Alegata Surprise

Bendin Uezd, Piotrkowski Gubernia

In the marriage of Wladysław Fras & Agnieszka née Leszczyńska Michniewska, Stanczyk found an unusual section of text not present in most marriage records.

Wladysław was born in Bendin uezd, Piotrkowski gubernia (south-west corner of map). So his ability to marry in the church needed to be verified with a birth/baptism (one alegata purpose).

From the marriage, I found an odd and difficult section of text to decipher (as if all old Russian/Cyrillic cursive handwriting were not enigmatic enough).

From this odd section, if I understand correctly, three things are made known:

1. They could not locate Wlad’s birth metrical record in Uiejsce, Wojkowice Koscielne parish, Piotrkowski Gubernia.
2. Wlad had an urgent requirement to serve in the army.
3. Wlad’s mom & four witnesses had to attest to his birth on February 10th (after marriage performed January 26th, and before it was recorded February 12th).

So it appears the attestation was good and the marriage was good. Sadly, I never found Wlad’s birth record and my hope was to get it as an alegata at this marriage (I had his siblings’ birth, just not Wlad’s). Dad was dead. Mom attested. Now I wonder who the four witnesses were? Let’s see: Witness1, Witness2, the performing clergy, and ??? Perhaps the godfather was the fourth or the church organist [so many organists in my church records]. Alas, no record of the four witnesses or attestation. I have Wlad’s birth year (derived from age at marriage and fits between two siblings’s births) and that will have to do.

An interesting marriage record! So I ask you, “Do you have any military grooms that needed a quick marriage before shipping out to the Russian (|Prussian|Austrian) army?”   If so, please post a comment or email this jester.

Akt 5 – The Full Marriage Record (left side)

Alegata Question – 26-Jan-1890 Marriage Of Wladyslaw Fras & Agnieszka Leszczynska

The last time we saw the record, Akt#5 in Solec 1890 Marriages bewteen Wladyslaw Fras & Agnieszka Leszczynska.

This is minus one unusual section that is hard to translate/understand.

Here’s an abridged translation:

It happened in Solec on 31-Jan/12-Feb 1890

Witnesses:  Jan Majczak 39 of Piestrzec & Jan Biernik of Kikow age 40

Groom:  Wladyslaw Fras bachelor, 32 in army born in Uiejsce, parish Wojkowice Koscielne, Bendzin uezd Piotrkowska gubernia residing in Kikow, parish Dobrowoda living with mother , Jan (father deceased) & mother Marianna née Bielasinska;

<additional text goes here>

to

Bride:  Agnieszka Leszczynska Michniewska widow of deceased Jozef died 1 year ago; age 23 born in village/parish Biechow & residing in Zwierzyniec, parish Solec daughter of Tomasz & the deceased Julianna Kordos legally Leszczynskich

3 banns:

read in Dobrowoda & Solec parishes on 31-Dec/12-Jan, 7th/19th Jan, 14th/26th Jan this year

The image is in my last blog post below 👇🏻.

 

Now given the above: Groom born elsewhere, Bride born elsewhere, Bride widowed, I would expect … about 4 pages of alegata to include Wladyslaw’s birth record, Agnieszka’s birth record, Agnieszka’s 1st husband’s death record and the image at the top of this blog post. But the reality is that I only received the image at the top.

 

Does anyone know why? Email or comment on the blog please.

 

My Guess

Agnieszka’s husband died in this parish and the death was last year (1889). I did confirm that the death record did exist in the parish (Solec) books for 1889 Deaths. Ok, the priest did not feel the need to include an alegata for the death. Agnieszka born in Biechow and now living in Zwierzyniec made her a known entity in the parish, even though she was born in Biechow and she married 1st husband (Jozef Michniewski) in Biechow. So the priest did not feel the need for her birth alegata either; Especially since she and her 1st husband had two kids and they were baptised and living in Solec. But what about Wladyslaw?

 

He was not just born in another parish. His parish was in another gubernia too! Why no birth alegata for him? Tomorrow, my guess about the puzzling text that was unusual in most marriage records. Also another question too!

New In Genbaza & Genealodzy (Metryki) — #Polish #Genealogy #Online #Databases

Akt 5 – Wladyslaw Fras & Agnieszka zd. Leszczynska Michniewski

Christmas came early for Stanczyk this year. The metryki at Genbaza & Genealodzy were updated.  This jester was able to find the second marriage of my great-grandfather’s daughter (not my grandmother, her half-sister, Agnieszka Leszczynska Michniewska Fras)!

