PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Thu Apr 02, 2026 9:25 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 9:25 am

Hi Shannon,
I have sent a reply to your MyHeritage account. Here is the diagram.

-Barb

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Wed Feb 04, 2026 2:21 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2026 2:21 pm

dnowicki wrote:

It is none of my business but I wouldn’t consider the information about your great-grandfather being in Europe in 1914 as Gospel without some additional verification such as a passenger list for his return to the USA. It is much too possible that there was another person of the same name in Europe at that point in time.

Dave

Hi Dave,

The record from the Vác archive gives the name of the soldier Jozef Jozefek's father as "Jozefek Matyas" and his mother as "Vessely Anna." This is certainly Shannon's Jozef Jozefek in Europe in 1914.

Best regards,
Sophia

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

dnowicki — Wed Feb 04, 2026 2:13 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2026 2:13 pm

Sophia wrote:

ShannonCreedon wrote:

Anna and Jozef's marriage information is attached here. Given the amount of misspellings and errors in American documents when it comes to Polish names, it could be a transcription error. I have also encountered instances of individuals being identified by middle names or nicknames.

Hi Shannon,

I think that Barb is on the right track here, using Wiktoria's marriage info to suggest the possibility that your Anna Wesola's mother's name was actually Zofia Koczera. To your point about the possibility of a transcription error, I will add this thought. Looking closely at the book of marriage records for Anna Wesola, I noticed something interesting. It is, of course, not the church book, it is a civil record. The priest who married Anna Wesola and Jozef Jozefek was providing the data for 12 marriages all at once. The marriages were performed between 23 September and 6 November, but Father Uminski provided all of that data to the city registrar on 15 November. I would suggest that he made an error with the name Orzech. If you were able to contact the church (or diocese?) to ask for the actual record of the marriage, you might be able to solve this question of Orzech vs. Koczera.

Best regards,
Sophia

Sophia,

What you suggest about the data which the priest was providing it’s not exactly accurate. What the city clerk did was he transcribed information found in marriage licenses and recorded the return of the license with the name of the priest who officiated at the wedding. The only information the priest provided was the date of the wedding and his signature. Everything else was provided by the couple when they applied for the marriage license. Of course it was not unusual for there to be a failure to accurately communicate between the couple and the clerk who issued the license since English was the clerk's primary language and Polish was the primary language of the couple. The priest would simply have copied the information from the top of the license onto his certificate of return without making any corrections. The reason he would not correct any errors in spelling was that since this was a legal document and he was signing off on it he had to enter the names on the return portion of the License exactly as they appeared on the top portion. All the clerk was listing were the marriage returns which had accumulated in his office and thus it appears that the priest was providing information for a significant number of marriages when in reality all he was doing was returning the licenses with his signature and the date of the wedding. The clerk was simply transcribing information and as all good bureaucrats do he did it all at once, probably before some sort of deadline.

Shannon, You are correct about the spelling errors which occurred in civil documents where immigrants were providing the information. Thus I would heartily recommend that you obtain a copy of the ecclesiastical marriage register from the parish where your grandparents married. There were three Polish speaking Catholic parishes in New Bedford: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Casimir, and St. Hedwig. All three have closed and/or merged. I would recommend that you contact the diocese in order to find out where are the records of closed and merged parishes our housed. The ecclesiastical copy of the marriage entry with most likely have the correct spelling of the names of the parents of the couple and possibly the name and location of the parish in Europe where they were born and baptized. Link to the website of the Diocese of Fall River: https://www.fallriverdiocese.org/

It is none of my business but I wouldn’t consider the information about your great-grandfather being in Europe in 1914 as Gospel without some additional verification such as a passenger list for his return to the USA. It is much too possible that there was another person of the same name in Europe at that point in time. According to the 1930 census your family was residing in Illinois in 1914 since that is where two of their children are listed as having been born. Granted that Joseph did not need to be present at the birth of his child in 1914 but it would seem that he would have made an effort to be there for the birth. Not that anyone would care, but...Being there for the birth reminds me of one of the epigrams of St. Thomas More, who had been the Lord Chancellor of England during the early years of the reign of Henry VIII. Since I’m not looking at the actual text a free translation of the Latin would be: “Hurry home. Sibidius your wife is about to give birth and you don’t want to be late. You may not have been there for the conception but make sure that you’re there on time for the birth”. The most famous works of Thomas More are “Utopia” and “In Praise of Folly” but his lesser known epigrams also are quite good. A well-known flick about him is the 1966 “A Man For All Seasons”.

