PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Thu May 11, 2017 3:51 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Thu May 11, 2017 3:51 am

Waldemar,

This is one of the more "difficult" priests . It works to make an appointment with him or, alternatively, use the Przemysl Diocesan Archives.

In general, according to privacy law and civil registers law in Poland the books available through Civil Registry Offices (Communal Offices) are available only to family members and there are most often records no older than 100 years old. There are sometimes records older than 100 years old if entries from many years (e.g. 1892 - 1922) are in one physical book and they weren't moved to the State Archives. These are official rules.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

WLacki — Wed May 10, 2017 7:57 am

Author: WLacki

Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 7:57 am

Thanks Zenon,
I did visit the priest during my short visit but unfortunately he was busy that day and only had time to look up 2 relatives for which I provided exact dates of birth. Yes, seems like the records are hard to obtain from the parish. However, if you're researching in that area I suggest visiting Communal Office in Osiek Jasielski first. At the Register Office they have marriage books from Samokleski parish from about 1892-1950. These books should be freely available to the public. That's where I've found a lot of information. Now, rest of the info from earlier years rests in the parish and/or archives in Przemysl.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:02 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:02 am

Hello Waldemar,

You ask about records availability from Samokleski parish. In the parish office there are many gaps in the records. Besides, it is not always easy to make an appointment with the rector priest there. What is valuable, there are available Status Animarums (lists of souls) from which you can learn a lot about inhabitants of the parish living there in the second half of 19th century.

Also, some of the Samokleski parish books are available in the Diocesan Archives in Przemysl. But as you may know, access there is limited unless you know someone who works with the director of the Archives on regular basis.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

WLacki — Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:09 pm

Author: WLacki

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:09 pm

Hello,
My family comes from Samokleski and names Szeredy, Opalka also appear in my tree (although I have little details and no solid data from 1800's).
Szeredy - Female born around/before 1872 by estimate, I don't have first name but married name became Baciak.
Have you guys done any DNA testing? Please let me know, I've done one through Ancestry so we could see if there's any relation at all. Some part of my family also lived in Michigan, some in/near Manistee.

Also, I have question about obtaining records from Samokleski church. What records are available there? What kind of information should I expect to find there?

Thank you,

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

SMM — Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:03 pm

Author: SMM

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:03 pm

I know Michaelina Mastej was born in 1911.
Blessings,
Stephanie Michelle

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

SMM — Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:02 pm

Author: SMM

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:02 pm

I am looking for links to my heritage. My Great Grand Mother, born Catholic, was named Victoria Gobin/Gabon? (Pronounced Gobboin). She and her husband, Anthony Mastej, settled in Detroit, Michigan. They had three daughters: Stephanie, Julianna, and my Grandmother, Michaelina. Michaelina married Julius Yuhasz in Detroit, MI. My Great Grandfather Mastej, born Jewish, was a co-owner of a bakery in Detroit. I understand he passed away as a father of young children. Do you have any information on where the family originated in Poland, and if not, how I may obtain that information?

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Jarzebina — Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:15 am

Author: Jarzebina

Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:15 am

I too have Szeredy family. It is the surname of the maternal line of my family that comes from the same Samokleski in Podkarpackie mentioned here. I made a stop at the local church this summer and got a chance to look at some of the records over the shoulder of the priest - he didn't want me photographing Catherine Szeredy, daughter of Peter & Marianna Toblowska, married Lucas Broclawik and had 7 daughters and 1 son: Marianna (1879), Frances (1885), Agnes (1888), Victoria (1891), Magdalena (1894), John (1897), Tekla (1900), and Julianna (1903). I believe there are also relatives in Czekaj and Osiek Jasielski, but I didn't have enough time there to look.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:13 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:13 am

CShereda wrote:

I was also able to find this page in Polish: http://www.szymonwiatr.strefa.pl/seret.htm. It speculates about the origins of the name Seretny, which might or might not be related, mentioning a river on the Ukrainian/Romanian border. On that page it mentions szereda but Google translate doesn't do a good job with the surrounding text so I don't really understand it.

This is a very interesting finding Charles. According to description from the website (in Polish): szereda/sereda (hałas, por. szeredzić obmawiać, wymyślać komuś, kląć) -> translation: szereda/sereda (noise, compare to szeredzić: to slander, to insult someone, to curse). This word is supposed to be from the old villagers dialect.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

CShereda — Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:25 am

Author: CShereda

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:25 am

Very interesting! Thanks Slav for your analysis and thank you Zenon for the history and the explanation of Opołka.

