PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Help deciphering town name

curious — Tue Jun 23, 2026 4:38 pm

Author: curious

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 4:38 pm

Hi Trish and Sophia,

Thank you for the thoughtful responses so far. I do believe you have discovered my FamilySearch tree, and yes, I do also have a tree on ancestry.

I believe I have seen all the documents you referenced at some point in time. It's been a disappointing and mostly fruitless search online to try to find more documents that include a place of origin for my Mankowski family line, and unfortunately, I don't have the time or resources to conduct any in-archive research before my Poland trip in October.

Luckily, I have benefited from other Ancestry/FamilySearch member trees to know that the Stawicki line on my father's maternal side hail from Kruszwica, so we will be visiting there.

If anyone else has ideas about what birthplace is written on Frank's death certificate, I would love to hear them. In the meantime, I will continue searching and look further into Sophia's suggestion of Mehlsack/Melzak/Pieniężno.

Thanks Again!

Re: Help deciphering town name

Trish — Tue Jun 23, 2026 12:44 pm

Author: Trish

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 12:44 pm

Sophia wrote:

Hi Trish,

That manifest looks very promising! Too bad this form of manifest does not have as much information on it as others do; they changed so much over the years regarding what information was gathered. It would have been nice to have a hometown listed.

I looked at the Family Search tree that you provided a link to. Looking at the 1930 census, there is a grandmother living with them, she is listed as Mary Stupan (that may or may not be the right spelling of her surname) and that could be an important clue.

Sophia

Hi Sophia,

I wish there was more information on the manifest for Franz.

Per the Mankowski tree, Josephine's maiden name is Stupaj. Josephine's mother's name was Maria. The Mary you mentioned in the 1930 census could be Josephine's mother, Maria Jaworska.

Also, I found this marriagre record for Ludovicus Mankowski who could be a possible brother of Franz Mankowski. Ludovicus' parents are also Anthony and Agnes.

Name Ludovicus Mańkowski
Sex Male
Marital Status Widowed
Event Type Marriage
Event Date 05 Apr 1910
Event Place Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Y9-JG4T?lang=en

Regards,
Trish

Re: Help deciphering town name

Sophia — Tue Jun 23, 2026 11:26 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 11:26 am

Hi Trish,

That manifest looks very promising! Too bad this form of manifest does not have as much information on it as others do; they changed so much over the years regarding what information was gathered. It would have been nice to have a hometown listed.

I looked at the Family Search tree that you provided a link to. Looking at the 1930 census, there is a grandmother living with them, she is listed as Mary Stupan (that may or may not be the right spelling of her surname) and that could be an important clue.

Sophia

Re: Help deciphering town name

Trish — Tue Jun 23, 2026 10:58 am

Author: Trish

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 10:58 am

curious wrote:

Can anyone help me decipher the birthplace listed (3 times) on this death certificate from 1933? The deceased, Frank Mankowski, was born in German Poland (Prussia) around 1874, immigrated to the United States in 1890 or 1892, and died in Chicago in June 1933. I known nothing about when his parents, Anthony and Agnes, were born or when/where they died.

Malzyas is the best I can come up with, but that matches nothing I can find in modern Poland. I'll be visiting Poland in October, and would love to be able to visit the village or town that my great grandfather and great-great grandparents were from.

Hi Curious and Sophia,

I think I found a possible manifest for Franz (Franciszek) Mankowski. He is going to Chicago. He is on line #23.

Name Franz Mankowsky
Gender Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality German
Age 18
Birth Date abt 1874
Departure Port Antwerp, Belgium
Arrival Date 8 Jun 1892
Arrival Port New York, New York, USA
Residence Place Germany
Ship Name Westernland

Question: Is that your tree on ancestry.com? Just curious! There is also a tree on familysearch.org.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LVX9-KSY

Regards,
Trish

Re: Help deciphering town name

Sophia — Mon Jun 22, 2026 3:01 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2026 3:01 pm

curious wrote:

Hi Curious,

Just a guess, to get the ball rolling. There was a town called Mehlsack in East Prussia:

https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/20161045

While this place's Polish name is Pieniężno, the name "Melzak" also shows up on wikipedia as the Polish name for it. Melzak would be a rather decent spelling if you wanted to use the Polish rules of pronunciation to spell out the sound of Mehlsak. So there is a possibility that this is what was written on the death certificate. However, I am not seeing the "k" at the end of what was written, so I am not entirely convinced.

It could be useful to find additional sources of where he came from. Have you searched for an arrival manifest (Ellis Island or other port of entry)?

Sophia

Help deciphering town name

curious — Mon Jun 22, 2026 2:15 pm

Author: curious

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2026 2:15 pm

Can anyone help me decipher the birthplace listed (3 times) on this death certificate from 1933? The deceased, Frank Mankowski, was born in German Poland (Prussia) around 1874, immigrated to the United States in 1890 or 1892, and died in Chicago in June 1933. I known nothing about when his parents, Anthony and Agnes, were born or when/where they died.

Malzyas is the best I can come up with, but that matches nothing I can find in modern Poland. I'll be visiting Poland in October, and would love to be able to visit the village or town that my great grandfather and great-great grandparents were from.