Ken Miller Genealogy Blog

Our Billings Family and Their Connection to Early American History

2010-03-29T21:35:00.005-04:00

The Billings of Boston

(Part 1 of likely many)

I traced the Billings family back to 1535 and the Somerset area of England. My focus and desire to obtain source based material however, really stopped at the arrival of Roger Billings (my 10th G. Grandfather) to America in 1640. Most of what I found came as a real shock to myself and to others in the family that I have shared this information with. I had always believed, which I now know to be incorrect, that my mothers family was entirely French-Canadian. A misnomer reinforced by the fact that my Great Grandmother Gertrude Billings, was born in Canada and came to the United States around 1907 with her husband Arthur Garceau whom was also born in Canada. Whenever we talked about family, Canada was always mentioned as the place from which they came and I just assumed that they would be traced back to France.

Marie Gertrude Billings

Born December 16, 1881 Gertrude is my Great Grandmother. When I started to piece together the circumstances which defined her childhood, I was taken back some. Let me explain.

The first place I usually start looking is in census data and this search was no different. I easily found Gertrude living with her husband Arthur Garceau in Putnam Connecticut in both the 1920 and 1930 US Census. From these records I could determine that Gertrude was likely born in 1881 or 1882. But the 1901 Canadian census record I found, was a bit confusing. In it I found a Gertie Billings, aged 19, living in Rock Island Village, Stanstead County, Quebec. Her relationship to the head of household, G. Granddaughter. What? If this is in fact her, why is she living with her grandparents Julius and Fanny Allard?

1901 Canadian Census

Drouin Collection

An excerpt from Ancestry.ca regarding the Drouin Collection: Joseph Drouin founded the Drouin Genealogical Institute in 1899 and began publishing family books based on the vital records he gathered over centuries. Eventually his son Gabriel took over for him.

The Drouin Collection represents the largest and most valuable French-Canadian family history resources available, including an impressive collection of Quebec vital records. The collection includes neary 15 million records, marking the history of Quebec families over three centuries.

I next turned to the Drouin Collection of vital records. The 1901 Canadian census provided some useful clues, Gertrudes date of birth and location in Canada. Finding the church records for the village of Rock Island, I get to the index and start looking around 1881 for her baptismal record.

Gertrude was baptised December 18th, 1881 the daughter of Henri Billings and Stephanie Allard. I'm on the right track, her mother was an Allard and Gertrude was living with her grandparents Julius and Fanny Allard. I now know Gertrudes parents names but this doesn't explain her living with her grandparents so I continue the search.

Marie Gertrude Billings Baptismal

Next I started to look for the marraige record of her parents Henri and Stephanie. It's likely around 1881, the birth year of Gertrude. I started looking through the index from 1881 backwards and I come across an entry for Henry Billings and Stephanie Allard, married January 19, 1881. They were married at the Sacre-Coeur church in Stanstead County. The marriage record also lists the parents of the married couple, very nice!

Henri Billings / Stephanie Allard Marriage Record

Next I start looking for any additional siblings of Gertrude. I start in 1881 and move forward in the index looking for any Billings. There are quite a few but not from the family I am interested in. Eventually I find a record for a Marie Helene Billings which turns out to be a sister of Gertrude, as evidenced by her having the same parents as Gertrude. However, while looking over the rest of the entries, I happened across a death record for Stephanie Allard their mother, right at the bottom of the same page.

Gertrude's sister Helen was born January 2nd, 1885 and sadly 8 days later, her mother Stephanie passed away. Such a sad turn of events. Knowing that Gertrude had a sister I have another question. Why didn't Helen appear in the 1901 Canadian census along with her sister? And I still don't know why Gertrude was living with her grandparents in 1901. Worried that Helen and possibly her father may have passed away I start looking for any death records for Billings starting in 1885 and moving forward.

I was saddened to find a death record for little Helen Billings. She died 7 months after being born. Such a young family, just starting out, and having to cope with such loss.

A Sad Set of Circumstances

I can only assume at this point that the girls' mother, and little Helen for that matter, died from complications of child birth. I don't know what kind of access there was to health care, but I'm thinking the situation must have been dire. Henry Billings had a tough job. Not only was he mourning the death of his wife but he had to tend to a 4 year old and a newborn daughter, all while working a full job. It must have been devastating to him and the extended family.

