PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Ellis Island

dorzechowicz — Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:08 am

Author: dorzechowicz

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:08 am

nmd428 wrote:

Do you remember if your family member came in through Ellis Island? I was very excited at the information I found on my ancestors at their informative site. ellisisland.org
What is most daunting to me is the discrepancy in spelling, along with the poor penmanship on most handwritten documents.

Good luck on the countdown to retirement. It is fabulous

Nancy, USA

Thanks, Nancy. In fact, it seems that the majority of my family did indeed come through Ellis Island, and that web page has given me some interesting information about many of them. In my father's mother's case, though, she arrived in Philadelphia, along with her siblings.

Agree about the seemingly arbitrary spellings and name changes, especially in the United States. For some relatives, the most information that I have is the list of "Also Known As". I was at a complete dead-end with my mother's mother, Anna, from Slovakia. The passenger manifest, and subsequently, every American document listed her last name as "Dana". That lead me down several rabbit holes, until I accidentally discovered that her actual last name was "Danya". That opened things up considerably!

Another confusing thing for me is that each of my four grandparents married someone who shared a first name with one of their siblings. So, for example, "Katarzyna Orzechowicz" leads down multiple paths. Fun!

Dave Orzechowicz

Ellis Island

nmd428 — Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:06 pm

Author: nmd428

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:06 pm

Do you remember if your family member came in through Ellis Island? I was very excited at the information I found on my ancestors at their informative site. ellisisland.org
What is most daunting to me is the discrepancy in spelling, along with the poor penmanship on most handwritten documents.

Good luck on the countdown to retirement. It is fabulous

Nancy, USA

Busia's Roots in Galicia - Wrocanka, Potakówka, Kołaczyce

dorzechowicz — Tue Nov 07, 2017 1:26 pm

Author: dorzechowicz

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 1:26 pm

Hello,
I've begun to dig into my lineage; pertinent to this board, my fathers' side in Poland. So far, almost all of my results have come via the internet, with one exception. I have one cousin left who has visited Poland a few times, and she supplied me with some surprising information. It turns out that Katarzyna, my father's mother, used her mother's maiden name of "Hanba", rather than the correct name of "Sanocka" (father was Wojciech Sanocka) when she emigrated to the USA in 1912. Also, her recorded age was listed as 18, when she was actually 16. I thought that I had the ship name and debarkation city; I seem to have misplaced the record, but am fairly certain that the ship was named the "Haverford" She did arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

I am pretty sure that her mother's name was Marya Hanba, which has lead me to some dead ends chasing down a Marianna Hanba, to whom I do not believe I am related. Busia was from a town in Galicia called Wrocanka. Her husband, my Dad's father was Jozef Orzechowicz, from nearby Potakowka. My cousins said that we still have relatives in Kołaczyce.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I plan on visiting the area and that of my Mother's ancestral village, Dlha nad Oravu, Slovakia, about 180 linear kilometers away, just across the Tatras when I retire. Unfortunately, that is 4 years, 3 months, 24 days, 2 hours, 19 minutes and 30 seconds away. Not that I am counting. Thanks in advance.

Dave Orzechowicz
Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA