Buffalo Polish Newspaper 🗞 — Dziennik dla Wszystkich (Everybody’s Daily).
A bunch of co-workers of the newspaper.
… A Muse — ing
If Stanczyk may, let me gush over a 4th cousin who went to Poland & remembered this jester! Her name is Martha.
I did not know Martha’s family name from Pacanow. After we worked together I was surprised to see a connection between my 2x great-grandfather Jozef Elijasz and her ancestors! I even found one female, Salomea ELIJASZ that I previously did not know who had married into her family.
She traveled all around Poland meeting her family and doing tourist things. Then she visited the ancestral villages: Biechow & Pacanow (a shared ancestral village). The church pictures & cemetery pictures were sublime. We worked remotely on a church record & I was able to let her know about her friend’s ancestor (Dubiński) being born in Nowy Korczyn & they were able to make a quick jaunt down there for research. Genealogy is truly collaborative. I was envying my 4th cousin’s genealogical adventure.
Then she made her way to the AP Archive in Kielce. She took a ton of pictures and I was able to learn from her sharing her experience & expertise at AP Kielce. She took this jester’s wish list and made a HUGE dent with her finds! More on this tomorrow.
Stanczyk, wanted to discuss further the serendipitous alegata found last time. So the two page alegata needed translating. So I translated the pertinent parts from Polish & Russian as shown below …
Akt 11 1887 (Alegata)
Gubernia Kielecka
Uezd Stopnica
Parish Biechów
It happened in Biechów the 31st day of January 1864 at 5 o’clock in the evening. He appeared Józef Leszczyński, the townsman, wheelwright who lived at the Inn, age 20 (=>b. 1844) , with witnesses, Maciej Kopra, age 46 & Wojciech Fortuna, age 50 of Piestrzec who presented a female baby born in Piestrzec on the 30th of January, this year at 5pm to his wife, Agnieszka zd Godowska age 19, given two names, Marianna Apolonia , the godparents were, Marcin Major Of Piestrzec & Julianna Leszczynska of Biechow
Biechów 26th January 1887
Father Michał Królikowski
Well that was some excellent serendipity. I not only got my 2nd-great-grandfather (Marcin Major), but the godmother is my great-grandfather Tomasz’s first wife (Julianna Leszczynska nee Kordos). I also decided that the father, Jozef Leszczynski was the wheelwright (carter) living at the Inn in Piestrzec (aka Piersciec). The Inn owned by his brother (?) Tomasz Leszczynski.
So I went and added Jozef Leszczynski & his wife Agnieszka Godowska and their 10 kids to the family tree. As a result of that work, I also found that Jozef later on (1879) owned his own Inn in Szydlow. This is very interesting as it appears that my Leszczynskich were, if not a szlachta/magnate family, at least fairly well off. This confirms other family lore about owning a mill.
The 17th Chapter provides (unsourced) genealogical tree and a timeline:
As of, January16th, 2019 , Stanczyk ‘s blog turned ten and I am celebrating its 10th anniversary!
So my birthday wish is for more readers such as you … you know who you are. Most of you are fans of genealogy, family history, Polish culture & history. Perhaps, you may be a bibliophile or a fan in general. Thank you all of you!
I also hope to solve a riddle about my second great-grandfather, Marcin Eliasz and his (or his father’s) barn in Pacanów.
Who knows what fancies 2019 will bring and inspire for a blog or two.
God willing, more good stories, news, info, & discoveries will find their way here. Finally, may God bless me with another decade of blogs and blog readers!
Stanczyk, welcomes you to the third part of this multi-part Alegata As Time Machine series. As the title suggests this is the third part.
Parts 1 & 2 can be reviewed below:
There have been some prior alegata articles (in case you are binging):
Today’s article is we are going to dissect a typical article and see what we can expect to find. In the fourth part we will look at many sample portions to see the type we might encounter.
First off, be aware that you can click on the images to see larger version of the images to see the fine details. Second, let me remind you, dear reader, that alegata are mostly found in Russian Poland partition but the general knowledge still holds, though the year and the partition may dictate a different language. In this series we will see Russian/Cyrillic, Polish (Latin alphabet), and Latin (the actual language) among the samples. In fact, you may see more than one language in an alegata.
Today’s alegata is about the bride who was born outside the parish who is now living in the local parish (Biechów). So the bride is proving she was baptised to marry in the local church.
Let’s look at the various pieces and derive their meaning in this common sample.
Number (1) — It is in Russian. Its meaning is, “Record (akt) # 121, RZEGOCIN”. This margin note ties the data back the Ostrowce parish (in Kielce gubernia, Grotniki gmina). We will see the event type and the year of the remote record in a bit.
Number (2) — Do you see the light, pencilled, “12”? That is what the second bullet pertains to. This “12” indicates we are on the 12th page of alegata. The left side of the image is page 11 and the right side is page 12. The left side, is usually, the back of the prior page’s text.
Number (3) — The top header text, relatively bold in ink is Russian text indicating this is an alegata for an 1878 marriage, the akt #, in the local parish’s 1878 marriages. For the record we are looking Biechow parish (Kielce gubernia, Stopnica gmina), 1878 Alegata book on page 12 (this image).
Number (4) — The fourth part, we are calling out is the record # (akt #) that this alegata is for. In this case it is for Marriage Akt 15, in Biechow parish Marriages.
Number (5) — The fifth bullet is the top of the remote record. It indicates the event type from the remote parish that this alegata page is about. In this case we are looking at a birth record. In Russian/Cyrillic, “рождение” (birth).
Number (6) — The final bullet, (6), is about the birth record (in Polish) and more specifically, the year of that record, which in this case is 1861. Now this is fortuitous because, the online births end at 1859. So for birth years 1860 and forward you would normally have to write to the parish (Ostrowce, św.Jana Chrzciciela) to get this birth record. At the bottom of the record is the date:
Ostrowce, 4/16th day of August, 1878 (the date this record was extracted from that remote parish’s books).
One final note. Did you notice that the birth was written in Polish (not Russian)? If the remote event record was before 1868 then it will be in Polish. Galicia records are in Latin.
To see the Alegata side-by-side with the Marriage record click on “Continue reading”
Prince Harry & Duchess of Sussex Meghan will have children who are 19th cousins to Władysław Jagiełło King of Poland & Grand Duchy Of Lithuania (& Queen Jadwiga)!
❤ 🇵🇱 🇲🇱 🇬🇧 💙
[Thanks to source: http://www.moremaiorum.pl]
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hggrx3ZygJUKTHrc5Fz_kzrQTopjPWw6
Stanczyk loves alegata. Let’s see you have Birth (urodzony/chrzest), Marriage (małżeństwo/słuby, zapiowiedzi), Alegata, Death (Zgony/Śmierci). The cycle of life via church records (sacrements). Reading alegata are very interesting indeed. Sometimes its like gossip… “Do you know who is getting married here?” Other times its solemn, like the death of a soldier. But it is a time machine of sorts, that allows you to see backward and on rare occasions forward. It is this time machine capability that may help you locate missing records.
Alegat is a Polish word of Latin origin, from allegatio, “sending someone as an intermediary; a citation of proof; a submitted document.”
It is not only an interesting relic of phraseology from ecclesiastical language, it provides great potential genealogical documents of significance. This word, seemingly forgotten and archaic, is currently undergoing a rebirth, precisely because of genealogy. Many beginning researchers do not know about the existence and meaning of these documents. Alegata is the plural of Alegat. Sometimes they are found at the end of church books as loose pages. When they are found in their own books, they are called Alegata or Aneksy. They are most common in the former Russian-Poland partition. As is shown in the picture (by red arrows) they date to just after the Napoleonic Era.
These are Polish Church documents to establish an eligibility for a church sacrament. Most often they are used for marriages. Their purpose is often to document a death and thus making the widow/widower eligible to remarry in the church. Sometimes its used where the groom (most often) if from a remote/foreign parish is a baptised Catholic. I have seen a few other purposes: name change, soldier’s death, etc. Often the inquiries in later years are from courts or remote Polish parishes and are forms. However, for the genealogist, they can fill in the gap for a missing church record. Often because of the marriage aspect, they can help you (the genealogist) track movements of your ancestors across parishes. In the coming articles, we’ll look at a few examples.