It's clear that after all of this, Henri was unable to care for Gertrude which is why she appears in the census data living with her mothers parents. She lost her a mother, a father, and her sister, more or less at the age of 5. I can only wonder how much contact there was between Gertrude and Henri, and how old she was when she went to stay with her grandparents permenantly. Whenever that took place, it must have been a tough decision for Henri.
Curious to find out what happened to Henri I started looking a bit deeper for him. He eventually remarried in 1891 to Anna Dubois, 6 years after the death of his first wife. They eventually immigrated to the United States and lived in Webster, Massachusetts (of all places) near his father John Billings and started a new family. His first child with new wife Anna was a daughter, her name was Helen. Clearly in memory of his late daughter Helen and her mother Stephanie.

Stay tuned as I continue to trace our Billings family back to Boston, Massachusetts.

Chamberland. Our version of the french connection

2009-09-01T19:33:00.022-04:00

The Family History Center will be reopening this week, so it will be back to chasing down our Polish ancestry. But for the month of August, I decided to switch attention to the French-Canadian side of the family, specifically the Chamberland and Blanchette families.

Off to Boston to the Department of Vital Records and Archives

The manner in which you retrieve vital records from the State Archives for Vital Records is an interesting one. You have no direct access to the records. You enter what they call a research room where there is a large box of photocopied slips to record what you're looking for. The Indices are available where you can locate the Year, Volume, and Page Number of the interested party. Records are for Birth, Marriage, and Deaths. Once the slips are filled out, they are then handed to an attendant when they call for "research requests".

The guy working the counter the day I visited was helpful in explaining the process, but I wasn't prepared for the mad rush to the counter when the window opened for the first time and a researcher announced "I'll take the next 7 research requests". Fearing that I missed my first opportunity because I was towards the back of a line 10 or so deep, I stood in line thinking "this is going to take a long time." When I got the window I learned that he was taking 7 requests from each person. Big sigh of relief. I realized after I sat down and looked at what I had left to research that the important research, the reason I went there in the first place, were still in my hand. Not to worry though, there was one more research call while I was there.

After about 15 minutes, the guy wheels a large cart with the volumes of vital records that were requested. I found the 7 volumes I had requested and quickly went to work transcribing the information into my binder for entry into my computer later on. The next call, about 30 minutes later, was for 3 requests. I handed in one for Josephat Blanchette, one for Ophilia Chamberland, and one for the Szacik twins that died at birth in 1920. When these volumes were brought up to the research room, I was a bit disappointed. I had the wrong year for Josephat Blanchette and the records for the Szacik twins record were listed as "RESTRICTED". What I did get, the death record for Ophilia Chamberland, would result in a month long research endeavor and the eventual tracing of those ancestors back to France in 1610. Several critical pieces of then missing information were recorded from that death record, her father Hermenigilde Chamberland, her mother Desanges Latylip, and her age at the time of death 79 yrs, 7 months, 25 days.

You say Latylip, I say LaTulippe

The first thing I did was to check the Canada Census records and within a few moments of the search completing, I found them listed in the 1881 Census of Canada living in Bellechasse, Quebec, Canada. Other searches, particularly in the Quebec Vital and Church Records (The Drouin Collection), revealed that what was recorded as Latylip is actually LaTulippe and that Ophilia's mother name was really Marie DesAnges Queret dit LaTulippe. Do a Google search on Queret and LaTulippe and you'll discover a large extended family with lots of history. Dit names, pronounced "dee", were used by families to help differentiate themselves from their father, brothers and sisters, by location, trade, or some other local reference from which they came. The name Latulippe has a long french heritage and originates from the northwest region of Brittany in France.

