PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

The last link in the Szymkiewicz family puzzle

ossnhughie — Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:47 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:47 pm

Friends from Polish Origins,
After a lot of looking around I have found what has happened to very family member of the original Szymkiewicz family as was living in Sprague, CT as of the 1910 federal census, except one the eldest son Stanislaw (Stanley) The last mention of him is that census that I can be definite on though I have some leads. Although he is not listed in the Obituary for his mother in 1936 as being a child of the deceased though it lists Mrs. Julia McDonald, Bennie Sinkiewicz, and Weronika Michalkiewicz. This leads me to conclude he died before 1936 so that leaves a 26 year search window.

I have contacted a librarian in Bridgewater where his sister died in 1918 to look for an obituary which hopefully, can confirm or deny whether he was alive as of then or possibly died before then. I need to fill in the gap to find out this last vexing missing piece.

Hugh

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

rsowa — Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:46 pm

Author: rsowa

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:46 pm

ossnhughie wrote:

Mary Sinkewicz wife of Anthony Pasiuk Died 9 October 1918 at age 25 from Influenza , and broncho-pneumonia....

on 6 October 1918 a 1 hour old John Pasiuk died a premature birth...

So it seems officially Confirmed that Anthony Pasiuk lost his wife and son wiithin days of eacjh other

Just a quick observation...events like the above can help provide some real insight into the lives of your ancestors. While you know that the Mary and the baby John died, how and why they died is also worth recording.

It sounds like Mary died during the great flu pandemic of 1918. Something like 50 million people around the world died of the Spanish flu in 1918-1919, with 675,000 in the US. Those that didn't die right away from the flu, often died later from complications and from pneumonia. This sounds like exactly what happened to Mary. She got sick with the flu, probably ran a really high fever and miscarried John. Then, developed pneumonia and died a few days later.

Richard

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

ossnhughie — Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:13 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:13 pm

My Friends,

I had a chance today to do more digging into Mary Pasiuk (Szymkiewicz) it turns out Elzbieta was right. The 1920 doesn't have Mary on it but doesn't list Anthony Pasiuk as being a widower either. Long story short I went to the Bridgewater, MA Town Clerk and look through their vital statistics books and this is what I found:

Mary Sinkewicz wife of Anthony Pasiuk Died 9 October 1918 at age 25 from Influenza , and broncho-pneumonia and was residing at Hale St. Bridgewater, MA. It lists her parents as Adolf and Jozefa Sinkiewicz.
I happened to notice in the ledger a few names up on 6 October 1918 a 1 hour old John Pasiuk died a premature birth, and he was the son of Mary and Anthony Pasiuk. Also Elzbieta your instincts were correct; The town marriage records state that:
on 14 June 1914 Antoni Pasiuk was wed to Mary Sinkiewicz at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Bridgewater, MA By Rev. Fr. William Ed. Kelly.

I also found the Brockton, MA (A town a few miles north) birth register that had Annie Pasiuk (spelled Pasink) born to Tony Pasink and Mary Sinkewicz on 19 February 1915.

So it seems officially Confirmed that Anthony Pasiuk lost his wife and son wiithin days of eacjh other but remarried well before the 1930 census to the former Mrs. Ameilia Bakun, who must have lost her husband also (Since Catholic Divorces were almost unheard of) either that or annulment which was rare still.

Thanks for your help, this has been an exciting couple of days lots of headway made.

Now I just have to figure out what came of Stanislaw (Stanley) Sinkiewicz.

Dziekuje,

Hugh

Re: interesting 1930 Pasiuk census result

Elzbieta Porteneuve — Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:58 pm

Author: Elzbieta Porteneuve

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:58 pm

ossnhughie wrote:

This is the 1930 census right before Annie Pasiuk got married 2 years later; note it says the mothers name is Ameila, not Mary or Marianna. interesting indeed.

Hugh

Hugh,

In the 1920 census Anthony is listed with only Annie, his wife is not mention.

The 1930 census shows a composed family, father 42, wife 32, daughter Annie Pasiuk 15, step-daughter 11 Blanche Bakun, son 6 Edwin Pasiuk.

Does it mean both of them, Anthony and Annila, were remarried (widows or divorced)?
Aside comment: I read Annila rather that Ameila. Aniela is a Polish name.

The elder daughter, Annie Pasiuk, from the first marriage - mother Mary.
The step-daughter, Blanche Bakun, mother Annila, father Bakun
The son, Edwin Pasiuk, son of Anthony and Annila?

Best,
Elzbieta

interesting 1930 Pasiuk census result

ossnhughie — Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:29 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:29 pm

This is the 1930 census right before Annie Pasiuk got married 2 years later; note it says the mothers name is Ameila, not Mary or Marianna. interesting indeed.

