Year: 2010

CategoriesFollow FridayLinks

Follow Friday

Posted on 29 January 2010by Brian Zalewski

Here are some interesting blog posts that I’ve run across for this week.

  • Abba-Dad at I Dream of Genea(logy) posts Genealogy – What’s the Point? In the post he wonders why people do genealogy. What keeps them going? After reading it, I see two sections that really drive me. “Where do I come from? How did I get here? What chain of coincidences and historical events came together to give me this life?” and “If you can place one of your ancestors in a significant historical event, then you have a personal connection to it.” What drives you?
  • Elyse over at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog posts a good overview about organizing your mountain of collected papers. As Genealogists, you know how much paper you collect. It’s a three-post series starting with the initial step of getting everything together. Organizing the Paper Mountain (Part 1). Feel free to follow on to Part 2 and Part 3.
  • A fairly new blog, Geneapprentice, has recently popped up. Sarah is blogging about her experience working towards her certificate from the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. I know it’s crossed my mind to get certified, so it’s a good read if you’re thinking about it.
  • NBC is premiering the American version of Who Do You Think You Are? starting March 5, after the Olympics. I am a big fan of the show having watched a few of the British versions from BBC. I enjoy the way they incorporate the personal genealogy of a celebrity with world historical events. History and Genealogy buffs will love the show. I really hope it survives America’s TV landscape (and NBC) like the BBC version has. They’ve just completed Season 7.
CategoriesTell Me Thursday

Tell Me Thursday: Troka/Zalewski Wedding

Posted on 28 January 2010by Brian Zalewski
Click for larger

This is one of the new photos I found this weekend when looking through my grandmother’s collection. This is the best photo that I have of my great-grandmother, Emily (Troka) ZALEWSKI. She passed away pretty young in 1941 at the age of 45, so there are not a lot of photos of her. This is her and my great-grandfather, Joseph ZALEWSKI on their wedding day in about 1919, since Joe had recently returned from World War I. I have yet to get the exact date of their wedding. I guess it’s one of those things I keep forgetting to dig for.

The other people are mostly unknown to me. The only other person that was labeled was the 2nd man in the back, Leo TROKA, Emily’s younger brother. The other three are not labeled. Though, strangely, there was a 1998 obituary taped to the back of the photograph inside of the frame for an Agnes (Binczak) MAJESKI, who seemed to have lived in that area of Milwaukee according to census records. The obituary was not specifically pointing at any certain individual, but it is possible that this woman is one of the women in the photo.

There are many more wonderful photos in this collection, so besides getting a treasure trove of great family photos, I shouldn’t run out of Wordless Wednesday/Tell Me Thursday posts for awhile.

CategoriesBig NewsFamily Tree

A Little Help From My Friends and Family

Posted on 25 January 2010by Brian Zalewski
Richard Zalewski
Richard Zalewski, Miami, Florida, Sept 1941

This weekend I picked up the mother lode of photos, documents, and information on my grandparent’s families. My aunt and uncle were holding on to my grandmother’s heirlooms, which included my grandfather’s stuff after he passed away. I knew my grandmother had a few photo albums since I previously borrowed them and scanned some photos. I was pretty surprised at all of the other items in the boxes. There were old documents, death certificates, baptism records, funeral cards, old Navy photos, and even film/video from the 30s and 40s (fortunately, on VHS.)

I only scanned a few things so far, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. I’d like to get everything scanned just as a way to digitally back it all up. I also happen to have a VHS-to-DVD machine that I bought to transfer my parent’s home videos to DVD as a Christmas gift one year, so that makes backing up the video pretty easy. One problem there, I can’t find the remote control for it and it has a lot of little important buttons on it. One of the cats probably stole it and made a bed out of it or something.

That does bring me to a question for somebody out there. My paternal grandfather served in the Navy during World War II. He didn’t see combat overseas, but he was stationed “overseas” in Hilo, Hawai’i. From what it sounds like from stories, photos, and some news articles is that he was there for the 1946 Hilo Tsunami and helped rescue people. Along with his Navy stuff, he has dozens of photos of fellow Navy men, including their last names and which group they served in. What would be the best way to go about possibly scanning these photos in and getting them to family members? Is there a “Navy Veterans” message board or something similar? I think it’d be very nice to get copies of the photos to some of these people’s families.