A goldmine of Chamberland History in the Quebec Vital and Church Records

I'm still locating and finding the actual church records for each of the direct line of Chamberlands but I've located well over 30 individual church records dating back to the 1680's so far. Nearly all of the Chamberlands came from Bellechasse, Quebec, Canada. I'm still trying to find exactly when Ophilia's family entered the United States. The only mention of it is on the 1930 US census I found for Ophilia and her husband Josephat Blanchette. It lists 1890 as the year of entry. Records for Canadian border crossings exists but starts in 1895. The Chamberlands do not appear in the 1891 Census of Canada so its likely that they left Canada between 1881 and 1891. Here's a few samples of what I've found so far, the oldest record is the marriage record for Ignace Chamberland, my 7th Great Grandfather:

Researching Stanislaw Szacik and family

2009-07-29T20:43:00.014-04:00

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

The Polish Connection.. the search continues

2009-07-23T19:51:00.003-04:00

I've spent more time at the Family History Center browsing the microfilms from the Zassow parish in Poland looking for distant relatives from my father's side of the family. During the last visit, I was able to quickly find Agatha Kizior and her two brothers listed in the Baptismal records for the parish. Within the details of those records their parents and grandparents can be identified. In a matter of 15 minutes, I had been able to add two more generations of family history to the tree. Not bad... Now I'm thinking, this is going to be a piece of cake. NOT

My second visit I spent a lot of time looking for Julia Kizior. I wasn't sure if she was younger or older than Agatha so I asked my grandmother who told me she was an older sister. I looked backwards from 1892 to 1882 and did not find her. With time to spare, I began looking for Szacik's of Wiewiorka, another small village next to Zassow. After nearly 2.5 hours of random searching, and nothing to show for it, I decided to catalog what each section of microfilm recorded because as I went through the film, it didn't appear to be in any specific order.

I had ordered 4 films, 3 showed up and 1 is on backorder. I loaded the film that I found the Kiziors and quickly went from beginning to end writing down each particular section and the dates associated with it. For example, film 1959127 contains the following records.

Wiewiorka Deaths (1883 - 1921)

Zasow Baptisms (1784 - 1837)

Zasow Baptisms (1837 - 1868)

Zasow Baptisms (1869 - 1890)

Zasow Baptisms (1890 - 1944)

Mokre, Przeryty Bar, Dabie Baptisms (1784 - 1805)

Now it's 10 minutes to closing so I put in film 1959216 and start recording the various sections. I get up to the 4th section and what do I find? An index of Zasow Parish Baptisms. I couldn't believe it. It's not a typical index though. It's broken in multiple sections, each section is a village. Within the village section the names are grouped by the first letter of last name. But within the letter group, list it is not alphabetized. Heck, it's better than nothing.

Because I had Szacik on my mind I found the village of Wiewiorka, got to the S's, and started looking through the list. I managed to locate several members of the Szacik family. I knew the names of this family because I have a copy of Adam Szacik's will. He's my Great Great Grandfather. In it, there are specific references to his children Antoni, Jan, Tomasz, Stanislaw, Jozef, Katarzyna, Marji. Here are the names that I was able to find in the short amount of time that I had left:

Jan Szacik (b. 11/27/1886)

Thomas Szacik (b. 2/3/1889)

Joseph Szacik (b. 3/8/1883)

Stanislaw Szacik (b. 4/18/1884) my Great Grandfather

Catherine Szacik (b. 5/20/1885)

Included in the index is the name of the mother and father (Adam Szacik and Sophia Krystyniak), the church volume number and the page on which the entry is recorded. I ran out of time and had to pack everything up, bummer.

At this point I was both excited and a bit bothered to have found this index. Excited because now I have some new dates, names, and volumes to research and I also have an easier way to find individuals. Bothered because it took me nearly two full visits to discover it....

I left the center happy to find more names and anticipating my next visit (which was on Tuesday of this week)

Sorry, no scans this week.

The Kizior's of Zasow Poland

2009-07-08T19:30:00.010-04:00

The Kizior's of Zasow Poland

I first came across the handwritten name of Zasow while looking through the various papers, pictures, and documents that I received from my grandmother. I didn't know what it meant nor the significance of it at the time, but when I finally got around to researching the Kizior family line I quickly discovered that Zasow is a small village in Poland. It's located south and east of Kracow and north of the Carpathian Mountains. The closest "big" cities are Tarnow and Debica. At this point I assumed Zasow to be the birth place of Agnes Kizior, my great grandmother.

At the time Agatha was born, the village of Zasow, Poland was part of the Austrian Empire, an area known as Galicia. You see references to Austria and/or Galicia in immigration records, in census records, or other documents of the time. When I first found Agatha (or Agnes) in a census record her native country was recorded as Austria which had me a bit confused. But rest assured, she was from Poland. There were 3 partitions of Poland over the course of recent history. For most of the time frame in which I am dealing with, Poland was divided between Germany, Austria, and Russia. The Kozlowski's for example came from the German partition of Poland.

