Category: Zalewski

Posts on the Zalewski surname

CategoriesWeekly HistoryZalewski

Weekly History

Posted on 22 February 2009by Brian Zalewski

I’m going to steal this from Julie at GenBlog and post a recap of historical moments from select people in my family tree for the current week. It’s a neat idea and it will help me look through the names in my tree every week and maybe spur some research.

February 22

1890 – Died – William THOMPSON – William was my 3rd great-grandfather on my father’s side. He died in Wrightstown, Brown Co., Wisconsin

February 23

1893 – Born – Herman RATHKE – Herman was my 3rd great-grandather on my mother’s side. He was born in Germany.

February 25

1760 – Born – Charles Francois CLOUTIER – Charles was my 6th great-grandfather on mother’s side. He was born in Cap Saint Ignace, Quebec, Canada.

1883 – Married – Carl F H LAST married Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin and went on (per my research) to have 16 children. Carl and Augusta are my great-great grandparents on my mother’s side.

February 27

1945 – Died – Marianna (Giersch) ZALEWSKI – Mary was my great-great aunt on my father’s side. She passed away in Milwaukee, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin.

CategoriesMilwaukeePolishTell Me ThursdayZalewski

Tell Me Thursday

Posted on 19 February 2009by Brian Zalewski
Click for larger image
Click for larger image

Wordless Wednesday’s Photo is labeled “trokas&szultas” in my list. Unfortunately, when I first scanned a few photos from my grandmother, I didn’t label them very well. Though, it was probably labeled something like that in the album itself. There are only two people I think I can pick out. My great-grandfather, Joseph Zalewski, in the middle of the back row and my great-great-grandmother, Clara (Szulta) Troka, third from the left in the middle row. I’m hoping to meet with my grandma and maybe go over some of these photos and see if she knows who they may be.

CategoriesFamily TreePersonalZalewski

Dusty Old Letters

Posted on 6 February 2009by Brian Zalewski

When I bought my house in 2005, I ended up purchasing my grandparent’s house. My grandpa had passed away in 1999 and my grandma was moving into an assisted living apartment since she hurt herself in a little fall. I did get a very nice deal on the house. It’s perfect “starter” house, being the house that they bought new in 1955 and that my dad and his siblings grew up in.

When she moved, a bunch of boxes were left in the basement. Most of it was just things like blankets and pots and pans, things she doesn’t need right now. I found one box a few months back when I was taking inventory that I saw had funeral cards and old newspaper clippings in it. Today, I decided to just browse through them to see if there were any of my ancestors that I could use to squeeze out some more information.

I only found a few funeral cards on the top and they were probably of old friends, I assume, and not relatives. But, I did find a nice collection in the news clippings box. Most of the items were just random clippings of recent photos and articles from the newspapers. But, I did find a nice selection of old obituaries, though. A couple were straight from the newspapers and a few others were copies. The obituaries that I found were from Emma Jane (FIRMENICH) COOK (my gg-grandmother), George S COOK (Emma’s 3rd husband), Margaret (STEARNS) BRAATZ (my gg-grandmother), Frank F BRAATZ, Sr (her husband and my gg-grandfather), and Margaret (SCHUMACHER) STEARNS (her mother and my ggg-grandmother.) Most of the obituaries didn’t have any new info of note, but the big find was the last one. In my tree, all I had was “Margaret” listed and her death date. This obituary gave me her birth info and her surname, which is brand new to me. Plus, it listed all of her siblings and locations. I need to start looking for SCHUMACHER now, any tips?

Another treasure find in the box was some old letters written to my grandfather from his parents in 1941. It seems, from the address that he was in navy school in Pensacola, Florida. There are about 5-10 letters all written from March 31, 1941 to April 27, 1941. One weird note here is that my great-grandmother, his mother, Emily (TROKA) ZALEWSKI, passed away on May 1, 1941. In the later letters that I just quickly scanned through, there is no mention of being sick, etc. So, this points to her death being quite sudden as she was only 45 years old at the time. Maybe my grandfather saved these letters due to the fact that he was away in Florida when his mother died. There are no letters beyond the April 27th one. I am in the process of scanning them so I can read them and archive them. This is the only comunication from my great-grandmother that I’ve found. Then, I plan on taking this box over to my grandmother since I’m assuming she’ll want it.