Wishing you successful research,

Dave

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Wed Feb 04, 2026 8:47 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2026 8:47 am

ShannonCreedon wrote:

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

ShannonCreedon — Tue Feb 03, 2026 6:57 pm

Author: ShannonCreedon

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 6:57 pm

Sophia wrote:

BarbOslo wrote:

Sophia, would you be able to find Wiktoria’s marriage record? This could confirm who her parents were and help solve the Orzech mystery.

-Barb

Barb,
How about this one? Marriage #440. Father was John Wesoly, mother was Zofia Koczara.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N48X-BCV?lang=en
Sophia

I was just looking at this myself. This all makes sense to me, and I was able to trace Paul and Anna to Snowshoe, Pennsylvania, where I know my grandfather had cousins.

Anna and Jozef's marriage information is attached here. Given the amount of misspellings and errors in American documents when it comes to Polish names, it could be a transcription error. I have also encountered instances of individuals being identified by middle names or nicknames.

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Tue Feb 03, 2026 4:53 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 4:53 pm

Sophia,
I believe it is her. The combination Wesoly–Koczera fits better. I have seen both surnames in Niebieszczany. The mother’s name is Zofia and the father’s name is Jan, which matches Anna’s marriage record. The age roughly matches. It would be nice to hear whether Shannon is familiar with this. Thank you, Sophia.

-Barb

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Tue Feb 03, 2026 4:08 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 4:08 pm

BarbOslo wrote:

Sophia, would you be able to find Wiktoria’s marriage record? This could confirm who her parents were and help solve the Orzech mystery.

-Barb

Barb,
How about this one? Marriage #440. Father was John Wesoly, mother was Zofia Koczara.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N48X-BCV?lang=en
Sophia

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Tue Feb 03, 2026 3:51 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 3:51 pm

Sophia, would you be able to find Wiktoria’s marriage record? This could confirm who her parents were and help solve the Orzech mystery.

-Barb

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Tue Feb 03, 2026 2:58 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 2:58 pm

ShannonCreedon wrote:

So far, I've been unable to find a ship manifest with Anna on it

Hi Shannon,
Here is the ship manifest for Anna, she arrived in 1903 and is on line 4:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JFPR-TY7?lang=en
She is travelling with others from Niebieszczany. She is going to her sister Wiktoria, who arrived in 1902, she is on line 29 of this manifest:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JFG9-HZV?lang=en
Best regards,
Sophia

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

ShannonCreedon — Tue Feb 03, 2026 1:11 pm

Author: ShannonCreedon

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 1:11 pm

I'm having trouble attaching the marriage record. I'll have to try again later. And I will work on updating my records with all of this information!

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

ShannonCreedon — Tue Feb 03, 2026 1:02 pm

Author: ShannonCreedon

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 1:02 pm

Thank you so much for all of this information!

It's been a busy few days and there is so much to sort through, which is wonderful! I'm attaching the copy of the marriage record that I have. Because of the discrepancies in names and spellings in American records it does make it more difficult. Also, I have encountered times where nicknames are used in some records, and in others where someone is referred to by their middle name. i'm not positive that's what is happening here.

So far, I've been unable to find a ship manifest with Anna on it, but I have found information regarding her A-file with the US Immigration department, and have contacted them to see if I can get any more information. The basic information I've been able to access so far is also attached. I've found aa few WWI draft cards of Wesolys in New Bedford, MA, but unfortunately only one of them has any information about next of kin (his wife). I've been unable to access Franciszek Jan's marriage certificate so far to see what are listed regarding his parents. He is the only confirmed sibling, based on the headstone.

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Tue Feb 03, 2026 12:30 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 12:30 pm

Hi again,
I managed to obtain the marriage record of Maciej Józefek and Katarzyna Kucharska. Based on the ages given in this record, I know that Maciej was born around 1850 and Katarzyna around 1851. In addition, I know that the father of Barbara Kucharska (née Biodrowicz) was Maciej Biodrowicz, and that the father of Marianna Józefek (née Fall) was Andrzej Fall.

