Jan Zwolski. There was a lot of synergy in the names of witnesses and God Parents too.

So I decided to do a survey of the 1883 Births of Pacanow for these “marker” families to see if I might find some female Eliasz/Elijasz ancestors and possibly some male Eliasz/Elijasz witnesses. At the end of this article I put together a table of people, places and dates of this little synergistic community within the Pacanow parish.

I was surprised at how well this little experiment had worked. Now wrapping my brain around the translation/transliteration of proper nouns from Russian/Cyrillic to Polish (or English) is not my idea of fun so I never did a survey of the Russian church records, like I did for the pre-1868 Polish records of Biechow (Pacanow does not have any pre-1868 records that have been microfilmed by the LDS).

So here is what I did. I looked at Elijasz (or Heliasz if any) in the indexes as usual, but now I also noted the records with: Zwolski, Siwiec, Odomski, Pytka, Zasucha, Paluch, Wojtys and for good measure, Zdziebko. Now that last one I added for my good friend, the famous genealogist Ceil Jensen, whose ancestors just happen to inhabit the same parish as my ancestors. Now keep in mind that this survey was just one year and just for the births.

The experiment worked, I found an Elijasz female and one Elijasz male mentioned in records that were indexed by the other “marker” families. Some people call these aligned or affiliated family names. I prefer the analogical thought that these are genetic markers for Elijasz (and on some deeper level this is true). I have joked for a few years now that the Elijaszow are related to all of the families in Biechow and Pacanow parishes. I even take note of these “parish names” when I come across them in the USA records in Buffalo, Toledo, and Detroit in particular, but other US cities as well. They are still good genetic markers for Eliasz/Elijasz even in the USA even more than a century later.

I did not find any Leszczynski or Wlecialowski, but to be fair, I seldom find them in the LDS microfilm. I did find a few other “marker” families that I had neglected to survey in the go around. I found Janicki, Janowski, Luszcz, Major and Kordos too. So these family names are also heavily intertwined with the original list. In fact, I think I found a few misspellings that are actually really in my list, but were misspelled. Now I cannot prove this, but I will build a little database and publish it to my website and see if any genetic marker families ping me about being related.

So I guess when you look at indexes, do not just fixate on your direct descent family name. At some point go back and look for your “marker” family names in the indexes and search those records as well. You too may find some extra nuggets of family gold. At the very least you may find some female ancestors who tend to get lost when they marry.

Oh, that Zdziebko experiment. It appears that Ceil’s Wojciech Zdziebko married one of my “marker” families, Jano{w}ski, and he had a child with Marianna Janoska. So even the Zdziebko’s are just one degree away from my ancestors – but no direct connection.

