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ossnhughie
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:39 pm Post subject: really stumped on research - Szymkiewicz surname

I know from my last 10 years of being involved in research of my roots especially Polish roots, I can hit dead ends, unfortunately this would be one of those times. My problem is trying to pin down when one branch of my family came over here to the USA. I found when the patriarch Adolf came over in 1906 via Ellis Island but his wife Jozefa and children Sophia, Julia and son Bronislaw (Bennie latter on) came to the USA. My searches in Ellis island lists Boston passenger lists haven't turned up anything useful, yet i know they must have came after their father in 1906 but before 1912 when Sophie was married with her family in attendance in Bridgewater, MA.
The last name is Szymkiewicz and I have a feeling that name is on a manifest but is butchered so bad as being almost impossible to find, My question to my more experienced compatriots is can you think of any other ways a name like this could be spelled by a census taker or immigration official? Based on how it would be pronounced or what I do not know but any advice would be most welcome.

Dziekuje,

Hugh W.

Cheri Vanden Berg
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:04 pm Post subject:

Hugh,
What spelling did you find Adolf Szymkiewicz under at Ellis Island? I didn't find him. I'm attaching the family in the 1920 census in Bridgewater. It says that Jozefa immigrated in 1910, but that information on the census isn't always accurate.
Cheri

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ossnhughie
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:35 pm Post subject: Adolf Szymkiewicz Ellis Island

Hi thank you for your response, Adolf was under Adolf Sinkewitz in Ellis Island database and had him on SS Columbia 10 June 1906; The only reason I know it's the right man is approximate age listed as 38 (although his headstone says born 1860)but the what sealed the deal was the name of the teenager he was travelling with Konstanty Win(c)za. I thought the name looked familiar and it was; In the 1940 census he is listed as being my great grandfathers Jozef Michalkiewicz's farm partner!!(Go figure).

But as far as the rest of the Szymkiewicz/ Sinkiewicz clan goes here is the most accurate info i have from sacramental records and civil records in America.

Jozefa was born 1866 in Russian Poland
Sophie/Sofia was born in 1890 in Russian Poland most likely Wilno Governate poss Troki
Bronislaw (Bennie) was 9th of December 1895 Troki or Wilno Governate.

The only real hopeful clue was a declaration of Intention for Bennie dated 8 November 1927 in which he gives sketchy info on when he came to USA.

He says he emigrated from Liverpool England on a ship he did not know in March of 1909 and arrived in the port of Boston sometime in March 1909.

Interesting to note as of the 1940 Census in East Bridgewater, MA he is still registered as a resident alien. I thought of potentially sending to INS a request for his Alien Registration Form but that costs money and the govt. is very slow. His two sisters I know of were married Sophia (Poltorak) in 1912 in Bridgewater, MA and Julia (McDonald) in 1923 in Brockton, MA. The sisters don't seem to supply any info under maiden name or Married name. It is quite the conundrum, I feel like House M.D. trying to solve a tough medical enigma.
I know there must be some record of them coming here somewhere.

Hugh
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ossnhughie
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:42 pm Post subject: It is also worth noting

On the Archdiocese of Boston Copy of Julia's Marriage record to John(Raymond)Mcdonald in 1923 that her father Adolf is listed under the name Jan Sienkiewicz (not only another spelling of the surname but a completely different first name Jan? (Mind you this is 1923 so that murderous Nazi has not made the name infamous yet).

Just when I think I have it figured out somewhat, I find I'm in over my head.

The thrill of the hunt.

Hugh
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Cheri Vanden Berg
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:08 am Post subject:

Hugh,
I really can sympathize, because I have been searching for one of my ancestor's surnames, Szymusiak, quite a bit lately, and it probably gets more mangled than any of my other surnames. I went here http://www.ivona.com/en/ to listen to how it's pronounced. I chose a Polish speaker (actually I listened to all of them), cleared the box and entered my surname.

How it is pronounced, might not be how it's written either. It could be written correctly, but the cursive could be read incorrectly by an indexer. For instance my grandmother Aniela Lenart was indexed as Anieta Seuard at Ellis Island. I have seen where a cursive L could be mistaken for an S, or vice versa, a n for a u, and e for a c, or vice versa.

I had looked for Aniela at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/eidb/ellisgold.html because you can just enter a place name if you'd like, and see all the people that are from there. Of course Polish villages, unfamiliar to some indexers, could also be read wrong. I tried looking for my grandmother with her initials, and her village with just the letter Z. It turned out that the indexer thought the Z was a J. I did mess around at this site looking for your family for awhile, and didn't have any luck. You could even enter an age, or an age range, a year, or a range of years when they arrived on the Ellis Island Gold Form.