Hugh

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

dnowicki — Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:27 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:27 pm

Hugh,

To follow up on some of the information Elzbieta posted---A more complete entry for Ewie can be found in the Slownik Geograficzny Tom III strona 569 (http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny Tom III/569 In that entry the village is listed as Jewie (Jewje) and the entry states that the village had a R.C. parish church. There are two LDS films for that parish but unfortunately they cover the years 1798-1801 and 1802-1818. In order to locate the records for the years you would need it would be necessary to contact either the archives in Lithuania or the parish in the village (currently Vievis, Lithuania). The parish is part of the diocese of Kaisiadorys. The diocese has a web site and the link to the parish you would want is http://kaisiadorys.lcn.lt/dekanatai/elektrenu The name of the parish is Sv. Onos (St. Ann) and the contact information is found on the link. Since you will be researching in Lithuania rather than in Poland it might be helpful to look for Lithuanian links on a site like feefhs.org or Cyndi's list or some similar site.

Wishing you success in your search.

Dave

new leads my friends

ossnhughie — Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:17 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:17 pm

found another connection in 1920 census. I was looking at the 1920 census and I found a step son for adolf as seen below in census document. Anthony Pasiuk, I knew he must be married to one of the daughters and the process of elimination says it must be Marianna/Mary, however she was not on the census, and Anthony is not listed as a widower.

The clincher came with a marriage record from 1932 for Annie Pasiuk's marriage in 1932 to John uston seen below also in part 1 and 2. You'll note on part 2 it lists the Bride and Grooms parents the Brides mother......Mary Sinkevicz (another spelling to note). I'll have to see if I can find anything on them in the 1930 or '40 census.

Hugh

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

Cheri Vanden Berg — Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:30 pm

Author: Cheri Vanden Berg

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:30 pm

Hugh,
I just thought I'd let you know that on facebook there is an open group called Szymkiewicz Family Clan. There are 23 members with a mix of Polish and English first names. I have no idea of they are all share the same ancestors, or if they are all simply interested in any Szmkiewicz descendants.
Cheri

thanks to all who have given input

ossnhughie — Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:45 am

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:45 am

Dear Friends,

Again, thank you all for your continued input; to answer Cheri's question. The only male member of the family I knew of until a few days ago was Bronislaw who later went by the name Bennie or Benjamin. In later censuses and petitions he regularly signed and referred to his surname as Sinkiewicz.
Now I have to try to investigate the brothers and sisters I never knew he had. Stanislaw (Stanley), and Marianna(Mary). I also note the 1910 census lists number of children born 8, and number living 6. I have all the living children as of 1910.

Weronika born 1885 March Married Joseph Michalkiewicz (my great Grandfather/mother.

Sophia born 1890-1 married Pawel Poltorak November 1912 Bridgewater, MA.
Stanislaw born 1892-3
Bronislaw born 1895 December 9
Marianna born 1899-98
Julia born 1901 August married John R. Mcdonald 1923 Brockton, MA.

The two children who were deceased were most likely not born before Weronika for her mother would have been about 19 when she was born. There are gaps between some of the children that would fit another child.
I know however My Great Grandmother had a son and daughter as late as 1926 in her early 40's. Looks like it's time to get to work.

Dziekuje,

Hugh

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

dnowicki — Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:47 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:47 am

Hugh, et al.

I wouldn't try to attach too much importance to the surname spelling on the census form. The simplest explanation is probably found in the name of the enumerator and the amount of time the Polish families had been residing in the USA. The enumerator, James W. Ablard, was most likely only familiar with the English language and the Polish individuals listed had only been in America for between 3 and eight years (year of arrival 1902 to 1907). When you look at column 17 ("Whether able to speak English, or, if not give language spoken) none of the Poles are listed as being able to speak English since the language spoken for all is listed as Polish. Also, there is no way to tell whether an adult or a child was answering the enumerator's questions. So when you combine an enumerator whose language skills were probably limited to English and individuals who spoke Polish rather than English you end up with, as the movie line goes, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Very early on when I began to look for maternal grandmother's family in the first census after they arrived in America (the 1900 Census), there were no hits on any of what I thought could be possible spellings of Szafranski. Fortunately I knew the block where they lived in Chicago. It was only by going through the returns for the ED where they lived that I was able to locate them. The way their surname appeared on that census return was never used by any family member. (They always spelled their surname as Szafranski.) The problem in the 1900 Census was that the enumerator simply spelled their surname they way she thought she should. Since my grandmother, who was 16 at the time, and all her younger siblings all received elementary school education exclusively in Chicago and were completely bilingual any one of them could have spelled the surname for the enumerator, but it seems she never asked.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely explanation.

Dave

Re: strange 1910 census possible find?