Database

Pacanow Parish, 1883 Births, a small Survey							Total Births:	203
Surname	Given Name	Age in Yrs	Approx. Birth Year or Birthdate	Birth Place	Church Record	Relationship to Baby	Baby Name	Notes / Marginalia
Czylanka	Antoni	36	abt 1847		25	Witness	Roman Elijasz
Elijasz	Jozef	23	abt 1860	n/a	25	Father	Roman Elijasz
Elijasz	Marianna		n/a		169	God Mother	Jan Kanty Zasucha
Elijasz	Martin		n/a		186	God Father	Marianna Zasucha
Elijasz	Roman	0	8-Feb-1883	Pacanow	25	Baby	Roman Elijasz
Grudzien	Walenty		n/a		169	God Father	Jan Kanty Zasucha
Grudzieniszkow	Stanislaw	46	abt 1837		25	Witness	Roman Elijasz	Grudzien?
Janicki	Teofil			n/a	85	God Father	Antoni Odomski
Janoska	Marianna	30	abt 1853	n/a	111	Mother	Tekla Zdziebko
Janoska	Zofia		n/a		19	God Mother	Apolionia Paluch
Katarzyna	Zhigliczka		n/a		186	God Mother	Marianna Zasucha
Kodos	Walenty	30	abt 1853		124	Witness	Bronislawa Wojtys	Kordos?
Korczynska	Zuzanna		n/a		162	God Mother	Jadwiga Kordos
Kordos	Jadwiga	0	7-Oct-1883	Rataje	162	Baby	Jadwiga Kordos
Kordos	Jan	38	abt 1845		162	Witness	Jadwiga Kordos
Kordos	Jan		1845?		162	God Father	Jadwiga Kordos
Kordos	Michal	28	abt 1855	n/a	162	Father	Jadwiga Kordos
Kordos	Stanislaw	50	abt 1833		162	Witness	Jadwiga Kordos
Kuczka	Maciej	56	abt 1827		111	Witness	Tekla Zdziebko
Lewinska	Franciszka	47	abt 1836		124	Mother	Bronislawa Wojtys
Lewinski	Michal		n/a		124	God Father	Bronislawa Wojtys
Lewinski	Piotr		n/a		170	God Father	Leopold Pytka
Lewisnka	Julianna			n/a	85	God Mother	Antoni Odomski
Lewisnki	Michal	36	abt 1847		170	Witness	Leopold Pytka
Lewsinski	Stanislaw	45	abt 1838		186	Witness	Marianna Zasucha
Luszcz	Ignacy	52	abt 1831		10	Witness	Agnieszka Wojtys
Luszcz	Kasper		n/a		25	God Father	Roman Elijasz
Luszcz -owa	Marianna		n/a		10	God Mother	Agnieszka Wojtys
Major	Magdalena	22	abt 1861	n/a	19	Mother	Apolionia Paluch
Mondra	Wiktorya	22	abt 1861	n/a	162	Mother	Jadwiga Kordos
Nowakow	Antoni	46	abt 1837		170	Witness	Leopold Pytka
Nowakow	Katarzyna	22	abt 1861	n/a	170	Mother	Leopold Pytka
Odomski	Antoni	0	27-May-1883	Pacanow	85	Baby	Antoni Odomski
Odomski	Antoni	48	abt 1835	n/a	85	Father	Antoni Odomski
Odomski	Antoni	45	abt 1838		124	Witness	Bronislawa Wojtys
Orzechowek	Tekla		n/a		169	Future Wife	Jan Kanty Zasucha	Pacanow Marriage Rec #16 for 28-Jan-1914
Paluch	Apolionia	0	21-Jan-1883	Pacanow	19	Baby	Apolionia Paluch
Paluch	Marianna		n/a		25	Future Wife	Roman Elijasz	Pacanow Marriage Rec #144 for 24-Nov-1913
Paluch	Walenty	27	abt 1856	n/a	19	Father	Apolionia Paluch
Piotrowska	Marianna	22	abt 1861	n/a	25	Mother	Roman Elijasz
Poniewirska	Anna		n/a		170	God Mother	Leopold Pytka
Poniewirska	Jozefa	40	abt 1843	n/a	85	Mother	Antoni Odomski
Pytczyka	Eleonora		n/a		25	God Mother	Roman Elijasz	Pykta?
Pytka	Andrziej	50	abt 1833		19	Witness	Apolionia Paluch
Pytka	Leopold	0	18-Oct-1883	Pacanow	170	Baby	Leopold Pytka
Pytka	Michal		n/a		10	God Father	Agnieszka Wojtys
Pytka	Tomasz	38	abt 1845		10	Witness	Agnieszka Wojtys
Pytka	Wladyslaw	23	abt 1860	n/a	170	Father	Leopold Pytka
Siwacz	Tomasz	46	abt 1837		169	Witness	Jan Kanty Zasucha	Siwiec?
Sliaska	Marianna	25	abt 1858		169	Mother	Jan Kanty Zasucha	Eliaszka?
Sowowa	Marianna	25	abt 1858	n/a	10	Mother	Agnieszka Wojtys
Strykarz	Jakob		n/a		19	God Father	Apolionia Paluch
Wieczorek	Antoni		n/a		111	God Father	Tekla Zdziebko
Wojtys	Agnieszka	0	13-Jan-1883	Pacanow	10	Baby	Agnieszka Wojtys
Wojtys	Aniela		n/a		124	God Mother	Bronislawa Wojtys
Wojtys	Antoni			n/a	85	Witness	Antoni Odomski
Wojtys	Bronislawa	0	31-Jul-1883	Pacanow	124	Baby	Bronislawa Wojtys
Wojtys	Jozef	50	abt 1833		19	Witness	Apolionia Paluch
Wojtys	Jozef	50	abt 1833		169	Witness	Jan Kanty Zasucha
Wojtys	Mateusz	45	abt 1838	n/a	10	Father	Agnieszka Wojtys
Wojtys	Tomasz	66	abt 1817		124	Father	Bronislawa Wojtys
Wtorka	Tomasz	60	abt 1823		186	Witness	Marianna Zasucha
Zagoczec	Elzbieta		n/a		111	God Mother	Tekla Zdziebko
Zasucha	Adam	26	abt 1857		169	Father	Jan Kanty Zasucha
Zasucha	Jan Kanty	0	19-Oct-1883	Pacanow	169	Baby	Jan Kanty Zasucha
Zasucha	Marianna	0	12-Nov-1883	Pacanow	186	Baby	Marianna Zasucha
Zasucha	Martin	23	abt 1860		186	Father	Marianna Zasucha
Zawada	Jan	60	abt 1823		111	Witness	Tekla Zdziebko
Zdziebko	Tekla	0	1-Jul-1883	Rataje	111	Baby	Tekla Zdziebko
Zdziebko	Wojciech	36	abt 1847	n/a	111	Father	Tekla Zdziebko
Zhigliczka	Katarzyna	20	abt 1863		186	Mother	Marianna Zasucha
Zhigliczkow	Teodor			n/a	85	Witness	Antoni Odomski