Aquila
Joined: 26 Jan 2019
Replies: 9
Location: PolandBack to top |
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 12:59 pm
Post subject: Searching for possible relatives living in US
Hello,
My name is Mirek Bal and I live in Poland. I came here because I would like to find out if I have any relatives living in the US. None of my relatively close family members (for example siblings of my grandparents etc.) emigrated to US (or, to be more precise, I have no knowledge of such thing), but maybe someone more distantly related did it and how his/her descendants live there.
Here are the names I'm looking for:
Bal - Nienadowa village, Podkarpackie voivodeship, Galizia, formerly Austria.
Pilch - as above.
Ojrzyński - Mazowian voivodeship.
Truszczyński - as above.
Bąba - Jastkowice village, Podkarpackie voivodeship, Galizia, formerly Austria.
I would be gratious for any info.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:35 pm
Post subject:
Hmmm... I don't recognize those areas but as a long shot in the dark you can try a couple things:
Ellis Island's website - Go to "Full Page" search options. Seems to require a surname to run any search but you can then try putting in a location as well. Note: Only for NY immigration after 1892. And location names can be severely garbled or completely absent other than "Germany" "Austria" etc.
However if you are willing to try surname searches, there are other immigration resources on things like FamilySearch (some sources require a free account.) A lot of people from what was previously Germany/Prussia/Austria/East Europe came to the US through Baltimore and there are also pre-Ellis Island NY records. Check those out. Some people also did come to the US temporarily then returned to Poland.
And with surnames you could look at the US Census records (1940 and earlier, except 1890, which was lost). Many of the turn of the century ones even list nativity as "Russian-Poland" or "Austrian-Poland" etc.
But it might also be a good idea to look at who may have been likely to go. If you can track birth and death for everyone on your tree, you might not find any holes. Or you might. Also if you find any inheritance/probate records here, they will state if an inheritor is living in the US as they needed to be contacted, which could also be a source of information.
Good luck.
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 2:29 pm
Post subject:
Mirek,
One thing to search is http://www.ancestry.com/ and search on the name "Truszczynski".
Another website to search is http://www.familysearch.org/ Click on SEARCH -> RECORDS, then enter Truszczynski in LAST NAME. It finds many Truszczynski records. Also, I think FAMILYSEARCH is FREE to use, but ANCESTORY might require money to use.
You can look at 1) USA Census records, and 2) USA Naturalization records (foreigners applying to become USA citizens). I like Kim's idea of search Ellis Island database. But, many immigrants to USA did not enter through Ellis Island (mine did not enter through Ellis Island).
The Census records have the Country of birth, so you could find some names of people who are from Poland, or Austria, Russia, etc. But they do not list the town names.
The Naturalization records usually list the Country and the CITY/TOWN where they came from.
For "Truszczynski" USA CENSUS records I see many
1910 Census: Stamslaus (I think Stanislaw), born 1883 in Russia, came to USA in 1901.
1910 Census: Andrew, born 1862 in Germany-Poland, came to USA in 1894. Speaks Polish, cannot speak English. Wife's name is Leokadya
ELLIS Island records have:
Franciszka, Born 1895, from Russia but of POLISH ethnicity. Seems to be from MELEW town in Russia.
Josef, Born 1852, from Russia, going to New York.
Konstantin and Jadwiga, from Ratawo town in RUSSIA, They are Polish ethnicity.
"Ratawo" town might be today called Ratowo town in Poland (Masovian Voivodeship, Mlawa county, Radzanow Gmina). Here is a Google map link: https://www.google.com/maps/place/06-540+Ratowo,+Poland/@52.9447738,20.0370259,12.1z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x471c4ef1d8e5ae5d:0x230e002b35074312!8m2!3d52.9554218!4d20.0837202
I don't know if this town/land was ever owned by Russia.
Mirek, you can search the other family names.
As for country, remember that the names of the country change. In my family, in 1910 census my father was listed as being from POLAND. In 1920 census he is listed as being from RUSSIA. This is because wars changed the names/country boundary.
booby
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