While Stanczyk was searching newspapers for military conscripts, he found many items useful to genealogy…
Today was a landholders chart for Niegosławice village, in Pacanów gmina, Stopnica powiat of 22-June-1933.
Found in Newspaper: Kielecki Dziennik Wojewódzki
Stanczyk would like to call your attention to one of his ancestors, on line 12 (Leon Wleciał).
This chart had four columns:
Line Number, Landholder(s), Plot Number, Plot area in ha (hectares).
So on Line #12 (col. 1), we see Leon Wleciał (col. 2), Plot #18 (col. 3), 6.1019ha (col. 4).
This Leon was not the Leon who came to America, but the Leon who was a witness/god-father in church records for the Wleciałowscy who came to America (and some who stayed in Poland too).
You want to search for:
Okręgowego Urzęd Ziemskiego
(Official District Land in <gubernia-name>).
Stanczyk has been very busy! A long overdue update to my Rootsweb page on Dziennik Polski has been done … more to come!
Also this jester has added 6,000 names to the Complete Index (nearly 42,000 Poles) including adding names (& relationships to deceased) listed on the Funeral Cards. The One-Step db app based on this data needs to be re-done.
This blog post became necessary because blog topics overran my ability to write blog posts … so here is a bit of Bigos (a mishmash) / hunter’s hodge-podge of blog topics in minature, some of which foreshadow a larger blog post (or two).
Ancestry released version 8.2. Security & some bugs were addressed … but the big news is image/record viewer! For a long time I despaired over the inability of the smartphone app to display the images at full resolution necessary for detailed analysis. So Stanczyk tried the image at top that this jester received from third-cousin that became a seminal document for both of us genealogists! Wow! The image viewer was great!
In fact, I noticed a detail in the record as I was trying to detail the church record’s Polish for our shared ancestors. The image notes are below … (see Church Marriage Register)
One of the witnesses was a JAN ZASUCHA. It just so happened that I had an unfinished blog piece from mid December 2016 that was languishing in draft mode. It was upon Zasucha and how this affiliated family was related to me because my second-great-grandmother was Anna Zasucha. So here was another example that 100 years ago the Pacanów families in America were very close and related at some level to my Eliasz/Elijasz/Elyasz/etc. family. I will finish that blog. I am hoping there is a 3rd/4th cousin in Poland with images or info about Anna Zasucha. [Editor’s Note – published Zasucha article on 20-April-2017; URL: https://mikeeliasz.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/searchin-for-zasucha-genealogy-polish/ ]
I also have a new blog post in progress about a new Ancestry database that was brought to my attention by Chicago genealogist, Jennifer Holik. She is an expert on Military (especially WWII) genealogy records. So she had a brief piece on US Army funerial Transport ships and I noticed the database had WWI Transports and I wondered if some Haller’s Army troops were transported via that. (Spoiler alert … yes!).
Church Marriage Register – Roza Wleciałowski & Adam Gawlikowski
Adam Gawlikowski – kawaler, 27, syn Marcina i Maryanny Lisów z Opatowiec, Kieleckie
Rozalia Wleciałowska – panna, 20, corka Maciej i Kat. Eliasz z Pacanowa – Kiel.
sw. Marcoli Dusza, Jan Zasucha
<margin>
4)
sl. 19/8
o 9ty
Klęczu z.
— — — transcription above / translation below
Adam Gawlikowski – bachelor, age 27, son of Marcin (Gawlikowski) & Maryanna z. Lisów of Opatowiec in Kieleckie (Gubernia of Russian-Poland)
Rozalia Wleciałowska – maiden, age 20, daughter of Maciej (Wleciałowski) & Katarzyna Eliasz of Pacanow in Kieleckie (Gubernia of Russian-Poland)
witnesses Marcoli (spelling uncertain) Dusza, Jan Zasucha
(marginalia)
Marriage #4 (of 1912) at Sweetest Heart of Mary, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Marriage August 19th
9pm (time)
kneeling
Akt#50 (lower left corner of church register image):
For Elizabeth E. (on ancestry).
Akt#50
Record Date: 21-March-1885 Parish: Pacanów
Father: Józef Babiarz of Rataje, age 30
Witnesses: Walenty Madej, age 26, Walenty Czapliak age 46
Birth Date: today? (21-March-1885)
Mother: Marianna (née) Smystek age 25
Baby: Stanisław
god parents: Józef Plakta(sp?) & Salomeja Wybraniowa
This article from thechive.com has pictures and personal anecdotes that this jester has not seen before and I recommend you read this uplifting story (and my two stories for a complete picture of this hero-bear)!
Twice before has Stanczyk written about Private Wojtek, the Polish Army Bear:
Olivier, first thanks for reading/writing the blog …
I’ve been reading your genealogy blog for a year now and I’ve found some nice infomration from and a lot of good humour as well, thank you and good job.I trying to research my in-law’s side of the family. They come from Lomza and Grajewo region of Poland, I believe it is the Podlaskie District. The names are Bruszkiewicz and Jurkowski, and Trepanowski (a cousin).I registered with GenBaza.pl and genetyka.pl and metryki but it doesn’t look as easy as how you made it look in your blog stories to find available scans. And then when I go to the Polish State Archives, well the short of it is I don’t read Russian (and I don’t read Polish either but I can read indexes, I can’t in Russian) and I don’t know how to spell Bruszkiewicz in Russian. So when I am faced with an index or i’m looking at a page of 4 birth certificates, i don’t even know what I’m looking at.
Then I will need to find help with translations.
Do you have any tips on how to translate a Polish family name into how it would be spelled in Russian? And written by hand in a civil register?
As anyone indexed these parishes?
Any encouragements or tips would be welcomed if possible 🙂 The whole thing feels like a brick wall!
Thank you for any help, and good job on the blog!
Best, Olivier
Ok let me see in what ways I can help you:
So if we try, “Bruszkiewicz”, we get (try the first one, but keep in mind that you are liable to see any below):
Брушзкивич, Брюшзкивич, Бружзкивич, Брюжзкивич, Брушжкивич, Брюшжкивич, Бружжкивич, Брюжжкивич, Брушзкиевич, Брюшзкиевич, Бружзкиевич, Брюжзкиевич, Брушжкиевич, Брюшжкиевич, Бружжкиевич, Брюжжкиевич
Stanczyk was taking a road trip last weekend.
I took a page out of Jonathan Shea’s book, “Going Home”. In an Appendix, he lists the Polish Cemeteries across the USA. So in a kind of RAOGK, and as a way to contribute to PGSCT&NE, I started to take pics of tombstones and transcribe the pics for an index.
In a single visit I was able to do about 40% of the cemetery. I of course, am sending my entire contribution to PGSCT&NE. But, two tombstones had pics attached to the tombstone and I admired these two tombstones so much, I also added them to FindAGrave.
#Volunteer genealogists; Its another way to collaborate.
Stanczyk wanted to wish all the best of the Season’s Greeting !
— So today’s blog article is what I wish for us genealogists.
Does anybody else have any good suggestions for wishes? Email me or Comment on this blog article.
75 kopeks. The cost of that stamp on an alegata. In case, you cannot read Cyrillic or do not recognize it on the cancellation mark of the stamp — it says:
11/24 January 1907
This stamp appeared on an alegata document, describing my paternal grandparents, Jozef Elijasz & Waleryja Leszczynska. You can see from the civil and church records of theirs, that this is their marriage date.
So now I have three Polish authoritative sources for their marriage (date/place).
I found this alegata a bit fascinating. First it had the stamp. Second it listed my grandfather & his parents, but only my grandmother (without her parents — fortunately, the other two records listed those parents). Third and most puzzling is the marriage bann dates:
13th, 20th, 27th January [of 1907 implied]. But wait a minute, the date of the alegata is 11/24 January, 1907. That is three days before their marriage date. So this “official document” had listed a future date [of the marriage], I guess giving them permission to marry in the church assuming the 3rd bann was a foregone conclusion. The future date so messed with my mind and comprehension of Russian/Cyrillic that I had to check and recheck the three documents to assure myself I was reading it correctly and that they had used a future date in the alegata!
