Stanczyk is always looking for information about his paternal 2nd-great-grandfather (prapradziadek), Marcin Eliasz or his great-grandfather Tomasz Leszczynski. So it is not a surprise that these two ancestors would top my list of 2019 genealogy goals. I would also like to find my aunt Alice Eliasz Stickney’s (Aleksandra Elijasz) birth record from Pacanow parish in 1909 or 1910. So those would be my heartfelt desires for my genealogical research.
So my best bet may be utilizing the AP in Kielce.
Now most people probably think of finding parish church metrical records or USC record in the archive and these are undoubtedly the most popular use of the online version of the archive (szukajwarchiwach.pl). Of course, at present, very little of the archive is actually online, beyond its metadata.
I clicked on the one in the red box. Oddly, the text appears to be Czech. It’s not Polish and Russian has no diacriticals. When I clicked, I got the details (shown below). I also highlighted some pertinent areas in red.
At the top, we see “21/145/0/-/1189” that is the full reference #, if you needed to request this from an archivist. I also highlighted the “1189” the last part as it is a kind of file #. I know the year is important for my research, hence the “1886”. I also knew that the # of pages (strony) of “26” would be important too. Finally, at the bottom, I pointed an arrow to the Polish text for the description (that I thought was Czech—).
You could translate the Czech or the Polish, but my understanding of Polish/Polish genealogy, led me to use that instead. So, I went to Google Translate and pasted the Polish (that I selected and copied – not shown).
Now it became really interesting to me. It appears to be about my great-great-grandfather(prapradziadek), Martin Eliasz who died in 1879 and who lived/died in Pacanow. Readers of this blog may remember, a blog article back a bit, where I found an historical newspaper account in “Gazeta Kielecka” from 1879 where my 2x great-grandfather was attacked by horse thieves and there was a mention of his father’s barn in the crime story.
So perhaps by emailing the archive, I will try to acquire the file, with its 26 pages to see if there is a bit of probate history on Marcin Eliasz (show above) and at least inquire about Aleksandra Elijasz (my aunt / ciotka), daughter of Jozef Elijasz & Waleria Leszczynska born in either 1909 or 1910.
Does anyone have any tips for bank wires or money transfers to the Polish Archives? If so please email or post a comment to this blog post. Dziękuję!
Good searches a Happy New Year 2019 / Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku 2019 r.
P.S.
Here are some other metadata that look interesting…
Investigation of Aniela and Kacper Pawłowski, Marianna Eliasz and Walenty Palucha with Antoni Wojtys for ownership of real estate in the village of Pacanów
The parishes on this map (large) are the predominant parishes that Stanczyk writes about. So If you ancestral villages are here or more generally in Kielce (Kieleckie) Gubernia / Wojewodztwo (now SwietoKrzyskie) then you can learn some useful information to help you in your genealogy research. Feel free to email questions too!
Parishes (partial list) / Parafia (Russian-Poland partition):
Stanczyk believes in persistence and serendipity when it comes to genealogical research. This jester believes a genealogical researcher makes his/her serendipity through that persistence, the bull-dogged determinism and hard work that yields the sweet fruit.
Oh and after a few years of experience THEN you may trust your instincts. First learn. Learn genealogical research. Learn your family including friends and geography; understand that social network then you play your hunches and trust your instincts in the face of scant or missing data.
As usual, I have a personal story to demonstrate what I mean. This small story is part of a larger story which is part of an even larger story. But I will start with small story and roll-up fractal-like into the larger fractal pictures (uh stories).
I was trying to find Stanislaw Krzyzycki (Stanisław Krzyżycki po polskiu), specifically his birth record in Poland in the area of my paternal grandparents (cluster genealogy / social-network-analysis). That was my goal. I had many US documents and knew a lot about Stanley and his brother Walter/Wladyslaw and their life in Niagara Falls / Buffalo NY. I also saw a soft connection to my grandparents and to a Stanley Eliasz that for years I suspected was a cousin of my grandfather Joseph Eliasz. But Stanley Eliasz and Stanley Krzyzycki remained opaque to me. I tucked them into a virtual shoe-box that I would return to. This is a part of the next larger story/goal.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in the old country, “Poland” I had a parallel situation. I had an Antoni Elijasz who was married to Katarzyna Krzyzycka. With the launch of Genbaza (metryki.genbaza.pl) I had new avenues of research to connect America to Poland. I had a couple of Elusive Stanley Eliasz/Elyasz to resolve.
Stanley Elyasz came to Detroit from Pacanów the same as my grandfather but there was no family memory of Stanley Elyasz. Stanley Eliasz in Buffalo was even more opaque. Eventually genbaza solved both puzzles. I knew Stanley Elyasz (Detroit) was the son of Marcin Elijasz & his 2nd of three wives, Agnieszka Skwara. I also knew that Marcin Elijasz and my great-grandfather Jozef Elijasz were brothers (two sons of Marcin Elijasz & Anna Zasucha my 2x-greatgrandparents). So I finally had Genealogical proof, not just a hunch that Stanley Elyasz was my grandfather’s first-cousin.
I also connected Stanley Eliasz to his parents, Antoni Elijasz/Katarzyna Krzyzycki and his sister, Helena through genbaza birth records. Antoni Elijasz was still opaque and as yet not drawn as a son of Marcin Elijasz/Anna Zasucha (though that is a long held hunch). So Stanley Eliasz (Buffalo) I could not yet confirm as another first-cousin to my grandfather. But I now know his parents.
Anyway, this small story is about Stanley Krzyzycki. For a long time I suspected my grandparent’s picture from 1913 was taken by a Krzyzycki in Buffalo/Niagara area. So any way the documents in the US led me to believe these NY Krzyzycki (Krzyzyckich ?) were related to Antoni’s wife, Katarzyna Krzyzycki. With the websites: Geneszukacz & Genbaza I was able to locate Krzyzycki in Pacanow & Szczebrzusz (try and get those American teeth & tongues around those Polish phonemes!!).
I found Ludwik Krzyzycki & Franciszka Sikora. Easily enough I found Stanley Krzyzycki’s brother, Walter/Wladyslaw and his birth record. I also found Aleksander Jan Krzyzycki too. But no Stanislaw. I did see a few possible female Krzyzyckich who could also be siblings too. But I focused on a marriage record for a Joanna Krzyzycka because I knew if she was a sister then she would be older and would be a bookend child (along with Wladyslaw) and I would expect Stanislaw to be born between these two children. So I persisted. I read Joanna’s marriage record and yes she was a sister of Stanley Krzyzycki. She also married a man whose family name I did not recognize. So I looked at Joanna’s husband and indeed he was born outside the parish (Pacanów). Now from long experience I knew there would be an alegata or two about Joanna & her husband (Antoni Bąk). I found that Joanna’s age indicated an 1880 birth. Ergo, she was older. I had my bookend child. What I did not expect to find was an Alegata of Joanna’s birth. Great I had her exact birthdate. But wait that meant Joanna was born elsewhere too, another parish besides Pacanow. Joanna was born in Zborówek! Zborówek is an adjoining parish to Pacanów.
