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rek108



Joined: 19 Apr 2018
Replies: 3
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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Post Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:46 pm      Post subject: Deciphering Tombstone Markings
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My Aunt, my mother's sister, Helen Dalka was born in Natrona, Pennsylvania, USA on 5 August 1918. Tragically, she died only two moths later on 8 October from the 1918 flu pandemic called the "Spanish Flu". She was buried nearby in St. Ladislaus Cemetery in Natrona Heights, PA. I am unable to determine the meaning of the letters on her headstone.

The letters may be grouped in many ways: HDU, DU, HRM, R 1918 U, M 1918 R, 1918 U, 1918 R, and so on. I believe that the letters may refer to "born" or "died" or may be the first letters in the words of prayers or sayings in the Polish language. For instance something like "In Holy Remembrance", "Rest In Peace", "Our Beloved Daughter" or "In God's Hands". I would appreciate any insight you may have as to the meaning of these letters.

Helen Dalka
Born 5 August 1918 urodzona 5 sierpien 1918
Died 7 October 1918 zmarla 7 pazdziernik 1918
Buried 8 October 1918, St. Ladislaus Cemetery, Natrona Heights, PA, USA
Mother Władysława (Anuszek) Dalka
Father Antoni Dalka



Dalka, Helen - Grave Marker.jpg
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Dalka, Helen - Grave Marker.jpg


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Sophia
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:54 am      Post subject:
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Hi,
Fascinating grave marker. I have a theory that differs from yours, but first I want to acknowledge that I did go to the Ancestry website and can see that there was another death in the family only one month after Helen's, that of her sister Geonefa (presumably Genowefa). I also see that you put up some info on Ancestry, so I know you are aware of that death. I am curious as to whether you have found a grave marker for Geonefa, and if so, whether it has similar markings.
While I like your idea that the letters (M, R, H, D, U, U, R) have some prayerful meaning, I think there might be another explanation for it. The easiest way to test it would be to look at the St. Ladislaus burial records for 1918, if you have access to that. It would be much easier than going through all of the Pennsylvania death certificates available on Ancestry. My thought is that this grave marker commemorates many children who were born in 1918 and also died in 1918, and that each letter stands for a first name of a child. Or maybe they were stillbirths, and the letters are for surnames. Perhaps the Dalka family were the ones who paid for the plot or for the marker and for that reason gave their Helen a more prominent mention of "H Dalka."
Best of luck in resolving the puzzle,
Sophia
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Sophia
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:34 pm      Post subject:
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Just to follow up, here are some of the things commonly found on Polish grave markers. Ś.P. is usually written next to the name of the deceased, and is the abbreviation for “świętej pamięci,” which means “of holy memory.” One phrase you may find is “pokoj jej duszy,” “peace for her soul.” Another phrase is “proszę o modlitwę,” “please say a prayer.” I am not able to think of any that use the letters M, R, H, D or U in the way these letters are positioned on Helen's marker.
Best,
Sophia
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rek108



Joined: 19 Apr 2018
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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Post Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:15 pm      Post subject:
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Sophia,

I sincerely appreciate your contributions to this discussion.

I have shown the photograph of the headstone to many Polish ex-patriots here in Pittsburgh, to a professional genealogist in Warsaw that does research for me, I sent it to Robert Strybel whose name you may be familiar with from his Polish cookbook and his many columns that appear in periodicals such as the Polish American Journal, I have shown it to a Polish born priest and the priest and deacon of the local parish, I have shown it to the owner of the local maker of headstones. None had any suggestions as to the meaning of the letters on the stone.

My grandparents were not in a position to be philanthropic, to memorialize the deaths of others, they were very poor. They may not have even been able to pay for the plot or the stone themselves and relied on family or charity to pay the cost. The stone is concrete, the least expensive material for a marker, and quite small - less than a foot wide and 1 1/2 feet above ground. There is no other instance of a communal memorial stone in St. Ladislaus cemetery that has members of more than one family.

