PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

SteveWojnar — Thu Aug 18, 2022 11:45 am

Author: SteveWojnar

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2022 11:45 am

Andrew Wojnar's birthdate is October 30, 1896. He and 3 of his sisters, Katarzyna, Marianna and Rozalia came to the U.S. I've found information about his sister's travels, but never anything about his. We don't know how or exactly when he came to the U.S., although there is a slender thread from my now deceased uncle (Andrew's son) who said "I heard once that Pa came through Canada."

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

Trish — Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:52 pm

Author: Trish

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:52 pm

SteveWojnar wrote:

Hi Sophia and Cynthia. Thank you so much for your responses. My previous searches on Ancestry have turned up empty and I'd stopped searching Ancestry. I'm confident that the address in Nashua and the information about Stanley on his death certificate are correct and I'm pleased to learn the information about his wife. The day after I posted this, I FINALLY found the information about the man my father's aunt married and uncovered 5 of my dad's first cousins that he didn't know about. My thought that she'd married Stanley was just a guess, as I was looking for a reason why my grandparents might have chosen Stanley to be my father's godfather, but that may be a question that never gets answered. The fragile link that I had between Rozalia and Stanley was the fact that on the ship's manifest from her voyage to the US, her destination city and state are listed as Nashua, NH. Her brother and sisters were already in Holyoke, MA, so I had surmised that perhaps a relationship with Stanley was why she was listing Nashua as her destination. It seems that was incorrect, so maybe somewhere down the road the Kowynia-Wojnar connection will reveal itself.

Theodore's father is my grandfather, Andrew Joseph Wojnar. I don't have any information as to whether he served in WWI, but have found his draft registration card online and have it saved to his profile on Ancestry. He registered, as would be expected, in the city where he lived, which was Holyoke, MA. The date on his registration card is June 5, 1918, and since the war ended on 11-11-18, it's possible that he was never called up. If he was? We have no knowledge of it. The most frustrating thing about my grandfather is that we also have no knowledge of when he came to the US or how he got here. I have the record of his birth and baptism and his appearance on a parish census, all of which I got from a visit to the parish in the town where he was born - Korczyna, Poland (I say I got them - not true - PolishOrigins got them for me - I was just there learning from Lucjan how to read the entries in the various books! But there is no record there of when he left, I've found no record of him at Ellis Island or on any ship's manifest and the earliest record of him in the United States that I've found so far is his WWI draft registration card. That search continues!

Thank you again for your work and the information you found about Stanley. My father will be thrilled to gain even a little information about the man whose name he knows but about whom he knows nothing else!

Hi Everyone,
What is Andrew Joseph Wojnar birth date? What are his parents names? What are the names of his siblings that came to the USA? Maybe Andrew traveled with one of them to the States. I saw a few Andrew Wojnar in the census records. I also saw a couple of people coming to the USA going to see their "brother". I'm not sure if they are related your Andrew.

I'm just trying to help. Thanks!
Trish

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

Sophia — Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:58 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:58 pm

Hi Steve,
If you have not seen it, this is Stanley's naturalization document.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89SG-KJMH?i=230&cc=2040051&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AZ7SB-JQ2M
Best regards,
Sophia

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

SteveWojnar — Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:43 pm

Author: SteveWojnar

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:43 pm

Hi Sophia and Cynthia. Thank you so much for your responses. My previous searches on Ancestry have turned up empty and I'd stopped searching Ancestry. I'm confident that the address in Nashua and the information about Stanley on his death certificate are correct and I'm pleased to learn the information about his wife. The day after I posted this, I FINALLY found the information about the man my father's aunt married and uncovered 5 of my dad's first cousins that he didn't know about. My thought that she'd married Stanley was just a guess, as I was looking for a reason why my grandparents might have chosen Stanley to be my father's godfather, but that may be a question that never gets answered. The fragile link that I had between Rozalia and Stanley was the fact that on the ship's manifest from her voyage to the US, her destination city and state are listed as Nashua, NH. Her brother and sisters were already in Holyoke, MA, so I had surmised that perhaps a relationship with Stanley was why she was listing Nashua as her destination. It seems that was incorrect, so maybe somewhere down the road the Kowynia-Wojnar connection will reveal itself.

Theodore's father is my grandfather, Andrew Joseph Wojnar. I don't have any information as to whether he served in WWI, but have found his draft registration card online and have it saved to his profile on Ancestry. He registered, as would be expected, in the city where he lived, which was Holyoke, MA. The date on his registration card is June 5, 1918, and since the war ended on 11-11-18, it's possible that he was never called up. If he was? We have no knowledge of it. The most frustrating thing about my grandfather is that we also have no knowledge of when he came to the US or how he got here. I have the record of his birth and baptism and his appearance on a parish census, all of which I got from a visit to the parish in the town where he was born - Korczyna, Poland (I say I got them - not true - PolishOrigins got them for me - I was just there learning from Lucjan how to read the entries in the various books! But there is no record there of when he left, I've found no record of him at Ellis Island or on any ship's manifest and the earliest record of him in the United States that I've found so far is his WWI draft registration card. That search continues!

Thank you again for your work and the information you found about Stanley. My father will be thrilled to gain even a little information about the man whose name he knows but about whom he knows nothing else!

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

mcdonald0517 — Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:45 am

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:45 am

Hi Sophia and Steve,

His WWI draft shows him at 5 Green Street, Nashua, NH.

Sophia, you raise a good point about them possibly being army buddies. I will look around to see if I can find military records to support that.

Best,
Cynthia

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

Sophia — Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:49 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:49 am

Hi Steve and Cynthia,

I see him in a list of names in a newspaper article with the title "Little Falls Honor Roll."
The newspaper is The Journal and Courier, Little Falls, New York, Tuesday, June 19, 1917.

Stanley Kowynia, Company B.

I can't seem to link to it, but if you go to this website and use the search term "Stanley Kowynia" you can see the entire page of that newspaper.

https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Cynthia, does his WWI draft registration show him in New Hampshire, or in New York?
Steve, do you think Theodore Wojnar's father and Stanley could have been World War I army buddies?

Best of luck in your search,
Sophia

Re: Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

mcdonald0517 — Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:22 pm

Author: mcdonald0517

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:22 pm

Hello,

There are a few documents for Stanley Kowynia in Ancestry. Here is one. It is his death certificate for 1960.You see his wife is Anna Cipiela. I also saw his WWI draft registration where he also listed his wife Anna as next of kin. So they were married around 1918. This means he was not married to Rozalia.

Best,
Cynthia

Stanley Kowynia - New Hampshire

SteveWojnar — Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:57 pm

Author: SteveWojnar

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:57 pm

I'm searching for information about Stanley Kowynia. I know that he lived in or near Nashua, New Hampshire. He was my father's godfather. My father is Theodore Wojnar from Holyoke, MA. My father has no memory of who Stanley was or how he may have been related. Because my dad was born in 1930, Stanley wasn't someone he would have seen with any frequency, as Holyoke to Nashua was a much more challenging journey in the 1930's and 1940's than it would be today. I have searched and searched and have found only one reference to a Stanley Kowynia playing music at someone's funeral, but that's it.

I believe that Stanley may have been married to one of my grandfather's sisters, which would of course make him my father's uncle, but my father was never given any concrete information about that. Of course, he was also never told that the people who regularly came by the house to visit his parents were his aunts and uncles from Holyoke. He thought they were just family friends. If he were married to one of my father's aunt's, her name would be Rozalia Wojnar.

If you know anything about Stanley Kowynia, please get in touch! Thank you.