With my Szymusiak I was frustrated with the results of searches at https://familysearch.org/search and Ancestry. At Family Search I would get many Szymkowiaks when I searched Szymusiak. It's probably the same Soundex code, but I didn't think that Szymusiak wouldn't be written as Szymkowiak. I started to spell it incorrectly, as I've seen on records. When I put Simusak in the search engine, I didn't end up with a bunch of Szymkowiak hits. That would be one suggestion I would have for you. Try putting all the misspellings that you've found in search engines, and see what you come up with. You may come up with even more misspellings, like I did for Szymusiak.

As I'm sure you know, that won't work the same way at Ellis Island. They'll only give you what you are looking for, but you could still try all the misspellings.
Good Luck!
Cheri

gdeborski

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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:09 am Post subject:

Hugh,
I had a very similar roadblock. I was searching for the ship records for my great grandmother. Like your family, her husband had come over earlier - I assume he worked and saved enough to send the money for the fares for the rest of the family. I had a fairly narrow range of years in which she and her children could have traveled. I knew her approximate age and the ages of the 5 children. I thought how difficult could it be to find a mother and 5 young children - Boy was I wrong!

I knew great grandma as Katherine or Kate Deborski - No success using many variations on that. Finally, I used what I call "brute force" and searched using only Kat for the given name and no surname. That resulted in pages of items to look through, but it finally yielded a listing for Kata Tuburska and the five children arriving in 1898 through the port of Galveston. I later found birth records showing the family surname was actually Tyburski. Like Cheri's comment above, I used the Ivona website and learned that when spoken in Polish Deborski and Tyburski sound remarkably alike.

I think sometimes it helps to "forget" somethings we think we know about our ancestors. Sometimes, that opens a new window through those roadblocks.

Gary

ossnhughie
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:36 pm Post subject: Thank you all for your help...but alas great news!!!

Cheri and Gary,

Firstly thank you for your encouragement and for all the useful hints and tips you have given me. It came down to a hunch; As I mentioned before i had a Declaration of Intention from the late 20's for Bennie Sinkiewicz that said he came to the port of Boston in March of 1909 from Liverpool, England. So I went back to ancestry to the Boston passenger list and figured I'd play with the years of emigration and didn't put a last name but put his original Polish name of Bronislaw in the search engine and look at the results..... in the attachment lines 14-18 list
Juzefa Schimkewitz afe 42 Check
Stanilsaw age 14 a son i didn't know of
Bronislaw age 11 Check
Marianna age 9 daughter I didn't know of
Julia age 6 Check

better yet it says they came from Wilno the ages are close, if not exact for known relatives in my tree. It also lists on next page where they are going to their Husband and Father Adolf in Norwich!! looks like we have a winner!!!! Thank you all so much i am excited to have finally found it. Al credit to your help Thank God for Polishorigins.

dziekuje,
Hugh

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Elzbieta Porteneuve
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:07 am Post subject: Re: Thank you all for your help...but alas great news!!!

ossnhughie wrote:

better yet it says they came from Wilno the ages are close,
Hugh

Hugh,

On the list of passangers the place they came from is noted: Ewie
It's very hard to find today, because of many changes over time in that area (language, script, name itself).

In an old geography book I found gmina Ewie part of Bialolesie (noone is in Poland now):
http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_I/190
right side, 3rd bold name from the bottom

The place Ewie, Poland is listed in Shoah databases:
http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameResults.html?placeBirth=Ewie&placeBirthType=LITERAL&language=en

Then, I found an old map where Troki, Wilno and Ewie (in Cyrillic) are noted:
http://www.radzima.net/maps/guberniya-vilenskaya/vilenskoe-namestnichestvo-1796-karta-large.jpg
Troki and Ewie are in yellow circular area, border with white. Wilno is in pink area on the right side of yellow.

I had difficulties to identify Ewie on today map, even if I know Kowno=Kaunas, Wilno=Vilnius, Troki=Trakai.

Eventualy the biggest help came from an automobile map, because they provide names in Polish and in Lithuanian
http://skp.planart.pl/zasoby/konkursy/edycja2011/ExpressMap/Litwa_Wilno_Kowno_mapa.jpg
Ewie became Jewie, then Vivis today.
At this stage Google is your friend. It's in today Lithuania.

About Powiat Trocki
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powiat_trocki

To complete a picture with a document in English from 1923 about Eastern frontiers of Poland
http://www.forost.ungarisches-institut.de/pdf/19230315-1.pdf

Best,
Elzbieta

ossnhughie
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:58 pm Post subject: Thank you Elzbieta

Elzbieta,

Thanks for the great resources you have given me, I certainly appreciate it. I find genealogy so rewarding although my family wonders why I care so much, but who these people are is who I am. The Polish roots have been the most challenging yet the most rewarding branch I have researched thus far.

