Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - Can't find birth / death records

Author

Message

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2025 9:42 am Post subject: Can't find birth / death records

I've just obtained a 1948 UK marriage certificate for Leo Hubert Baranski, I'm trying to create a tree for him to see if it links to any people I have in my many partial trees. He died in North Yorkshire in 2000 and was born in 1915 but I don't know where. As a last resort I could order his death certificate which should say where he was born but it might not or might not be precise. I tried using Geneteka but I couldn't find his birth there in any province but I wasn't sure if records from every province and parish would be there for 1915 anyway. I also tried looking for the birth/death records of his father Wladyslaw but there were so many possible people with that name, without knowing more it was impossible to filter the results. All I know about Wladyslaw Baranski is that he was stated as having been deceased on the marriage certificate. I couldn't find either of them on the 1939 Register so I'm guessing that Leo came over to the UK during or just after WWII. Can anyone help?

Trish
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 23 Sep 2020
Replies: 438

Back to top

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2025 3:37 pm Post subject: Re: Can't find birth / death records

stewart wrote:

Hi Stewart,

I would send for away for the death record for Leo Hubert Barnaski. You don't know what type of clues could be on the record.

Did you know that Leo and Jesse have a son named Peter and a daughter named Yadwiga (Jadwiga)?

Name Peter L Baranski
Registration Date Oct 1949 [Nov 1949] [Dec 1949]
Registration Quarter Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration District Blackpool
Inferred County Lancashire
Mother's Maiden Name Birchall
Volume Number 10b
Page number 588

Name Yadwiga M Baranski
Registration Date Oct 1950 [Nov 1950] [Dec 1950]
Registration Quarter Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration District Blackpool
Inferred County Lancashire
Mother's Maiden Name Birchall
Volume Number 10b
Page number 573a

Regards,
Trish

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2025 4:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks Trish, yes I might have to gamble on doing that. His obituary mentions 4 children - Peter, Dave, Mike and Maria, so maybe Yadwiga passed away

Trish
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 23 Sep 2020
Replies: 438

Back to top

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2025 4:26 pm Post subject:

stewart wrote:

Thanks Trish, yes I might have to gamble on doing that. His obituary mentions 4 children - Peter, Dave, Mike and Maria, so maybe Yadwiga passed away

Hi Stewart,

Here is the information for the other children. I think Maria is for Yadwiga (Jadwiga) for her middle intial was "M".

Regards,
Trish

Name David J Baranski
Registration Date Apr 1952 [May 1952] [Jun 1952]
Registration Quarter Apr-May-Jun
Registration District Wensleydale
Inferred County North Yorkshire
Mother's Maiden Name Birchall
Volume Number 1b
Page number 1223

Name Michael A Baranski
Registration Date Jul 1954 [Aug 1954] [Sep 1954]
Registration Quarter Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration District Claro
Inferred County North Yorkshire
Mother's Maiden Name Birchall
Volume Number 2c
Page number 83

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2025 11:50 am Post subject:

Trish wrote:

stewart wrote:

Thanks Trish, yes I might have to gamble on doing that. His obituary mentions 4 children - Peter, Dave, Mike and Maria, so maybe Yadwiga passed away

Thanks Trish. Odd to give his daughter a Polish name, I wonder if it was after his mother perhaps?

Trish
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 23 Sep 2020
Replies: 438

Back to top

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2025 1:00 pm Post subject:

stewart wrote:

Thanks Trish. Odd to give his daughter a Polish name, I wonder if it was after his mother perhaps?

Hi Stewart,
I too find it odd that he named his daughter Jadwiga. Hopefully this is a clue. Now to figure out who Jadwiga was named after is going to be the new mystery.

Regards,
Trish

Sophia
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 05 Oct 2014
Replies: 1270

Back to top

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2025 5:37 am Post subject:

Hi Stewart and Trish,

Maybe all of the children were given Polish names. If you have access to baptism records for them, it is possible that you might see them as Piotr, Jadwiga, Dawid and Michał. It would not be unusual for an immigrant family like the Baranskis to call them by these names, while simultaneously using anglicized versions of the names in official documents and out in the predominantly English-speaking community. I am not suggesting that the registrar anglicized the names, since I do not see anything suggesting that they were required or even allowed to do so. However, families were aware that "fitting in" would be important for their kids, and so they may have chosen to register them with anglicized names. Piotr became Peter, Dawid became David, Michał became Michael, and Jadwiga became Yadwiga. Yadwiga may have found it difficult still, and switched to using her middle name as Trish suggested.

