Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - Could This Be a Village or Town (Popczyki, Galicia)?

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Sam

Joined: 14 Apr 2025
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2025 2:20 pm Post subject: Could This Be a Village or Town (Popczyki, Galicia)?

The following image is gleaned from my great-grandfather's 1918 draft card, and may be the only lead I readily possess regarding an exact place in Austrian Galicia (DNA appears to suggest modern-day Lesser Poland in particular) he may have resided/been born in before emigrating. The registrant (a Mr. Ryan) seems to have wrote village/town names on my ancestor's card and others he recorded on the foreign citizenship line, even though such a thing was not explicitly called-for, so it may be a stroke of fortune for me, considering my ancestor never filed for naturalization nor am I certain of any immigration/manifest record.

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Last edited by Sam on Thu Apr 17, 2025 2:51 pm; edited 1 time in total

Sophia
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2025 2:44 pm Post subject: Re: Could This Be a Village or Town (Popeyyki, Galicia)?

Sam wrote:

Hi Sam,

As I read it, the letters are: Popczyki

However, I do not see a town by that name. Are you willing to share your great-grandfather's name with us, so that we can see if we might be able to find a ship manifest?

Also, it is helpful when deciphering handwriting to see more of the form in order to see how that particular writer shaped their letters when they wrote. Would you mind uploading the full draft card? Or a link to it?

Sophia

Sam

Joined: 14 Apr 2025
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:08 pm Post subject:

You're probably right about the spelling! My g-grandfather's original name was Andrzej (Andrew) Szewczyk, which he was still using at the time of his 1913 marriage and birth of first daughter in 1914. As for the full first page of the card:

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Sophia
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2025 4:52 am Post subject:

Sam wrote:

Hi Sam,

Thanks for posting the whole image of the draft record. It does help, because it shows how Mr. Ryan, the registrar, spelled Andrzej's name. Andrzej's signature is written as Szefczyk, a small modification of the original spelling Szewczyk and understandable in that it captures the sound of how the name is pronounced in Polish. But the registrar wrote Shifsky, for both Andy and his wife Mary. If he modified the surname that wildly, then I can hardly take the town name Popczyki as accurately spelled. What I will try to do (but this is the Easter weekend, so I can't say exactly when I will succeed in getting to it) is look for ship manifests, keeping that Popczyki in mind. Mr. Ryan may have been working from how the town sounded to him, if he was speaking to Andrzej when filling out the form, or he may have been working from how the town name looked as written out for him on a slip of paper, so I will be viewing it from both perspectives. I have looked at a lot of WWI draft registration forms and this is a very unusual thing to have the town written down so hopefully we can take advantage of that rare gift.

If you happen to know of any siblings of your Andrzej who emigrated, whose WWI draft registrations or ship manifests we could also view, it may be of help.

Best wishes for a lovely Easter holiday,
Sophia

Sam

Joined: 14 Apr 2025
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:49 am Post subject:

Sophia,

I would like to thank you for all your time and input thus far in this mystery. I am developing a deep appreciation for the PolishOrigins community, especially as I am only now diving deeply into my paternal ancestry, which is entirely Polish, and so far it's been quite the adventure and test for an intermediate genealogist such as myself. It's a welcome change from my maternal ancestry, which is already well-researched and established, which, while offering much readily available information, lacks the excitement of fresh discovery.

I will say that that Szewczyk at this point seems to have been firmly Anglicized/Americanized into Shifsky and like variants, so he may have given the registrant that name, but still signed his own name as Szefczyk. The 1920 census records "Andy" and Mary as holding the surname Shapsky, and in the 1930 census and afterwards it became Shefsky for him and his children down to me. But the 1950 census refers to Andy as Mr. Shaky.

Unfortunately, there is only one man I know of who might be a relative. My g-grandfather, then living in Bentleyville, Pa., separated from his wife, so he lists a "Steve O'Shetsky" as the individual who will 'always know your address' in his 1942 draft card, but no blood relation is declared, nor am I sure he possesses the right documents.

In any case, I also wish you a happy and blessed Easter.

Sam

Joined: 14 Apr 2025
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:57 am Post subject:

My g-grandfather and Steve O'Shetsky have different names for their fathers on their death certificates. My gg-grandfather is Jacob, while Steve's father is given as Michael.

Sophia
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2025 5:20 am Post subject:

Sam wrote:

Hi Sam,

Thank you for your kind wishes. It was a very nice holiday, and I am not quite back in full swing on genealogy but I did want to make a brief post this morning.

First of all, based on what you wrote, I have to retract my criticism of Mr. Ryan, the registrar, since he seems to have been accurately recording the surname that Andrzej was using. With a quick search on the Morse search engine for finding manifests, I see that several people list the town Popczyce (in Galicia) as their place of origin, so perhaps that is what this Popczyki was. Just a guess, since I have not had the chance to really search for Andrzej's manifest yet. I realize that it does not fit with your expecatation of Malopolska, but let's keep an open mind for the moment. Popczyce does get a mention in this piece that Donna Gawell wrote about Niwiska:

https://donnagawell.com/poland-in-wwii-niwiska-and-anna-grabiec/niwiska-its-history-and-life-in-galicia/history-of-the-village-of-niwiska-near-rzeszow-poland/

So maybe you can enjoy reading that and exploring her website, if it interests you. I will try to get back to the search soon.

Best regards,
Sophia

Sam

Joined: 14 Apr 2025
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2025 11:34 am Post subject:

Sophia,

Thank you for the resource. Niwiska makes for an interesting read. Anything in south-eastern Poland might be fair game.

Trish
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2025 2:30 pm Post subject:

Hi Sam and Sophia,

Sophia, can I ask where the town of Popczyce is located? I did see the town of Ropczyce.