I had suspected based on the spelling of Szeredy that it was originally Hungarian but I don't know enough about the languages to know for sure. I do see that Hungarian spellings are more likely to have an 'sz' prefix. I first noticed a town with the Hungarian name Szerednye in western Ukraine that was the site of a 12th century Knights Templar castle by the same name.

I was also able to find this page in Polish: http://www.szymonwiatr.strefa.pl/seret.htm. It speculates about the origins of the name Seretny, which might or might not be related, mentioning a river on the Ukrainian/Romanian border. On that page it mentions szereda but Google translate doesn't do a good job with the surrounding text so I don't really understand it.

There are also these pages in Hungarian on Szeredas, which seem to be a sort of folk tradition that encompasses both bag making and folk music: http://mek.oszk.hu/02100/02115/html/5-19.html and http://www.szeredas.hu/. Whether or not any of this relates to Szeredy though, I have no idea. I suspect a native Hungarian could tell us more, especially if he or she were named Szeredy.

Enjoy your winter biking, Zenon!

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Mon Nov 26, 2012 3:27 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 3:27 am

Hi Charles

Your parents told me about you and, among others, that your are an avid biker. Now in the late fall and in winter, when I do not travel with my guests as much, I have again more time for biking through more or less uncivilized roads on my MTB. So welcome to the club .

When your father contacted me a few years ago my first impression about your great-grandathers surname Szeredy was that it has something to do with Hungary.

The area south of Jaslo, specifically Dukla Pass, is the lowest part of Carpathian Mountain chain. It had many effects in the past for the life in this region. The area was scene for one of the most bloody battles in 20th century and before, but especially in the WWI. Also, for many centuries through Dukla Pass led trade route from Poland to Hungary and farther on to Balkans.

The area was inhabited by many ethnic groups among which there were Poles, Lemkos and Jewish.

So the original sounding of your surname Szeredy is not typically Polish and, as you noticed and as Slav wrote about it, it may have its origins in both, Lemkos (which used language more similar to today's Ukrainian) or Hungarian culture and language.

However, Opałka (or Opołka)is a very Polish word and literally means in older village dialect "basket" (often without handle)

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Slav — Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:55 am

Author: Slav

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:55 am

Hi Charles,

I can only offer you a guess based on William F. Hoffman's book on surnames which does not list Szeredy, but it mentions Szeremet, possibly a Ukrainian (Cossack) name originating from Persian Šir, "Lion" + the Arabic first name Ahmad. It gave rise to the names Seremet, Szerement, Szeremet, Szeremeta, Szerment, Szermeta

There is the root Sered- which comes from a dialect word seredzic, szeredzic, "to discuss, gossibe about", or in some cases the names originate from the Ukrainian root sered-, "middle" (the Polish word is srodek), seen in many Ukrainian toponyms. It gave rise to the names Sereda, Serediu, Serednicki, Seredyn, Seredynski, Seredzinski.

Here you can see the distribution of the name Szeredy in Poland:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/szeredy.html
Only 95 people with this name lived in Poland in 2002 (the map is based on the government PESEL register of citizens).
Below the map you can see the names of counties (powiaty) and towns (preceded by the letter m. for miasto) ordered by the number of people with this name.

The name Szereda has a slightly higher representation in Poland (119 people) and, interestingly, a different distribution than Szeredy:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/szereda.html

I don't know Hungarian or Slovak but there is a town in Slovakia callled Sereď (Hungarian: Szered) and it used to be part of Hungary in the past, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sere%C4%8F

I hope this helps a little

Best regards,

Slav

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

CShereda — Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:41 pm

Author: CShereda

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:41 pm

Thanks for all your work on this, Zenon. It looks like you uncovered some useful and interesting information on the Szeredys and Opalkas while you were in Samokleski.

I'm Paul and Jaye's son and my interest in the name is slightly different from my father's. I'm most curious about the origin of the surname Szeredy. From the bit of internet research I've done it seems as if the name Szeredy is more common in Hungary and Slovakia than in Poland. This leads me to wonder if there is a single origin of the name, such as a place, or if the name has some meaning like 'Baker' or 'Johnson' do in English. For instance, my mother's maiden name is the German Senger, which translates either to the English 'Singer', or can mean someone from Seng in Bavaria.

Does Szeredy mean anything in Polish? If not, do you know if it means anything in Hungarian or Slovak? The online translators are of no help.