Also at this time, the area was still very much ruled by nobles that owned the land on which the farmers had to work as a form of payment to live there. In fact, in 1846 just 42 years prior to Agatha's birth, local peasant farmers attacked nobles planning a revolt to free Galicia from Austrian rule. Manors were burned and nobles murdered in Zasow and Straszecin Parishes in the Debica-Pilzno area. For more information about Zasow follow this link, lots of good information and it's a favorite in my explorer links: http://spuscizna.org/spuscizna/zasow.html

The Family History Center

Enter the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Their genealogical library in Utah is the largest in the world and they are constantly working to expand a database that includes all vital and/or genealogically related materials from around the world. It turns out that they have a near complete collection of Church Vital records from the numerous parishes in Poland. There is a Family History Center in Worcester located on Chester St. From this center you can order microfilm and microfiche from the massive library in Utah to be delivered to your local center. That's exactly what I did. A few weeks later I received a call that some of the film I ordered was in.

I was totally unprepared when I got to the center on Tuesday evening. I did not know what was recorded on the films, if I would be able to read the data, or if I would find anything useful at all. When I got there, 3 rolls were in the drawer with my name on them. Since I didn't take the description of the rolls that I ordered with me, I had no idea what I had received. Note to self: bring film descriptions with me next time. So the computer scientist voice in my head told me to grab the roll with the lowest indexed number on it and have at it. (It turns out that college education was good for something after all..)

Film # 1959127 - Ksiegi Metrykalne 1784 - 1942

This film contains Roman Catholic parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for Zassów, Galizien, Austria; now Zassów (Dębica), Rzeszów, Poland. Text in Latin. Partially indexed.

The portion that I looked through contained baptismal records. Since I had Agatha's birth date (from her marriage certificate and death certificate), I wound the film to the year 1892 and started looking at each name. The name of the baptised appear in a prominent column in the register and contains the first name only. So I started looking for Agatha or variations of that name. Within 15 minutes I found our Agatha Kizior.

Agatha was born on February 13, 1892 and was baptised the following day on the 14th. Her father was Stanislaus Kizior her mother, Thecla Szymanski. Her paternal grandparents were Tomasz Kizior and Helen Madura. Her maternal grandparents were Maciej Syzmanski and Katarzyna Marek. I also found Agatha's brothers Peter and Frank but I did not find her sister Julia. I'll go back on Tuesday evening to do some more searching.

On a related note, the Szacik's came from Wiewiorka, a small village located next door to Zasow. Sort of like Dudley and Webster but smaller. It turns out that the parish in Zasow was the parish of record for Wiewiorka as well so I will be able to search for our Szacik relatives as well.
Here's a scan of the baptismal record for Agatha Kizior (2nd from bottom), enjoy....

The Proof is in the Pudding

So how do you spell Miller?

2009-06-14T13:03:00.026-04:00

Your Mission Should you Choose to Accept It

I spent Friday in Boston at the Massachusetts Archives facility next to UMASS Boston and The Kennedy Library on Morrissey Blvd. The sole intention of this visit was to locate Alexander Miller's naturalization documents. These documents, a Declaration of Intention and a Petition for Naturalization contain lots of useful information for genealogists. Of the many facts that are recorded is the name in which the applicant entered the country with.

I had already contacted the Judicial Archivist to ensure that there was a record for Alexander. I received a positive response which also included the data that I needed to locate the record once at the archive in Boston. The staff was very helpful, took the time to show me the facility and how to look for the records that I was interested in. In less than 1 hour, I had what I was looking for....

But First, A Little History

Remember my visit with Great Aunt Stella? She told me a few things about Alexander Miller and the circumstances around which the name changed. During this visit she told me:

It was Alexander's father that changed the name.
His father was already in the states, arriving ahead of his son Alexander.
His father worked in the coal mines, probably in PA, before coming to Webster to work the mills.
There was a reference to the salt mines in Poland, the relationship at the time I did not understand.
Peter revealed to Stella the name Kozik prior to her accepting a marriage proposal.