This forum as I have said has been a total Godsend, and i find myself on here every day, seeing if maybe I can help some folks and hopefully run into people who share common ancestors. The maps are fascinating and show just how much has changed in a mere 150 years or less as regards to who lived where, and what territories were within different borders.
Thank you again and happy research

Dziekuje and God bless,

Hugh W.
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Cheri Vanden Berg
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:42 pm Post subject:

Hugh,
I am so glad that you found Jozefa and children on a manifest - great work! I didn't tell you that I had also been looking for my grandmother Aniela Lenart's on and off for 10 years. A kind soul actually found her for me in an index at Ancestry. Her name was closer to what it really was in that index than it was in the Ellis Island index.

That is really great that you found more children of Adolf and Josefa. Have you tried finding them in the 1910 census at Ancestry without a surname? I was unsuccessful, but I used their Polish first names, maybe if you'd use the names that they ended up using in the U.S. I find that family search option nice, where you can list spouse and children, and I have found families that way, but you do get a lot of hits. You could narrow it down with more details, like I imagine in 1910 they would have listed Russia as their birthplace in the census...
Cheri

ossnhughie
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:56 pm Post subject: strange 1910 census possible find?

My friends at Polish origins,
Here is something that is beyond anything I've seen, and might just be a wild goose chase. Much like Cheri suggested I looked up the 1910 Federal Census for Connecticut using the first names instead of relying on the Surname. Example the Americanized Polish names Stanislaw (Stanley) Bronislaw (Benjamin) etc. The family is said to have lived in Versailles, CT as of June 1910 Michalkiewicz Passenger arrival list from ellis Island. The names and ages match and Sprague, CT was the larger community that makes up Versailles. The street also looks like it says Versailles main street. If this is the Szymkiewicz/ Sinkiewicz family where the heck did the name Checofsky come from? Has any one ever seen this before?

I'd appreciate any second opinions on this strange bit of information.

Hugh W
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ossnhughie
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:14 pm Post subject: sorry here's the aforementioned census

here is the 1910 census i was talking about sorry,

hugh

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Cheri Vanden Berg
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:45 pm Post subject:

I would say that you found the family that you were looking for! You should probably keep the "Checofsky" name in my mind as you continue your research. Thoughts do come to mind that maybe they were escaping Russian controlled Poland for more serious reasons than the average emigrant. I really don't know. I look at the two boarders in the household, and wonder if one of them has their surname written as some version of Szymkiewicz. Then I wonder if the census taker simply mixed up the family name with the boarder's surname (with the possible language difference), and maybe that boarder was the Checofsky. I hope someone that knows more than me weighs in on this. Did the male members of the family keep the Szymkiewicz surname?

Elzbieta Porteneuve
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 3:06 am Post subject: Re: strange 1910 census possible find?

ossnhughie wrote:

If this is the Szymkiewicz/ Sinkiewicz family where the heck did the name Checofsky come from? Has any one ever seen this before?

I'd appreciate any second opinions on this strange bit of information.

Hugh W

Hugh,

Checofsky, Chekhov (many other transliterations)

The census cleric was an amateur of Chekhov, or the name of Chekhov became popular, and the cleric gave that nickname to the family?

I am glad you found them.

Best,
Elzbieta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov

dnowicki
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:47 am Post subject:

Hugh, et al.

I wouldn't try to attach too much importance to the surname spelling on the census form. The simplest explanation is probably found in the name of the enumerator and the amount of time the Polish families had been residing in the USA. The enumerator, James W. Ablard, was most likely only familiar with the English language and the Polish individuals listed had only been in America for between 3 and eight years (year of arrival 1902 to 1907). When you look at column 17 ("Whether able to speak English, or, if not give language spoken) none of the Poles are listed as being able to speak English since the language spoken for all is listed as Polish. Also, there is no way to tell whether an adult or a child was answering the enumerator's questions. So when you combine an enumerator whose language skills were probably limited to English and individuals who spoke Polish rather than English you end up with, as the movie line goes, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Very early on when I began to look for maternal grandmother's family in the first census after they arrived in America (the 1900 Census), there were no hits on any of what I thought could be possible spellings of Szafranski. Fortunately I knew the block where they lived in Chicago. It was only by going through the returns for the ED where they lived that I was able to locate them. The way their surname appeared on that census return was never used by any family member. (They always spelled their surname as Szafranski.) The problem in the 1900 Census was that the enumerator simply spelled their surname they way she thought she should. Since my grandmother, who was 16 at the time, and all her younger siblings all received elementary school education exclusively in Chicago and were completely bilingual any one of them could have spelled the surname for the enumerator, but it seems she never asked.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely explanation.

Dave

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