Oh, the 11/24 January 1907 thing? That is just the custom of “dual dating”. The earlier date is the Julian date: 11-January-1907, as the Russian calendar was still using the Julian calendar. While the 24-January-1907 is the Gregorian calendar that we use today. Of course you can find liturgical calendars (Russian Orthodox for example) that still use the Julian Calendar for their religious events (i.e. EASTER). Why is it 13 days difference? They were in the 20th century and another day difference between the two calendars, as compared to the majority of the church records (1868-1900 during when the Russian language was the defacto language of administration records) in the Russian partition which were 12 days apart.
Jozef Taran wrote over the weekend on Facebook about a website giving the coat of arms of the various provinces.
Stanczyk just loves the artistry and historicity of heraldic symbols. But, it was a bonus! At the site was a 1764 map of the Poland/Lithuanian Commonwealth.
As a double bonus, I looked at the whole website:
http://www.wawrzak.org/news_updates.htm and it is a site dedicated to Szlachta (Polish Nobility). It has Polish/English text. Very nice find for those with blue blood coursing through their genealogical veins.
The 1764 Map is shown on the Maps Page.
Gesher Galicia has really been adding content and also a website redesign of late. I am planning on joining this genealogical society. The reason is their projects and current databases, maps, and variety of resources that can aid all genealogists and especially Jewish Genealogists with family from the former Galicia region (now western part in Poland, eastern part in Ukraine) of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire (aka Hapsburg). So Ukrainian and Polish genealogists take note!
This little tidbit was found because of a PGSCT&NE posting in Twitter/Facebook. So keeping tabs on events in social media (or reading this blog) can keep you informed on the latest contributions by genealogists, the world over. Follow these societies and join them and volunteer your time. I am sure Gesher Galicia members knew about this and active meeting goers may have been informed, but it is now the Internet/Cloud that keeps the vast majority of genealogists informed and involved. Keep up the good work!
The Gesher Galicia website has an article by Alexander Dunai. Alexander also has another, more complete article on his website which you should go read ( http://alexdunai.com/documents/item_11/) on Tabula Registers and their purpose, plus a list of towns is available with this genealogy resource at URL:
The list of towns from that article with Tabula Registers for the Villages and Towns of Galicia:
Bandrow | Bania Kotowska | Belz (15 vols) | |
Berwinkowa | Bialoberezka | Bialogora | |
Bialy Kamien | Blyszczywody (incl. in Mokrotyn) | Bolechow | |
Bolehowce | Brody (32 vols, 1794-1884) | Bronica | |
Brzegi Dolne | Brzezany (12 vols) | Buda (incl. in Wysoka) | |
Busk (5 vols) | Cholojow | Chorocowa | |
Chyrow | Czajkowice | Dobra | |
Dobrohostow | Dobromyl (16 vols) | Dobrzanica (incl. in Uszkowice) | |
Dolhopol | Dolina (10 vols) | Dolina area villages (incl. in Lopianka) | |
Drohobycz & suburbs (81 vols) | Dunajow vicinity villages |
|
|
Engelsbruk | Falkenberg | Falkenstein | |
Folwarki Wielke & Folwarki Male | Gaje Starobrodskie | Gerynia (incl. in Witwica) | |
Gleboka | Gliniany (8 volumes) | Grodek Jagiellonski (11 volumes 1797-1880) | |
Halicz (10 vols. 1753-1886) | Holowy | Hoszow | |
Hoszow (incl. in Stankowce) | Hrusatycze (incl. in Strzeliska) | Hubice | |
Huczko | Jagielnica | Jaroslaw (50 vols. 1792-1892) | |
Jasien | Jasienica | Jasienica Solna | |
Jaworow (9 vols. 1792-1893) | Jozefow | Kalusz (7 vols. 1758-1822) | |
Kamionka Strumilowa (21 books) | Katyna | Kimirz | |
Kniahinin (4 vols. 1801-1885) | Kniazpol | Kobasz | |
Kolomyja (30 volumes) | Kolpiec | Komarno | |
Korostow | Kotacin | Krakowiec | |
Krasnoila | Krechow | Kropiwnik Nowy & Stary | |
Krystynopol (7 vols. 1792-1883) | Kulczyce | Kulikow | |
Kurowice | Kuty (18 vols, 1781-1888) | Kwaszenina | |
Lacke | Liskowate | Liszczyny | |
Lisznia | Lopianka | Lodyna | |
Lopuszanka | Lopusznica | Lubycza Krolewska | |
Makow | Mariampol (3 vols, 1807-1855) | Migowo | |
Mizun | Modrycz | Mokrotyn | |
Mokrotyn, Smerekow, Przedrzymichy, & Blyszczywody | Muzylowice | Nadziejow (incl. in Lopianka) | |
Nahujowice | Nanow | Narajow | |
Neudorf (incl. in Bolechowce) | Niedwedza | Nojdorf (incl. in Zawidowice) | |
Nowe Miasto (1 volume) | Obersdorf | Olesko (3 vols, 1798-1882) | |
Orow | Paprotno | Plebania | |
Polana | Potylicz | Powitno | |
Prochnik (14 vols, 1814-1874) | Przerzymichy (incl. in Mokrotyn) | Przemysl with suburbs (56 vols, 1799-1894) | |
Przemyslany (11 vols, 1816-1881) | Radziechow (2 vols, 1827-1874) | Raniowice | |
Rawa Ruska (12 vols, 1796-1882) | Rodatycze | Rogozno | |
Rozenburg | Rozen Maly and Rozen Wielki | Roztoki | |
Roztoczki (incl. in Witwica) | Rudawka | Rudki (4 vols) | |
Rybno with Slobodka | Rybotycze | Rymanow with neighboring villages (6 vols, 1782-1888) | |
Sambor & neighboring villages (69 volumes) | Sielec | Smereczna | |
Smerekov (incl. Mokrotyn) | Slobodka | Smolnica | |
Smolno | Sniatyn (vols, 1791-1832) | Sokal (vols. with index) | |
Solec | Sopotnik | Stainfeld | |
Stanila with Stebnik and Kolpets | Stanislawow & suburbs (99 vols. 1784-1882) | Stankowce with Hoszow | |
Stare Miasto | Stary Sambor | Starzawa Sanocka | |
Stebne with Dolhopol | Stebnik | Strzeliska Nowe and Stare | |
Sulukow (incl. Lopianka) | Szmankowce | Tarnawa | |
Tartakow (1 vol. 1817-1883) | Tarnopol city (50 vols.). | Trebowla (12 vols. 1803-1886) | |
Truskawiec (incl. Tustanowice) | Tudiow | Tustanowice (1802-1889) | |
Tyzlow | Uhnow | Ulyczno | |
Untervalden (incl. in Uszkowice) | Ustrzyki Dolne (1855-1880) | Uszkowice | |
Warez | Wierzblany | Witkow Nowy | |
Witwica incl. Roztoczki & Gerynia | Wojnilow (3 vols, 1652-1839) | Wolica | |
Wysocko | Wysoka & Buda | Wyzniany & vicinity | |
Zablotow (3 vols) | Zaleszczyki (4 vols) | Zawidowice & Nojdorf | |
Zbadyn | Zbaraz (8 vols) | Zloczow (50 vols) | |
Zolkiew (24 vols) | Zoltantce | Zurawno (2 vols) | |
Zydaczow (8 vols) |
Thank you, Alexander Dunai, for this fine piece of research. I will be visiting your website and taking a further look at your other efforts too. Very nice website!