 

At Genbaza they added Solec Zdroj (1875-1913). At Genealodzy they added Stopnica (1875-1917) to the Busko powiat. Now Stopnica was already at Genbaza, but Genealodzy added the years 1910-1917 on top of what Genbaza already had.

So I’ll be busy searching through the end of 2018! Next time, a question about the Alegata for the above marriage record.

Dobrowoda & Fras/Frass Genealogy — #Polish #Genealogy

 Dobrowoda, “Good Water” indeed. Its about 15-16 km from my paternal grandmother (babcia/Busia), Waleria’s ancestral village (Biechow). Waleria Leszczynska’s (half-)sister, Agnieszka married her 2nd husband, Wladyslaw Fras … somewhere (I am still looking for that marriage). Agnieszka & Waleria (the Leszczynscy) were born in Biechow so you might expect their marriage was there in the bride’s village as is custom.  But let me start this genealogical story from the beginning.

A few years ago, my family tree on the Internet caused someone to email me about my Leszczynski. For years, other genealogists had emailed about LESZCZYNSKI, so I was used to saying, “Its a popular name and we are not related or are so distantly related that we cannot prove it.” But this person had a name, Agnieszka Leszczynski, which I had one too in my tree, but she was born so long ago (1866) that I only had a birth record and nothing more for Agnieszka Leszczynski. But she had a Russian Passport (which she could not read). I had never seen an actual Russian Passport before, so I told her I would look at it and help translate what info I could and perhaps that will tell us whether there is a chance that her ancestor (great-grandfather), Jozef Fras, was son of my Agnieszka Leszczynski or not. Long Story-Short, the passport gave clues to the same area, tantalizingly close to Biechow — so I could neither prove nor disprove the relationship, but it was an avenue for research. So I started researching her Fras/Frass from Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. They were close to where my grandparents and my grand-aunt, Antonina Leszczynska Sobieszczanski lived. Ok that added a very tenuous connection.  I found a church baptism where Jozef Fras’s wife, BENIGNA (not a common name) was a God Mother to one of my dad’s Sobieszczanski cousins. Ok. that is a pretty good connection. Next I found Jozef’s ship manifest and that his father was Wladyslaw Fras living in Piersciec, a village in the same parish as my grandmother’s family. Ok that is a great connection. Oh, look Jozef went from his father, Wladyslaw, to his uncle Teofil Leszczynski (my grand-uncle) in Depew, Erie County, NY. Ok that is a solid family indicator. So I emailed Mindy to tell her that we were probably related and I added Fras to my family tree.

So Mindy sent me family photos of other Fras family from Poland. So I knew Jozef had two brothers and a sister (maybe) and I had their names. From the passport I had a birthdate / birthplace for Jozef (Zborow – which I initially mistook for Zborowek, but later realized he meant the Zborow near Solec, at any rate both were in Kielce gubernia. So I had Biechow and Solec as possible parishes to research. Eventually GenBaza published images online and I could progress, I did find Jozef’s siblings: Teofil & Wincenty(and two sisters born in Piestrzec/Piersciec). But I could not find Jozef and I also could not locate Wladyslaw and Agnieszka’s marriage record in Biechow or Solec (nor in Stopnica). I began to research in nearby parishes (cluster genealogy) looking for either the birth or the marriage record. Years went by and no luck.

Did I mention that GenBaza went offline due to technical problems? It did and when it came back I noticed a few new parishes, hence Dobrowoda (which was >= 15km away) and I doubted that a parish at such a distance might yield any new clues. However, earlier I had found a church record in Stopnica of a Fras birth, where a Wladyslaw Fras was God Father. I then found the marriage and alegata for the couple whom Wladyslaw was God Father for. It turned out that Fras was originally from Silesia [Uiejsce, in Wojkowice Koscielne parish, in Piotrkowskiej Gubernia, Poland]. I found this Fras’ birth record and now had his parents (possibly Wladyslaw’s parents or maybe just uncle/aunt). Using Geneteka as an index, I found other children for Jan Fras & Maryanna Bialas, besides this Stopnica Fras. This family went from Wojkowice Koscielne parish in Piotrkowskiej Gubernia to Holudza village in Chotel Czerwony parish, in Kielce Gubernia. OK now we are getting close. I found Jan Fras’ death record in Kikow village in Dobrowoda parish (also Kielce Gubernia). So when Dobrowoda came online, I decided I would look there once GenBaza came back online.

That is where this blog entry starts. There were many years and I was not expecting any Fras really. So I started in Zborowek instead which now had metrical records and not just alegata like before. Some minor advances, but nothing really. So I looked at Dobrowoda. There were many years in Dobrowoda and my eyes went right to a book that ended in ‘rejestr’. These ‘rejestr’ tend to be church censuses, sometimes just an annual census, sometimes a decade, sometimes two-three generations. So I thought I could quickly scan and see if there were any Fras or not in this parish.

It was just an annual census (my hopes were lowered) for 1895 sorted alphabetically with Birth Marriage and Death records indexed together (in a funky Polish handwriting – that I had to train my eyes to read). Ok there was a Fras, a Teofil Fras. But I had already found my Teofil Fras born in 1903, so this Teofil Fras born in 1895 must be for another family. Nonetheless, I wanted the record to see if Wladyslaw or Agnieszka Fras were a God Parent or witness. So I was shocked to find that this Teofil Fras was also a child of Wladyslaw Fras and Agnieszka Leszczynska. This Teofil must have died and thus the second Teofil was born in 1903 (who is the one in my picture with Wincenty). Ok this parish had my Fras. Maybe I can find the birth of Jozef and/or the marriage of Wladyslaw & Agnieszka here. From the passport, I knew that Jozef was born in 1893, so I went to that year. Guess what I found? Yes, I finally found Jozef Fras’  birth record and the date matched as well as the parents.

Alas, I still did not find the marriage record of Wladyslaw and Agnieszka, but now I have hope. I hope I can find their marriage and also Wladyslaw’s birth (once I confirm that his parents are indeed Jan Fras & Maryanna Bialas). You must persevere. These affiliated families (like Fras) can indicate parishes to research in for your main lines and shorten your cluster genealogy search. But as you saw, Dobrowoda was indeed good water for Stanczyk.

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Jozef Fras birth record:

Jozef Fras Akt #23

Pieszczochowicz — An Affiliated Family to LESZCZYŃSKI — #Genealogy, #Polish, #SNA

Pieszczochowicz – 20 people in Poland

Stanczyk is working out a rather difficult piece of analysis. This jester uses Social Network Analysis (#SNA)  to assert a familial relationship or connection. It is labor intensive / data intensive process. Prior analyses have been very excellent at predicting valuable lines of research that have led to many further finds.

The moikrewni.pl tool for mapping names (shown in the image above) — shows that Pieszczochowicz is a rather rare name and only exists for some 20 people. The locales, I cannot draw conclusions from, but the numbers say that most if not all PIESZCZOCHOWICZ are closely related by its scarcity. So the name Pieszczochowicz enters my family tree in the following way:

Leon Pieszczochowicz (b. 7-NOV-1865 in Górek, Strożyska, Kielce Gubernia, Poland), son of Konstanty Pieszczochowicz & Maryanna Rzepała. Leon married Jozefa Leszczyńska (b. about 1861 in Biechów, Kielce Gubernia, Poland), daughter of Tomasz Leszczyński & Julianna Kordos. I am sur ethey many children, but I only know of one child: Edward Pieszczochowicz. Now, Edward, comes to the USA from his father Leon in 1910 (who was living in Busko) to his uncle Jan Pieszczochowicz in West Seneca, NJ. Edward, continues onto to Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. He will move on to Lackawanna, Erie County, NY in later life. But while in Toledo, he becomes the God Father of my own uncle: Stephen Edward Eliasz (son of Joseph Eliasz & Waleriya Leszczynska) at St Anthony’s Church on Nebraska Ave.  in Toledo, OH in 1916. Edward Pieszczochowicz’s own God Parents were: Wladyslaw Fras (husband of Agnieszka Leszczynska)  & Antonina Leszczyńska (probably nee Sieradzka, married to Jan Leszczyński). So what we see from this one affiliated family is what I considered a very highly connected value to my LESZCZYNSKi research and even so far as to connect my own ELIASZ line as well. We also see the FRAS (aka FRASS) affiliated family and the I believe the SIERADZKI affiliated family.

When I first captured Edward Pieszczochowicz at the birth/baptism of my uncle Steve, I had no idea who Edward was and had thought him a family friend [not a family member]. So you see over the span of time the collected data and SNA analysis of other data can connect disparate data points and prove  out relativity.