Elzbieta Porteneuve — Wed Mar 26, 2014 3:06 am

Author: Elzbieta Porteneuve

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 3:06 am

ossnhughie wrote:

If this is the Szymkiewicz/ Sinkiewicz family where the heck did the name Checofsky come from? Has any one ever seen this before?

I'd appreciate any second opinions on this strange bit of information.

Hugh W

Hugh,

Checofsky, Chekhov (many other transliterations)

The census cleric was an amateur of Chekhov, or the name of Chekhov became popular, and the cleric gave that nickname to the family?

I am glad you found them.

Best,
Elzbieta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

Cheri Vanden Berg — Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:45 pm

Author: Cheri Vanden Berg

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:45 pm

I would say that you found the family that you were looking for! You should probably keep the "Checofsky" name in my mind as you continue your research. Thoughts do come to mind that maybe they were escaping Russian controlled Poland for more serious reasons than the average emigrant. I really don't know. I look at the two boarders in the household, and wonder if one of them has their surname written as some version of Szymkiewicz. Then I wonder if the census taker simply mixed up the family name with the boarder's surname (with the possible language difference), and maybe that boarder was the Checofsky. I hope someone that knows more than me weighs in on this. Did the male members of the family keep the Szymkiewicz surname?

sorry here's the aforementioned census

ossnhughie — Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:14 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:14 pm

here is the 1910 census i was talking about sorry,

hugh

strange 1910 census possible find?

ossnhughie — Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:56 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:56 pm

My friends at Polish origins,
Here is something that is beyond anything I've seen, and might just be a wild goose chase. Much like Cheri suggested I looked up the 1910 Federal Census for Connecticut using the first names instead of relying on the Surname. Example the Americanized Polish names Stanislaw (Stanley) Bronislaw (Benjamin) etc. The family is said to have lived in Versailles, CT as of June 1910 Michalkiewicz Passenger arrival list from ellis Island. The names and ages match and Sprague, CT was the larger community that makes up Versailles. The street also looks like it says Versailles main street. If this is the Szymkiewicz/ Sinkiewicz family where the heck did the name Checofsky come from? Has any one ever seen this before?

I'd appreciate any second opinions on this strange bit of information.

Hugh W

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

Cheri Vanden Berg — Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:42 pm

Author: Cheri Vanden Berg

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:42 pm

Hugh,
I am so glad that you found Jozefa and children on a manifest - great work! I didn't tell you that I had also been looking for my grandmother Aniela Lenart's on and off for 10 years. A kind soul actually found her for me in an index at Ancestry. Her name was closer to what it really was in that index than it was in the Ellis Island index.

That is really great that you found more children of Adolf and Josefa. Have you tried finding them in the 1910 census at Ancestry without a surname? I was unsuccessful, but I used their Polish first names, maybe if you'd use the names that they ended up using in the U.S. I find that family search option nice, where you can list spouse and children, and I have found families that way, but you do get a lot of hits. You could narrow it down with more details, like I imagine in 1910 they would have listed Russia as their birthplace in the census...
Cheri

Thank you Elzbieta

ossnhughie — Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:58 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:58 pm

Elzbieta,

Thanks for the great resources you have given me, I certainly appreciate it. I find genealogy so rewarding although my family wonders why I care so much, but who these people are is who I am. The Polish roots have been the most challenging yet the most rewarding branch I have researched thus far.

This forum as I have said has been a total Godsend, and i find myself on here every day, seeing if maybe I can help some folks and hopefully run into people who share common ancestors. The maps are fascinating and show just how much has changed in a mere 150 years or less as regards to who lived where, and what territories were within different borders.
Thank you again and happy research

Dziekuje and God bless,

Hugh W.

Re: Thank you all for your help...but alas great news!!!

Elzbieta Porteneuve — Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:07 am

Author: Elzbieta Porteneuve

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:07 am

ossnhughie wrote:

better yet it says they came from Wilno the ages are close,
Hugh

Hugh,

On the list of passangers the place they came from is noted: Ewie
It's very hard to find today, because of many changes over time in that area (language, script, name itself).

In an old geography book I found gmina Ewie part of Bialolesie (noone is in Poland now):
http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_I/190
right side, 3rd bold name from the bottom

The place Ewie, Poland is listed in Shoah databases:
http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameResults.html?placeBirth=Ewie&placeBirthType=LITERAL&language=en

Then, I found an old map where Troki, Wilno and Ewie (in Cyrillic) are noted:
http://www.radzima.net/maps/guberniya-vilenskaya/vilenskoe-namestnichestvo-1796-karta-large.jpg
Troki and Ewie are in yellow circular area, border with white. Wilno is in pink area on the right side of yellow.

I had difficulties to identify Ewie on today map, even if I know Kowno=Kaunas, Wilno=Vilnius, Troki=Trakai.

