Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

Author

Message

JFalejczyk

Joined: Yesterday at 5:14 am
Replies: 6

Back to top

Posted: Yesterday at 5:30 am Post subject: Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

Hi,

For some time I've been trying to unravel the mysteries around my great great grandmother Sylvia (AKA Ksawera or Teresina) Cieslak Falejczyk. The story I was told is that she was born in Poland, but orphaned at a young age, and it's unclear if she was brought to the United States before or after losing her parents. One version of events in my family said that she lived at an orphanage in Warsaw, and some records I've found do mention her saying she's from there. I don't know who her parents (adopted or not) were, and if Cieslak is an adopted surname or not.

Anyways, a while ago I found her Ellis Island manifest entry, where she listed a hometown entirely different from anything I've seen before. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it says, and since I think someone else who maybe wasn't a Polish speaker (immigration/ship worker?) wrote it down for her, it's probably some sort of warped spelling from the original. With that being said, I've seen some really impressive detective work on these forums, so if anyone's interested in taking a crack at it, I would seriously appreciate any help deciphering this town name (photo attached). Thanks so much.

Screenshot 2026-07-04 at 3.28.42?AM.png

Description:

Filesize:

38.1 KB

Viewed:

0 Time(s)

Sophia
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 05 Oct 2014
Replies: 1562

Back to top

Posted: Yesterday at 9:50 am Post subject: Re: Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

JFalejczyk wrote:

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Super busy today so I cannot reply with a very informative post, but a quick check of a source that provides place names shows me a few places with this spelling: Krzanowice

This would sound very much like what was written in the snippet you provided. I see it written as Kramewitze and that strikes me, as you said, as incorrect spelling.

There is supposed to be a Krzanowice in the Warminsko-Mazurskie region and another in the Opole region. I have not looked at maps yet. Geneteka is showing a Krzanowice in Slask region, which upon a further look seems to be a town that had a German version of its name as Kranowitz and a Polish version of its name as Krzanowice. That looks promising, when placed against the spelling you see on the manifest.

I see that Trish has posted the ship manifest on your other thread, which gives us not only a better look at how this writer wrote their names and words, but also an indication that your gr-gr-grandmother was born around 1886.

Best regards,
Sophia

JFalejczyk

Joined: Yesterday at 5:14 am
Replies: 6

Back to top

Posted: Yesterday at 3:49 pm Post subject: Re: Need Help Deciphering Ancestor's Town Name

Sophia wrote:

Hey Sophia,

Thank you so much for this, this is very helpful and inspiring already. I did see your earlier version of your message before you saw Trish's post, and would like to confirm that although Sylvia did give a few different years of birth throughout the years, I don't think it ever went as far back as the 1870s. I think the fact that her youngest child, Eugene, was born in 1926 (when she'd already be ~40 in 1886) further strengthens the theory that she was born around 1886. Some census records have her birth year around 1884, and she does interestingly mention immigrating to the US in 1885, but again I'm not sure if/when any adoption took place.

What I saw your original post also touch on was the possibility of her surname being spelled "Ciesla". This caught my attention, because she did sometime use this spelling in some records (sorry if I should've mentioned that earlier, Cieslak was just by far the most common one). I've also seen some with "Ciesna", although maybe it's just a misspelling.

I believe you may have already seen in the other thread as well, but it looks like in Sylvia's marriage to Michal Falejczyk, her parents were listed as "Stanislaw (Cieslak) and Apertia Szalkowska". I'm unfortunately not sure if these were adopted parents or not, and have never been able to find anything further on them, although "Apertia" is an interesting name that I don't see very often. One final piece of info is on top of the other names, Sylvia would also go by the name Severina sometimes.

I know this is kind of all a lot, trust me it's been a fun challenge researching all this haha. No problem if you don't see anything deeper here, again I really appreciate the help already. Thanks again.

Trish
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 23 Sep 2020
Replies: 566

Back to top

Posted: 17 hours ago at 10:01 am Post subject:

Hi Everyone,

I am posting Walter's baptismal record with the transcription. It looks like Sylvia's name is Xaviera. Would Ksawera be her name in Polish? I am seeing the same given name for Sylvia several of her children's baptismal records.

Regards,
Trish

Ladislaus (Walter) Baptismal.jpg

Description:

Filesize:

880.24 KB

Viewed:

0 Time(s)

Ladislaus (Walter) Baptismal Transcription.pdf

Description:

Download

Filename:

Ladislaus (Walter) Baptismal Transcription.pdf

Filesize:

58.15 KB

Downloaded:

1 Time(s)

JFalejczyk

Joined: Yesterday at 5:14 am
Replies: 6

Back to top

Posted: 9 hours ago at 6:06 pm Post subject:

Trish wrote:

Hey Trish,

Correct, in my research I believe I read that Ksawera is "Xaviera" in Polish. Sylvia seemed to use a lot of names, between Sylvia, Teresina, Severina, Xaviera, and Ksawera. I even found one document from a newspaper in 1919 where I'm 99% sure she posed as a man under the name "Sylwester Falejczyk" and made a donation, which I think might have either been due to stigma back then, or some other personal reason.

But based on confirming details like known family members that she's with in records, age, or other things we know to be true in my family, I know for a fact that it was actually her when she used those names and we're not confusing someone else for her. Thanks again for the help.

PolishOrigins Forum