Personal Page: Tina
| Contact | Tina |
|---|---|
| All surnames | Iskirka, Malgraff |
| All places | Tatra Mountain Region |
| Research notes |
Hi, My great-grandfather Jan Iskirka emigrated to New Zealand in 1876 aboard the Terpsichore. He is listed as "Danish" in the Hamburg shipping list for that ship and year, but this is not correct, although he may have been working in Denmark and Germany before emigration. He settled in New Zealand, married a girl named Clara Malgraff from Prussian-occupied Poland and had 8 children. He never named himself as anything other than a "labourer" in any public documents, although it seems that at some stage he bought his own farm. My aunt, his granddaughter, has been my only source of information about Jan's life ; according to her, his birth family came from the Tatra Mountain region of Poland. I have not been able to find any clues to Jan's town or village of origin, since he never wrote this down anywhere, even on his naturalisation entry when he became a New Zealand citizen. Any information on the name "Iskirka", or any ideas for finding my great-grandfather's ancestral village, would be gratefully welcomed. |