Along with that, a very helpful fellow Polish researcher sent me some copies of the baptism record of my 3rd-great-grandfather, Ignatz Szulta, from 1849 and also his marriage record with Nepomuncena Syldakt in 1875 that he happened to run across. Ignatz’s parent’s names are listed on his baptism record, which is new to me. I now just need to try to transcribe it. Those were extremely helpful and very interesting to read. Thanks, Al.

CategoriesWeekly History

Weekly History: January 24th – 30th

Posted on 24 January 2010by Brian Zalewski

January 24th

1789 – Died – Maria TRUIJEN – Maria is my 7th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 12 May 1725 in Genk, Limburg, Belgium. She married Paulus VAN CREYBECK in 1748. She passed away at Genk, Limburg, Belgium.

1850 – Died – Friedrich Ernest MUHM – Friedrich is my 5th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. Friedrich was born 22 Nov 1774 in Schwbendorf, Landkreis, Maurburg, Hessen, Germany. He married Gertrude OPPERMAN in 1795. He passed away at Schwbendorf, Landkreis, Maurburg, Hessen, Germany.

January 29th

1894 – Married – Joseph TROKA & Clara SZULTA – Joseph and Clara are my great-great-grandparents on my father’s side. They were married at St. Hedwig’s church on the east side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin by C. ROGOZINSKI. They had 4 children, including my great-grandmother, Emily TROKA. Clara passed away in 1959 and Joe passed away in 1962. They are buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.

CategoriesSurnameSurname Saturday

Surname Saturday: SZULTA

Posted on 23 January 2010by Brian Zalewski

Today’s surname is another one from my Polish side. SZULTA is presumably pronounced like SCHULTA. This surname first shows up in my ancestry with my great-great-grandmother, Clara SZULTA, who was born in Poland (or Prussia or Germany, I’m not sure yet.) I can only trace it back to Clara’s father, Ignatius SZULTA, who brought his family to America from Europe.

Ignatius SZULTA was born 1 Feb 1849 in Poland (Austria, as it’s noted.) He married Nepomuncena “Annie” SYLDAKT (I’ve also seen it written as SOZAK) in 1875. Together, they had 9 children with the first 3 born in Poland; Clara, Valerian, and Martha. These three children are listed on the passenger list along with Nepomuncena. Ignatius probably came over first, but I have yet to find his record. They settled in Milwaukee. I first find an “Ignats Szulta” in the Milwaukee City Directory in 1883 living at 943 Sobieski St.

Clara was born in Poland 6 Jan 1876. She married Joseph TROKA at. St. Hedwig’s Church on the east side of Milwaukee on 29 Jan 1894. They had 4 children, including my great-grandmother, Emily M TROKA, where it finally connects to my ZALEWSKI family. Ignatius passed away 25 May 1922 and Annie shortly thereafter on 22 Dec 1925. They are both buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee. Clara lived until 19 Jul 1959, only a few years before her husband was killed by a drunk driver on New Year’s Day in 1962.

It’s one of those surnames that is somewhat uncommon, so finding ancestors is usually simple. I search and if I find results, it’s usually a family member. I do run into some issues when it shows up under SCHULTA or SCHULTE since it usually groups names like Schultz and Schulz along with it, which makes it hard to browse. Googling SZULTA usually just brings up links to my sites and a few general Genealogy surname sites. It doesn’t seem to be very common. I have another researcher that I am in contact with that has been researching this family, as she is descended from one of Ignatius and Annie’s children. One of those lines that I get a lot of searches from is the URMANSKI family that branches out from their daughter Leocadia “Lilly” and her husband, Ignatz URMANSKI. That one seemed to spread out pretty far from the SZULTAs.

I need to spend some time searching these names but replacing SZULTA with either SCHULTA or SCHULTE and see what I get, though most sites include those using Soundex.