Ok now its getting interesting. First, I confirm Joanna’s birth by finding her actual birth record (Akt42) in 1880 Zborówek. Good. Now I walk forward, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, …,bingo! In 1885, (April 12th 1885), I found Stanisław Krzyżycki and this date matches some of his US records too! Wow that is persistence! Oh and the serendipity of such persistence? It turns out that Stanisław Krzyzycki’s Godfather is Antoni Elijasz.
Wow, Stanley Eliasz & Stanley Krzyzycki are 1st cousins (not proven but a 75% likelihood by my estimate). So Katarzyna Krzyzycki & Ludwik Krzyzycki are siblings. Now I had proven a hard connection between Eliasz & Krzyzycki who came to America.
I also have Eliasz & Krzyzycki in:
Pacanów, Zborówek and Szczebrzusz.
This can lead to many new facts (with research):
Krzyzycki photographer took 1913 Eliasz photo in NY.
Antoni Elijasz is a brother of my 2nd greatgrandfather, Jozef Elijasz.
Stanley Eliasz (son of Antoni) is a cousin of Julian Elijasz (son of Ludwik Elijasz). I already know that their two wives are sisters from Pacanów. These two Janicki sisters are a sister and a cousin of my two Dorota Elijasz 2nd-cousins’ grandmothers!
So oddly enough I have connected Stanley Eliasz (Buffalo) to my family tree via the JANICKI affiliated family.
I have since found more Eliasz Godparents to Krzyzycki children. Thus the Eliasz-Krzyzycki connection was further strengthened.
But that is a part of the bigger next story and my connection to Nancy Langer. Well of course, today’s story is also part of Nancy’s story and it in fact grew out of her story and my long-term virtual shoe-box. It just turned out that both Julian & Stanley Eliasz were a part of Nancy’s family and I am her affiliated family! Or are we actually related? Her trip to Poland this summer may answer that question.
That is Stanczyk’s short (longish) story on persistence & serendipity. Go make some serendipity yourself.
Stanczyk has the instincts of an hard-boiled detective. Now this is not the story of forensic genealogy. Nor am I infringing on Tim Firkowski (Genealogy Assistant / Family History Detective). I guess my hard-boiled detective work stems from my reading Michael Chabon right now.
No I am investigating / researching an affiliated family of my ELIASZ /ELIJASZ ancestors: the ZASUCHA. You see, Anna Zasucha, is my 2nd-great-grandmother and wife of Marcin/Martin Eliasz. She is a part of my direct DNA. Like in DNA, the ZASUCHA are a genetic marker for my Eliasz family of village Pacanów. Hence, my curiosity.
Now for a while this jester has noticed the Zasucha were engaged in some chain-migration genealogy involving many families from Pacanów to the USA, including among others, my Eliasz family.
So I find Zasucha in many of the same locales as my Eliasz:
Buffalo, Syracuse, Niagara Falls, Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit.
But there was NO family memory of ZASUCHA among my direct Eliasz family. Indeed, nobody knew Anna Zasucha was our 2nd-great-grandmother.
But I notice things and patterns and I have employed SNA (Social Network Analysis), aka as cluster genealogy before and made breakthroughs in finding out more about my direct lineage by studying these genetic markers (affiliated families) as they immigrated to the USA in a chain-migration fashion. Whole branches have been discovered. I would welcome geneslogists with:
Kędzierski/Kendzierski, Pieszczachowicz, Fras/Frass, Hajek, Zwolski, and Zasucha (all affiliated to Eliasz/Pacanów or Leszczyński/Biechów).
You will be happy I have connected back your families to those two ancestral parishes(Biechów and Pacanów) whence my paternal grandparents originated from. Indeed, I have found many 2nd/3rd and further distant cousin-genealogists via this blog’s research. However, I am still waiting on a Zasucha genealogist.
So this blog is about a lovely couple: Feliks Zasucha & Antonina Łuszcz Zasucha (both from Pacanów).
I want to end this blog with the Zasucha in my tree and pick up in the next blog article with my struggles to find data on Feliks & Antonina.
Stanczyk has been reading the 1908 Marriages of Pacanow in order to build a spreadsheet/index of the newlyweds. There are some findings from this very preliminary set of data (1st year of data). First the men are noticeably older than the women. Men are often widowers ( and very much more so than the women). The men also frequently come from another parish. Now I collected that statistic for two reasons: (1) There will be an alegata record to document this cross-parish marriage (2) So you can find the groom’s birth record (since it will not be in Pacanow). I was surprised at how often the bride had come from another parish too. This data also confirms that the marriage is performed in the bride’s parish and its place is listed as the bride’s (current) village. I did find that one mother was an ELIJASZ so once again, this is an affirmation that social network analysis (SNA) can yield helpful results. In fact, I am hoping to use do a full scale SNA on Pacanow some day (1875-1908).
The spreadsheet is available to the public (and if genealodzy.pl wants it for its indexes of Geneteka/Geneszukacz then you have my permission/blessing). The spreadsheet is HERE (PDF) .
P.S. – One of the things I have learned is that the online indexes I have seen are incomplete (not missing). What I mean is that I have recently found data that was not present in an index that existed and I was puzzled by the omission.
Stanczyk is stuck on Pacanow. So I thought I would collect the metric statistics for all events (Births/Marriages/Deaths — Ur./Mal./Zg.) and individuals from the marriages.
— sample data collected:
On marriages, I wanted to figure out how many times a person was from outside the parish. On all events, I wanted to know how many of each per year and the totals, plus the net growth (Births-Deaths) of Pacanow population (catholic).
I also hope that someone from Poland a genealogist or a resident of Pacanow or an archivist can answer one question: Is there any existing metric data for Pacanow before 1875? It would also be nice to know why, if there is no data or where if there is data.
A neighboring parish, Biechow (my grandmother’s parish), has the same data available online from the National Archive (AP), but has data from late 17th century (w.) up to about 1850 (from Diocesan Archive – AD). Again why is there a gap between 1850 and 1875 in Biechow in the AD/AP data? Why is there no record of Pacanow data in the Diocesan Archive (AD)?
Yesterday, Stanczyk wrote about an email from Poland. Well I guess Grandmother’s / Grandfather’s day caused Polish genealogists to go web surfing in America. This jester received a message from Rzeszów (Teresa B.).
We traded messages and while we had family names in common from Biechów and Pacanów it was a near miss … nobody in common. But Teresa did mention that the gmina Pacanów website did have some nice pictures.
This Pacanów cemetery image had another angle of Jozef Wleciał’s tombstone (notice lower right corner) picture from yesterday’s blog.
