PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Polish Newspaper Clipping

dnowicki — Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:13 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:13 am

Justin Baker wrote:

Thanks for the response Dave.

So I can assume any obituary I see in this publication is for members only?

Justin

dnowicki wrote:

Sophia wrote:

Justin Baker wrote:

This clipping came from Zagoda paper in Chicago. Can anybody understand what it says? Would also like to know what the headers on the three columns mean as well. Thanks in advance!

Justin

Hi Justin,
It is a list of newly admitted members of the ZNP (PNA/ZNP = Polish National Alliance):
https://pna-znp.org/
It still exists today as an insurance company. Back in the early 20th century it had a broader political significance in the U.S., worth reading about.
The newspaper clipping says:
Lista nowych członków Z.N.P. 15 grudnia 1905
Przyjętych następujący członkowie przyjęci zostali do ZNP.
You are seeing a membership number, a name, an age, the value of the insurance policy they signed up for, and the fee they paid.
It is quite likely that if a person you are researching was a member of the ZNP, they might have belonged to the PNCC (Polish National Catholic Church) in Chicago, rather than a Roman Catholic parish.
Best regards,
Sophia
P.S. The newspaper is the Zgoda, (not Zagoda) which was a publication of the PNA/ZNP.

Hi Justin,

The ZPN (Polish National Alliance/PNA) in the USA is a fraternal society formed in 1880 in Philadelphia and Chicago with the avowed dual purposes of the promotion of the cause of Polish independence and the advancement of Polish immigrants into mainstream American society. Zgoda was like the organization’s newsletter for members. However, the PNA also published a daily Polish language newspaper, Dziennik Zwiąkowy, which covered news not specific to the organization. Like its rival/counterpart the PRCUA (Polish Roman Catholic Union of America [Zjednoczenie Polskie Rzymsko-Katolickie w Ameryce]), one of the primary benefits offered by the organization was life insurance policies. The clipping from the 1905 Zgoda newsletter/newspaper is a list of individuals who purchased an insurance policy on 15 December of 1905. The first column (before the names) gives the number of the policy purchased by each individual. The column lat (years/age) lists the age of each member at the time of the purchase of the policy. The column ubez. gives the amount/value of the insurance policy. I’m not certain of the last column, gr.(grupa/group), but my best guess is that it gives the number of the group through which the person joined the ZPN/PNA and purchased the insurance policy. The society was made up of a number of smaller/local groups which were part of the umbrella organization.

Although as Sophia noted a person who joined the PNA/ZPN may have belonged to the break away Polish National Catholic Church, most of the members of the organization were Roman Catholics. The basic difference between the PNA and the PRCUA was one of focus—the PNA was more secular whereas the PRCUA had a more religious focus.

The ZPN in the USA should not be confused with the ZPN in Poland and elsewhere, which is a teachers' union.

I hope this helps to answer your questions.

Dave

Hi Justin,

I’m not familiar enough with Zgoda to address the issue of obituaries. It was a weekly publication/newspaper which was intended to provide info to members of the PNA/ZNP about the organization and its activities, which is the reason I would liken it to a newsletter. The daily newspaper of the PNA/ZNP was and is the Dziennik Zwiąkowy, which, in my opinion, would be the paper where one would find obituaries. Since obits in a daily newspaper in Chicago were items paid for by the family of the deceased they could be placed by any family/funeral director and not just members of the PNA/ZNP.

I’m much more familiar with the PRCUA and its daily newspaper, the Dziennik Chicagoski. Growing up we lived in the same house with my maternal grandparents who subscribed to the Dziennik Chicagoski so I would often read articles in the Chicagoski in the morning before heading off to school. I would do this especially if I served as an altar boy at an early Mass and came home for breakfast. Reading the Chicagoski for me was a way to kill some time between breakfast and leaving for school.

The Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) has a connection to the PRCUA and has access to the archives and museum of the PRCUA, including records of their insurance policy payouts. Some files are no longer complete since some suffered damage in storage but a complete file would be six to eight pages long and would include a death certificate. If you can locate similar insurance files of the PNA/ZNP they would probably be worth obtaining.

Only a relatively small portion of obits for Poles in Chicago were published in the Dziennik Zwiąkowy or the Dziennik Chicagoski. Often obits were published in one of the neighborhood papers. On the Southeast Side almost all obits were published in the Daily Calumet rather than in the Dziennik Zwiąkowy or the Dziennik Chicagoski. Neighborhood papers can be a valuable resource, if they are still extant in an archive.

The Illinois Newspaper Project https://www.library.illinois.edu/illinoisnewspaperproject/ and Chronicling America https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ are two sources of online digitized newspapers, including Polish language papers.

Wishing you continued success,

Dave

Re: Polish Newspaper Clipping

Justin Baker — Mon Oct 31, 2022 6:56 pm

Author: Justin Baker

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 6:56 pm

Thanks for the response Dave.

So I can assume any obituary I see in this publication is for members only?

Justin

dnowicki wrote:

Sophia wrote:

Justin Baker wrote:

This clipping came from Zagoda paper in Chicago. Can anybody understand what it says? Would also like to know what the headers on the three columns mean as well. Thanks in advance!

Justin

Re: Polish Newspaper Clipping

dnowicki — Mon Oct 31, 2022 10:32 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 10:32 am

Sophia wrote:

Justin Baker wrote:

This clipping came from Zagoda paper in Chicago. Can anybody understand what it says? Would also like to know what the headers on the three columns mean as well. Thanks in advance!

Justin

Re: Polish Newspaper Clipping

Sophia — Mon Oct 31, 2022 9:55 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 9:55 am

Justin Baker wrote:

This clipping came from Zagoda paper in Chicago. Can anybody understand what it says? Would also like to know what the headers on the three columns mean as well. Thanks in advance!

Justin

Polish Newspaper Clipping

Justin Baker — Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:53 am

Author: Justin Baker

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:53 am

This clipping came from Zagoda paper in Chicago. Can anybody understand what it says? Would also like to know what the headers on the three columns mean as well. Thanks in advance!

Justin