Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:36 am
Post subject: Surnames: Lewandowski/Belak Rutkowska/Rajkowska
I have found the Application for Marriage for my Great Grand Parents, both from Poland. With the help of some great folks on this site I have learned a little bit more about Alexandra but have not been able to find anything more on Jozef.
I am attaching the marriage application, hoping anyone might remember a name or city. From census and his children's birth certificates I have figured out that Jozef was born between Jan and April 1890. On the 1920 Census he indicates he came to America in 1912/1913.
I do not believe Alexandra and Jozef knew each other in Poland, but I could be wrong.
Thanks
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Last edited by lorrir on Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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PolishLibrarianPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:55 pm
Post subject:
Took a quick look at your document. The one thing I noticed is that Jozef's mother's name is Aniela Belak (note how the e is written in all the other words on the form) not Brlak. ~PL
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:12 am
Post subject:
I changed the heading on my post.
Thanks a million for correction
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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:33 pm
Post subject:
I have been searching on Familysearch.com for any information about my great great granparents Leon and Aniela (Belack) Lewandowski, But have come up with nothing. Any help would be great!
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ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:19 pm
Post subject:
Hi Lorrir
Can you add any details that you already know about Leon and Aniela (Belack) Lewandowski?
These are the ancestors that you mention this this posting at the link below?
http://polishorigins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1690
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:48 pm
Post subject:
The only information I have is the document I downloaded on this sire. I am really looking for Jozef Lewnadowski their son.
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ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:25 pm
Post subject:
| lorrir wrote: | | The only information I have is the document I downloaded on this sire. I am really looking for Jozef Lewnadowski their son. |
Actually you have more information, but might not realize it. You found Jozef in the 1920 census and found a possible emigration date. The census can also have his address, whether he was naturalized, names of any borders, and his occupation. All of these are useful clues that can lead to other documents.
Do you have the link to Jozef's census record? Posting it here may generate more discussion that might help your search.
The marriage record is from Allegheny County, PA.
Did Jozef live in the Pittsburgh area all of his life, or did he move?
Did his wife ever go by another first name/nickname?
Do you have names of their children?
Did he serve in the military?
Did he apply for a social security number?
These might also provide more clues to people who are trying to help you.
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:50 pm
Post subject:
The Marriage record is from Allegenghy County, Bruceton, PA to be exact, a mining town.
Jozef moved his family to Canonsburg and appears in the 1920 census married with three sons: John born 1915, Joseph born 1916 , Leon born 1918.
Alexandra (Rutkowksa) Lewandowski Freynik is the full name of his wife, she remarried after she divorced him in 1925. She appears in the 1930 Census married to Charles Freynik and listed as Alice.
I have found a Jozef Lewandowski in the 1930 census in the Canonsburg area, but I can not confirm it is him because, there is another Jozef Lewandowski that was a miner that moved in the same circles as my Jozef. I'm looking for another piece of evidence to support the 1930 census before I add it to my records.
I found him in 1940 census living as a boarder, in Canonsburg .
The Sons; John Lewandowski (my grandfather) lived his life in Canonsburg until his death, his mother (Alexandra was living with him when she passed), Joseph Lewandowski move to Baltimore and lived there until his death, Leon Lewandowski lived in Pittsburg until his death.
In reference to the military, I have not found where he would have registgered for WWI or WWII, I have looked at every single Lewandowski (or variation of) registration form on both Ancestry and Fold3 and can't find a match.
I have not applied for his SS number because I do not know his date of birth. Based on his son's birth certificates and census records, I have narrowed it down to Jan-April of 1890.
My mother and aunts indicate he was a heavy drinker, who worked on and off, lived with whoever would take him in. His divorce record from Alexandra indicates physical and mental abuse and lack of support. My mother said he broke his hip after a fall and died in a nursing home or hospital sometime before 1962.
I think I found his date of death in 1959 in Canonsburg, I have someone who is going to the PA archives for me to get the death certificate. I suspect that as time went on he americanized his name to Joseph or even Joe.
With out a date of birth I haven't gotten very far. I'm concerned that even his death certificate will not give the correct date of birth, as the information would have been supplied by one of his sons.
I was hoping that if I found information on his parents in Poland I could find more about him. I am thinking if I find his parents, he would have been baptized and I could have the one piece of information that I need the most. A date of birth.
Lorri
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ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:37 pm
Post subject:
Hi Lorri,
You have found some great information.
In fact, it's probably enough info to request a search for records with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
If Jozef ever started the naturalization process, there is a good chance that his declaration of intent is on file with USCIS along with any other forms related to him.
If Jozef did not make any attempt to apply for citizenship, the USCIS may have alien registration forms for him.
The process is not cheap - a preliminary search is $25 and if they find records, it will be about $35 or so to get the records. I know that some of these records can be obtained for little or nothing at the National Archives, but in my case, I was not able to find what I was was looking for.
