Jakob Eliasz, The First Pacanow Eliasz ? — #Genealogy #Polish

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:

http://metryki.genbaza.pl/genbaza,list,52754,1

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?

1772 Polish Wojewodztwo, Diocese, and Deaconates — #Polish #Genealogy #Maps

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 ].

1772 Map of Poland’s Wojewodztwo (Provinces) — #Map #Genealogy #Poland

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:

http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11294/#regions=europe&countries=PL

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.

Hajek – Elijasz Family — Pacanów

Denise,

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

On The Trail Of Tomasz Leszczyński … #Genealogy, #Polish, #SNA

Antonina Sieradzka 1862 Birth in Gorki

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.

Villages  …

Biechow  (including Piestrzec, Wojcza), Swiniary (including Oblekon), Pacanow,  Stopnica (including Falęcin), Strozyska (including Gorki)

Tomasz Leszczyński – de Biechów, Innkeeper, Shoemaker, Bourgeois Farmer — #Genealogy, #Polish

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)

Pacanów Pomoc – #Genealogy, #Polish

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
52	1905	96	Julianna	Eliasz
53	1906	71	Wojciech	Eliasz
54	1906	77	Stanisław	Eliasz
55	1906	141	Edward,Jan	Eliasz	son of Jan Eliasz  & Pelagia z Kedzierski ?
56	1907	11	Julian	Eliasz
57	1908	67	Kazimiera	Eliasz
58	1908	124	Michalina	Eliasz

A Bit of Blog Bigos … #Genealogy, #Polish

Stanczyk has been a bit busy since the 4th of July! So forgive me if I play a bit of catch-up on my blog.

A bit of bigos (recipe) !!

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.

Enjoy the bigos. Smaczne (delicious)!

Koziolek Matolek 80 Years ! — #Polish, #Culture, #Pacanow

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.

Koziolek Matolek (Matolek the Billy-goat) was the creation of  Kornel Makuszyński (story) and Marian Walentynowicz (art).

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.

Pacanow Eliasz — #Wordless #Wednesday, #Genealogy

Now I have 36 more Eliasz / Elijasz to factor into this tree:

Birth Year  Birth Akt#           FULL NAME

1885	125	Marianna	Eliasz
1886	189	Jan	Eliasz
1886	238	Szczepan	Eliasz
1888	123	Teofila	Eliasz
1889	71	Józefa	Eliasz
1890	24	Katarzyna	Eliasz
1890	149	Marianna	Eliasz
1891	186	Stanisław	Eliasz
1891	190	Franciszka	Eliasz
1892	68	Wincenty	Eliasz
1892	206	Marianna	Eliasz
1893	143	Anna	Eliasz
1893	237	Marianna	Eliasz
1893	261	Agnieszka	Eliasz
1895	30	Marianna	Eliasz
1896	164	Wacław	Eliasz
1897	8	Julianna	Eliasz
1898	103	Anna	Eliasz
1899	63	Balbina	Eliasz
1899	79	Zygmunt	Eliasz
1899	185	Aleksander	Eliasz
1900	163	Julianna	Eliasz
1901	84	Marcin	Eliasz
1901	100	Anna	Eliasz
1901	161	Marianna	Eliasz
1901	164	Martin	Eliasz
1903	95	Stanisława	Eliasz
1903	112	Helena	Eliasz
1903	175	Janina	Eliasz
1905	96	Julianna	Eliasz
1906	71	Wojciech	Eliasz
1906	77	Stanisław	Eliasz
1906	141	Edward,Jan	Eliasz
1907	11	Julian	Eliasz
1908	67	Kazimiera	Eliasz
1908	124	Michalina	Eliasz

Are one of these your grandfather / grandmother ? Email me.

Pacanow 1875-1908 Index

St. Martin – Pacanow Church about 1918

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:

1. Write to Pacanow parish and request specific records (since I have year, Akt#),  
2. Write to Polish National Archive (again with detailed info),
3. Hire a genealogist in Poland,
4. 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:

1192351 Item 10,    1192352 Items 1-2,   1807621 Items 8-11,    1807622 Items 1-3

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.

My List of 58 ELIASZ.

Genealodzy.pl – Geneszukacz Database, Pacanow 1875-1908 — #Polish, #Genealogy, #Pacanow

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.

BIRTHS

Eliasz Births

MARRIAGES

Eliasz Marriages

See Also:

Domagala, Hajek, Kedzierski, Odomski, Paluch, Poniewierski, Siwiec, Wlecial, Wojtys, Zasucha, Zdziebko, Zwolski

From Pacanow Poland to Birchgrove, New South Wales, Australia — #Genealogy, #Polish, #Immigration

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.

Source: Trove Digitised Newspapers – The Sydney Morning Herald (22 September 1954)

A BANAS marriage record from the METRYK project …

This bit of blog is for Michelle Ann Kratts.

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):

http://metryki.genealodzy.pl/metryka.php?ar=7&zs=0246d&sy=161&kt=2&plik=08-09.jpg

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:

BANAS/банас

–Stanczyk

The Many [Mis]Spellings of Pacanow … — #Genealogy, #Slavic, #Pacanow

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 even Beider-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].

Zasucha in Niagara Falls, Pacanow, Albion and Elsewhere — #Genealogy, #Polish

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.

Niagara Falls Gazette – 1937 — #Genealogy, #Newspaper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Wordless Wednesday: Tomasz Leszczynski (de Biechow) — #Genealogy, #Meme

Wordless (or nearly so) Wednesday – Tomasz Leszczynski died at age 104

Affiliated Families:

Kordos

Major

Ozarowicz

Mizdrak

Elijasz

Fortuna

Pawelec

Kalucki

Fras{s}

The above are from Poland.

The Fras / Frass family was found recently by doing some SNA in Depew / Toledo to infer familial relationship to this LESZCZYNSKICH .

Ancestral Villages:

Biechow, Pacanow, Stopnica, Zborowek

NOTE:

For a timeline, please see the ‘ Tomasz Leszczynski ‘  tab at the top of this blog.