The minions in the Email-Room dropped off a missive at my virtual cubicle today. Today’s question is about Polish Royalty & DNA as it relates to genealogy …
Hi, I stumbled across your blog and thought you might could help me. We are searching for my father’s ancestry and think he is a Poniatowski. My grandfather Andrzej changed his name when he came to America in 1909. The story we always heard was that he was royal. So I have my father’s yDNA markers but cannot find a surname project online for the Poniatowskis or other Polish nobles. Do you know of any? Maybe you can give me some advice? I sure would appreciate it! Thanks in advance for sharing anything.Sincerely,Kristian Krawford— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Kristian,
Welcome to the blog. DNA plays a role in genealogy in some ways, but it is NOT for every genealogist. It is due the certainty factor (I favor >97% certainty) takes you back beyond the number of generations that most people tracing Slavic/Polish genealogy can do UNLESS they have royal blood. Your question gives me yet another reason to endorse limited use of DNA in genealogy. I am in favor of using DNA in your case because, you want to determine if you have royal blood or not and specifically whether or not you are related to Poniatowski szlactha (nobility).
Now to the crux of your question. You have your family DNA and want to compare it. Ancestry.com has some capacity, but perhaps because they have so little Polish emphasis in their data, their DNA may be lacking from Polish genealogists families. So…
You can Google:
Y-DNA project of Polish Nobility families
That led me to:
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/polish/default.aspx?section=ysnp
This web page had a very extensive list of family names with their DNA markers. I hope you can find your markers in these that are available. Notice that is “Y-DNA”. The mt-DNA will not work for you as that is the maternal/mitochondrial DNA that is passed from Mother to all children (relatively unchanged, except by mutation) and the Y-DNA is the paternal DNA passed from father to sons (23rd chromosome). The rest of the DNA is called autosomal / atDNA (see Genealogical DNA test). This link is a good link for introduction of DNA terms to the genealogist.
Good Luck!
Stanczyk
The Getty Museum released on 14th-August-2013 over 4,000 images into public domain (i.e. free). According to the ArtObserved article on the museum’s public release made public on their Getty Iris blog, this is part of their, “Open Content” commitment of their digital resources.
You can search these images using: Getty Search Gateway .
Stanczyk, knows what you’re thinking, “I am too busy on my genealogy to search through museum images”. But I politely urge you to reconsider. While I was searching their images, I found a genealogical family tree, of Duke Ludwig I of Brzeg (amongst many other images he commissioned). A Polish noble of house Piast. So if your family tree intersects, get thee to the Getty Museum. For those curious, I have posted the images to this blog. The text is Fraktur looking, gothic, German script.
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¶
In another case of finding something interesting whilst researching something else, I found a type of Church Register Index that I have not seen before in any other parish. So today’s blog is about that novel index I found. See the Church Register in the picture (see below).
Dateline Koprzywnica parish, 1810 – In what was after the 3rd partition was Austrian-Hungarian territory (Austrian-Poland in green), has now been annexed by Napoleon in 1809 into the Duchy of Warsaw and in another five years will be Congress Poland (Vistulaland, Russian-Poland). But in 1810 we are speaking of Koprzywnica in the powiat of Staszow and the Departement of Radom. No, that is not wojewodztwo — it is the French, Departement that is the highest level of administration in the Duchy of Warsaw. The map shows that a huge swath of green from the Austrian-Poland partition (zabior) was annexed into the Duchy in 1809. Stanczyk’s own ancestors once again switched Empires from Austria to France. So too did the citizens of Koprzywnica (and a great many cities, towns, and villages). Poof, now the records go from Latin, in the perfunctory Latin Box (Table) Format to the lingua franca of Polish paragraph with French-style two witnesses.
So Koprzywnica, like Stanczyk’s own ancestral Villages (Biechów and Pacanów) was briefly Austrian, then French (very briefly), then Russian until 1917-1918 whence it became just Poland again. We can find Koprzywnica in the gazetteer, Skorowidz Miejscowoscy Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej as being in the powiat Sandomierz, wojewowdztwo Kielce (circa 1920’s/1930’s).
Indexes are so very helpful. It is always a let down when a parish book or a year within the book lacks any kind of index. That means I will have to look at each and every record to see if any are related to me / my research. Early Latin paragraph form church records often do not have any index — they barely denote the year change. So that means you have to read each and every badly handwritten paragraph of Latin — very rare to find a priest with good Latin handwriting. That is why the Latin Box Format was more welcome. At least I could find the pieces of info and the handwriting was less of an issue. But the Latin Box format did not have indexes either.
So it was helpful when Napoleon implemented the Codex Napoleon in the Duchy of Warsaw. So by 1810 you see the records written in Polish (lingua franca) in a paragraph form that is specified by the Codex Napoleon. And these new records have indexes!
OK, the indexes initially are by letter: A, B, C, …, Z. So you have just under 26 pages of indexes. It is an improvement. Quickly the church realizes it can save paper by running the index all together with all letters on a single (or a few) page(s) in order alphabetically. Very efficient to scan these indexes for your families. And it was also easy to spot when a priest added a late addition to the index at the back after all other names (even though it was evidently in the wrong spot lexicographically speaking).
OK 1868-1918, we find Russian / Cyrillic indexes. In addition to priests not knowing Russian well and ordering names phonetically before later on, we find the index in Cyrillic proper lexical order you will have to scan carefully. Cyrillic kind of forces that to those of us weaned on a Latin alphabet. But you sometimes find the Russian indexes sorted in Cyrillic lexical order … by the first name ??? That is not very useful. Sometimes the index is in chronological order (akt # / record # order) making it barely more useful then scanning every record.
But when we find a well formed index (or a not so good index) it is always for one event: Birth/Christening, Marriage / Marriage Banns, Death Records. One index for Births, one for Marriages and one for Deaths … assuming none are missing, 3 indexes. That is what makes the following index so very interesting …
This was supposed to be a Marriage Index !! But it was five scanned pages! This would have to be an extraordinarily large city to have that many marriages! What are all of those columns ?? That is what I asked myself.
Let’s see what those columns are: Record # (Akt #), Village Name, Person Name(s), Births (Urodzin), Deaths (Zeyscie), Banns (Zapowiedz), and finally Marriages(Malzenstwa) Kart # (you can safely ignore). This index is an all event index. Births-Deaths-Banns-Marriages all interleaved. In fact, when I look at each event (B/M/D) I see the same 99 event-record pages and the same five index pages. It appears that all events are in the same register! This is rather unique — as I said previously I have not seen this before in other parish registers I have seen.
So in this “combo style” index (which needs a proper name) you cannot have a single name for marriage record, so marriage records have two names (as usual), but this requires two lines in this style of index — since we are multi-columnar. We also see that Banns are indicated ‘I‘ or ‘II‘ — the third bann being the actual marriage itself. The Roman numeral written above the word Zapowiedz. So since the index is in Akt# order, it is a chronological order too. It could be interesting from a demographic perspective (what time of year do most marriages occur or do a higher concentration of deaths occur in winter months). If this style index had occurred during an epidemic year, then we could have seen all of the deaths occurring in a great streak without interruption by other events. 1810 in Koprzywnica was not such an epidemic year.
There is one more fascinating aspect to this index. In the Napoleonic era (1807 thru 1829) we find that Catholic priest acts as the civil administrator and that Jewish/Evangelic/Orthodox vital records are written in the Catholic register. How is this noted in the index — which again I have not seen elsewhere? Look at the scanned register image for this blog. Pay attention to Records #’s:
85, 86, and 91.
It so happens that each of these records is a Marriage Banns event type. But, notice that each begins ‘Zyda‘. Żyd = Jew, hence Żyda is plural for Jews. Żydów = Jewish. This indicates that this is a Jewish civil record being recorded. Now I know that Jewish vital records are recorded in the Napoleonic era Catholic registers. But it is unusual that it is indicated in the index (as opposed to being in the record itself).
So this was a very fascinating find after all. I was actually looking for a particular Leszczyński but I found a novel index and indeed a novel parish register overall.
The Fourth Partition (23 January 2013) – A Discussion of the Duchy of Warsaw, with a map
Historical Eras of Poland (21 January 2013) – A set of Stanczyk defined eras of Poland of particular use to genealogists. An historical definition of Poland’s eras (1569-present) based upon history’s impact on genealogical research.