CategoriesCemeteriesTombstone TuesdayZalewski

Tombstone Tuesday: Zalewski Family

Posted on 27 January 2009by Brian Zalewski
Zalewski Family Stone
Frank & Anna Zalewski with son Frank, Holy Cross Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI

This week’s (and my first) Tombstone Tuesday is the one that helped me start my genealogy research. The first Zalewskis that came to America, Frank & Anna (Lindner) Zalewski. Their son Frank is also buried here with them. The headstone is located in Holy Cross Cemetery & Mausoleum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There are some other family members nearby including the Trokas and more of Frank & Anna’s children.

View the headstone at Find-a-Grave.

Also, in related news, I’ve started a new blog dealing with cemeteries in southeastern Wisconsin, named Graveyard Rabbit of Southeastern Wisconsin. It’s brand new, but I hope it will help many people in the future.

CategoriesFeaturedMilitaryTips & TricksZalewski

Thanks Google Books!

Posted on 26 January 2009by Brian Zalewski

After getting more interested in the military history of my family tree due to the talks and searches I did on Saturday, I decided to try some other options. I usually don’t do a lot of searching on Google for family members, since I usually get a lot more misses than hits. I tried to narrow it down by using quotes and full names, locations, etc. Somehow, I had ended up on Google Books. I kept wanting to search their collection of books, so I decided to try now.

I had no luck finding anything on my grandparents in World War II. I then searched for my great-grandfather, Joseph ZALEWSKI, who was in World War I.  Unfortunately, his military records were destroyed in a fire in 1973 at the National Personnel Records Center – St Louis, Missouri, so it’s all been info based on word-of-mouth. But, lo and behold, what is this?

The first book I found was “Soldiers of the Great War.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t find his name in this book, but a lot of the text was very small. The second book was much more important, anyway. The second book was “The Official History of the Eighty-Sixth Division” published in 1921. On page 110, it listed a Joseph F Zalewski that lived at 900 Fratney St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That was my great-grandfather’s exact address in that time period. Success!

Now we know exactly what division and battalion he was in when he shipped off to Europe. He was part of the 86th Divison, Company B, 331st Machine Gun Battalion. I scanned through most of the book trying to find any other important information. It did mention that when they were shipped off to France in August 1918 that they never saw combat before being shipped back in November, due to the Armistice. Stories say that Joseph saw combat and was involved in some “major battles.” My guess is that when they “skeletonized” the 86th Division before shipping them back that Joseph was sent to another division. I still need to find this information, but at least I have much more to work with.

Text not available

The Official History of the Eighty-Sixth Division
By John G. Little, United States Army 86th Division, States Publications Society

As luck would have it, I found a copy of this book on eBay by someone who was selling some of his grandfather’s military books. I was able to download a copy of the book in PDF form from Google Books, but having a hard-copy would be very cool.

So, again, repeating what I said in my last post about newspapers, never underestimate some of these lesser-known places for family information. They can be invaluable.

CategoriesWay Back WednesdayZalewski

Weekly Photo: Dressed up!

Posted on 21 July 2008by Brian Zalewski

Emily Troka (Middle)

The only woman I know in this photo (as was noted on it) is my great-grandmother, Emily (Troka) Zalewski, in the middle. I’m not sure who the other two women are since it’s not noted on the photo. This photo, again, is in my grandmother’s collection.

I never got to meet Emily, though neither did my dad. Emily passed away in 1941. My grandfather was only 20 at the time, so I know it must’ve been really hard on him. Not only did he lose his mother, he lost his grandfather (Frank Zalewski) later in 1941 and his grandmother (Anna Lindner) in 1939. I imagine it was also very tough on my great-grandfather, Joseph. I’m not sure what the cause of death was, but it must have been unexpected since she died at only 45 years of age.