Cheers-
Charles Shereda

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:03 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:03 am

Yes, we found Paul's Shereda ancestors

After visiting almost all listed in my previous post parish offices on the penultimate day of our stay in Jaslo area we finally got access to the Samokleski parish books in the parish office. The rector priest, although reluctant at the beginning, agreed for us to quickly check the approximate dates and names which we knew about from information found by Paul and you all in the US sources.

Information from immigration and censuses sources where not exactly precise but good enough for us to have clue where and who to look for. After a few minutes of discussion with priest about the most appropriate approach to the search we finally immersed into baptism records for the village of Samokleski. After checking a few years and many other Szeredy families, finally in 1855 we discovered birth record of Joannes and Adalbertus Szeredy, twins born to Josephus and Catharina Opałka Adalbertus (in Polish Wojciech) for some reasons became in the US Georga (in Polish Jerzy) but this was what we knew about before. We didn't know about his twin brother Joannes who died 3 months after birth. Now we knew that we just have to follow this trace. Because priest had limited time on that day he agreed for us to meet the next day (the last day in the area) to continue research.

The rector priest turned out to be most helpful and thanks to starting the next day from Status Animarum ("List of Souls" in the parish) documents we significantly accelerated our discoveries finding a lot of family backwards to 1794. In the Samokleski parish office (and nowhere else) there are no marriage nor banns records what makes the search slower but still effective because there are most of the baptism records as well as Status Animarum from the end of 1800s.

Among others, we found out 12 siblings and half-siblings of Pual's grandfather and also information about two of them emigrating to the US which about Paul wasn't aware of. Now he can continue this thread in the US records.

Now we have solid footholds for continuing research and try to find living relatives in the area in the future .

Opalka/Mastej

Judy Ball — Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:00 pm

Author: Judy Ball

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:00 pm

There were/are several Opalka families in my village of Vulcan in the UP of Michigan, as wellas Mastej. I know that the Mastej family came from Zawadka which is quite near Samoleski. I believe they attended church in Cieklin.
Could you please provide me with info on the LDS microfilm for Samoleski? There are more than one Samoleskis in Poland. When I was looking for the microfilm they were from the other towns.
Thanks,
Judy Ball(Bal)
Searching for Bal (Czekaj), Ciula and Zychowski (Dobrynia), and Jurkowski(Zawadka)

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:18 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:18 am

Thank you very much all of you who responded to our inquiry about Szeredy/Szereda/Shereda family here in Forum as well as via emails.

Because we still didn't determine exact village/parish where Jozef and Catharina could live before leaving homeland we took the only reasonable approach and within the last two days we visited 7 parishes. These are:

Jaslo
Debowiec (greetings to Ceil Jensen http://polishorigins.com/MiPolonia who priests remembered from her last visit here )
Osiek Jasielski
Samokleski
Nowy Zmigrod
Stary Zmigrod
Skalnik

Only in three of the parishes we managed to make appointments with priest to search parish books so far: Debowiec, Osiek Jasielski and Skalnik, but we have made appointment in Samokleski for Monday and hope to meet priests in the remaining places on that day.

We chose the parishes based on current distribution of living now in the area Szeredys and Mastejas. We have the information from local phone book and from interviewing people in the area.

Today is Sunday which for priests is the busiest working day, so we have appointed guided tour in the Open Air Ethnographic Museum in Sanok (click here to take virtual walk through the skansen in winter time: http://skansen.sanok.pl/wirtualny-spacer-skansen-w-zimie.html ). Now in Poland we have temperatures around 0 Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) and we hope that we will not freeze

On Monday we will continue the legwork and will write you about results.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Ute — Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:50 pm

Author: Ute

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:50 pm

Zenon wrote:

To all our Emigration subject specialists

Tomorrow morning Pual and Jaye land in Krakow and we travel together to the most likely place of origin of Paul's ancestors - Jaslo area. However, so far we have only guesses and we were not able to narrow the village of origin of Jozef Szeredy and Catharina to any specific parish.

We will start from Samokleski parish which according to our common investigation is area populated with the surnames of Szeredy, Opalka and Mastej.

However, if any of you had luck in finding emigration/immigration record of Joseph and Catharina Szereda with their very young son George (Jerzy in Polish) that could be of a great help for our search in the area. This is what we know:

between Apr 1879 and 1882

Jozef and Catharina Szeredy (or any close variation of the given names and surname)

See also discussion above.