The index from this column was found in the Polish website: genealodzy.pl (PTG) of which I written many times before. Their METRYK project of scanned church books is where I found the 1810 Koprzywnica Index.
Kalendarz Historyczny Polski (Kwiecień)
April 1st – Death of Zygmunt I (King), 2nd – Death of Andrzej Leszczynski (Archbishop of Gniezno).
Hmmm, the month starts ominously. This jester likes that on the 20th- Krakow Cathedral (Church Blessing/Consecration, at founding?). A Good Day Indeed!
Stanczyk loves this story. That the discoverer formerly known as Christopher Columbus (who really should be known by his Portuguese name: Cristobal Colon) may be Polish-Lithuanian royalty.
Stanczyk has written a few times on this Columbus / Wladyslaw III genealogy-genetics-history riddle. The Don Quixote of this tale is Manuel Rosa (an an information technology analyst and amateur historian). Mr. Rosa’s claims of the Polish (or more properly Lithuanian, as in Jagiellonian) Wladyslaw III lineage date back to November 2010.
1. 02-December-2010 – Christopher Columbus Discovers … He Is POLISH!
2. 27-December-2010 – Wladislaw III – Father of Columbus
Plus a few mentions: 2011, & 2012 at the start of Polish Heritage Month (each October).
Well here is the latest update, from “the Lithuania Tribune“. You can read the lengthy article which is most informative.
The author laments (“… it is lamentable that, up until now, there is little or no debate in America or Lithuania to either accept or contradict”) that only Portuguese and Polish academics have currently debated this topic. Well then Rosa needs to have published/translated the book in Lithuanian and English if he wishes for further debate.
Are there any historians out there? Can anyone refute or supply proof of the above factual claims? Columbus letters and their language should be easy to establish. What about these other people named: General[Roman] Colonius, Portuguese nobles related to Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, or Prince Georges Paleologue de Bissipat ? Come on European Historians help out this poor jester with some factual links or books/documents — so much is online these days.
The next Manuel Rosa appearance is: April 6, 2013, where Manuel Rosa will present a lecture at Boalsburg’s Columbus Chapel, (http://www.boalmuseum.com/columbus-lecture.html) where more evidence will be presented, in Boalsburg, PA which is North-West of Harrisburg (contact: contact 814-466-9266 or office@boalmuseum.com).
I’d love to have this story proven true or false. It is time for the sensationalism to end. Did National Geo ever televise this story as reported earlier? This jester never saw it. What happened with the Colon DNA being compared to Wladyslaw III descendants? So far we only have that he is not related to Colombos who are Genoese. But since he had Roman heritage, I presume he has some Italian DNA. What about the Slavic DNA? Those pesky Slavic DNA markers are pretty different from Italian DNA markers. I am hoping we have Y-Chromosome DNA testing which should show Slavic markers and MT DNA testing which should show Italian/Portuguese markers.
I accept that Cristobal Colon must have had royal blood to marry a noble woman and have such access to European courts. I also accept that a noble man would have had the education that a peasant wool-worker could never have had. I am uncertain about the heraldic symbols. The rest I am unqualified to judge — hence the plea for help.
tanczyk, has been busy revisiting the Metryk (metrical, vital records) images from genealodzy.pl of the various parishes/synagogues [hereafter I just use ‘parish’ as shorthand for ‘parish/synagogue’]. As my blog, Waiting For Polish Archives 2.4 M Scans (March 18th, 2013), indicated, I have been exhausting the possibilities for Biechow & Zborowek parishes in the Buski (Busko-Zdroj) powiat. The images are clearer, so I am replacing my existing images with these much better images. In some cases, I have found that the images of the Polish paragraph format provide me with additional details over what may have been available via only a Latin Box format copy that I might have previously had. At the very least, I have corrected a few mistakes of translation due to unreadable portions from prior microfilm I have read from/taken pictures of. So I strongly encourage others to make this effort.
I have been using the Metryk database and looking at the images/scans. Sometimes you have to look at dozens of images because there is NO index. But most of the collection (post 1812) have indexes. If you see SKU (that means index/skorowidz of births/urodziny), likewise for SKM (for marriage), and SKZ (for death) indexes. Sometimes indexes spread across multiple pages, so you may see SK1, SKa (names begining with the letter ‘A’) or SKU1, etc. SO use these indexes to look for your family names, then just load up the scan of the akt (record) number for your ancestor — no need to search through a multitude of images.
I have also used Geneszukacz as another kind of index to search for family names. These indexes are nice because I can catch ancestors getting married (or dying or giving birth) in another parish that I might not have known to check. If this previously unknown parish is one that has scans, then I go directly to the year/event for that parish and go to the akt specified in Geneszukacz!
So that is all great and I exhort you to do this.
But these new, previously unknown parishes. Where are they? How far away from the ancestral village are they? That is when I need a gazetteer (check out Stanczyk’s Gazetter page) or a map. If you have not been to the Polish War Map Archive (Archiwum Map Wojskowego), then today’s blog is your reason to do so. I have a map on my wall of my ancestral villages. The map’s name is: STOPNICA_PAS47_SLUP32. In fact, I use their MAP INDEX, 1:100,000 scale map tiled in squares (http://igrek.amzp.pl/mapindex.php?cat=WIG100). Please NOTE these map images are from about 4MB to 7MB in size. Make sure you are at a Free WiFi cafe where you can use a high-speed and the large band-width for the map images you download.
When you see, PAS think ROW and when you see SLUP think COLUMN. This is a big Cartesian Grid (or computer types can think 2d-array). It turns out that STOPNICA_PAS47_SLUP32 has: Biechow, Pacanow, Ksiaznice, Zborowek, Swiniary, Szczucin, Beszowa, Olesnica, and STOPNICA. In fact, that one map has many more parishes than those that I enumerated. I have a small snippet of the Map Index below (you can click on the image and it will take you to the actual map index):
So I found an ELIJASZ ancestor in Koniemloty parish getting married, who was from PACANOW parish. Now from the Metryk web app, I knew Koniemloty was in STASZOW powiat. So I go to the Map Index and look at the grid near STOPNICA (P47_S32) and voila, STASZOW is the box due north of STOPNICA in PAS46_SLUP32. If you cannot locate you powiat that way, then you must drop back to MAPA.SZUKACZ.pl (an interactive map that I have raved about before) and look for KONIEMLOTY (do not need to use diacriticals) to get the relative feel that it is north or east (or north-east). So any way, STASZOW_PAS46_SLUP32 is the map for KONIEMLOTY parish. Notice PAS46 is one row less than PAS47 (of STOPNICA). PAS decreasing is going north, PAS increasing is going south. Going east from STASZOW, we see the SLUP increases to SLUP33 (SANDOMIERZ) or going west the SLUP decreases to SLUP31 (PINCZOW). So now you can now work with the Map Index using the cardinal directions by adding/subtracting to/from the rows/columns.
P.S. Since this is the Passover (Pesach) / Easter (Wielkanoc) season, let me honor my wife (Tereza) by pointing out that her paternal grandfather, Benjamin Solomon, had as a birth village, Proskuriw (aka PŁOSKIRÓW, Хмельницький/Khmelnitski — now in Modern Ukraine). This village is shown in the lower right-hand corner of my map snippet (PAS51_SLUP44).
Stanczyk ‘s position has been overrun! I was trying to write a blog, but the course of events has been running at EXTREME Internet speed so much of this blog post may be “old news” to you — but in case its not, this is very exciting news!
According to a Polish website (The National Digital Library of Poland) …
URL: http://nac.gov.pl/node/682
These are actual church record images! I hope they plan on digitizing records from the Kielce Archive (please do PACANOW, BIECHOW, SWINIARY, BESZOWA, ZBOROWEK, KSIAZNICE and STOPNICA parishes).
Can anyone detail the plans for JUNE yet? Unfortunately, the 1.37 Million records in March are NOT from the KIELCE archive or any parish where Stanczyk’s ancestors resided?
