Researching Stanislaw Szacik and family

To date, I've spent all of my time at the FHC in Worcester researching the Kizior family line and I've been pretty successful. This research started about a month ago when I ordered 4 rolls of microfilms from the Family History Library which contained the parish records from Zassow Poland. All of the Kizior facts recorded to date, whom lived in the village of Zassow itself, I found on three of the films. That 4th film, one that hold parish records for Wiewiorka where the Szaciks are from, was late in arriving.

Well I finally got the call that it had arrived, and none to soon either. The center is closed for the month of August which means if I were to find anything at all on the Szacik family, Tuesday night the 28th would be my chance to do so. The information that I had recorded so far was pretty good, coming from documents like the will from Stanislaw's father Adam (thanks Lorraine), a Military Passbook that my grandmother had when he served in the Polish Army prior to WWI, a marriage certificate from New Jersey when he married Agatha Kizior, and several records of his death here in Webster, Ma.

The will required some laborious translation and was very interesting to read. It gives you a glimpse into the lifestyle of the Szacik's in the first quarter of the 1900's. It was written in 'old world' Polish and on top of that, it contained the usual language of lawyers. You can't even understand legalese when it's in English never mind Polish! I could write an entire blog on the details of the will which is dated March 1926, and maybe I will, but the important items to note are the names of his children, the prescribed birth-order in which they appear on the document, and the witnesses present at the reading.

His wife is not listed so it is presumed that she passed before him, another clue that can be used while looking for records. His children were Jozef (Joseph), Stanislaw (Stanley - my great grandfather), Katarzyna (Catherine), Joannes (Jan), Thomaz (Thomas), Marji (Maria), and Antoni (Anthony).

I knew that Stanislaw was born in 1884 in either April or May and his father's name is Adam. He was born and lived in Wiewiorka at the time he enlisted in the Military. Catherine and Maria were both married and held the last names of Czajka and Gawle respectively. The will also provides clues as to the where abouts of 3 of the sons. Stanislaw and Jan were both in the states and Joseph was in France under restricted address (not sure what that means).

Anxious to get right to work on this new film, I arrive at the Family History Center with a game plan. I get there as the doors open, sign in, retrieve the film, load it up, and fast forward to 1884 and starting looking for Stanislaw. Within 3 minutes, I find his birth record (born: 18 Apr 1884)and get a print of the page. But before I starting looking for more, I remembered and took my own advice; before I did any more searching I documented the individual sections of the film so that I could easily get to the proper type of record (birth, marriage, death) and the year in which the event took place. It turns out that this film has 10 sections containing birth records from 1784 - 1931, death records from 1784 - 1883, and marriage records from 1790 - 1942. A really nice history and the digital images are pretty good.

One thing I noticed while looking through these films is the overwhelming appreciation I have for time as I quickly fast forward through hundreds of years of a villages' history in a matter of seconds. I often wonder who else is among the names that were painstakingly written by hand into a parish register that are now streaking by my eyes. I bet someone, somewhere, is looking for one of those persons.....

After cataloging the film, I start looking for the brothers and sisters of Stanislaw. Knowing Joseph to be the eldest son, I go backwards from 1884 looking for any Joseph that appears. There he is, born 8 Mar 1883. This approach continues until I find all of the siblings.

Joseph: born 8 Mar 1883
Stanislaw: born 18 Apr 1884
Catherine: born 20 May 1885
Jan: born 27 Nov 1886
Thomas: born 3 Feb 1889
Maria: born 5 Jan 1894
Antoni: not found...

From these records I finally learn the names of my 2nd and 3rd Great Grandparents. They are: Adam Szacik and Sophia Krystyniak (Stanislaw's parents)
Antoni Szacik and Agatha Stawarz (Adam's parents)
Stanislaw Krystyniak and Maria Kata (Sophia's parents)

There's still a lot to uncover, and I should be able to find marriage records for those that were married. For example, doing some quick math and some estimating I was able to find a marriage record for Antoni Szacik (Stanislaw's Great Grandfather and Adam's father). He was married (for the second time)on 23 Feb 1875 at the age of 49. Now I should be able to find his birth record in the year 1826. If he was married at 18 and started a family immediately, then the earliest that Adam was born would be 1844-1845 if he were the first born.

Too bad the center is closed until September. Until then, I'll pull together a list of research tasks aimed at filling in some of the vital records for the Szaciks. Here's the record for Stanislaw, and the marriage record for his Grandfather. The marriage record indicates that he was a widow, that his previous wife was Agatha Stawarz and that he is 49 years old. The search continues...


Antoni Szacik Marriage Record

Stanislaw Birth Record