Stanczyk received an email from the old country … Poland. It was from a distant cousin who only spoke/wrote in Polish. Aleksandra, wrote in enough detail that I could place her family in my family tree. She was most appreciative of my research and thankful that she could ask someone about her Wleciał family in America. She was very kind and shared some photos … (see below).
What made this a special email for me was that Aleksandra had been born in Pacanów, my paternal grandfather’s home village. Sadly, she no longer lived there. Besides the connection to Pacanów, she shared her family photos from the cemetery in Pacanów (which I assume is the church graveyard). This jester has long wanted to return to the ancestral village and see the parish and its graveyard and with some hope, the parish books. But something about seeing the church graveyard in my grandfather’s birthplace touched me very deeply and deepened the longing to see with my own eyes, Pacanów.
I emailed back to Aleksandra and I hope to get some more emails back. I sent her what she was looking for in terms of her Wleciał family in America. What I am hoping for from Aleksandra is to see if she has any photos of her grandparents, one of which is Katarzyna Elijasz (daughter of Marcin Elijasz & Anna Zasucha). Katarzyna Elijasz is my great-great-aunt, born about 1866 in Pacanów. She married Maciej Wleciał on 19-October-1890 in Pacanów. This was according to Akt#38, of Pacanów 1890 Marriages. Katarzyna was 24 at the time of her marriage, implying a birth about 1866.
At any rate, here are the photos from “Pacanów cemetery” that Aleksandra sent. This jester does not know all of the people, but the image of Jozef Wleciał ‘s (Katarzyna’s son) grave was beautiful.
Jacob Eliasz married Susanna Parszenska on 4-October-1797 in Swiniary
Stanczyk’s direct paternal lineage goes through Pacanow, SwietoKrzyskie, Poland [powiat Buski, gmina Pacanow]. Today there numbers about 1275 people [source:mapa.szukaj.pl]. Its parish, located in Pacanow is Sw. Marcin. The church has been honored as a basilica, by the Vatican. This region has been part of a few wojewodztwa, In the LDS Microfilm its located under Kielce wojewodztwo/gubernia with its records 1875-1905 written in Russian that means it was last in the Russian partition of Poland. Its records from the AP can be found online at GenBaza:
So we have: C. Michael Eliasz-Solomon->Chester S. Eliasz->Joseph Eliasz->Jozef Elijasz->Marcin Eliasz (b. about 1819). So this blogger’s great-great-grandfather is Marcin Eliasz (aka Elijasz) born about 1819, as deduced from his death record in 1879 Pacanow [Akt #60]. So 1819 (or probably a bit earlier than that) is the oldest known direct ancestor from Pacanow. There are a few other lines that go back that far but they are not my direct line, nor even properly connected to our branch.
But recently while going through Swiniary parish, nearby to Pacanow, I found a marriage record from 1797 ! The groom was Jakob Eliasz age 40, from Pacanow (and House #1 too). Jakob was a widower. His age of 40 implies a birth year of about 1757. The birthplace is unknown for certain but it could have been Pacanow. His bride was Zuzanna Paszenska age 23, a maiden (her 1st marriage) and she lived in Oblekon village in Swiniary parish. The two witnesses were Franciszek Zyglicki [an affiliated family name] and the Economa of Huta Oblekon, Grzegorz Ciescelski. Ok, I cannot say with certainty that Jakob was in Pacanow from 1757, but DEFINITELY he lived in house #1 of Pacanow in 1797 as a widower.
1797 Context
During these days (Jakub & Zuzanna), the history of Pacanow, it was after the third partition of Poland in January 1796. From every pulpit announced these areas were a part of the Austrian Emperor, Franz II ‘s empire. In this way Pacanow became part of the district of Stopnica [source: http://pacanow.pl/page.php?kat=2&main=2&id=2 ].
Later, Pacanow was a part of the Duchy of Warsaw during Napoleon’s era until June 1815. Afterwards, the Congress of Vienna ceded the area to become part of the Polish Kingdom (aka Congress Poland) and part of the Russian Empire.
Earliest History
Pacanów was first mentioned in a church document from 1110 – 1117, issued by the Bishop of Kraków Maur, in which construction of St. Martin church was confirmed. At that time, the village probably belonged to a man named Siemian, who was also mentioned in the document. The existence of the parish church was confirmed on August 1219 by Bishop of Kraków Iwo Odrowąż .
In 1265, the village was granted Magdeburg rights by Prince Bolesław V, the Chaste. In the same period, a number of other local villages were also granted town charters (Połaniec, Nowy Korczyn, Koprzywnica and Opatowiec). The original charter of Pacanów has not been preserved, but in a document issued on February 26, 1603, King Zygmunt III Waza stated that Pacanow had been incorporated as a town in 1265.
Jakub & Zuzanna Eliasz
Past experience has shown that house #1 is usually the nearest to the church and sometimes denotes a person of some means. So perhaps 40 years old Jakob was a “catch” for the 23 year old Zuzanna. Perhaps my direct lineage run through Jakob and Zuzanna. But, what is certain is they are earliest documented ELIASZ [Eliaszow] in Pacanow. Now can I find some distant cousin who is descended from Jakob & Zuzanna?
Stanczyk is busy with holiday chores, including wishing you, my dear readers a Happy Holidays & a Happy, Healthy New Year too. As most regular readers know, I spend a lot of my time writing about genealogy with a focus on Polish genealogy and in particular in the geographical areas surrounding my paternal grandparent’s ancestral villages (Biechow & Pacanow in old wojewodztwa Kieleckie, now a part of SwietoKrzyskie woj.). Like most areas in and around Eastern /Central Europe the borders change … frequently. So today’s blog article is about 1772 just before the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned amongst the neighboring empires (you know who you are/were, you Black Eagle Empires).
It is interesting to note that Pacanow was a much more important regional village in 1772. It was in fact, a deaconate, subordinate to the diocese of Krakow in the Gniezno Wojewodztwa. At that time, there were only two Wojewodztwo (Provinces): Gniezno in the west and Lwow (Lviv, Lemberg, Leopolis, the city of Lions in whatever language) in the east. Any other wojewodztwo were in the Lithuanian portion of the Commonwealth. So the civil/religious hierarchy of the time was: Poland->Gniezno->Krakow->Pacanow, which along with Opatowiec deaconate contained most of the villages this author writes about [you might be tempted to toss in Polaniec and Sandomierz too]. That area is shown in the map at the top. I do a lot of research for my family in the above map, west of Polaniec and south of Pinczow (the lower/left quadrant) in almost every parish north of the Vistula (Wisla) river I have located a record for someone in my family tree — you might say, the bones of Stanczyk’s DNA are rooted here.