Do not forget about GENETEKA database in the meantime:
Thanks in advance for any answers from our genealogists resident in Poland!
Stanczyk has lived much history and God willing, will live much more of it. So across the generations, you see the changing borders of Eastern / Central Europe and how it affects us genealogists (not that I am ignoring the plight of our ancestors that had to evolve with the changing landscape). From the beginning, I was always advised to learn about “The three partitions” and determine which of the three partitions my forebears came from — good advice, but Poland’s history is a much richer tapestry than just the three partitions (zabory).
So today’s blog is about the Eras of Poland and the names I have chosen to call them going forward so that we can all “be on the same page”. Please forgive this jester as I will limit the discussion to the eras post-Piast dynasties, starting with the Polish-LithuanianCommonwealth. This roughly matches the Papal nuncios that dictated that churches must record the vital records of the parishioners. So we find the beginnings of genealogies for all peoples and not just for the magnate families or the royals.
Let me just utter the era names I wish to use going forward when I write about genealogies or histories. Let me get the mystery out of the way and also let the debates and arguments proceed. Some of these are overlapping eras, because not only are we discussing a vast span of time, but we are also talking about vast distances and a broad swath of peoples / religions / governments.
ERAS
ERA Name | Beg. Date | End Date | Synonyms / Alternate Names |
POLISH-LITHUANIANCOMMONWEALTH | 07/01/1569 | 08/04/1772 | RZECZPOSPOLITA, FIRSTREPUBLIC |
AUSTRIAN PARTITION | 08/05/1772 | 07/21/1807 | ZABÓR AUSTRIA, GALICIA, GALICIA AND LODOMERIA, GALICJI, GALIZIEN, LODOMERIA |
PRUSSIAN PARTITION | 08/05/1772 | 07/21/1807 | ZABÓR PRUSY, GRAND DUCHY OF POSEN |
RUSSIAN PARTITION | 08/05/1772 | 07/21/1807 | ZABÓR ROSYJSKI |
JEWISH PALE OF SETTLEMENT | 01/01/1791 | 3/8/1921 | ЧЕРТÁ́ ОСЕДЛОСТИ, CHERTA OSEDLOSTI |
DUCHY OF WARSAW | 07/22/1807 | 06/08/1815 | KSIĘSTWO WARSZAWSKIE |
AUSTRIAN POLAND | 06/09/1815 | 11/10/1918 | GALICIA |
CONGRESS POLAND | 06/09/1815 | 03/06/1837 | KINGDOM OF POLAND, KONGRESÓWKA |
PRUSSIAN POLAND | 06/09/1815 | 11/10/1918 | Bezirks: POSEN, POMMERANIA, DANZIG (GDANSK) etc. |
CRACOVIANREPUBLIC | 10/01/1815 | 12/31/1846 | CRACOWREPUBLIC, RZECZPOSPOLITA KRAKÓWSKA |
KINGDOM OF POLAND | 03/07/1837 | 12/31/1866 | KONGRESÓWKA, КОРОПЕВСТВО ПОПЬСКОЕ |
RUSSIAN POLAND | 01/01/1867 | 11/10/1918 | КОРОПЕВСТВО ПОПЬСКОЕ, KINGDOM OF POLAND, VISTULALAND, CONGRESS POLAND, KONGRESÓWKA, ПРИВИСЛИНСКИЙ КРАЙ, KRAJ PRZYWIŚLAŃSKI |
POLAND | 11/1/1918 | 9/1/1939 | SECONDREPUBLIC |
WWII ERA | 9/2/1939 | 12/31/1946 | Occupied Poland, General Government, German Occupied, Russian Occupied |
POLAND | 1/1/1945 | 6/30/1975 | Post World War II Poland |
POLAND | 7/1/1975 | 12/31/1998 | 1989 is commonly referred to as the start of the THIRDREPUBLIC |
POLAND | 1/1/1999 | Present Times | THIRDREPUBLIC and beyond to the present |
Some of the era names are well understood and some are controversial (for a lot of reasons). First off, I wanted to make a distinction between the PARTITION era (1772-1815) which I saw as including the Napoleonic wars and ending with Napoleon’s defeat and the Treaty of Vienna.
So I separate AUSTRIAN PARTITION from AUSTRIAN POLAND. The distinction is subtle but I believe defensible. The three Partitions and the Duchy of Warsaw (French protectorate) are separate because during these times there was at least a scrap of Poland in existence (excepting for a decade proceeding Napoleon’s victories). The AUSTRIAN/PRUSSIAN/RUSSIAN POLANDs represent the slightly more than one century that Poland had “disappeared” from European maps. That century coincides with the Great Migration of Poles (including Jews) to the USA – a significant genealogical event for the Slavic Genealogist.
You will note the CracovianRepublic which gets a lesser amount of attention and eventually is folded into AUSTRIAN POLAND. Also there is the JEWISH PALE OF SETTLEMENT (more about that in a bit).
RUSSIAN POLAND is treated differently than I have seen it handled before. My ancestors come from this area, so you will have to forgive me if this appears a bit chauvinistic. I delineated the RUSSIAN occupation finely. So you see a Russian Partition followed by a Duchy of Warsaw followed by Congress Poland ( a TSARIST hegemony) followed by the Kingdom of Poland and finally resulting in RUSSIAN POLAND. The nuances in the RUSSIAN Zabor (partition) follow the changes in administrative boundaries that so affect genealogical research. Genealogists also should take note that vitals records in RUSSIAN POLAND are written in Russian/Cyrillic and use Gregorian Calendar from late spring 1869 through the collapse of the Russian Empire near the end of World War I in 1917. So, Polish language records are found before and after that period of time. Similarly, for Latin/Hebrew languages for religious records (although you do find Latin, Hebrew and even some Polish records during 1869-1917 timeframe in some limited ways). Since the Russian language edict almost matches exactly the above RUSSIAN POLAND era, I did not create yet another era specifically for that era of Russian language. I merely note it here.
The JEWISH PALE OF SETTLEMENT was created by the Russian Tsarina, Catherine the Great. She added to the PALE over the years as the Russian Empire acquired new lands. So as I refer to the JEWISH PALE OF SETTLEMENT, it is the 15 western Guberniya where Russian Empire Jews were forced to settle. In practice it also included the 10 Guberniya of the PolishKingdom (Congress Poland/Vistula Land). So Russian Jews had a total of 25 Guberniya where they could live (with some exclusions for large cities which were forbidden to most Jews) within the Russian Empire (European Portion). Most or all of the areas within the 25 Guberniya used to be a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1772), so I thought it important to include the JEWISH PALE OF SETTLEMENT in order to speak of the 15 Guberniya that underlie that geographic area and that era of time (1791-1918) as well as some minor forays on my part into Jewish Genealogical research. The 15 specific guberniya are (roughly North to South):
Kovno, Vitebsk, Vilna (Wilno), Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev, Volhynia, Kiev, Chernigov, Poltava, Podolia, Bessarabia, Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, and Taurida (the Crimean Penninsula)
The astute reader will note four POLAND eras. These cover the two decades between World War I and the up to the time of World War II began. It also covers the Post World War II era. They also overlap the Second and Third Republics of Poland. Finally, the fine-grain view of Post World War II Poland is coincident with the redefinition of Wojewodztwo (Provinces) and their underlying powiaty (counties). Again, the emphasis is in order to support genealogical research.
I have not mentioned the WWII era (World War II) yet. I need to do some specific research to see how Nazi / Soviet occupations affected the administrative jurisdictions and what impact if any that had on genealogy during the war. I leave that for some future blog(s).
No mention of religious hierarchies and their administrative boundaries have been addressed, but obviously, that too has an impact on genealogical research. The religious boundaries reflect the changes caused by changing national boundaries, but overall the religious boundaries were more stable until modern times necessitated re-arranging or closing religious areas.
OK, that is my blog and those are my eras. You may now proceed to critique my choices. But I have now defined my terms for future “Polish” genealogical blogs. As usual, I look forward to your comments and emails.
