PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Bienko, Lewicki, Piorkowski, Miewska, Ziolkowski, Matyjasik

Cheri Vanden Berg — Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:25 pm

Author: Cheri Vanden Berg

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:25 pm

I know from personal experience how frustrating it can be. Have you tried Castle Garden http://www.castlegarden.org/
This operated from 1820 until 1892 (the year Ellis Island opened). Of course there are other ports, some are not online, and some are at pay genealogy sites. If you wanted to share your great grandparents first & last names, and the year that they immigrated, maybe some kind soul would try a look up for you.

Naturalization records are another option. If you see a Pa (papers) in the citizenship column in the census, then they had applied.

Re: Bienko, Lewicki, Piorkowski, Miewska, Ziolkowski, Matyjasik

blndashl — Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:39 am

Author: blndashl

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:39 am

Cheri Vanden Berg wrote:

Hi Belinda,
Have you tried to see if any of them came through Ellis Island? Depending on the year, the manifest may have their birth place, or last residence. A good place to try to look is at Ellis Island Gold http://stevemorse.org/ellis2/ellisgold.html
Because surnames can be spelled incorrectly on a manifest, or interpretted wrong by an indexer, sometimes you need to play around with the spelling. At this site you could just add part of the surname to aid in your search. You can also add the year, or approximate year to narrow down your search, since you mentioned that you know the year. Please realize that the census could possibly be incorrect. In my grandparents case, different census years had different arrival dates for them.
Best of luck!

HI Cheri, I have combed over Ellis Island records for some, but it appears as if many arrived prior to Ellis Island. I have hit a brick wall and really don't know what my next step is. Very Frustrating! Thanks for your help:)

Re: Bienko, Lewicki, Piorkowski, Miewska, Ziolkowski, Matyjasik

Cheri Vanden Berg — Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:16 am

Author: Cheri Vanden Berg

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:16 am

Hi Belinda,
Have you tried to see if any of them came through Ellis Island? Depending on the year, the manifest may have their birth place, or last residence. A good place to try to look is at Ellis Island Gold http://stevemorse.org/ellis2/ellisgold.html
Because surnames can be spelled incorrectly on a manifest, or interpretted wrong by an indexer, sometimes you need to play around with the spelling. At this site you could just add part of the surname to aid in your search. You can also add the year, or approximate year to narrow down your search, since you mentioned that you know the year. Please realize that the census could possibly be incorrect. In my grandparents case, different census years had different arrival dates for them.
Best of luck!

Bienko, Lewicki, Piorkowski, Miewska, Ziolkowski, Matyjasik

blndashl — Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:17 am

Author: blndashl

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:17 am

I am at a standstill in my family search. I know the year my Great grandparetns all arrived in the us but cannot detrermine how they got here or where in Poland they came. From census I ahve the following:
Bienko - Galicia 1898
lewicki - Galicia
piorkowski poland
miewska - poland
ziolkowski - Pol - Rus
matyjasik - poland

any help would be appreciated - Belinda