So let me enumerate the parishes from this 1772 map that are present in my genealogy:
Biechow & Pacanow (grandparents), Stopnica, Ksziaznice, Zborowek, Swiniary, Olesnica, Szczebrzusz, Beszowa, Opatowiec, Busko and probably another 8-9 other villages with a person here or there. I think Solec too, but I have not found that record yet. I also a few stray, unconnected family records from Szczucin (the only parish south of the Vistula … so far). Are these in your bones too? Drop me a line in the New Year and we can compare family trees.
By the way, this research is from the PGSA’s CD-ROM, “The Latin Church in the Polish Commonwealth in 1772” [ISBN – 978-0-924207-12-9 ].
Today, Stanczyk was surfing the Internet when I came upon a map from 1772. This map was just as the first partition of Poland had occurred. This segment of the map was part of a PDF document from:
Entitled: “Map of Poland: Outlining Its Provinces and Voivodeships, 1772“. The document if 40.5MB and is 59 pages (about half of whom are blank pages). In 1772 the map segment shown above was in Sandomierskie wojewodztwo/voivodeship. The map is a bit blurry/grainy, so I had to annotate the section to show Pacanow and Szczucin and the river Vistula/Wisla between them. This segment is from the upper left of page 43 of the PDF.
This map encompasses a large part of the area that blogs emphasizes from my genealogical research in the Russian-Poland partition (zabor). The area north of the Vistula will become part of the Russian Gubernia Kielce. The area below the Vistula becomes part of the Austrian-Partition, known as Galicia.
Knowing the geography of your ancestral villages (in my case Pacanow) can aid you in your genealogical research by identifying the civil administrative hierarchy that records the births, marriages, and deaths of the people. It can also help to locate parishes and in planning a proximity search for adjoining parishes that may also have records of your ancestors. So knowing the maps/geography can help the researcher locate data and the skilled use of Gazetteers can get you to your ancestral parish or parishes. Maps also show the changing borders over time and how the civil administrative hierarchies change over time.
A good genealogist will also be good at geography (as well as many other skills) in order to locate and read records of your family’s history.
This is the family tree in question via your email. I have Stanislaw’s birth record from the Church in Pacanow, Kielce Gubernia, Poland (Russian-Poland) from 18-APRIL-1890, it was Akt #59 (Record #59).
In that record we see both Parent’s names & ages: Jozef Hajek, age 55, Maryanna Piotrowska age 21 and that they live in Pacanow.
We also get the God Parents: Antoni Poniewierksi & Wiktoria Pawlowska
The Poniewierski family is a VERY strongly affiliated family with the ELIASZ (aka Elijasz) family.
I also have Jozef Hajek’s death record too. He died 26-APRIL-1908 (age about age 72) and it lists his wife’s name: Maryanna Piotrowska — to confirm it is him. It also listed HIS parents (Stanislaw’s grandparents): Teodor & Katarzyna Hajek. Jozef was born in either 1835 or 1836 when we factor Stanislaw’s birth record and Jozef’s death record together.
I wanted to mention that even though this is Poland, it is the Russian partition in 1890 & 1908. Hence the records are written in Russian/Cyrillic. You can trust my translations. But I wanted to include two more pictures for you. The first picture shows you what HAJEK looks like in Cyrillic (also ‘Stanislaw’ and ‘Pacanow’ too). It is from Stanislaw’s birth record. The other picture is a margin note from Stanislaw’s birth that indicates he got married to an Agnieszka Elijasz August 25, 1913 in CLEVELAND, St. [Cm — in Cyrillic] Ohio [also some note about it being recored in Pacanow parish as Akt #151 on 31-December-1913]. So I am uncertain as to whether they had a 2nd marriage ceremony in Pacanow or not. I think so, since it is recorded as Akt #151, which indicates that the event took place and was recorded in the parish register.
#59 – Hajek – Stanislaw – Pacanow
Marriage Note in the Margin – Kleve- land St. Ohio
Yesterday, Stanczyk wrote about Tomasz and I provided an updated timeline of Tomasz Leszczynski throughout much of his 104 year lifespan. Today, I wanted to write a quick post about the affiliated families to the LESZCZYNSKI line.
If you have these surnames from the villages found below, then we need to compare research notes:
Surnames …
Kordos, Majer/Major, Ozarowicz, Fras/Frass, Sieradzki, Slawinski, Pieszczochowicz/Pierzchowicz, Mikniewicz plus friends — Woloszyn, Stanek, Pawelec, Fortuna and especially MIZDRAK.
I mention Mizdrak, because a Jozef Mizdrak, born 5-FEB-1834 in Wojcza, Biechow parish. Seemed to be a part of the LESZCZYNSKI family records from 1860 through the death of Julianna Kordos Leszczynski in Pacanow, 27-NOV-1881 in Biechow parish. 47 years in the Leszczynski records in Poland.
Stanczyk’s great-grandfather, Tomasz — Tomasz Leszczyński – de Biechów was an Innkeeper, a Shoemaker, and Bourgeois Farmer and these were just his listed occupations in the church records from Biechów, Pacanów, Stopnica. There is also a good bit of family lore surrounding Tomasz as well. For example, Tomasz lived to be 104 years old, he had two wives and 15 children via these two wives spanning 45 years of reproductive life — so indeed Tomasz was a productive and prolific man.
But it is the things about Tomasz that this jester does not know that obsess me. For example, I do not know Tomasz’s first marriage details. I wish I did then I would know with certainty his parents’ names. Or if I knew his birth details I could know his parents’ names and then locate his siblings, if any. I also need his death details too. At least then I would have an anchor point for his 104 year span of life then and that would lend me more info for deciding between various Tomasz contenders. The solace I have, is that 15 births of children and some children’s deaths too have provided me with many data points with which to make inferences. Even the two spouses’ births and deaths have provided data points.
So this jester is in the midst of performing a detailed SNA (social network analysis) also known as “cluster genealogy” of these data points. I will produce that and write about my findings here when it is complete. At the UPGS conference, I was able to do research in a new village Wolica and I located a birth record for a Tomasz Leszczyński that fits data points. That led me to another village named Dzieraznia and yet another possible generation. At present I am only about 75-80% confident that I have the correct Tomasz, hence the SNA study. There is much work to do, but I have updated my Tomasz Leszczynski Timeline with many finds over the past couple years, including the finds from GenBaza.pl just this year when I located my paternal grandmother’s birth record! This grandmother of mine (Walerya) was Tomasz’s eldest child by his second wife Aniela Majer (aka Major)
Stanczyk has been a bit busy this past week with Oracle 12c (database) ! So forgive me if I play a bit of catch-up on my genealogy.
I have analyzed the data from GENEALODZY.PL in their GENESZUKACZ database for Pacanów Births (1875-1908). So now I need some help (pomoc). In my notes column I have noted the ELIASZ that I have in my family -or- my guess. The empty notes fields are ELIASZ that I need help with. If you are a genealogist with these people in your family tree then please email me your info and if possible any images of church records or family photos.