The dark rectangles (with the year numbers) are the Catholic Churches of Toledo.
The Polish settlements are noted with the German given name for the region: kuhschwanz (cow’s tail). ELIASZ – MYLEK – SOBIESZCANSKI (SOBB) were St. Anthony parish members. Saints (SS.) Peter & Paul was an an even older Polish parish !
This Passover / Easter weekend seems a good time as any to reflect on our family genealogy.
I know (or at least I think) that the website RAOGK/Random-Acts-Of-Genealogical-Kindness went defunct and that heirs/friends of the original website owner were trying to revive this website of genealogical service to others. I hope it does get a new life.
But even if it does not, we can still engage in RAOGK. Genealogy is the original collaborative / crowd sourced research field. For years, I have volunteered and also been the benefactor of other volunteers who have bestowed their time/efforts for a greater good. It is one of the reasons, I treasure genealogy as a past time, because of the general kindness of our fellow researchers who also share a passion for research, history, genealogy and family and a fondness for others who also engage in genealogy.
As my previous blog article chronicled, Steve Kalemkiewicz did his part this Holy Week. He went to the Detroit Public Library and did just a bit more research than just what he needed to do for himself. As a result we all have 14 new names that may benefit our research.
On Good Friday, I was able to get back to Holy Trinity Cemetery (Phoenixville) and take about 70 pictures of headstones. This I sent off to the PGSCT&NE for their cemetery databases. It should yield a good 100-140 new names for their databases. Holy Trinity is a mostly Polish cemetery, in fact its name on the two Gate Posts is written in Polish on one and English on the other. I thank Jonathan Shea and the others at PGSCT&NE who collect and post this info to their website.
As a side note, I’d like to mention that the PGSCT&NE is putting on a free seminar for researching your Slavic Roots. You can register for this April 28th seminar, by calling 215-360-3422. The seats are limited and You Need to pre-register. This is another RAOGK.
Do yourself and others some good and perform a RAOGK soon!
Happy & Blessed Easter/Passover to all readers!
–Stanczyk
was finally able to use his training from Steve Morse’s presentation at RootsTech 2012 to create a One-Step Search App for the Dziennik Polski Detroit Newspaper Database.
To search on 30,920 Polish Vital Record Events, just go to the new Dziennik Polski Detroit Newspaper Database App Search page (on the right, under PAGES, for future reference).
For more background on the Dziennik Polski Detroit Newspaper click on the link.
You can search on the following fields:
Last Name – exact means the full last name exactly as you typed it. You can also select the ‘starts with’ radio button and just provide the first few starting characters. Do not use any wild card characters!
First Name – exact means the full first name exactly as you typed it. You can also select the ‘starts with’ radio button and just provide the first few starting characters. Do not use any wild card characters!
Newspaper Date – exact means that you need to enter the full date. Dates are of the format:
06/01/1924 (for June 1st, 1924). Format is MM/DD/YYYY. Leading zeros are required for a match.
You can use ‘contains’ radio button to enter a partial date. The most useful partial is just to provide the Year (YYYY). Do not use any wild card characters!
Event Type – exact means the full event type. This is not recommended. You SHOULD select the ‘starts with’ radio button and just provide the first few starting characters. Do not use any wild card characters! Uppercase is not required.
Valid Events Types: BIRTH, CONSULAR, DEATH, or MARRIAGE
Indexer – exact means the full indexer exactly as you typed it. You can also select the ‘starts with’ radio button and just provide the first few starting characters. Do not use any wild card characters!
The Indexer is meant to be informational only, but you could conceivably want to search on this field too, so it is provided.
Stanczyk is a Library of Congress (LOC) researcher. Mostly, I have done my research in the Madison building where they keep the Newspapers / Periodicals.
Today they (LOC) sent me an email announcing another 100+ newspapers digitized with another 550,000+ new digitzed pages available via their Chronicling America – Historical Newspaper program. I have written about this worthy program before. Whether you research history or genealogy, these newspapers can be of help and providing evidence or even just adding a context to your ancestors.
Did you know that the LOC has over 220 Polish language newspapers on microfilm (and/or digitized)? To help out the Polish Genealogists, I have compiled and published a list of the LOC’s Polish Language Newspapers: here .
Make newspapers a part of your research to fill the gaps or to provide context!
–Stanczyk
Pączki Day – In the Detroit area suburbs, we always waited for Fat Tuesday to come around. Because, on the last day of Mardis Gras (Fat Tuesday) we would queue up in long lines — typically at an Oaza Bakery to buy our Pączki Donuts.
Now it has been over two decades since then and we do not have any Oaza Bakeries out here on the East Coast and there are few and far between Polish bakeries/delis of any kind around and none near where I live. I used to buy a few dozen Pączki Donuts and bring them into work to introduce the non-Poles to some Polish culture. Always a hit!
Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of the austere Lenten season. The forty day season of preparation celebrating the arrival of God’s Good News & Holy Spirit into our midst that culminates in Easter. Alleluia !
I miss the Pączki Donuts. Fastnachts are just not the same. One year, I thought I would make Pączki Donuts for the family, so I gathered an authentic, “Old Busia”, recipe and bought a fryer and made my dough for the Pączki. I picked out my favorite fruit fillings and fried my little masterpieces and sprinkled the warm donuts with powdered sugar. These were passable substitutes for the beloved Polish culture that I had left behind in MI. For a few years I carried proudly my scar of an oil burn caused by one of my over zealous little Pączki helpers. The scar has long since disappeared, but the memory remains.
Have A Blessedly Happy Lenten Season Everyone!
Stanczyk is always seeking out high quality resources that provide context for understanding and/or to provide ideas for new avenues of research. One of the great resources since about 1985, has been Avotaynu. Besides their journal of the same name which is the largest circulation magazine of Jewish Genealogy, they also publish many reference books for Eastern Europe that are of aid Jewish and Non-Jewish researchers alike.
