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dnowicki
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:28 pm Post subject: Re: Pietraszek /Sobotka Surnames

dano wrote:

Dave/Diane/etc.

I finally received marriage records for both my grandparents from the Boston Diocese. I have both attached. Unfortunately I didn't get the most important information I had hoped, birth towns!

I'm particularly interested in the birth places of Mikalaj Danisiewicz and Stefania Buzun. What I have from their Naturalization Papers is Litwke Village and Grodno, Bialystock.

Thanks for looking at theses records.

mike

Diane & Mike,

Although the Daniszewicz-Buzun marriage record doesn’t help much with a place of birth it is far from devoid of useful information. The biggest and best chunk of data is found in the notation in the column at the far right of the entry. The Latin translates as: “Greek schismatic embraced the Catholic Faith on May 23, 1914 (the day before the wedding ceremony) in the presence of the witnesses Raphael Kuklewski(?) and Peter Lopczyński.” This a valuable piece of info because it means that in Europe Nicholas/Mikołaj was a member of the Orthodox Faith so any search for records from Europe would need to be in Orthodox Parish records rather than in Roman Catholic Parish records. The term Greek schismatic is a technical reference to someone of the Orthodox Faith. The schism (separation between the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople) took place in the year 1054 and continues to this day. The schism was not so much over articles of belief as over church practices and the issue of papal primacy. Nicholas did not need to be baptized again when he converted to the Catholic Faith since both branches of Christianity have what are considered valid sacraments by both groups. What he did was profess his belief in the teachings of the Church of Rome. That he converted to Roman Catholicism explains why no marriage banns were announced prior to the wedding and why there is no explicit mention of places of birth/baptism for the bride and groom in Europe. This doesn’t help to determine exactly where the bride and groom were born and baptized in Europe, but it does direct the search to the type of records where the info about Mikołaj and his ancestors would be found.

The 1914 marriage record lists the groom as Nicolaus (Polish: Mikołaj; English: Nicholas [like in jolly old Saint Nick who keeps lists of naughty and nice children unlike the Easter Bunny who brings candy to everyone without the naughty & nice lists]). I realize that he appeared in the 1940 Census as Michael, which is not a translation of his actual name but may have been a name by which he was also known. His father is Clemens (Polish: Klemens; English: Clement). His mother is Pelagia (in Latin, Polish and English). The name comes from antiquity and means “of the sea”. Some Polish women in the USA called themselves “Pearl”, but the actual Latin name for a pearl is margarita, from which the English name Margaret is derived. The bride is Stephania (Polish: Stefania; English: Stephanie). Her father is Vincentius (Polish: Wincenty; English: Vincent) and her mother is Anna (in all three languages).

You mention Grodno and Litwke Village as appearing in documents as places of birth. Prior to the Partitions of Poland Grodno was with woj. trockie of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpostpolita Obojga Narodów) which was formally known as The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Królestwo Polskie i Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie) and Grodno was located within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. When all the smoke cleared after the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Grodno was within the territory of the Old Commonwealth which had been directly incorporated into the Russian Empire. Today it is part of Belarus and thus any research would need to be done there rather than in Polish archives. In my opinion, Litwke Village is not the name of a specific place but is an attempt to say that he was born in a Lithuanian village, which makes historical sense.

Accoring to the marriage record Diane located the groom was 25 in 1864 and the bride was 20, Since Stephania’s year of birth ranges from 1890 to 1893 it is possible that the couple could be her parents—especially if she was actually born in 1890 as her naturalization index card states. In 1890 her mother would have been about 46 and in 1893 she would have been about 49 which ages are both in the realms of the possibles. The archive where the marriage record (as well as the remaining records for the parish) is housed is th National Historical Archive in Wilno, which means that Stefania’s birth record would probably be found in Lithuania rather than in Poland.

If the Pietraszek records had not already been located, the marriage record from Salem would have provided the name of the parish where the records had originated. The marriage record is one more piece of evidence which confirms that all the records previously located are for the correct individuals.

It seems to me that in order to move the research forward on the Danisiewicz and Buzun lines the focus needs to change from Poland to Lithuania and to Belarus.

Hope this helps.

Dave

dano

Joined: 10 Mar 2019
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Location: Port Angeles,WA
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:10 pm Post subject: Pietraszek /Sobotka Surnames

Dave

Thanks so much for the lengthy, informative, and entertaining account of Polish history, It all makes sense, particularly the fact that "Litwke village' is really not a village but rather a reference to the fact that he was from a lithuanian village!

Do you have any recommendations for search engines for me to search for a Buzun birth record for Lithuania? Or the Orthodox church? Is there a different search engine than the Geneteka? Some search engines don't cover all those dates. Is theres reason for this?

looking for clues
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 5:27 pm Post subject:

Dave, your knowledge of Latin records and their notations has shed light on valuable information in the Danisiewicz-Buzun marriage record. You wrote a very informational post! I learned something.

Mike, you asked about incomplete dates on Geneteka. On sites like Lubgens and Geneteka the records are transcribed by volunteers. Also, I would guess availability of access to records would also be a factor.

Diane

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