Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 2:16 pm
Post subject: Origin
My birth-name was, and biological father's name is, Mathews. The story goes that when his parents came from Poland (that's even a little vague), to avoid being identified as Polish, they changed their name from Mathewskie or Mathewsky to Mathews (one T). My parents were divorced when I was an infant, so have never had any contact with my father or his relatives to ask any pertinent questions, and have no way of contacting them now to get any answers. It is apparent that I have some Jewish physical features and traits, which is consistent with what little I know.
I am 59 and my father would be approximately 80-82, making the time of his parent's arrival in the U.S approximately 1920's, or so.
Thank you for your time. Any information you might be able to provide will be appreciated.
Michael (Bernard Mathews) Bigley
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JamesPolishOrigins Team
Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Replies: 226
Location: WEST VIRGINIA , USABack to top |
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:56 am
Post subject:
Hi michaelbigley1,
There are many different directions that you could start searching.
* Find the death record for your father ( if he is deceased )
* Find the marriage record for your parents
These could provide birth dates, locations, names of other family members, which are all valuable in searching your roots.
* www.ellisislandrecords.com is a free site that has all of the manifests for immigrants arriving in USA, at Ellis Island. This site was very helpful to me. It can provide important information for tracing your family.
These are only a couple of areas to begin with. There are countless others.
You will find that one piece of information can lead you to another, and another, and so forth.
Good luck and have fun 
James
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Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:02 am
Post subject:
Thank you James. This is exciting!
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ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Replies: 1000
Location: Atlanta, GABack to top |
Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:56 pm
Post subject: Re: Origin
| michaelbigley1 wrote: | My birth-name was, and biological father's name is, Mathews. The story goes that when his parents came from Poland (that's even a little vague), to avoid being identified as Polish, they changed their name from Mathewskie or Mathewsky to Mathews (one T). My parents were divorced when I was an infant, so have never had any contact with my father or his relatives to ask any pertinent questions, and have no way of contacting them now to get any answers. It is apparent that I have some Jewish physical features and traits, which is consistent with what little I know.
I am 59 and my father would be approximately 80-82, making the time of his parent's arrival in the U.S approximately 1920's, or so.
Thank you for your time. Any information you might be able to provide will be appreciated.
Michael (Bernard Mathews) Bigley |
Hi Michael,
Last year I tried to solve a mystery about my great-uncle who went by the surname Teodor Michalson when he came to America and settled near Pittsburgh. One of my cousins found an American birth certificate for Teodor's son that showed the surname as Michalyszyn. It was hard to get past this clue because there were many possible variations of this surname (people always jumbled the letters when writing the name). I found some helpful clues by contacting the archives for the Catholic Diocese in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sometimes the archives will have copies of the marriage records, death records, etc. The spelling used on the church documents, along with a few other clues on birth records and draft cards helped me to finally locate my great-uncle's ship manifest and identify his birthplace.
Do you think that Mathewskie is the correct spelling? What have you learned about your family history since you posted your message here?
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