#
Year
/ Rok
Rec#
/ Akt
Imię
Nazwisko
NOTES
1
1875
110
Wacław
Eliasz
in my tree; son of Wojciech Eliasz & Agnieszka Pyszkow; [image]
2
1876
109
Marianna
Eliasz
daughter of Ludwik & Elz. Miklaszewski
3
1878
59
Katarzyna
Eliasz
4
1879
20
Roman
Eliasz
son of Ludwik & Elz. Miklaszewski
5
1880
52
Jan
Eliasz
son of Jozef Eliasz & Petronella Zwolski
6
1880
160
Jan
Eliasz
My grand-uncle Jan; son of Jozef Eliasz & Marianna Paluch
7
1881
28
Jan
Eliasz
Martin Eliasz’s (& Julianna Odomski) son
8
1881
30
Julianna
Eliasz
9
1881
130
Tomasz
Eliasz
son of Ludwik & Elz. Miklaszewski
10
1882
128
Wincenty
Eliasz
son of Jozef Eliasz & Petronella Zwolski
11
1882
157
Marianna
Eliasz
Martin’s (Julianna Odomski) daughter
12
1882
185
Katarzyna
Eliasz
A Grand-Aunt
13
1883
25
Roman
Eliasz
14
1884
33
Apolonia
Eliasz
Martin’s daughter
15
1884
71
Marianna
Eliasz
16
1885
46
Józef
Eliasz
My Grandfather; Have Birth Record
17
1885
125
Marianna
Eliasz
18
1886
189
Jan
Eliasz
19
1886
238
Szczepan
Eliasz
20
1888
104
Julianna
Eliasz
A Grand-Aunt
21
1888
123
Teofila
Eliasz
22
1889
71
Józefa
Eliasz
23
1889
109
Antoni
Eliasz
??possibly son of Ludwik & Elzbieta M.
24
1890
24
Katarzyna
Eliasz
25
1890
149
Marianna
Eliasz
26
1890
181
Stanisław
Eliasz
Martin’s son, dies in Detroit (Stanislaw Elyasz in October 1923)
27
1891
186
Stanisław
Eliasz
28
1891
190
Franciszka
Eliasz
29
1892
68
Wincenty
Eliasz
30
1892
83
Władysław
Eliasz
My Grand-Uncle
31
1892
206
Marianna
Eliasz
32
1893
143
Anna
Eliasz
33
1893
237
Marianna
Eliasz
34
1893
261
Agnieszka
Eliasz
??? Agnieszka Marianna E. that marries S. Hajek (Cleveland) ???
35
1895
30
Marianna
Eliasz
36
1895
230
Tomasz
Eliasz
My Grand-Uncle (Dorota’s grandfather); Have birth record
37
1896
164
Wacław
Eliasz
38
1897
8
Julianna
Eliasz
39
1897
236
Julianna
Eliasz
A Grand-Aunt
40
1898
103
Anna
Eliasz
41
1899
63
Balbina
Eliasz
42
1899
79
Zygmunt
Eliasz
??? Zygmunt Elijasz son Jozef E. & Theresa Siwiec??? PROBABLY not since Zygmunt was born in Biechow in 1898 (April 19)
43
1899
185
Aleksander
Eliasz
44
1900
163
Julianna
Eliasz
45
1901
84
Marcin
Eliasz
46
1901
100
Anna
Eliasz
47
1901
161
Marianna
Eliasz
48
1901
164
Martin
Eliasz
49
1903
95
Stanisława
Eliasz
one of these three is Emilja daughter of Jan/Pelagia
50
1903
112
Helena
Eliasz
one of these three is Emilja daughter of Jan/Pelagia
51
1903
175
Janina
Eliasz
one of these three is Emilja daughter of Jan/Pelagia
Let me point out that in June the Polish Archive completed their latest update on: ♥ http://szukajwarchiwach.pl/ .
Unfortunately, it did not include anything from the old wojewodztwo: Kielce (now in SwietoKrzyskie). See the image of the drop down menu below (not full listing but to give you an idea on what is in and how that is somewhat limited for researchers like Stanczyk. I hope another phase will commence soon!
Meanwhile on:
♥ genealodzy.pl – They added the death records from 1875-1908 for Pacanow parish to their Geneszukach database. Previously they had added the Birth and Marriage records. These are transcription / indexes, not actual church record images such as you find in their Metryki database.
Still I have found dozens of Eliasz (and … Gawlik, Gronek, Hajek, Kedzierski, Leszczynski, Major, Paluch, Wlecial, Zasucha, etc.) that I was previously unaware of. Now I will need to get the actual images in order to make sense of these indexes and the new people in order to add them to the family tree.
Happy Birthday Matolek, sto lat. Koziolek Matolek (Matolek the Billy-goat) was born in 1933. You might say he put Pacanow “on the map”. You see Matolek wanted to go to Pacanow because he heard that you could get good (goat) shoes in Pacanow.
Now this charming character has always had a special place in Stanczyk’s heart, because my great-grandfather, Tomasz Leszczynski was a shoe-maker (szewc) / inn keeper. So perhaps Matolek would have bought his shoes from my great-grandfather. Did he ever find Pacanow? I do not know.
Well, it is now 80 years later and Pacanow is celebrating this cult-favorite May 31st – June 2 this year! Their program can be found here . Like Matolek, I too have been trying to get to Pacanow.
Stanczyk, has been sifting through the Index created on genealodzy.pl in their Geneszukacz database. Alright, only the Births Index, so far.
I see they have a total of nearly 7,300 people from those years (1875-1908) in their Birth Index. From Adam … Żyp . There were 58 ELIASZ in their index.Notice they used ELIASZ and not ELIJASZ. I found that interesting. They removed ‘J’ when they produced the index. Was that an error? Or was the indexer an expert? Because, in my heart of hearts, I believe the name (at least back to 1690) was ELIASZ.
It was only since 1869 when the Russian Empire forced Poland to keep records in Russian (Cyrillic) that the ‘J’ appeared from the Russian character ‘я’ (Ya) that ELIASZ became элияшъ . элияшъ is transliterated in a Latin alphabet as ‘Elijasz’.
I only wanted to mention this as while I believe the translated properly produced the index with respect to ELIASZ; You will need to realize that finding the record in Russian/Cyrillic, you will need to look for a different translation (i.e. ELIJASZ/элияшъ) in the indexes and the actual church records.
So now I have an index of ELIASZ born in Pacanow in the years 1875-1908. Now what? I compared the list of 58 with what I already had/knew. I saw an overlap of 22 people. So I have 36 new ELIASZ to resolve and add into the family tree. My options are:
Write to Pacanow parish and request specific records (since I have year, Akt#),
Write to Polish National Archive (again with detailed info),
Hire a genealogist in Poland,
Go on a genealogical tour to Poland.