-Barb

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Sat Jan 31, 2026 11:29 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2026 11:29 am

Hi Shannon,
I don’t know if this is new information for you, but I don’t see it in your Ancestry tree. Your great-grandfather, Józef Józefek, had an older brother named Michał. He was born on September 16, 1877, in Niebieszczany.
Michał married Rozalia Baran (born on January 25, 1883) in February 6, 1906.

Together they had the following children:
stillborn child 21.06.1906 – 21.06.1906, baptized by his mother with the name Stanisław
Jacek 11.18.1907 – 29.08.1907
Julian 09.01.1909 – 27.04.1909
Jadwiga 11.10.1910 – 26.11.1911
Agata 20.10.1912 – 21.08.1949
Mikołaj 04.12.1915 – 06.03.1916
Józef 13.08.1918
Stanisław 01.12.1921

-Barb
Ps. Sofia helped me find the wedding record and Manifest.

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Fri Jan 30, 2026 1:43 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 1:43 pm

Hi,
I studied the Wesoly and Jozefek families for several hours yesterday and today. I compared what you wrote, the Ancestry image you shared, and my own notes.
The Jozefek family was easier to confirm because Jozef’s parents match in all three sources. I do not see the same match in the Wesoly family.
You say that in Jozef and Anna’s marriage record, Anna’s parents are listed as Jan Wesoly and Maria Orzech. I did not find the surname Orzech in Niebieszczany in the records I could access.
You also mention three possible marriages for Jan Wesoly. I found two that could fit:
Jan Wesoly and Zofia Kuczera
Jan Wesoly, first married to Katarzyna Ziemińska and later to Katarzyna Hac
These names do not match Anna’s marriage record, which I find more reliable.
Could you share the passenger manifest and the marriage record? Are there any naturalization records?

-Barb

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Fri Jan 30, 2026 7:37 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 7:37 am

Going back to the topic of the PRCUA insurance files that are held by the Polish Genealogical Society of America, I have good news, bad news and confusion.
I am attaching a screenshot of what they show for Jozef Jozefek. As you can see, it shows he belonged to society #1078. This is the good news, because society #1078 was in New Bedford. That gives some hope that this date of 2 November 1932 may in fact be connected to your Jozef Jozefek, rather than the Lowell fellow (the society number for Lowell was 658). The bad news is that the listing of missing files includes the time period of April 1931 through August 1934 and that would seem to indicate that his file will not be accessible to you. Here is the confusing part: the files which are missing 1931-34 are claim numbers 22615 through 26999. Jozef Jozefek's claim number is 1812, clearly not part of that range of claim numbers. Oddly, there are no claim numbers in their listings that go any lower than 4668 (back in 1913). That makes me think there is a typo in the record of Jozef Jozefek for his claim number. I would encourage you to contact the PGSA and ask about this. If there is any chance that his claim was started at an earlier date but only closed in 1932, then maybe they actually have his file (eg what if his claim number was 21812 which they do have a copy of).

https://pgsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/PRCUA-Files.pdf

I had also mentioned to you that PGSA has a PRCUA file for Jacob Jozefek, who was also from society #1078 however his claim number and year of death are definitely not in their files, as it is too late, they have nothing after 1947. Also, I don't know how Jacob fits into your tree.

Sophia

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:58 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:58 pm

Hi,
I will write some more tomorrow. I will first look at your photo from Ancestry and my notes I made today.
-Barb

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

BarbOslo — Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:55 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:55 pm

Sophia wrote:

ShannonCreedon wrote:

Barb and Sophia,

You are amazing! I cannot believe how quickly you found this information!

Barb, I am so thankful to have this information and to be able to go back another generation, for both the Jozefeks and the Wesolys. I will definitely be exploring them more, now that I have a bit of a lead!

Sophia, the information you found on Jozef in Hungary during WWI is invaluable! I am so glad to have a little more information on him. Because he was absent during much of my grandfather's childhood, he was never talked about much with my mom, and my grandfather died when I was to young to ask questions myself. I know my mom and her siblings will be so grateful to have a bit more information about this!
As far as the Jozefek in Lowell, I will say that I'm not entirely sure that this is him, as I have found other records that overlap. To make things more complicated, there is a second Jozef Jozefef (b. about 1888 in Poland) who lived in the New Bedford/Acushnet MA area that was married to Agata Jozefek (nee' Wesoly). I *think* that he is the son of Stanislaw Jozefek (possibly a brother of Maciej), making him my great grandfather's cousin. I've attached a screenshot from Ancestry about this branch of the tree. There may still be some errors, as I have to cross reference information, but I have it there to remind me.

