Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - Looking for my aunt: Katarzyna Kotowska

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ElzbietaKlimczak

Joined: 27 Feb 2014
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:45 pm Post subject: Looking for my aunt: Katarzyna Kotowska

Hi

I'm looking for Katarzyna Kotowska, sister of my great grandmother. She emigrated from Poland to United States when she was a young, unmarried girl . Probably less than 20 years old. She was born in 1863 in the small village Kąty (near Warsaw, under Russian annexation). Her parents were Tomasz Kotowski and Marcjanna Kotowska. She left the country with jewish family. I don't have any informations about them. She took care of their children. She sent letters to family in Poland, but correspondence stopped before II World War.

Can somebody find any informations about her in Ancestry database or in other sources ? I used Ancestry search engine and I found one promising record from Baltimore but I can't read it. I don't have paid access.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Elżbieta

Cheri Vanden Berg
PO Top Contributor & Patron

Joined: 16 Oct 2011
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:35 pm Post subject:

Elżbieta,
If you mean the Katarzyna Kotowska who arrived in Baltimore in August 1893, it says she was 34, her last residence was Brzozie, and she was married and going to her husband in Cleveland, Ohio. She was travelling with Natalya, age 15, Franz, age 11, Czeslaw, age 9, Marianna, age 4, Jozef, age 2, Kazimierz, age 11 months. It said they were going to their father in Cleveland Ohio.

Cheri

PolishLibrarian
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Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:08 pm Post subject:

Elżbieta~ On Ancestry there is a border crossing record in June 1911 at the port of Niagara Falls for a Catherina Kotowska age 44 [born ~1866-67], single female, occupation cigar maker, can read & write, country Austria, race Polish, nearest relative left - sister Catherine in Hamilton Ontario, never before in U.S., going to brother-in-law John Kotowski at 462 South St. Buffalo NY, 5 ft. 2 in., fair complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, born in Nisko Austria, arrived [in Canada] to unknown seaport of landing in 1906 on unknown ship, date of examination April 16, 1911.

I can’t explain why her sister is another Catherine and her brother-in-law is a Kotowski (maybe she misunderstood and Catherine is her sister-in-law and John is her brother, or perhaps the only choices were single or married and if she were a widow she would say she was single, meaning she married a Kotowski and John would then be her brother-in-law).

I searched Google maps for Nisko Poland and then distance to Kąty Poland. Nisko is in Nisko County Subcarpathian Voivodiship and is between Rzeszow & Lublin and the village of Kąty is 16 km northeast of Nisko, still in Nisko County. This doesn’t seem to be the Kąty you reference since it would be the Galicia portion of Poland, although just a few km from the Russian partition border. But the age is close and the birthplace is very close to a Kąty so I offer it as a possibility.

According to the 1910 U.S. Census, John Kotowski 44 was married to Agnaska 32 with one son age 9 (born in NY state), Austria, Polish, arrived 1891 (wife arrived 1897), living in Buffalo Ward 2. They had 8 boarders. John was a laborer with the railroad.

John & Agnes Kotowski show up in a 1921 Census of Canada – they were living in Hamilton East, Ontario. I only have access to U.S. records so I can’t look at the record. ~PL

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