PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

Kim K — Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:16 am

Author: Kim K

Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:16 am

mcdonald0517 wrote:

Hi Dave,

Here is the link and for the parish birth record in Koscielec for Ignatius:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSM9-N9XQ-5?i=643&cat=1049611

and here is link for the birth of Marianna:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSM9-N96K-6?i=675&cat=1049611

Attached are the record downloads as well.

Best,
Cynthia

Wait, wait, wait! There are Familysearch records from this area? Thank you! Thank you!

I tried to back up the catalog tree and got a bit lost... do you know if these are the only two books from the region? I hit a wall looking for records in Gniezno two years ago so this is really exciting to consider!

Kim

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

davidckane — Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:29 pm

Author: davidckane

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:29 pm

Thank you so much! This definitely answers my questions. You really have gone above and beyond. I am very grateful and can't wait to look through these records. Thanks again for all of your help!!

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:51 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:51 pm

Hi David Kane,

You asked me how I found the birth records in Family Search for Ignatius and Marianna. First, I looked at the marriage index for Joseph and Marianna in Poznan Project. That index indicates they were married the parish of Koscielec. I then logged into Family Search. I searched the Catalog under Place for Koscielec. When matches came up as I typed, I selected the entry for Koscielec, Inowroclaw and selected search. Results came back for 2 sets of church records. I checked both sets to see what was included and if they could be viewed without going to a Family Research Center. The first set of Birth, Marriages, and Deaths, were locked and can only be viewed at a Research Center. The second set of records had births available for viewing online. I looked for and found Ingnatius and Marianna in that set of records. I made the logical assumption that they may have stayed in Koscielec after their marriage to start a family. That reasoning paid off. You can continue looking for birth records online in that parish if you want, and you can also go to a Family Research Center (if you live near one) and look at the locked records for Joseph and Marianna’s parish marriage record (the one I posted is the civil marriage record).

I hope that answers your question.

Best,
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:58 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:58 pm

Here is marriage record for Balthasar Niebojewski

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:55 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:55 pm

Here is marriage record for Tomas Niebojewski

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:52 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:52 pm

Hello Dave Kane,

As promised, here are the marriage records for some of Joseph's brothers. Each record is 2 pages. I will make separate posts for them.

This one is Franz Niebojewski.

I will answer your other question later.

Best,
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

davidckane — Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:00 am

Author: davidckane

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:00 am

Wow. Thank you so much for posting all of this information. I really appreciate you sharing it. I've read it through once and will definitely go through it again to process it all, but what you posted certain explains why they emigrated from Poland at the time and what their lives were like.

I'm grateful you found the names of the birth towns on the marriage record. I'd been unable to figure it out with my reviews and planned to do a deeper dive soon. This really helps. Same with Joseph's jobs. I had gathered he worked as a servant, but the extra background you provided on the village give so much more context than I would have realized. And the pictures of the church are incredible. They make the information much more tangible.

I will definitely explore the links you sent and check out the article you mentioned. Having only recently learned the area from which my ancestors came, I have no substantive knowledge about it and am excited to learn. I have a long way to go and hope to find additional records about the family.

Thanks so much again!!

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

dnowicki — Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:03 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:03 pm

davidckane wrote:

If I'm reading the records correctly, it looks like they came from the village of Sojkowo (which is very close to Jaksice). I've already started what little there is available about the village.

Hi David, Sophia, & Cynthia,

There are some things I would like to add to your conversation, if I may. Researching the area around Sójkowo is something with which I have considerable personal experience. My maternal great grandfather, Marcin Pławiński, was born in Jaksice in 1845 and his parents were married there. His father was born in Tuczno and the Pławiński clan resided in Pławin during the 18th Century. (Hence the surname.)

The region was part of woj. inowrocławskie (Prov. of Inowrocław) during the days of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (cf. attached map). The part of the province around Inowrocław was seized by Prussia during the First Partition in 1772 and was directly incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. The remainder became part of Prussia in the Second Partition. During the Napoleonic Wars it became part of the Department of Bydgoszcz of the Duchy of Warsaw. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815 it was returned to Prussian control. In 1871 it became part of the reunified German State. After WWI it became part of the Second Polish Republic.

Here are a few significant facts about the region. The peasants were emancipated from their feudal obligations in 1806. Civil vital stats were copies of church Sacramental registers (both Catholic in Latin and Protestant/Lutheran in German) until 1874. The records were kept by Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers and were submitted to the civil authorities. In 1874 civil records were no longer connected to churches when free standing civil registry offices were established. Churches continued to keep church records as they had been doing. The ecclesiastical records just were no longer also civil records. The free standing registry offices sometimes were not located in the village where the parish church was found. In 1871 Otto von Bismark, the chancellor of Germany, instituted the policy of Kulturkampf. This policy which targeted German Catholics also included an aggressive policy for the replacement of Polish peasants in the Province of Posen with German colonists together with an attempt to strip the Poles of their culture. As a result, Polish farm workers often had great difficulty in obtaining full-time work in German Poland. This became a large factor in the emigration of Poles from German Poland. The first great wave of immigrants from German Poland to the USA was at its height from about 1870 to 1890 and was known as immigration “za chlebem” (“for bread”). These factors certainly must have played a role in the decision of the Niebojewski family’s decision to immigrate and also explains why they moved around before leaving Europe.