For me, the records I ordered from USCIS were the only documents that provided birthdate and village name for some of my ancestors: exactly the information I needed to break through my brick walls and locate church records from Poland.
You can read about how I ordered records from USCIS at the link below. Actually, this message reminded me that I need to update that post with some info about the Alien Registration forms I received.
http://polishorigins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=657
I hope this helps!
Shellie
PS: Did you find the possible 1959 death date for Jozef in the Pennsylvania death index at:
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1085804&mode=2
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:59 pm
Post subject:
Shellie,
I found him in the PA death index you referenced. I searched year by year until I found a close match. If he died in 1959 as I think he did that index says he was 72, his date of birth would be 1887, which would mean he's not my Jozef or the family had his age wrong on the Death Certificate. I am hoping the family is wrong about his age and this is really my Jozef. Only time will tell.
Based on family conversations, it doesn't sound like my Jozef would have done anything more than the min required, so I doubt he would have made the effort to naturalize, but it is worth a try to look.
Thanks,
Lorri
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PolishLibrarianPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:46 pm
Post subject:
Hi Lorri~ I’ve looked at the Census records for 1920 (I’m having problems getting this image to display fully), 1930 and 1940.
In 1920 Joseph & Alexander (sic) are living at 205 Euclid Ave. in Canonsburg. He is 29 and she is 24, both came in 1913 and I believe both are aliens (that part of the image was blacked out). He was working as a helper doubler in a tin plate mill(?)
In 1930 Chas (short for Charles) Freynik and Alice were living in Canonsburg, PA. Says she came to US in 1913, she is 38, age at first marriage is 21 (agrees w/your marriage record), and she is naturalized (if after 1920 or so, she had to apply on her own – couldn’t be naturalized in conjunction with her husband). Interestingly it looks like Chas is 31, but he came to US in 1893 (which is impossible, so maybe he’s 39), his age at first marriage is 18 (so they both were married once before) and he is naturalized.
In 1940 Alexander (sic) a female is living at 419 Hartiers Ave in Canonsburg, PA with son Leo. She’s widowed and working as a dressmaker. She was living in Canonsburg in 1935.
You have the civil marriage record. Is it safe to assume Jozef and Alexandra were Catholic? If so, have you considered looking for the sacramental records at the Diocese of Pittsburg? At the diocese web page for the archives with information for genealogists (can’t provide the web address as I can’t get the webpage to re-open in my browser), it tells which counties are part of the diocese (includes Washington County where Canonsburg is as well as Allegheny where Bruceton is) and indicates the church records prior to 1917 contain various amounts of info (no set standard on what had to be recorded prior to 1917). Marriage records may contain the town where groom and bride were born. Baptismal records may contain birth towns for the parents. For $15.00 per hour they will research more than one name, i.e. if you send them $15 and give them several names, they will give you one hour of time looking for records. I would give them the marriage info you have as well as the birth info. for each of the boys. Maybe you’ll hit pay dirt with one or all of them. They only give out info older than 100 years unless you can prove that the people are dead. Providing the civil marriage certificate should be good enough for looking for the sacramental marriage record as they would be 120 years old by now. Obituaries for John, Joseph and Leon would probably suffice to prove they have died as well.
Hope this helps. My grandparents’ 1912 church sacremental marriage record in Minneapolis, MN gave their parents names as well as the towns they were from. The civil marriage record was not much help at all. ~PL
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ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:35 pm
Post subject:
I have found Joseph's Death Certificate and Obit (via a great researcher in PA), in 1959 he had one brother and two sisters still living in Poland! I am attaching the obit in hopes someone might be able to make a connection for me. I am doubting his date of birth as early documents; marriage certificate, son's birth certificate and census, give his birth year as 1891. I have ordered his SS application and will know for sure when it arrives.
I'm very excited at tis find, this is the one section of my family tree that had a dead end that I could not seem to over come. I still do not know what part of Poland he was from and if he knew Alexsandra Rutkowska (his future wife) when he lived in Poland.
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PolishLibrarianPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:40 pm
Post subject:
Lorri~ That's great! Although this Polish National Catholic Church is part of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese Polish National Catholic Church, headquartered in Lancaster, NY and founded in 1928 http://www.buffalopittsburghdiocesepncc.org/. So you can't request sacramental records from the Pittsburgh Roman Catholic Diocese. I think you might want to start by contacting the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish (412) 418-7724 to find out where their early sacramental records are kept and how you could obtain copies of these records if they still exist. Good luck. ~PL
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PolishLibrarianPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 8:01 pm
Post subject:
Another phone number I found connected to SH of J Church in Canonsburg, PA is 724-745-9139 (found in the parish directory at the PNCC website www.pnc.org) which also seems to be connected to a Rev. Joseph S. Lewandowksi. Now there's a coincidence!! Could he be a relative? Of course you did say there were other Lewandowski's in the area not related. ~PL
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