Stewart, I want to add, in reference to something you wrote in one of your recent posts, that Geneteka is a very incomplete resource. If you want to find Leo's origins (and by the way, he is more likely in Polish records to show up as Leon or even perhaps as Leopold) then you need to find a UK document that shows his place of birth. Not an easy task, I'm sure.

Best of luck,
Sophia

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 7:00 am Post subject:

Sophia wrote:

Stewart, I want to add, in reference to something you wrote in one of your recent posts, that Geneteka is a very incomplete resource. If you want to find Leo's origins (and by the way, he is more likely in Polish records to show up as Leon or even perhaps as Leopold) then you need to find a UK document that shows his place of birth. Not an easy task, I'm sure.

Best of luck,
Sophia

Yes I've ordered his death certificate which SHOULD show his birthplace. I noticed on his marriage certificate there was what seemed a deliberate a full stop after the first name Leo so maybe that indicated his name was foreshortened. Without knowing the province/parish when I searched at Geneteka for his birth record I searched everywhere but couldn't see a Leo Hubert with the father's name of Wladyslaw. Wladyslaw's birth record is probably at Geneteka but there were so many Baranski's with that name in the likely time frame it was impossible to know which was Leo's father.

Sophia
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 05 Oct 2014
Replies: 1270

Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 7:15 am Post subject:

Hi Stewart,

Interestingly, the marriage certificate was from Blackpool. There was a Polish Air Force Headquarters in Blackpool, and there was a Wienczyslaw Baranski there in 1944. He had quite the impressive career:

https://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Baranski.htm

He came from Solec nad Wisłą, and here he is on Geneteka, born 1908:

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=pol&bdm=B&w=07mz&rid=1819&search_lastname=Baranski&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1900&to_date=1920&exac=1

I see his father's name does not match Leo's and I do not see evidence of Leo or Wladyslaw in Solec records on Geneteka, but it does not negate the possibility that Leo was from a nearby village whose records have not been indexed for Geneteka. Anyway, I am posting this info because there are several photos of Wienczyslaw online, and on the off chance that you might see any family resemblance, I wanted you to be able to see them.

Best,
Sophia

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 8:25 am Post subject:

Sophia wrote:

Anyway, I am posting this info because there are several photos of Wienczyslaw online, and on the off chance that you might see any family resemblance, I wanted you to be able to see them.

Aw thanks for that Sophia. I'll have to ask my daughter if she sees any resemblances, women seem to be better at these things in my experience. Personally I don't think he's as good-looking as me Laughing

He is one of the Baranskis I found here https://listakrzystka.pl/en/ba-bi/page/7/

BarbOslo
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 19 Nov 2022
Replies: 1287
Location: Norway
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 8:37 am Post subject:

Hi,
I suspect the family comes from the Silesia area.
I found a Leon Baranski born in 1916 in Sosnowiec. Unfortunately the father's name is not given. Sosnowiec is located in Silesia. I also checked the surname Birchell, and Silesia is the only place where this name appears. It could also be a coincidence.

-Barb

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 8:42 am Post subject:

BarbOslo wrote:

Leo was born 8th September 1915. Why the surname Birchell?

BarbOslo
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 19 Nov 2022
Replies: 1287
Location: Norway
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 8:58 am Post subject:

Also found a Hubert Baranski in kujawsko pomorskie. He was also born in 1916, but his date of birth is actually September 8 and his father's name is Wladyslaw. Is 1915 a safe year of birth?
-Barb

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 9:14 am Post subject:

BarbOslo wrote:

Also found a Hubert Baranski in kujawsko pomorskie. He was also born in 1916, but his date of birth is actually September 8 and his father's name is Wladyslaw. Is 1915 a safe year of birth?
-Barb

I think I got the birth date from his newspaper obituary

stewart

Joined: 07 Feb 2025
Replies: 50
Location: UK
Back to top

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 9:25 am Post subject:

[quote="stewart"]

BarbOslo wrote:

Also found a Hubert Baranski in kujawsko pomorskie. He was also born in 1916, but his date of birth is actually September 8 and his father's name is Wladyslaw. Is 1915 a safe year of birth?
-Barb

I don't know if we're looking at the same thing at Geneteka but if it's Record 48 , born Raciaz? That looks like a Hubert Wladyslaw Baranski with no name shown for either parent

PolishOrigins Forum