Any, even the smallest hints from emigration records, can prove to be a breakthrough

If Paul and Jaye do not mind, we will inform you about any discoveries we will have (or have not).

Zenon,
I realize that chances are not that great that the information will be helpful, but since you mentioned the Jaslo area I thought I share two Szereda church marriage records with you that I found in Chicago parishes:

Szereda, Michael getting married to Gros, Thecla on 9-22-1912, at St. Valentine Church, and Szereda (Sereda), John getting married to Nykiel, Anna on 7-4-1904, at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.

What is interesting is that Michael Szereda was from Jodlowa, Jan/John Szereda was from Przeczyca, his wife Anna from Kamienica, gmina Brzostek. I think these villages are all in the Jaslo area ...

Sources:
Michael Szereda church marriage record:
Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925, St. Valentine (Cicero), Marriages, 1912-1915, Image 16 of 28
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11562-108336-74?cc=1452409&wc=11823720

Jan Szereda church marriage record:
Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925, St. Stanislaus Kostka (Chicago), Marriages, 1904, Image 84 of 160
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-12454-72954-91?cc=1452409&wc=11823739

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

PolishLibrarian — Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:08 pm

Author: PolishLibrarian

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:08 pm

In 1900 Census, Joseph and Katharina Szeredy had 11 children (12 pregnancies, 11 living) - there were 9 boys & 2 girls (born about 1885 & 1898). Does this mean that one child had died? Do you know which child that was? Could there have been another child between Frank and Charles? Or did the first baby (George) die in Poland, and the next baby also born there and given the same name? In 1910 they had one more boy (Ed) who was 9 years old. Or in 1900 was Katie pregnant with #12 who would be Ed?

Those 9 boys from 1900 all registered for the WWI draft in 1917-1918 – here are their names and self-reported birth dates:
1. George Joe Shereda 2 Apr. 1881 living in Detroit (says he’s father of Isador who is living in Free Soil, Mich. and Isador does show up with Joseph & Katharina in 1920 in Free Soil) – He had lost his left hand at the wrist.
2. John Joe Shereda 15 Sept. 1881
3. Frank John Shereda 2 Apr. 1883
4. Charles Shereda 2 Nov. 1886
5. Martin Shereda 28 Oct. 1888
6. Thomas J Shereda 4 Dec.1891
7. Paul Shereda 12 Mar. 1893
8. James Shereda 9 Aug. 1895
9. Mike Shereda 9 Aug. 1895

Since George and John could not have been born 5 months apart, perhaps George was born a little earlier than he reported. Hamburg Passenger list implies he would have been born in Oct. 1880.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

PolishLibrarian — Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:30 pm

Author: PolishLibrarian

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:30 pm

Well, this has been interesting. It has taken me 20 min. to finally get each PO page to load so I could post my message. Hope this helps. PL

I just took at look at Ancestry and found Hamburg Passenger List records for Josef Szeredy, Katharina Szeredy and Adalbert Szeredy. Their ship the Viola departed from Hamburg on May 22, 1881 going to New York via London. Joseph was 26, Katharina was 24 and Adalbert was 7/12. They were traveling with 14 other people (5 other surnames) all listed as being from Jaslo, Galicia, Austria. They are both listed as arbeiter (laborer). No other identifying information is give on the Hamburg passenger lists from this time period.

I saved the image and can try to post or send via private message if you'd like. Basically I've given all the textual information from the record.

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Zenon — Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:57 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:57 am

To all our Emigration subject specialists

Tomorrow morning Pual and Jaye land in Krakow and we travel together to the most likely place of origin of Paul's ancestors - Jaslo area. However, so far we have only guesses and we were not able to narrow the village of origin of Jozef Szeredy and Catharina to any specific parish.

We will start from Samokleski parish which according to our common investigation is area populated with the surnames of Szeredy, Opalka and Mastej.

However, if any of you had luck in finding emigration/immigration record of Joseph and Catharina Szereda with their very young son George (Jerzy in Polish) that could be of a great help for our search in the area. This is what we know:

between Apr 1879 and 1882

Jozef and Catharina Szeredy (or any close variation of the given names and surname)

Re: Szeredy and Opalka - request for emigration hints.

Shellie — Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:35 pm

Author: Shellie

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:35 pm

Hi Paul&jaye,
I was curious about how your family history research as been going since we last heard from you. Have you determined which village your Szeredy family came from?
Happy Easter!
Shellie