David, Some things in the records which Cynthia found are worthy of note in connection with the life of the Niebojewski family before leaving Europe. According to the marriage record, neither Józef nor Maryanna had been born in Sójkowo. (Maryanna was born in Płonkowo, which is northeast of Jaksice. Some of my relatives lived there too. During WWII Nazis shot the parish priest and burned the church. There are pictures of the excavation of the crypts under the old burned church which can be found online.) Hints found in the marriage record should help direct your research. The two baptismal records contain clues about Józef’s life as a young married man. In the “status” column he is described as a “fornal” (a Polish word meaning groom or stable hand) in one and as a “famulus” (servant) in the other. The Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krojów słowiańskich contains a detailed description of the village of Sójkowo as it was during the late 19th Century. It was an estate owned by the Brzeski family. (There is a lot more to the description in the entry.) Thus Józef was a servant on that estate and also worked there as a groom. The contemporary population of Sójkowo is almost identical to the population in the late 19th Century but there ends the similarity. The estate had 4 houses with a population of 109 (all Catholics)—not much chance of privacy living there. Here is a link to the entry in the Słownik: http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_XI/10 The description of Sójkowo and the circumstances of life in German Poland dovetail with entries on the Hamburg Passenger List and on the arrival manifest which Sophia found. The Hamburg List which names the last place of residence of Maryanna & the kids was just speaking to where she and the kids were living after Józef had already immigrated. Usually immigrants from German Poland traveled as family groups but circumstances must have dictated that he leave before his wife and chikldren. After he left Maryanna had no reason to remain on the estate of Sójkowo so she probably went to live with relatives in a different village. Keep in mind that she had no other occupation than wife and mother. The arrival manifest states that Maryanna & the children traveled with one piece of luggage (probably a trunk) which contained the possessions of a lifetime worth taking to the USA. All these details say a lot about their economic life in Europe.
The Słownik was published in 15 volumes from 1880 to 1914 and usually contains quite a bit of info about cities, towns, villages, etc. Here is a link to a key for the abbreviations which is found in Vol. I (Tom I) on pages 13 & 14: http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_I/13. Granted that it is easier to use this work if one has a command of the Polish language but I would imagine that with some effort & the help of Google Translate quite a bit can be learned from the entries.

I most enthusiastically recommend the article written by Piotr Zelny on Property Inventories which Zenon has been posting in installments. The introduction about the feudal system as it existed in Poland will certainly be important for an understanding of life in Poland prior to the late 19th Century. That system, although it had been abolished in 1806 in German Poland in many ways still colored life on the estate of Sójkowo during the late 19th Century. Rather than being overwhelmed with reading material at this point it would be a good idea to file it away for future research.

A site which I would recommend for locating places in contemporary Poland is https://mapa.szukacz.pl/mapnik.html . To help you understand what you are seeing in the Latin birth & baptism records here is a template I composed to make my life easier for dealing with translation requests—a fill-in-the blanks form to reduce repetitive typing. I hope you find it useful. Here it is:
Col. 1: Numerus = Number:
Col 2: Nativitatis = Of Birth
Col.2a: Annus et mensis = Year and month:
Col. 2b: Dies = Day:
Col. 2c: Hora = Hour:
Col. 3: Pueri = Boys
Col. 3a: Legitimi = Legitimate:
Col. 3b: Illegitimi = Illegitimate:
Col. 4: Puellae = Girls
Col. 4a: Legitimae = Legitimate:
Col. 4b: Illegitimae = Illegitimate:
Col. 5: Locus Nativitatis = Place of Birth:
Col. 6: Infantis = Of the Child
Col. 6a: Baptismi = Of the Baptism
Col. 6a1: Annus et Mensis = The Year and Month:
Col. 6a2: Dies = Day:
Col. 6b: Nomen = Name:
Col. 7: Nomen et Cognomen Sacerdotis baptismum administrantis = The Given and the Surname of the Priest administering the baptism:
Col. 8: Nomen et Cognomen = The Given and the Surname
Col. 8a: Patris = Of the Father:
Col. 8b: Matris = Of the Mother:
Col. 9: Religio = The Religion
Col. 9a: Patris = Of the Father: Catholic
Col. 9b: Matris = Of the Mother: Cathoic
Col. 10: Conditio et professio Patris = The condition/status and profession/occupation of the Father:
Col. 11: Patrinorum = Of the Sponsors
Col. 11a: Nomen et Cognomen = The Given and the Surname:
Col. 11b: Conditio et professio = (Their) condition/status and profession/occupation:
Col. 12: Adnotationes utrum gemelli? Seu quid aliud notatu necessarium = Notations: whether twins? Or something else which need be noted:

An added bonus: Attached pics of the parish church where they married and the children were baptized—św. Małgorzaty (St. Margaret) in Kościelec.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Dave Nowicki

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:33 am

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:33 am

Hi Dave,

I will get back to you this weekend with the other records and maybe earlier with direction on the databases. I have some family to attend to. Until later!

Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

davidckane — Sun Jun 20, 2021 9:33 am

Author: davidckane

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 9:33 am

Oy. Once again, I'm not sure if my last response posted. I'm not quite sure why this keeps happening. I'll repost here (and apologies if the same basic message comes through twice).

Thanks so much again! If I'm reading the records correctly, it looks like they came from the village of Sojkowo (which is very close to Jaksice). I've already started what little there is available about the village.

I had no idea the archives site existed. Wish I'd known a long time ago! I started searching on it, but any suggestions or directions you have would be most appreciated! I'd like to search for the records of Joseph's and Marianna's parents (if possible).

Would you mind telling me how you found the records on FamilySearch? I use that site regularly, but didn't know those existed. I'd love to search to see what else exists. Did you happen to see the name of a parish on those records?

I definitely intend to search on my own, but if you wouldn't mind sending me the records you found already, I'd really appreciate it! I'm anxious to take a look at them.

Thanks so much for sharing all of this. What a treasure trove. I already shared the findings with family members...

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:52 am

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:52 am

Hi Dave,

You are very welcome. It is always a joy to help. Happy to answer any questions you may have after you have a chance to review the information.

Also, I have the civil marriage records for some of the siblings too. I didn't post them yet because I want to know if you would like the joy of finding them for yourself. Let me know. If you would like to give it a try, I can point you to the databases and explain how to use them ...

Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

davidckane — Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:23 am

Author: davidckane

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:23 am

Oh my gosh. I'm overwhelmed. I have just seen this and did not have a chance to look through what you sent yet with any detail, but wanted to immediately post a thank you message. I'm incredibly grateful for your help. I will look through all you sent this weekend. Thank you again! I may circle back afterward with questions!

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:41 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:41 pm

Hi Dave,

Here is the link and for the parish birth record in Koscielec for Ignatius:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSM9-N9XQ-5?i=643&cat=1049611

and here is link for the birth of Marianna:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSM9-N96K-6?i=675&cat=1049611

Attached are the record downloads as well.

Best,
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:54 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:54 pm

Hello Dave,

Bingo!! I found the civil marriage record for Joseph Niebojewski and Marianna Nowaka (see attached 2 pages). It is written in German. Now, you can post the images to the German translation forum of this website to request a translation if you cannot figure it out yourself. Also, here is the link to the record in the database; it is akt #6 (image 7):

https://genealogiawarchiwach.pl/,#query.type=ALL&query.facetQuery.date=1883&query.facetQuery.subseries=Akta+ma%25C5%2582%25C5%25BCe%25C5%2584stw&query.city=Inowroc%25C5%2582aw&query.suggestion=false&query.thumbnails=false&query.facet=true&query.asc=false&query.sortMode=PUBLICATION&modal=256548561&personTree=false&goComments=false&searcher=big&query.query

Hopefully, more to come.
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:35 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:35 pm

Hi Dave,

You are very welcome! Folks in this forum are very keen to help one another. I am glad you checked back in and discovered your post was missing... Some people post a request and then forget to come back to check in. So, I am glad you returned, because I actually have some more information for you that I will post later today. Also, it is common for new eyes to see something different in a passenger list - that has happened to me a lot in my own research!!

For now, let me answer your question re: siblings. I found them in a round about way through the Poznan Project. I did a search only on the surname Niebojewski. It returned a longer list of marriage records, and I began looking at the parents names for the bride and groom. That is how I found the siblings for Joseph (Jr). If the parents in the marriage record were Joseph Niebojewski and Viktoria Olszewska, then I knew the groom in the record was a full brother of Joseph; if the mother was Appolonia Musielska, then I knew the groom was a half-brother of Joseph.

Did you also find Joseph Niebojewski (Sr) two marriage records? If so, you will see the name of his parents which gives you another generation back - and also another parish.