Let me end today’s blog article, by returning to the fact that since PIESZCZOCHOWICZ is rather rare, that I am now seeking out Jan Pieszczochowicz and two others: Boleslaw & Stanley Pieszczochowicz (these two also show up in Toledo, OH at  3224 Maple Street).  Will this family lead me to my LESZCZYNSKI roots? Time will tell.

 

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.

Fras | Frass | Frasowa | Frasskosz — #Genealogy, #Cousin, #NewLineOfResearch

A week or two ago, Stanczyk got a bolt out of the blue. It was another genealogist; She was inquiring after my Leszczynski lineage — specifically Agnieszka Leszczynski.

Well a long time ago I got used to the fact that there were so MANY Leszczynskich out there that the possibility that any were directly related was infinitesimally small. Now to be sure a few second cousins have re-connected and it was good to get updates on the American branches. But in my 17 years as a genealogist — I had not received an inquiry on the line of Leszczynskich from my great-grandfather, Tomasz Leszczynski’s first wife or their children.

Old Tomasz lived a long time … to be 104 years of age from about 1835 to 1939 (give or take). He had two wives and bless his heart he had 14 children by them. From his first wife, he started to have children in 1860. Agnieszka (or Agnes as the inquiry was for) was born 9th December 1866. I had her birth record from the church in that lovely Latin Box format and I had deciphered all that was written. But I had no idea if Agnes made it to adulthood or married or even when she died.

Well this genealogist said her-great-grandfather had a mother named Agnes Leszczynski (from his death certificate). Yes, I said, but there are so many Leszczynski families, where was your great-grandfather from. She had a vague idea of the area and the names seemed to be close to a village that I had ancestors from but it was horribly misspelled if it was from that area at all. I was still skeptical, but she sent me an Ellis Island ship manifest (actually a tiny bit of transcription from one). So I thought I would go take a look and see if I could decipher where her ancestor was from — it would be an RAOGK. I was going to help her out.

Well imagine my surprise! Her great-grandfather was from an ancestral village of mine, coming from his father Wladyslaw Fras in Piesciec [sic  -> Piestrzec, today; Piersiec back then, although I had seen it spelled Piersciec many times too]. Now I had never seen any Fras before in those villages, maybe some Franc (Frąc) which was close. But then I went to page two of the ship manifest and he was going to Depew, NY to his uncle, Teofil Lezczynski!!! That was my grand-uncle. OK, I was now getting interested in Jozef Fras.

Now, I had to do some research, but I found him with his family in Toledo, Ohio. Well I had some family from Toledo. In fact, my grandmother’s sister Antonina Leszczynska Sobieszczanski lived there. Well this jester had a few St Anthony, baptismal register images that I could peruse. Now I was even more amazed. Jozef Fras’ wife, BENIGNA (not a common name) was the god-mother of one of Antonina’s sons. Benigina Fras was god-mother to Matthew Sobieszczanski. Those percentages kept going up. I said, perhaps the Fras had children baptised in St Anthony too. I examined their birth years and looked in the register images and there was their first child Helen Fras whose god-mother was my Antonina Sobieszczanski (to Jozef and Benigna’s daughter). Ok, in my head, we are now at 99+% related.

1 Wladyslaw FRAS d: 11 Feb 1919
  + Agnieszka LESZCZYNSKI b: 12/9/1866
    2 Josef Edward FRAS b: 16 Mar 1893 d: 08 Aug 1935
      + Benigna PALICKI FRASS b: abt 1897
        3 Helen FRASS b: 25 October 1917 d: 23 May 1982
        3 Joseph Radislaus FRASS b: 25 March 1922 d: 14 March 1934
        3 Eleanor FRASS b: 15 Jan 1926 d: 25 Oct 1988
        3 Melvin R FRASS b: 15 Jun 1930 d: 10 Dec 2006

So now my next goal is to find the church marriage record of Wladyslaw Fras and Agnieszka Leszczynski (probably in Biechow parish), since Jozef Fras’ ship manifest said he was born in Piestrzec. This would give me the certain Genealogical Standard of Proof — but I have already added the above to my tree.

Thanks second cousin, twice removed, Mindy! By the way, this line of reasoning I am leaning on is again the Social Network Analysis (what Thomas MacEntee calls cluster genealogy).

Don’t you wish you could search Ellis Island by whom people were going to or coming from? Better database search capabilites are needed and the GEDCOM standard needs to be enhanced to handle these social network/cluster analyses