PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

JFalejczyk — Sat Jul 04, 2026 3:49 pm

Author: JFalejczyk

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2026 3:49 pm

Sophia wrote:

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Super busy today so I cannot reply with a very informative post, but a quick check of a source that provides place names shows me a few places with this spelling: Krzanowice

This would sound very much like what was written in the snippet you provided. I see it written as Kramewitze and that strikes me, as you said, as incorrect spelling.

There is supposed to be a Krzanowice in the Warminsko-Mazurskie region and another in the Opole region. I have not looked at maps yet. Geneteka is showing a Krzanowice in Slask region, which upon a further look seems to be a town that had a German version of its name as Kranowitz and a Polish version of its name as Krzanowice. That looks promising, when placed against the spelling you see on the manifest.

I see that Trish has posted the ship manifest on your other thread, which gives us not only a better look at how this writer wrote their names and words, but also an indication that your gr-gr-grandmother was born around 1886.

Best regards,
Sophia

Hey Sophia,

Thank you so much for this, this is very helpful and inspiring already. I did see your earlier version of your message before you saw Trish's post, and would like to confirm that although Sylvia did give a few different years of birth throughout the years, I don't think it ever went as far back as the 1870s. I think the fact that her youngest child, Eugene, was born in 1926 (when she'd already be ~40 in 1886) further strengthens the theory that she was born around 1886.

What I saw your original post also touch on was the possibility of her surname being spelled "Ciesla". This caught my attention, because she did sometime use this spelling in some records (sorry if I should've mentioned that earlier, Cieslak was just by far the most common one). I've also seen some with "Ciesna", although maybe it's just a misspelling.

I believe you may have already seen in the other thread as well, but it looks like in Sylvia's marriage to Michal Falejczyk, her parents were listed as "Stanislaw (Cieslak) and Apertia Szalkowska". I'm unfortunately not sure if these were adopted parents or not, and have never been able to find anything further on them, although "Apertia" is an interesting name that I don't see very often. One final piece of info is on top of the other names, Sylvia would also go by the name Severina sometimes.

I know this is kind of all a lot, trust me it's been a fun challenge researching all this haha. No problem if you don't see anything deeper here, again I really appreciate the help already. Thanks again.

Re: Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

Sophia — Sat Jul 04, 2026 9:50 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2026 9:50 am

JFalejczyk wrote:

Hi,

For some time I've been trying to unravel the mysteries around my great great grandmother Sylvia (AKA Ksawera or Teresina) Cieslak Falejczyk. The story I was told is that she was born in Poland, but orphaned at a young age, and it's unclear if she was brought to the United States before or after losing her parents. One version of events in my family said that she lived at an orphanage in Warsaw, and some records I've found do mention her saying she's from there. I don't know who her parents (adopted or not) were, and if Cieslak is an adopted surname or not.

Anyways, a while ago I found her Ellis Island manifest entry, where she listed a hometown entirely different from anything I've seen before. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it says, and since I think someone else who maybe wasn't a Polish speaker (immigration/ship worker?) wrote it down for her, it's probably some sort of warped spelling from the original. With that being said, I've seen some really impressive detective work on these forums, so if anyone's interested in taking a crack at it, I would seriously appreciate any help deciphering this town name (photo attached). Thanks so much.

Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

JFalejczyk — Sat Jul 04, 2026 5:30 am

Author: JFalejczyk

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2026 5:30 am

Hi,

For some time I've been trying to unravel the mysteries around my great great grandmother Sylvia (AKA Ksawera or Teresina) Cieslak Falejczyk. The story I was told is that she was born in Poland, but orphaned at a young age, and it's unclear if she was brought to the United States before or after losing her parents. One version of events in my family said that she lived at an orphanage in Warsaw, and some records I've found do mention her saying she's from there. I don't know who her parents (adopted or not) were, and if Cieslak is an adopted surname or not.

Anyways, a while ago I found her Ellis Island manifest entry, where she listed a hometown entirely different from anything I've seen before. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it says, and since I think someone else who maybe wasn't a Polish speaker (immigration/ship worker?) wrote it down for her, it's probably some sort of warped spelling from the original. With that being said, I've seen some really impressive detective work on these forums, so if anyone's interested in taking a crack at it, I would seriously appreciate any help deciphering this town name (photo attached). Thanks so much.