The year range 1875-1908 is not completely in LDS microfilm. Although 1875-1884 is in LDS MF #’s:
So doing research in a local Family History Center or at the Family History Library (Salt Lake) is not an option for the remaining 36. So I now have better options for remote research.
On http://genealodzy.pl/ Stanczyk saw that they have an updated GENESZUKACZ database.
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 always loves finding something unusual or unexpected. I guess that is just my eternal boyish wonder of finding/unearthing a treasure. Immigration or the diaspora of Polish citizens about the globe holds a fascination for me. It is a difficult puzzle to solve for your own ancestors. So if I unexpectedly find something else in an unexpected place for another Polish genealogist then I feel compelled to post it in my blog.
Dateline – 22 September, 1954 – Birchgrove, New South Wales, Australia. As a fluke while researching some cholera pandemics, I decided to see if there was any news in this Historical Australian Newspaper website from the Biechow/Pacanow area. To my wonder, I spied a hidden jewel in these far away shores. Up popped, an “advertisement”. Shoot, I was hoping for something historical, not something mercantile. Oh well, lets just see what these Aussies have about Pacanow, shall we?
What did I find? No it was not for me (although it is an affiliated family, so who knows). Click on the image if you wish to follow along … (transcription follows):
I, JOZEF PIOTROWSKI, born in Pacanow, Poland, resident 5 years in Australia, now residing at 39 Wharf Rd. Birchgrove. N.S.W.. Intend to apply for Naturalisation under the Nationality and Citzenship[sic] Act, 1948-1953.
Well, Well, an affiliated family member from my ancestral village (Pacanow) declaring his intention to become a citizen of Australia (NSW=New South Wales state) post World War II.
банас = BANAS . The first set of characters(банас) is the RUSSIAN written in CYRILLIC characters. Look at the name in the RED Boxes in the image. This is a marriage record (#9 from 1869 in STASZOW powiat of old wojewodztwo Kielce/Kieleckie):
From the METRYK project on the PTG website (genealodzy.pl). You need to know how BANAS/банас looks in Indexes so that you can find your family records. Archaic Russian Cyrillic handwriting is difficult to read. The Russians reformed the CYRLLIC character set in 1918, so they no longer write Russian like you see in these church records — so Russian Language experts may struggle a bit. I taught myself to read Russian from the Hoffman/Shea book, I am far from fluent in Russian, but I have mastered enough Russian to read genealogy records (with their limited vocabulary). You can too!
I wanted to mention that you see Janem Banasiem (Latin for the Polish name Jan Banas ) following the Russian version of that name. That and the ‘Maryanna Glibowna’ are the only little bits written in the Latin alphabet, the rest are written in Russian, using the CYRILLIC character set.
As you may or may not know the ‘-owna’ ending on Maryanna’s name indicates she is an unmarried maiden. So her name is really Maryanna GLIB (not GLIBOWNA). The ‘owna’ ending is a grammatical construct. OWNA (single woman) – OWA (married woman) -KICH or -OW (family name plural).
In my family:
ELIJASZ (a man), ELIJASZOWNA (an umarried woman), ELIJASZOWA (a married woman), ELIJASZOW (the ELIJASZ family). I record the name as ELIJASZ in the family tree. Actually, my family name has evolved a bit so I find it as: ELIASZ or ELIJASZ or ELJASZ or HELIASZ . Sometimes a priest will leave off the ‘Z’.
I do not think the BANAS name will show such variation, but you never know. I could imagine finding a BANAC or BANASZ too. In practice, I have always seen your name written as:
One of the difficulties of locating records or data on a Polish (or Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, etc.) ancestor is the many ways a name can be spelled, misspelled, mistranscribed, indexed, etc. in a database. This is why you have to be creative when trying to locate your data.
Here is an example (from my paternal grandfather’s birthplace): Pacanow. That is the English rendering. In Poland it would be written as Pacanów. Now diacriticals aside, how many possible ways can I find Pacanow in Ellis Island (probably similarly for Ancestry.com as well)? OK, you asked …
Bacanow
Pacanszka
Pacanam
Pacanu
Pacanan
Pacauow
Pacananska
Pacona
Pacanaw
Paconon
Pacanciv
Paconow
Pacani
Pacunow
Pacanica
Paczanow
Pacanin
Pacznow
Pacannon
Paeanow
Pacanoer
Paezanov
Pacanon
Paezanov
Pacanoro
Paezanow
Pacanoska
Pasanov
Pacanou
Pasanow
Pacanov
Pasonaw
Pacanow
Pazanoz
Pacanowa
Pocanaer
Pacanowe
Pocaniz
Pacanowic
Pocanoa
Pacanowka
Pocanor
Pacanowka
Pocanow
Pacanowki
Preanon
Pacanowo
Those are the ones I have found so far. That is 47 combinations! Now admittedly reading the handwriting from those ship manifests is difficult even when I am pretty sure what is being written; So I can feel for the transcribers / indexers who harvest the data and do the data entry into some database.
Now, no searching by American Soundex, Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex, or evenBeider-Morse phonetic matching or even using wild-card searches, not even if you had regular-expression searches (like Oracle databases have) would I have found all of those. I do not know what to tell you to do. Be creative and persistent. Look at adjacent letters on a keyboard (for mis-typings) as data is entered. Look for letters that are swapped (i.e. Eliasz vs. Elaisz) — mistyped or dyslexic. Just keep looking. I found ‘Bacanow’, because I said what might an handwritten letter ‘P’ look like to somebody? Of course, ‘R’ and ‘B’ suggested themselves to my mind. No ‘Racanow’, but sure enough out popped a ‘Bacanow’. So you never know.
Now Stanczyk mentioned Pacanow, because I thought I was being slick and said, “What if I cannot think of all the ways a NAME can be misspelled?”. My answer was, “I know, I’ll just search on everybody coming over from the village of P-A-C-A-N-O-W.” Of course, as you might have guessed now I had a meta-problem because now I had to come up with all of the ways that Pacanow could appear. Well like the riddle, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop?”, I have an arbitrary answer … 47.
P.S.
I now have two spreadsheets. My first spreadsheet is my work-in-progress on the ZASUCHA of Niagara Falls SNA. The second spreadsheet I have is a rather large spreadsheet of all of the names from Pacanow (and truth be told Biechow, Piestrzec, Wojcza, …) and all of the surrounding villages that came through Ellis Island that I have found so far [plus a few mis-matches].