Eventualy the biggest help came from an automobile map, because they provide names in Polish and in Lithuanian
http://skp.planart.pl/zasoby/konkursy/edycja2011/ExpressMap/Litwa_Wilno_Kowno_mapa.jpg
Ewie became Jewie, then Vivis today.
At this stage Google is your friend. It's in today Lithuania.

About Powiat Trocki
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powiat_trocki

To complete a picture with a document in English from 1923 about Eastern frontiers of Poland
http://www.forost.ungarisches-institut.de/pdf/19230315-1.pdf

Best,
Elzbieta

Thank you all for your help...but alas great news!!!

ossnhughie — Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:36 pm

Author: ossnhughie

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:36 pm

Cheri and Gary,

Firstly thank you for your encouragement and for all the useful hints and tips you have given me. It came down to a hunch; As I mentioned before i had a Declaration of Intention from the late 20's for Bennie Sinkiewicz that said he came to the port of Boston in March of 1909 from Liverpool, England. So I went back to ancestry to the Boston passenger list and figured I'd play with the years of emigration and didn't put a last name but put his original Polish name of Bronislaw in the search engine and look at the results..... in the attachment lines 14-18 list
Juzefa Schimkewitz afe 42 Check
Stanilsaw age 14 a son i didn't know of
Bronislaw age 11 Check
Marianna age 9 daughter I didn't know of
Julia age 6 Check

better yet it says they came from Wilno the ages are close, if not exact for known relatives in my tree. It also lists on next page where they are going to their Husband and Father Adolf in Norwich!! looks like we have a winner!!!! Thank you all so much i am excited to have finally found it. Al credit to your help Thank God for Polishorigins.

dziekuje,
Hugh

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

gdeborski — Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:09 am

Author: gdeborski

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:09 am

Hugh,
I had a very similar roadblock. I was searching for the ship records for my great grandmother. Like your family, her husband had come over earlier - I assume he worked and saved enough to send the money for the fares for the rest of the family. I had a fairly narrow range of years in which she and her children could have traveled. I knew her approximate age and the ages of the 5 children. I thought how difficult could it be to find a mother and 5 young children - Boy was I wrong!

I knew great grandma as Katherine or Kate Deborski - No success using many variations on that. Finally, I used what I call "brute force" and searched using only Kat for the given name and no surname. That resulted in pages of items to look through, but it finally yielded a listing for Kata Tuburska and the five children arriving in 1898 through the port of Galveston. I later found birth records showing the family surname was actually Tyburski. Like Cheri's comment above, I used the Ivona website and learned that when spoken in Polish Deborski and Tyburski sound remarkably alike.

I think sometimes it helps to "forget" somethings we think we know about our ancestors. Sometimes, that opens a new window through those roadblocks.

Gary

Re: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

Cheri Vanden Berg — Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:08 am

Author: Cheri Vanden Berg

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:08 am

Hugh,
I really can sympathize, because I have been searching for one of my ancestor's surnames, Szymusiak, quite a bit lately, and it probably gets more mangled than any of my other surnames. I went here http://www.ivona.com/en/ to listen to how it's pronounced. I chose a Polish speaker (actually I listened to all of them), cleared the box and entered my surname.

How it is pronounced, might not be how it's written either. It could be written correctly, but the cursive could be read incorrectly by an indexer. For instance my grandmother Aniela Lenart was indexed as Anieta Seuard at Ellis Island. I have seen where a cursive L could be mistaken for an S, or vice versa, a n for a u, and e for a c, or vice versa.

I had looked for Aniela at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/eidb/ellisgold.html because you can just enter a place name if you'd like, and see all the people that are from there. Of course Polish villages, unfamiliar to some indexers, could also be read wrong. I tried looking for my grandmother with her initials, and her village with just the letter Z. It turned out that the indexer thought the Z was a J. I did mess around at this site looking for your family for awhile, and didn't have any luck. You could even enter an age, or an age range, a year, or a range of years when they arrived on the Ellis Island Gold Form.

With my Szymusiak I was frustrated with the results of searches at https://familysearch.org/search and Ancestry. At Family Search I would get many Szymkowiaks when I searched Szymusiak. It's probably the same Soundex code, but I didn't think that Szymusiak wouldn't be written as Szymkowiak. I started to spell it incorrectly, as I've seen on records. When I put Simusak in the search engine, I didn't end up with a bunch of Szymkowiak hits. That would be one suggestion I would have for you. Try putting all the misspellings that you've found in search engines, and see what you come up with. You may come up with even more misspellings, like I did for Szymusiak.

As I'm sure you know, that won't work the same way at Ellis Island. They'll only give you what you are looking for, but you could still try all the misspellings.
Good Luck!
Cheri