One step forward, two steps backwards....

Or in my case, deleting over 10 generations of Blanchette's because I had the wrong family. What a bummer! After talking to Mom to verify what I thought were my Great Grandparents on the Blanchette side, something just didn't add up. Turns out, there were lots of similarities but I had the wrong family. It took me about two hours to clean everything up. "Huge sigh"

Needless to say, the moral of this story is don't jump forward until you have verified the vital record facts for the previous family. This means birth, baptism, marriage, and death.

Off to get some education

So I attended the Genealogy Conference at the Worcester Library last week Friday and Saturday to get some needed assistance. Aside from the "Tracing your Polish Roots" seminar (which was really worthwhile), the biggest thing I took away from the seasoned genealogists was;whatever you do, don't jump forward until you have verified the vital record facts for the current line that you are working on. That means birth, baptism, marriage, and death. Go figure....

So it not quite back to the drawing board in all cases, but I am going to make sure that I've done my homework before moving forward. I am reviewing all of the vital facts I have accumulated so far and focusing on my Great Grandparents, one line at a time, before moving forward!

The other important tip I got from the sessions is to have a plan and stick to it. You have to make sure that you keep a record all of your research activity. That's so that you go back to see what you were looking for (Kozlowski family), what you actually looked at (1910 US Census), when you looked at it (date and time), and most importantly if you found anything (the details of the source citation). It's so easy to go down the proverbial rat hole because of the Internet and everything that's available on it. It's amazing what you can find online. I find myself quite often starting off looking for someones birth record, finding something unrelated to what I'm looking for, and before I knew it I had forgotten all about my original search and chased some dead end. Sounds really simple and intuitive, but wait until you start doing some searches and you'll quickly understand how easy it is to get distracted.

And now for something completely different.....

After joining a local Yahoo Group dedicated to researching Massachusetts Polish Ancestry, I received an e-mail from a woman in Dudley asking me who I was searching for in Webster. So I threw out what I knew so far; Szacik, Kizior, Kozik (aka Miller), Kozlowski and what I knew of each family. In less than an hour I got a positive reply. Turns out this person graduated from Bartlett High School with my father and has given me some great leads and ideas.

One idea was to visit the library in Webster and check out the collection of BHS Yearbooks, called the Chronical. So off to the library at lunch to check it out. Sure enough, they have every single yearbook back to when the school was first opened. I grab the 1957 Chronical, open it up, look for Lawrence Miller and what do I find? Trevor Rodman..... Oh my goodness - I knew there was a resemblance but you have to see this to believe it. Now I'm on a roll -- I go back to his freshman, sophomore, and junior years. I stopped at each to really take it all in, perusing all the pages to find pictures and/or references. Did you know dad was playing basketball on the varsity squad when he was a sophomore? He played up until he graduated.

Tomorrow I'm heading back with the digital camera to take pictures back with me. I'll share those when I get back from golf league tomorrow.

A lead that turned out to be very useful was verifying the maiden name of our 2nd Great Grandmother (Michalina Koslowski). Long story short, it turns out that her name was Jedrzynski. Remember Mike Jedzrynski from band? Related...

And now you know the rest of the story

In the ship manifest and immigration record I found for Peter and Michalina Koslowski, it mentioned they were sponsored by a brother-in-law Franz Jevrinski who lived in Webster, Ma.

I searched every way I knew for a Frank Jevrinski and never found anything. Then I obtained the marriage certificate for Alexander Miller and Stasia Koslowski (daughter of Peter and Michalina) and it listed her mother has Michalina Gedrinski. Again, all searches for a Frank Gedrinski turned up empty. When I visited with Stella Miller, she clued me in to the fact that there are no G's in Polish and the name was likely Jedzrinski. So I try searching for this and turn up nothing again. This is what you call a "brick wall"....

Enter the e-mail from Gail. I told here who I was looking for and she said, "You're looking for Jedrzynski, and Michalina's brother Frank, was married to my Great Grandmother." What do you know!

So I go and look for Frank Jedrzynksi, and sure enough there he is with his family, coming to Webster in 1899 a full year before the Kozlowski's arrived.

I plan to meet with Gail to share more information. I'm hoping that she has the location in Poland where the Koslowski's and Jedrzynski's came from. With that information I can locate the church parish for that town and head to the Family History Center to locate their marriage record.

Sound easy right? Most likely the records are in some form or variation of Latin and Polish... Should be fun!

Researching Stanley Miller but finding Alexander and Stacia instead...

I had a memorial service card from St. Joseph's church for what I believed to be Stanley's funeral service. The name on the card was Stanislawa Miller, the date was June 11, 1965. In order to verify dates of our more recent ancestors, I have been spending lunches at the Webster library looking through their collection of Webster Times on microfiche. They have the Times all the way back to the late 1800's, and if you have the patience you can find all kinds of good stuff.

Anyway, I wanted to verify the date that my grandfather Stanley Miller passed away so I went to the library to search the obituaries on and around 6/11/1965. I didn't find Stanley, instead I found the obit for his wife Stacia. How can this be? Stacia's name in polish is Stanislawa and Stanley's is Stanislaus or sometimes Stanislava. I knew both of these facts but failed to recognize the subtle difference on the memorial card when entering the data. That card was for Stacia Miller and not Stanley so I corrected the tree and continued the search for Stanley.

I went back today and started a new search. This time on a hint I remember I got from Maryellen Bolte (Mania's daughter). Her hand written note to me listed Stanley dying at the age of 46. Knowing his birth date, I started searching the Webster Times obituaries in 1956.



On an unrelated note: "Man found lying in road after eating tools". While searching the column "Homes in Mourning" I came across an article for a person found in the middle of the street in obvious distress. He was taken to the hospital where they later removed 25 razor blades, 3 screws, some metal piece of an umbrella, and several other metallic items. When asked why, he said that he was offered this as a challenge at the local fair to win a prize. Perhaps I found the original "jackass"?



On with the search.... I made it through all of 1956 and didn't find anything for Stanley Miller. I did however find the obituary for Alexander Miller (Stanley's father) who died on Jan 12, 1956. In it, it states that he leaves his wife Stacia, 3 daughters and 6 sons one of which was Stanley. From that piece of information I now know that Stanley died after 1956 (unless of course I missed his obit). After nearly 25 years of working with computers I've gotten pretty good at scanning data really fast and accurately, so I doubt I missed it.



Anyway, if time permits I'll be back tomorrow searching the 1957 Webster Times for my grandfather's obituary, and any other interesting articles that I may come across.



Come to think of it, I could just visit the cemetery and read his headstone, but this is certainly more fun.



(Pictured above is Stacia and Alexander Miller)

Mary Szacik

Mary Szacik, born in Passaic, NJ on September 5, 1913 was the older sister of three brothers; Theodore (b:Dec 21, 1914), and twins Joseph (b:Jul 14, 1916), and John (b:Jul 14, 1916). Unfortunately John died not too long after being born.

The family moved from Passaic, NJ to Dudley, MA sometime between 1916 and 1918. In the 1920 census they were listed as living at

38 Oxford Avenue in Dudley, but her father Stanislaw had registered in 1918 over in Southbridge for the WWI draft. He was living in Dudley at this same address.

By 1930 , the 16 year old Mary and the rest of the Szacik family were living at 36 Granite Street in Webster just around the corner from where her future husband Stanley Miller lived. The Miller's, they lived on Cutler Street.

Mary was married at St. Joseph's Church to Stanley Miller on November 24, 1932.