[/img]

Hi Shannon,

Just a few details. You'll want to go with the spelling Katarzyna Kucharska (as Barb has written it). Males in that line will be Kucharski. Your Anna's surname will be spelled Wesoła and males in that line will be Wesoły. The fact that you know about a second Jozef Jozefek does complicate things. It may mean that the PRCUA file is not his, which would re-open the whole question of when and where he died. Regarding his time serving in WWI, I spent a bit more time looking at that record from Vac and it shows not only a ruptured eardrum but also the more serious problem of having a concussion. He was being treated at a Red Cross hospital in Vac. I would not interpret this to mean that he was in any battle in Vac or that he served with any unit that was from Vac, simply that he was taken well back behind the lines for medical care. Hope this helps.

Have a wonderful time sharing what you've learned so far with your family!
Sophia

P.S. There is a monument in Niebieszczany to those who were killed during the second world war. The monument has names carved on it. Follow this link, then look at the various views of the monument and you will see the Wesoly name there (4 men) and on another face of the monument, although extremely hard to see because of the sunlight, is the Jozefek name (a woman, Katarzyna) as well:
https://fotopolska.eu/Niebieszczany/b405174,Pomnik_Parafianom_ktorzy_zgineli_w_latach_1939-1947.html
Here is a transcription of the names on the monument:
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/archives/niebieszczanywm.html

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Thu Jan 29, 2026 4:54 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 4:54 pm

ShannonCreedon wrote:

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

ShannonCreedon — Thu Jan 29, 2026 11:59 am

Author: ShannonCreedon

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 11:59 am

Barb and Sophia,

You are amazing! I cannot believe how quickly you found this information!

Barb, I am so thankful to have this information and to be able to go back another generation, for both the Jozefeks and the Wesolys. I will definitely be exploring them more, now that I have a bit of a lead!

Sophia, the information you found on Jozef in Hungary during WWI is invaluable! I am so glad to have a little more information on him. Because he was absent during much of my grandfather's childhood, he was never talked about much with my mom, and my grandfather died when I was to young to ask questions myself. I know my mom and her siblings will be so grateful to have a bit more information about this!
As far as the Jozefek in Lowell, I will say that I'm not entirely sure that this is him, as I have found other records that overlap. To make things more complicated, there is a second Jozef Jozefef (b. about 1888 in Poland) who lived in the New Bedford/Acushnet MA area that was married to Agata Jozefek (nee' Wesoly). I *think* that he is the son of Stanislaw Jozefek (possibly a brother of Maciej), making him my great grandfather's cousin. I've attached a screenshot from Ancestry about this branch of the tree. There may still be some errors, as I have to cross reference information, but I have it there to remind me.

[/img]

Re: Jozefeks and Wesolys from Niebieszczany

Sophia — Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:42 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:42 am

Hi Shannon and Barb,

Looks like we now have a death year for Jozef Jozefek: 1932.

The PGSA (Polish Genealogical Society of America) has some searchable databases. I include a screenshot showing the results for the surname Jozefek.

From this, you can see various members of the family were mentioned in church jubilee books for St. Casimir's church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and there is an additional mention of Jozef in the Holy Trinity church in Lowell. While you can ask PGSA, for a fee, to give you copies of the jubilee book pages, it is probably not worth it since it may only be their name listed on a page with no further info about them. However, you most certainly may want to pursue getting copies from PGSA of the PRCUA insurance claim files. Jozef's claim date is November 2, 1932 and Jacob's is in 1949 if you are also interested in him. I suggest you go to the PGSA website and read up on what they say about the PRCUA insurance files. For some, they have nothing, but for others they have the entire insurance application which can be rich in genealogical info.

An added thought: November 2, 1932 is the date of the claim on the insurance, not necessarily a date of death, but it should narrow down when you should look for death records. Also, given what you said about him being listed in the 1930 census as not present, there is a possibility that he was missing and then declared dead by a court so that his wife could access his life insurance. I don't know about researching those type of records, but you might explore Massachusetts court records to see what you can find.

Sophia