Also, as you research parishes, keep in mind that Jakschik could just have been her last residence - not necessarily a birth location. I would suggest you start looking for the birth records of Joseph and Marianna's children in the same parish as their marriage - Koscielec. If you don't see them there, then try Jaksice. You may also need to expand the search to the parishes where some of Joseph's siblings were married. Looks like this family moved around a bit.

I will post later about a database that has some of the records for these parishes so you can start browsing through them.

Happy researching!
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

davidckane — Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:50 pm

Author: davidckane

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:50 pm

I apologize if my prior response did not come through. I'll reiterate the crux of it here.

First, thanks so much for digging into this for me! I did not expect anyone to do that and am extremely grateful.

Second, your thoughts about the name of the town seem spot on. I hadn't read it the way you did, so I thank you for looking closely at it and finding actual matching town names. I will definitely check out the Kartenmeister database. I'm really excited to look into those towns.

Third, I agree with you that those are my relatives on Poznan Project. Thanks so much! I can find the marriage records on the site (and am in the process of figuring out the best way to retrieve them). Would you mind telling me how you found the list of siblings? Was it on Poznan Project? I've only seen marriage records on there, so I may be missing another aspect of the site entirely. I'm very interested to dig in on the siblings.

Fourth, you are correct that the family changed the name to Nebosky. I've been in touch with some other descendants as we try to figure out the history. I appreciate your help very much!

Thanks again!

David

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:47 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:47 pm

Hi Dave,

No, I did not see an earlier response from you.

Best,
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

davidckane — Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:40 pm

Author: davidckane

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:40 pm

Hi. Did my response to you from other day get posted here? I'm relatively new here and concerned I may have made a mistake because I don't see it. Thanks!

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

mcdonald0517 — Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:36 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:36 pm

Hello David,

Welcome to the forum.

I have spent a couple of days looking at your passenger list and also doing some research. I have some discoveries for you that you may or may not be aware of. Here goes:

1. When I look at the passenger list you posted, I don’t see Jagodnik. I see Jagschik. Also, I wouldn't get too hung up on the fact the scribe wrote Russia instead of Prussia. It is an easy mistake to make when information is spoken.

2. I found many documents for your family in Ancestry.com and as you say, they all confirm they were born in Germany/Prussia. I also found other Niebojewski families in New Jersey. Some of them changed their name to Neborsky. One of these family members is Franz Niebojewski. His passenger list indicates he is from Inowroclawek, and his birth year would place him as a possible sibling to Joseph.

3. I did more research, and discovered that Inowroclaw is a district (and a city) in the Kujavian Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland (formerly part of Prussia). It was also part of the Poznan (Posen) district. Gmina Inowroclaw has multiple villages including two – Jaksice and Jaksiczki – that were known in German as “Jakschik” (per Wikipedia and Kartenmeister database). This matches very well with what Marianna verbally gave as her place of residence when boarding the ship leaving Hamburg, Germany in 1889. The scribe taking the information wrote it as Jagschik, but it is very close when spoken.

4. I also found documents on ancestry indicating Marianna’s maiden name was Nowak or Nowack.

5. I searched the Poznan Project for indexed marriage records for your family. I found: 1883 Joseph Niebojewski and Marianna Nowak married in parish of Koscielec; I also found two of his father’s marriages: Joseph (Sr.) and Apollonia Musielska and then to Victoria Oszewska. He had children from both marriages. This means your Joseph had half brothers from the first marriage: Martin b. 1841; Felix b. 1844; Franz b. 1857. He also had full brothers from his father’s second marriage: Balthasar b. 1866 and Thomas b. 1864. See attached marriage index screen shot for Joseph (Jr.) and Marianna. If you want the other images, let me know. Also, Joseph Sr. marriage records shows his parents as Martin Niebojewski and Agatha Osinska.

6. All of these locations: Inowroclaw, Koscielec, Jaksice, and Jaksiczki are within 8 miles of each other. So likely the Niebojewski family moved around the villages in the Gmina (district) of Inowroclaw. See attached screen shot of map.
I will continue looking around for actual parish records. That’s it for now. Perhaps other members of the forum can add to this line of research.

Best,
Cynthia

Re: State/Province on Passenger Manifest

Sophia — Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:23 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:23 pm

davidckane wrote:

Thanks so much. If it is Russia, then I assume my ancestors mistakenly were grouped with others from Russia as they listed many times in other documents that they originated from Germany/Prussia. With that said, having looked at the manifest for a substantial period of time, I'm not sure the letter in the middle -- which dips well down below the line -- is consistent with the word "Russland" (or the German version). I wouldn't expect such a dip given the letters in that word. Anyway, much appreciated.

Hi David,
Actually, when there is a double S, it is very often the case that the first S does that "dip" that you describe. It is called "the long S." You have probably seen it in historical U.S. documents, such as where the word Congress looks like it is written as Congrefs.
I wish you good luck in your search,
Sophia