Two days ago, Stanczyk wrote about SNA/Cluster Genealogy and FultonHistory.com. So today I wanted to wrap-up some loose (odds and) ends. Its all about the Zasucha and that is my focus. But I must digress for one minute …
Historic Newspapers
I mentioned Tom Tryniski, the owner of FultonHistory.com whose Herculean efforts provides us with 21.8 Million pages to search through. Today, I wanted to extend to Tom, the offer to correspond (click on the Post Missive picture on this blog page). I have been an Historical Newspaper fan ever since I found my grandparents and the birth of my uncle mentioned in Dziennik Polski (Detroit). So I am hoping for a discussion on what Roots Tech he uses to maintain his website. Stanczyk after all is a STEM worker and loves IT (that is Information Technology, not ‘it’). That is my offer – an interchange of ideas and perhaps a blog article. Tom, if you are looking for ideas on Newspapers to scan (in the NY region), how about the Buffalo area newspaper: Dziennik dla Wszystkich (= Everybody’s Daily). Come on help this Polish jester out! Just a reminder, the Library of Congress ‘s Chronicling America projects lists about 220 Polish language, Historical Newspapers [Polskie Gazety językowe] (that it has holdings of?).
Zasucha
The last blog post listed four ZASUCHA families:
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
Those were Niagara Falls Zasuchas. When I queried Ancestry Public Family Trees, I found another Zasucha family in the USA for the same timeframe:
Wojciech (aka Albert in USA, husband of Urszula) – Tomasz (aka Toma) and Tekla
These were Albion (Calhoun County, Michigan) Zasucha. If the owner of Brubaker and Zasucha Family Tree (silverandsienna) would like to compare notes on these Zasucha and/or Pacanow, then please by all means email me or comment on this blog post.
All of the above Zasucha are of interest to me because:
They all came from Pacanow (where my grandfather was born)
My great-great-grandmother was Anna Zasucha, wife of Martin Eliasz (of Pacanow)
Karol & Feliks sons of Adam lived at 235 11th Street in Niagara Falls
My grand-aunt Mary and grand-uncle John lived at 235 11th street in Niagara Falls
Now besides the Zasucha, I also found the following affiliated families living at 235 11th Street:
Adam Ziglicki, Josef Ziglicki, and (Filip Kulczyki brother-in-law of Adam Ziglicki).
The Ziglickich are intermarried to Eliaszow/Elijaszow in Pacanow (hence an affiliated family).
Finally, there was a Rozalia Zasucha last residence Samsonow, coming from her mother, J. Zasucha living in Komorow to her brother-in-law Wawrz. Berusad(sp?) at 239 11th street in Niagara Falls on 7/1/1913 (SS Gothland). Now Komorow is a village in Pacanow parish. Samsonow is also related to my family tree as a residence for some Kedzierski related to my grand-uncle John’s wife, Pelagia. There is also a Feliks Zasucha at 239 11th street (who was son of Adam, going to brother Michal) at 239 11th street. So I am thinking I am going to add Rozalia to the Adam children [Michal, John, Karol, Marya, and Feliks] which are very connected to my ELIASZ family.
I am now guessing that Wawrz. (short for Wawrzeniec = Lawrence = Lawrenty) perhaps married Marya Zasucha (a theory I will need to test and verify).
So … any Zasucha out there? Particularly, the children of Adam [Michal, John, Karol, Marya, Feliks and now Rozalia] Zasucha. Let’s trade missives. The Social Network Analysis is trending towards a deeply connected family tree.
One very final aside …
Two other ELIASZ surfaced in this SNA research. Tomasz Eliasz (b. 6 September 1881 in Pacanow) son of Ludwik Elijasz. There was also a Stanley Eliasz (I believe a theater owner in Buffalo) who I believe was a cousin to my grandfather, but not the cousin that came to Detroit (aka Stanley Elyasz) who was the son a Martin Elijasz and Julianna Odomski. Tomasz was a 1st cousin twice removed and is in the family tree. I am aware of Stanley Eliasz (Buffalo theater owner) and his family, but as yet I have not been able to connect him to my tree. I think Stanley is also fairly closely related to our Detroit/Pacanow Eliasz family. It was interesting to see him turn up in the SNA (via City Directories).
SNA seems to find some very interesting and unknown familial relationships. At the very least it provides the fodder for future research to break through those genealogical “brick walls”. Please drop me a missive and let me know if you are using this technique and what successes you have had.
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.
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:
Jozef Elijasz– Inferring unknown siblings from known siblings. A series of 3 articles.
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.
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).
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:
What Catholic Church did Father Kolaszewski represent in 1884?
Can someone get access to Cleveland Catholic diocesan records for September 1884 and get a copy of the church record of this marriage?
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.
Do I have your attention genealogists? One seventh of the world’s population is on Facebook – perhaps your 2nd and 3rd 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 2nd 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, “2nd 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 2nd/3rd cousins are trying to Google their family trees. Stanczyk has personally located two 2nd cousins and one 3rd cousin via the blog. One 2nd 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!
I have been trying to do research in Pacanow but have not been very successful. My Grandmother — Maryanna Kuc(z) is from Oblekon. I wrote to the parish there — Parafia p.w. Najswietszej Maryi Panny Krolowej Swiata but never received a reply. Perhaps they just couldn’t find any information.
My Grandmother: Maryanna Kuc(z)
Born: March 15, 1886
Baptized March 25, 1887
Immigrated to USA: September 1912
Father: Benedict Ku(z)
Mother’s first name: Marianna
She had a sister Eva (born 1895)
& a brother Jozef (born 1893) both came to America.
I think she had other siblings but have not been able to find any records from Poland at all i.e. Marriage of parents, birth or baptisms or death of her parents. I know her father was alive in 1912 when she came to America.
If you can help or shed any light on how I could obtain the information I am seeking, I would be extremely grateful.
Keep up the excellent work on your blog.
Thank you for any information in can provide and Thank you for your blog, I learn a lot from it.
Barbara
I had told Barbara that I would search the Swiniary indexes that I have pictures of to see if I could find anything for her. When I searched my indexes, I found that her family name is spelled most as she had it: Kucz, but I did find one example where the priest wrote Kuć. There was also another family Kuzon, but I do NOT feel like they are the same family as her Kucz/ Kuć. Since this was from the era 1829-1852 the records were in Polish. I found one marriage index in the Swiniary parish:
1836 Franciszek Kuć marries Maryanna Duponką [this is not your great-grandparents, but probably related]. 1836 was the only year that I had a marriage index picture.
1830-1840 no Kucz/ Kuć births in the indexes.
1841 Jozef Kucz birth record #23
1842 Maciej Kucz birth record #21
1843-1845 no Kucz/ Kuć births in the indexes.
1846-1849 I had no indexes (or pictures thereof)
1850 no Kucz/ Kuć births in the indexes.
1851 I had no indexes (or pictures thereof)
1852 Stanislaw Kucz birth record #28
I think I have seen Kuc in the surrounding parishes (Biechow & Pacanow).
First off, I checked the LDS website (FamilySearch.org). I wanted to see what microfilm they had. Your birthdates: 1886, 1893, 1895 are rather late (most LDS microfilm stop around 1884). Here is their inventory for Swiniary (you want “Akta urodzeń“, for births):
Family History Library Catalog (Place Search): Swiniary
Akta urodzeń 1686-1811 — małżeństw 1668-1863 — zgonów 1686-1811 – INTL Film [ 939952 ]
Akta urodzeń 1797-1811, 1826-1865 – INTL Film [ 939951 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1812-1816, 1818-1825 – INTL Film [ 939949 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1878-1884 – INTL Film [ 1808854 Items 9-15 ]
Akta zgonów 1797-1839 – INTL Film [ 939950 ]
—
That is all the LDS (aka Mormons) have in their Family History Library that you can rent microfilm from. Next I checked the Polish National Archives via PRADZIAD . They did have books/microfilm for the date range you are seeking. Here is the contact info for the archive that has the data you seek. You would need to write them in Polish and they will write you back with their findings and instructions for wiring their bank the money they require (all in Polish).
Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach Oddział w Pińczowie – akta przeniesione do AP w Kielcach
28-400 Pińczów, ul. Batalionów Chłopskich 32
tel: (41) 357-20-02
fax: 357-20-02
email: pinczow@kielce.ap.gov.pl
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.
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
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)
Stanczyk, took note of when my friend and noted professional genealogist Ceil Wendt Jensen did an article for Ancestry.com magazine(2009, #3) on Martha Stewart’s ancestry. For a long time, I knew her maiden name was Kostyra. So when I noticed that Ceil had done an article and detailed much of Martha’s family tree, I asked her is she from Pacanow too? [Now you may not know that both Stanczyk and his friend Ceil have ancestors from Pacanow]. I had asked because, I had Kostyra in my family tree. Ceil told me, ‘No.’
So when I noticed that 5/6/2012 episode on Finding Your Roots, was going to have a segment on Martha Stewart, I watched again. It was interesting that Martha’s roots (and DNA) include Tartars and again they mentioned Kostyra and a few village names, but not Pacanow.
If you have any of the following surnames in your family tree, you could be a cousin of Ms. Stewart’s: Adamczyk, Albiniak, Baran, Ciman, Flis, Grab, Grosiewicz, Grysztar Kak, Kielar, Kisielinska, Kiszka,Kostyra,Krol, Krukar, Krulicka, Kulpa, Lach, Lazinska, Litwin, Macuga, Misiak, Okon, Oleszko, Orzeł, Penar, Rajchel, Ruszkowski, Rygiel, Rzad, Siwy, Skubik, Strzalinska, Tomczyk, Wasi, Wojtan, Wolyniec and Zukowsa.
Now if you notice, I BOLDED, some of the above family names (many of the others I am not certain of) in the list of possible cousins. I cannot speak to the commonness of those names, but each one is from my paternal grandparent’s (Eliasz/Leszczynski) parishes and some of those are actually in my family tree.
By all means go read Megan’s article. It is another interesting piece on Martha Stewart (aka Jadwiga Kostyra).
So Martha perhaps we are cousins (albeit very distant ones). Any Eliasz/Elijasz, Leszczynski, Ozarow, Major, Wlecial, Kedzierski in your tree (Martha)?
How about you readers? Any of you have those names in your tree? Do you research in Biechow or Pacanow (villages in the old Kielce wojewodztwo)? Email me!
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.
Stanczyk’s, first find (after some time) was the 1876 Marriage of Walenty Paluch to Magdalena Major. I research mostly: Eliasz, Leszczynski, Solomon, and Wolf (my grandparent’s lines & my wife’s grandparents lines). Of a necessity, I record affiliated families and siblings in order to break through the brick walls, but mostly I trace direct lineage, with additions for lineages of 2nd/3rd cousins’ lines who are genealogists (since we work collaboratively and I wish to record these genealogists in the tree and preserve the connection to me). Also since my Social Network Analysis experiment proved out, in my mind, I keep an eye out for the affiliated families now.
Well when I saw a marriage record (Akt Małżeństwa/Брак запись) index in 1876 Pacanów parish (parafia) that names: Paluch & Major — I was very interested to see who might be involved.
Record (in Russian/Cyrillic)
#15 – Paluch Walenty
Major Maryanna
Pacanów
The names are written in reverse order (fairly common in this parish, but not quite universally done).
On 15 March 1876 (Gregorian date, 2nd date of the double dates) there was a marriage between Walenty Paluch age 20 (born about 1856), born in Beszówa and the son of Jan & Agnieszka Paluch — wait a minute Jan & Agnieszka are my great-grandmother Maryanna Paluch Elijasz ‘s parents, therefore Walenty Paluch is my great-grandmother’s brother.
Ok so now this affiliated family name is of interest to me! Who is Walenty Paluch marrying ?
Magdalena Major, age 18 (born about 1858), born in Dobrowodzie, but living in Pacanów parish, who is the daughter of Martin & Katarzyna Major — wait a minute these are my great-grandmother Aniela Major Leszczyński ‘s parents. That means that Magdalena Major is my great-grandmother Aniela’s sister! Wow this is amazing that two of my great-grandparent’s siblings are marrying each other!
OK so this is a marriage between an Elijasz great-grandfather’s affiliated relative (brother-in-law) and a Leszczyński great-grandfather’s affiliated relative (sister-in-law). I guess that Social Network Analysis pays another dividend to my research.
So how cool is that? If I had ignored Paluch and/or Major as not in my direct lineage, I would not have found this record and found two previously unknown siblings to my great-grandmothers. I also see that I need to research Beszówa parish for Paluch family data and that Dobrowodz village (I do not know this village or if it is a parish) is a place to go search for Major family data.
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 toRoots 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 Philwill 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.
Stanczyk is obsessed with learning and understanding his ancestral villages. To that end, I spent the latter part of December analyzing the marriage records of Pacanów parish. As regular readers may know, Pacanów was in the Russian-Poland partition in the old gubernia (wojewodztwo/woj.) of Kielce which is north-east of today’s Krakow, Poland. Pacanów is now in the woj. of Swieto Krzyskie.
Today I have a graphic of a spreadsheet of the data I collected. Besides providing some demographics by the villages that made up the parish of Pacanów, it also gives you an inkling of the villages that comprise the parish [it may not be an exhaustive list]. You should also be aware that Catholic parish boundaries changed over time, just as they do today. So parish and dioceses may be different from earlier periods and also from those of the present time.
This was also an excellent exercise in practicing reading, transliterating, and translating Russian/Cyrillic to the Latin-based Polish alphabet. As always, the handwriting of the priest , the quality of the paper/book/ink and even the original scanning of the church records affects your paleographic efforts. So scanning church records for a limited set of proper nouns can improve your paleographic/translating skills. After all, I know the noun has to be a village on the map (some map from that time period) so even difficult paleographic challenges can usually be resolved.
Results of Marriage Statistics
1878-1884 Pacanow Parish Marriage Stats By Village
AP in Kielce