At least in the photo she looks to be ready to go out on the town (or to church, I guess.) I can only assume that this was taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin somewhere since Emily was born there and lived there her whole life.

CategoriesFunGermanZalewski

Tanta

Posted on 18 March 2008by Brian Zalewski

Well, I was going to write an article asking for some help, but I think I found my answer. When I was a kid, we used to visit my great grandmother (or who I thought was my great grandmother at the time.) As far as I can remember, we always called her “Tanta.” I always thought this was her name, but was told later on that this meant “Grandma” in German. My dad also used to call her this.

It turns out that Tanta was not my actual great grandmother, but my step-great grandmother. My real great grandmother had passed away in the early 1940s and my great grandfather remarried later on. Tanta was Agnes (Pulchinski) Zalewski.I was going to ask if anyone could verify that Tanta meant “Grandma.” I did a Google search a bit ago and found nothing of interest, but right before writing this post I had an idea. I did a search for “Tanta” on the German Google, google.de. The first few entries were for a city called “Tanta,” but then I found a few entries using Tanta to describe a family member. It looks like Tanta is also used for Aunt along with Grandma. I also found entries for the male version, Tante.

Now, is there anyone out there that has better verification than a few people using it on their websites? I’d like to know, since I was using it for most of my childhood. Thanks.

CategoriesMilwaukeeWay Back WednesdayZalewski

Sunday Photo: Zalewski Family and Others

Posted on 9 March 2008by Brian Zalewski

I’d thought I would try a weekly photo post since I have a good collection of photos and it may help spur a research idea. I got the idea from Miriam over at AnceStories.

 

Zalewski and Others

 

This week’s photo is from my Zalewski collection. The original photo is my grandmother’s collection. I’m not 100% sure who everyone in the photo is exactly, though I do know a few. The tall man on the right side is my great-grandfather, Joseph Zalewski and  I think that is his wife Emelia (Troka) Zalewski next to him. The man on the left with the cigar is my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Troka and his wife Clara (Szulta) behind him. I don’t know the others, but some of them look familiar. I assume this photo was taken before of after church, which means it was probably at St. Casimir’s church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

CategoriesFunGenetic GenealogyZalewski

Where was my Y-DNA and mtDNA in 1808?

Posted on 6 March 2008by Brian Zalewski
DNA

I saw a post over at The Genetic Genealogist about this and I thought it’d be interesting to check my information.Though, it’s kind of a downer since I don’t really know exactly where my Y-DNA or my mtDNA was in 1808. I can only trace my Zalewski line back to about 1858 with Frank J. Zalewski, in what I think is Prussia (which could be many things.) I’d guess it was in the same general area, so it turns out to be about 4487 miles away traveling at about 22.5 miles per year.

My mtDNA line only goes back to about 1852 with the birth of Ida Schwinte, also in Prussia. I’m guessing the German part of Prussia on this one compared to the Russian/Polish part for my Y-DNA. I can really only assume it’s about the same distance, give or take a few hundred miles.

Well, this didn’t turn out to be as exciting as I though, but it’s still interesting to think about. I have many other lines traced back much further, but just not these two. Maybe it will help spark me to work more on these lines (though I’ve always had an urge to research my Zalewski line more.)

So, how about you? Where was your Y-DNA and mtDNA in 1808?

CategoriesSiteZalewski

Zalewski Update

Posted on 20 February 2008by Brian Zalewski

Sorry for the low post count. Haven’t had a lot of time lately for Genealogy research. Should be back soon enough. For now, I wanted to make sure all new visitors see the Zalewski-related projects I’m working on in case they want to help out. Info linked below.

  • Working to compile the largest database of Zalewski family trees this side of Poland. – Zalewski Family Tree Project
  • Want to find out as much information as you can about the Zalewski surname and where it comes from? Is your Zalewski ancestor related to one of the many Zalewski families being researched by others? Zalewski DNA Project

Feel free to contact me about anything and everything, either in the comments or using my contact form. I’ll respond to everyone. Thanks.