I saw a couple of possilbe manifests for Andrzej, but nothing so far with the town listed as Popczyce. Some manifests only list "last know residence "not "place of birth".

Thank you
Trish

Sophia
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 8:16 am Post subject:

Trish wrote:

Good question, Trish. Based on the towns that Donna G. listed along with Niwiska, I looked at old maps hoping to find Popczyce and was not successful. Perhaps it was a typo, on her part, and transcription errors for the indexed manifests on the Morse site. Your suggestion of Ropczyce is a good one. We should hold on to that possibility. For the manifests which you found and which you think are possibilities for Andrzej, are any of them headed to the right area of Pennsylvania?

Sophia

Trish
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 11:06 am Post subject:

Hi Sophia and Sam,

Sophia, I too saw the town of Popczyce on the Morse website. I also saw the spelling of the surname Szefczyk on Geneteka.

I found a "possible" alien registration information for Andrzej. Sophia, I believe you know more information about Alien Registrations. You shed some light on this subject?

United States, Flexoline Alien Registrations 1940-1954

Name Andy Shefsky
Birth July 12 1880 - Austria
Arrival July 13 1904 - New York, United States
Row #04
Document #R073E01490
Flexoline Format C
Soundex S-120
Alien registration #A2078317
(There was no actual record. Only the transcription.)

I found this 1904 ship manifest. This Andrezej is going to Pennsylvania. This is a "possible" manifest. Andrzej is on line 21

Name Andrzej Szuvszyk
Gender Male
Birth Circa 1886
Arrival May 18 1904
New York, New York, United States
Departure Bremen
Ship Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse
Age 18
Last permanent residence Czorsztyn
Nationality Austria
Marital status Single
Relative joined in the U.S. Josef Szewezyk (Brother)
Line 21

I thought this manifest was interesting too. Andrzej is on line 23.

Name Andrzej Szoczyk
Gender Male
Birth Circa 1883
Arrival May 2 1902
New York, New York, United States
Departure Bremen
Ship Rhein
Age 19
Last permanent residence Rokszawy
Nationality Austria
Marital status Single
Relative joined in the U.S. Wikterya Brocnek (Sister)
Line 23

Regards,
Trish

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Sam

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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 2:22 pm Post subject:

Trish,

Interesting stuff! I personally wasn't aware of the Flexoline index. I will have to become more familiar with the Alien Registration Act. That first transcription indeed fits my g-grandfather's established personal information, from date of birth (July 12, year alternatively given as 1880, 1881, or 1882), nation of nativity (Austria), the Americanized name he went by (Andy Shefsky), and the year of arrival fits the period he gave in the censuses (1902-1906). Is the actual form obtainable?

Sophia
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2025 9:34 am Post subject:

Sam wrote:

Hi Sam and Trish,

Sam, I'm sure you have already researched how to obtain a copy of the alien registration form, which you should probably go ahead and order, so I won't go into any detail here. Someone recently uploaded an image of this form for their ancestor, which you can see if you follow this link and scroll up a bit:

https://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?p=67786&highlight=alien+registration+form#67786

The info that Trish provided which is extracted from your Andrzej's alien registration form provides a date of arrival at the port of NY, and that can be helpful in finding the ship manifest. One tool you can use to see images of the manifest pages for all ships arriving in NY on that date is this:

https://stevemorse.org/cgi-bin/boat.php?series=&rollStart=&rollEnd=&volumeStart=&volumeEnd=&monthStart=7&dayStart=13&yearStart=1904&monthEnd=7&dayEnd=13&yearEnd=1904&boatkind=starts&boat=&offset=1&portkind=starts&port=&pageSize=50&database=all&local=yes&auth=

Pick one ship. Click on its name. A page will open that shows an image of one of the pages from that ship. At the bottom of that page, there are buttons you can click on to navigate through the manifest (Frame +1, +2, etc.). What you typically see is that they take you first to the page(s) of immigrants held for Special Inquiry, followed by the page(s) of immigrants who were detained, then the regular pages of the manifest. Here, seeing that several of the ships that arrived on July 13, 1904 originated in Genoa, Italy, you might consider those secondary to the ones that left from Bremen. I looked at the manifest for the Barbarosa, and the images are incredibly poor due to what I suppose was fading ink. Many of those pages are so illegible that they could hardly have made it into an index, and this may be why you (and Trish and I) are finding it so difficult to locate a manifest for Andrzej despite our attempts at varying the spelling of his surname. Not all manifests are that bad, so if you want to go ahead and check for him, but it is too many ships for me to go through page by page. And if the information about him arriving on the 13th is off by a day or two, you'd be at it for quite a while. I did want to offer you the tools to do it, anyway.

Best regards,
Sophia

Sam

Joined: 14 Apr 2025
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2025 2:22 pm Post subject:

AncestryDNA updated their community or journey tab, adding new East Europe regions it seems. West Galicia is one of them. I was assigned the following:

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Trish
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2025 12:52 pm Post subject:

Sam wrote:

AncestryDNA updated their community or journey tab, adding new East Europe regions it seems. West Galicia is one of them. I was assigned the following:

Hi Sam,

I like the fact that ancestry.com is constantly updating their information as their technology gets better. Plus I know the more people that do their DNA, the more accurate the DNA results become.

I had to go check my own ancestry.com's DNA for latest update. My DNA actually showed this.
Specific places you’re connected to:
Wałcz | Drezdenko | Chodzież
Greater Poland & Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeships

I thought this was so interesting for my Pisarski family started out in Szamocin, Chodziez, Wielkopolskie. Several other ancestros are all from the Kujawsko-Pomorskie area. So it seems ancestry.com is starting to narrow down locations.

I hope the information you found with your DNA helps with your research.

Regards,
Trish

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