CategoriesFollow FridayLinksTips & Tricks

Follow Friday

Posted on 22 January 2010by Brian Zalewski

I thought I would recognize some helpful posts by the genealogy blogging community.

Creative Gene

Jasia at Creative Gene has a very good writeup on an extremely helpful (depends on your ancestry, I guess) online dictionary that translates from Polish to English and vice versa. It’s not only online, but it’s completely free. She does a good job explaining why this dictionary is as helpful as it is. I learned a bit about the Polish language and I also used it to help another Zalewski researcher with some documents he had that were written in Polish. Check out her I Won’t Be Going Bald Anytime Soon! post.

The Genetic Genealogist

Blaine has a good Q&A post up on his site explaining your two “family trees.” He talks about the differences between your Genealogical Tree and your Genetic Tree and how they each may help you find information about the other one. Read his Q&A: Everyone Has Two Family Trees ““ A Genealogical Tree and a Genetic Tree post.

Kick-Ass Genealogy

Besides the in-your-face blog name, Katrina has a good post on how to deal with roadblocks when interviewing relatives. Sometimes the interviewee may dodge or block a question you ask. Did Great Aunt Erma have more children? Was Uncle Jerry a wild child of the 60s? Read over this post to help you with this issue. Dealing with Roadblocks When Interviewing Relatives

Olive Tree Genealogy

Over at Olive Tree  Genealogy, there is a great start to a series of 12 posts looking at some of the less obvious resources in finding information on your ancestors. I know I’ll be keeping an eye on this, since I feel like I’ve exhausted some of the normal resources on some of my lines. The first post is about medical records and how these may be helpful in your research. Check it out at 12 Months of Finding Ancestors: Medical Records (Part 1 of a 12 Part Series)

I hope these posts will be as helpful to you as they were to me.

CategoriesBelgianDeBrouxTell Me Thursday

Tell Me Thursday: Laurent Sisters

Posted on 21 January 2010by Brian Zalewski
Click for larger

This photo was recently sent to me by another DeBroux/Laurent researcher. The ladies shown are the three youngest daughters of Jean-Baptiste LAURENT and Olivine Marie ST. LOUIS. They are Josephine KING, Philomene DEBROUX, and Milly RABIDEAU. Philomene is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. I’m not sure when the photo was taken, but if I had to guess, I ‘d say somewhere from 1940-1950 since Philomene passed away in 1956.

CategoriesWeekly History

Weekly History: January 17th – 23rd

Posted on 18 January 2010by Brian Zalewski

Hey, I’m back again. Been a bit busy and had to put genealogy on the back-burner.

January 17th

1902 – Born – Agnes Irene ZALEWSKI – Agnes is my great-great-aunt on my father’s side. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Frank & Anna ZALEWSKI. She married Chester WALCZAK in 1924. She passed away on 29 Jan 1989 at Cedarburg, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried near the rest of her family at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.

1908 – Died – Fredericke C HENKE – Fredericke is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 4 Jul 1836 in Germany and married Herman RATHKE before immigrating to Wisconsin. She passed away in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co.

January 18th

1825 – Born – Jean-Baptiste LAURENT – Jean-Baptiste is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born at Biez, Chaumont-Gistoux, Wallon Brabant, Belgium to Constant & Marie LAURENT. He married Olivine Marie ST. LOUIS in 1857 and they had 9 children. He passed away on 31 Jul 1886 at Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin and is buried nearby at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood.

1980 – Born – ME! Happy Birthday to me! Also, Happy Birthday to my wife, Darcy in 1981.

January 19th

1860 -Died – Thomas MCCANN – Thomas is my 4th-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born about 1797 at Longford, Ireland. He and his wife, Mary CRONIN, immigrated to Canada with their family. He passed away at Uptergrove, Ontario, Canada.

January 21st

1874 – Born – Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS – Also known as Peter Van Price, he is my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born at IJzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands to Charles & Johanna VAN PARIJS. His family immigrated to Wisconsin right after he was born. In 1895, he married Minnie M MUHM and together they had 6 children. He passed away on 22 Sep 1962 in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Union Cemetery.