They maintain an index of their published issues (1985-2008) here (http://www.avotaynu.com/indexsum.htm). It is broken down by various countries. This material can also be found in back issues, libraries, and they offer a CD covering the entire 24 year span. This jester sat down to produce a Polish Index for Polish Genealogists of all stripes (Enjoy!):
# | Title / Description | ISSUE | YEAR |
1 | Jewish records at the Genealogical Society of Utah | II/1/03 | 1986 |
2 | Index to Polish-Jewish records at Genealogical Society of Utah | II/1/05 | 1986 |
3 | Book review: The Jews in Poland and Russia–Biographical Essay | III/1/38 | 1987 |
4 | Origin of Russian-Jewish surnames | III/2/03 | 1987 |
5 | Breakthrough in access to Polish-Jewish records | IV/1/10 | 1988 |
6 | Book review: Jews of Posen in 1834 and 1835 | IV/2/26 | 1988 |
7 | Update on project to microfilm Jewish records in Poland | IV/3/12 | 1988 |
8 | Doing research in the Polish State Archives | IV/3/21 | 1988 |
9 | Jewish Historical Institute in Poland | V/2/07 | 1989 |
10 | Jewish genealogical research in Poland | V/2/08 | 1989 |
11 | Trip to Poznan: The Poland that was not | V/3/16 | 1989 |
12 | Professional genealogists in Poland | V/4/04 | 1989 |
13 | List of former Jewish residents of Lodz | V/4/15 | 1989 |
14 | Caricatures in Polish vital statistic records | VI/1/16 | 1993 |
15 | Polish trip for Jewish genealogists planned | VI/1/41 | 1993 |
16 | Using Prussian gazetteers to locate Jewish religious and civil records in Poznan | VI/2/12 | 1993 |
17 | Sephardic migrations into Poland | VI/2/14 | 1993 |
18 | A genealogical tour through Poland | VI/3/16 | 1993 |
19 | Program Judaica to document Jewish history | VI/3/19 | 1993 |
20 | Jewish researcher in Poland | VI/3/39 | 1993 |
21 | Jews in Poland today | VI/4/63 | 1993 |
22 | Polish maps available in the U.S. | VIII/1/58 | 1993 |
23 | Weiner discusses developments in Poland and Ukraine | VIII/3/64 | 1993 |
24 | A 1992 research trip to Poland | VIII/4/12 | 1993 |
25 | Survey of Jewish cemeteries yields results | VIII/4/17 | 1993 |
26 | Cites Polish “rip off” | IX/1/65 | 1988 |
27 | Asks why survey of Polish cemeteries does not include all regions | IX/1/67 | 1988 |
28 | Polish-Jewish genealogical research–A primer | IX/2/04 | 1988 |
29 | More on the survey of Polish cemeteries | IX/2/13 | 1988 |
30 | Book review: Korzenie Polskie: Polish Roots | IX/2/61 | 1988 |
31 | Polish-Jewish heritage seminar planned for July in Krakow | IX/2/65 | 1988 |
32 | Asks for clarification (of Polish-Jewish records) | IX/3/66 | 1988 |
33 | Stettin emigration lists found | IX/3/67 | 1988 |
34 | Head of the Polish State Archives clarifies policies | IX/4/04 | 1988 |
35 | Book review: Jews in Poland: A Documentary History | IX/4/69 | 1988 |
36 | More on Polish-Jewish Genealogical Research | X/1/12 | 1994 |
37 | Directory of Polish State Archives | X/1/14 | 1994 |
38 | Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw | X/1/41 | 1994 |
39 | Jewish genealogical research in Polish archives | X/2/05 | 1994 |
40 | Jewish surnames in the Kingdom of Poland | X/2/15 | 1994 |
41 | Polish sources at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People | X/2/21 | 1994 |
42 | Success in dealing with Polish archives | X/2/48 | 1994 |
43 | Gleanings from a symposium on bibliographies of Polish Judaica | X/4/56 | 1994 |
44 | Polish name lists sought | XI/1/67 | 1995 |
45 | Nineteenth-Century Congress Documents and the Jews of Congress Poland | XI/3/24 | 1995 |
46 | Polish Vital Records for the Very Beginner: The Polish Language Challenged | XI/4/29 | 1995 |
47 | Alternate surnames in Russian Poland | XII/2/15 | 1996 |
48 | Census records and city directories in the Krakow Archives | XII/2/27 | 1996 |
49 | Book review: The Jews in Poland and Russia: Bibliographical Essays | XII/2/63 | 1996 |
50 | Alternative research sources in Poland | XII/2/65 | 1996 |
51 | Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw | XII/3/51 | 1996 |
52 | Director General of the Polish State Archives dies | XII/3/55 | 1996 |
53 | An interview with the new Polish State Archivist | XII/4/03 | 1996 |
54 | On-site Jewish genealogical research in Poland: an overview | XII/4/04 | 1996 |
55 | The Jewish cemetery in Warsaw | XII/4/56 | 1996 |
56 | Book review: Polish Countrysides: Photographs and Narrative | XII/4/81 | 1996 |
57 | German and Polish Place Names | XIV/2/33 | 1998 |
58 | List of More than 300,000 Polish Holocaust Survivors Received by USHMM In Wash. DC 19th- and 20th-Century Polish Directories as Resources for Genealogical Information | XIII/1/25 | 1997 |
59 | Hamburg Passengers from the Kingdom of Poland and the Russian Empire | XIII/2/63 | 1997 |
60 | Lw¢w Ghetto Records Being Indexed | XIII/3/66 | 1997 |
61 | Cites Location of Polish Directories | XIII/4/98 | 1997 |
62 | Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories; And I Still See Their Faces: Images of Polish Jews; Guide to the YIVO Archives; Luboml: Memorial Book of a Vanished Shtetl | XIV/1/63 | 1998 |
63 | Comments on Jewish Roots in Poland | XIV/2/65 | 1998 |
64 | Report on Jewish Communities in Poland Today | XIV/2/65 | 1998 |
65 | How I Found a New Ancestor in Krak¢w, Poland | XIV/4/65 | 1998 |
66 | 18th-Century Polish Jewry: Demographic and Genealogical Problems | XV/4/9 | 1999 |
67 | Tips on Translating Entries from Slownik Geograficzny | XVI/3/49 | 2000 |
68 | The Polish Concept of Permanent Place of Residence | XVI/3/12 | 2000 |
69 | More About Polish Books of Residents’ Registration | XVI/3/14 | 2000 |
70 | Can Jewish Genealogists Successfully Research 18th-Century Poland? | XVI/3/16 | 2000 |
71 | History Book Illuminates Jewish Life in Poland | XVI/3/40 | 2000 |
72 | Book Review: History of the Jews in Poland and Russia | XVI/3/65 | 2000 |
73 | Book Review: In Their Words: A Genealogist’s Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Russia Documents. Volume 1: Polish | XVI/4/87 | 2000 |
74 | Breaking New Ground: The Story of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland Project | XVII/1/7 | 2001 |
75 | Documenting the Fate of the Jews of Ostrow Mazowiecka | XVII/3/19 | 2001 |
76 | German and Polish Archival Holdings in Moscow | XVII/4/11 | 2001 |
77 | Internet Site Names Polish Towns | XVII/4/79 | 2001 |
78 | Researching Pre-1826 Vital Records in Congress Poland | XVIII/2/19 | 2003 |
79 | Book Review: Jewish Officers in the Polish Armed Forces, 1939-1945 | XVIII/3/62 | 2003 |
80 | Ashes and Flowers: A Family Trek to Jewish Poland and Romania | XVIII/4/11 | 2003 |
81 | Two Polish Directories Online | XVIII/4/91 | 2003 |
82 | Polish Passport Policy 1830-1930: Permits, Restrictions and Archival Sources | XIX/1/21 | 1998 |
83 | Book Reviews: Zród a archiwalne do dziejów Żydów w Polsce | XIX/3/65 | 1998 |
84 | Jewish Surnames in Russia, Poland, Galicia and Prussia | XIX/3/28 | 1998 |
85 | Using Polish Magnate Records for Posen | XIX/3/25 | 1998 |
86 | Avotaynu Online Database Lists Nobility Archives | XIX/4/21 | 1998 |
87 | Hidden Jews of Warsaw | XX/1/47 | 2004 |
88 | Polish archives in Bialystok, Knyszin and Lomza | XX/2/50 | 2004 |
89 | Polychromatic Tombstones in Polish-Jewish Cemeteries | XX/2/39 | 2004 |
90 | Tracing Family Roots Using JRI-Poland to Read Between the Lines | XX/2/15 | 2004 |
91 | Biographical lexicon of Polish rabbis and admorim | XX/3/47 | 2004 |
92 | Flatow Jewish Cemetery Tombstones Discovered | XX/4/79 | 2004 |
93 | Polish City Directories Now Online | XXI/3/67 | 2005 |
94 | Morgenthau Mission to Poland to Investigate the 1919 Pogroms: A Genealogical Resource | XXII/2/14 | 2006 |
95 | What Can We Learn from Slownik Geograficzny? | XXII/2/31 | 2006 |
96 | Spiritual Genealogy: A Look at Polish Notary Documentation | XXII/2/38 | 2006 |
97 | Notes Polish Book and Magnate Records | XXII/3/63 | 2006 |
98 | Exhibit of the Jews of Poznán, 1793–1939 | XXIII/1/71 | 2007 |
99 | Strategies for Assigning Surnames to Early JRI-Poland Records | XXIII/2/22 | 2007 |
100 | Book Review: Posen Place Name Indexes | XXIV/1/51 | 2008 |
In one of Stanczyk’s continuing memes, Things I Find Whilst Looking Up Other Things, I was combing the Internet and was rifling through Polish Genealogical Societies. I hopped from the PGSA.org to PGSNYS.org (Polish Genealogical Society of New York State), when they mentioned, The Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle. Apparently, they had a Reopening of their Library on September 17, 2011. The library is located at: 612 Fillmore Ave, Buffalo, New York 14212.
That got this jester to thinking, so here is my list of Polish Libraries in the USA:
Does anyone else know of any other Polish libraries that I need to add to this list? If so, please email me.
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