I have checked with St. Ladislaus Parish - now part of St. Jospeh Parish, they have no cemetery records from that time. The local newspaper has only a three sentence obituary stating that Helen had died, the parents, the funeral and the Priest.

I have been unable to locate a grave marker for Helen's sister, Genowefa who died just over one month after Helen. Very few markers survive in that old section of the cemetery, I was very fortunate to find Helen's. There are no records for plot locations, numbers. St. Ladislaus is a small old cemetery, no new plots have been available to be sold for many decades now.

I recently sent a request to the Diocese of Pittsburgh for death records for Helen, if I get any information I expect only to receive the name of the deceased and the date of burial. There is an outside chance of getting other information such as deceased’s date of death, age, place of birth, residence, cause of death, the cemetery where the deceased was buried and the name of the child’s father. This is all information that I already have from the death certificate.

The letter "U" appears twice. Is it too obvious that this letter refers to Polish words for death - umrzeć, umieranie, umarcie, or born/birth - urodzony. Or maybe the letters do not refer to any words in the Polish language at all.

Many thanks.

My quest continues...
Robert
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Sophia
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:03 am      Post subject:
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Hi Robert,
I hope that Dave Nowicki will join this conversation. He has an expert knowledge of Latin which may be the language in which these letters have meaning. He also brings substantial understanding of cemeteries.
I know of another family who lost a child in 1918, who was about the same age as your Helen. Whether it was due to the extraordinary stresses put on cemetery workers during the flu of 1918, or rather due to the lack of money in the family, their child was put in a grave with multiple other children. It never got a grave marker at all, but the cemetery did tell the family, decades later, that they could add one if they wished. This opens the possibility that what you are looking at is a grave marker done some time later than 1918, perhaps by someone tangential to Wladyslawa and Antoni. Just a thought.
Best,
Sophia
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looking for clues
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:34 pm      Post subject:
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I found one other grave marker from the same cemetery in 1917 that also appears written in concrete https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=68692266&PIpi=164275438 What stood out is that the name continued from line to line. I know that in polish records sometimes words are split between lines without a hyphen. As somebody who doesn’t read Polish, this has thrown me. Note my interpretation of that name is different than the way it was indexed.

This may be over simplistic, but…
the HR could be for Helen Dalka
UR (split between two lines) could be an abbreviation for Urodzona (born)
UM (split between two lines) could be an abbreviation for Umarła (died)
r could be an abbreviation for rok (year)
H Dalka could be an abbreviation for Helen Dalka.
So, potentially it could translate HR born 1917, died 1918 year, H Dalka

There is a discussion https://polishforums.com/archives/2005-2009/genealogy/inscription-headstone-trying-family-33492/ where UR and UM were used as abbreviations for born and died.

Maybe somebody with more experience can chime in as to whether this theory makes sense or not.

Diane
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Sophia
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 6:29 pm      Post subject:
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Diane, that's brilliant!
I like your explanation a lot.
Sophia
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rek108



Joined: 19 Apr 2018
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 8:02 am      Post subject:
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Diane, thank you for your insight into the meaning of these markings.

I believe that the mystery is now solved! The meaning of the markings are:

HD = Helen Dalka
UR = Urodozony (born)
1918
UM = Umarł (died)
1918
R = Rok (year)
H DALKA = Helen Dalka

The realization that the words/abbreviations are split and continue from one line to the next was key. Looking at the other concrete marker in your link makes the letters/words/abbreviations obvious. In fact, for the monument in your link for "Wladislaw Zakca", it is easy to tell that in reality that marker reads:

TU - SP (Tu spoczywaj w pokoju) = here rests in peace
Władysław Zandarski
1917

My intuition told me that the solution to the puzzle would involve some simple concept, and that has proven to be true. It never occured to me, doesn't seem to make sense, that an abbreviation would flow from one line to the next. But I guess this was common at that time for inscriptions on tall skinny monuments.

I have a great sense of joy and relief now. Many thanks!
Robert Kaminski
Pittsburgh, PA
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