What I had already discovered relative to Alexander:

In all census records available, he indicated the year of immigration as 1900.
From his marriage, death, and various census records I know his age at those times and the approximate year in which he was born.
But most importantly I know his approximate age in 1900 when he would have stepped off the boat, 24.

Shortly after my visit with Stella I performed a search for Kozik in the Ellis Island immigration records. If you recall I found an entry for an Alexander Kozik, sponsored by his father Wojiech, headed to Webster, Ma where his father lived. The year was 1900, his age 24. I was not 100% satisfied that this was Alexander and proof of our real name, but I was a bit excited to find this, and it certainly seemed more than just a coincidence.

Fast Forward to Friday

The papers did not contain that critical piece of information I wanted to see. I guess they didn't startasking for it until 10 years later, like it shows on Peter Kizior's papers. oh well.

Here's some of what was listed:

Born: Bachnia, Poland/Austria
DOB: 26 February 1876
Emigrated from: Rotterdam, Holland
Departure Date: 24 December 1899
Ship Name: The Narsam
Arrival Port: New York, New York
Arrival Date: 4 January 1900

Armed with this new information I performed a different search, this time looking at only those ships that arrived at Ellis Island from Rotterdam, Holland beginning January 1, 1900. I was looking for any passenger that had a first name of Alexander, was of Polish/Austrian descent and was 24 years old. While looking down the January 4 list I came across Alexander Kozik, from Bochnia Austria/Poland, age 24, going to Webster, Ma to be with his father who also lived in Webster. This records turns out to be the same one that I found when doing a name search.

What's interesting to note though is:
Port of departure: Rotterdam, (exact match)
Date of Departure: December 21, 1899 (close match)
Arrival Port: New York, New York (exact match)
Date of arrival: January 4, 1900 (exact match)
Residence in Poland: Bachnia (exact match)
Year Born: 1876 (exact match)
Age: 24 (exact match)

Oh, one more thing. Remember the salt mine reference from my visit with Stella? Well Bachnia is known for its salt mine. In fact it is one of the oldest salt mines in the world and is still operated today.

So when someone asks me "How do you spell Miller"?

I spell it KOZIK. How about you?

Oh those census takers!

2009-06-09T18:24:00.010-04:00

It's been a while since my last post. The reason is my laptop is back at the "dealer" getting fixed. I'm using a spare laptop that doesn't have all my "stuff" on it, so I've just been poking around here and there. Last night I decided I wanted to find Stanislaw Szacik in the 1910 US Census to complete my research in finding him in all available census databases. 1910 was the only one that I've struck out on time and time again. The stars where aligned last night, because I found him. So here's the timeline that I've created for Stanley Szacik, the husband of Agata Kizior my Great Grandparents.

Stanislaw Adam Szacik Timeline

1884 - Born in Roza, Galicia (From Military Documents that Gram had)
1909 September - Left from Hamburg Germany. (Ship Manifest Immigration Record)
1909 August - Arrived at Ellis Island, New York. (Ship Manifest Immigration Record)
1919 - Residing at 38 Oxford Avenue, Dudley. Married to Agata (From WWI Draft Registration Record)
1920 - Residing at 38 Oxford Avenue, Dudley. (From 1920 US Census)
1930 - Residing at 36 Granite Street,Webster. (From 1930 US Census)
1942 - Residing at 2 Granite Street, Webster. (From WWII Draft Registration Record)
1946 - Died in Webster.

By now I have figured out that name spellings, both Surname and First names, are often misspelled. When performing searches, you have to get creative in your approach, often times spelling things the way they would have sounded to the person recording them. Many times too, the immigrant could not write so they relied on the record taker to properly record their name. With the Polish language, all bets are off. I've been reading this book, more of a genealogical bible for polish genealogists "Going Home - A Guide to Polish American Family History Research" which provides insight into the difficulty in translating the Polish language into English. The rules - what you hear - do not apply.

So back to the 1910 Census. I've tried all of the usual searches and variations of them with no luck. I decided to try and narrow the search to just the city of Passaic the county of Passiac New Jersey. I know Passaic because that's where Gram was born, and that's also where Agnes and Stanley were married. I tried Surname searches of Sacheek, Sachik, Sacik, etc.. Nothing turns up. By that I mean after you browse through the returned results (many times over 1,000 hits), there wasn't a match. About to give up, I try leaving the Surname off and searching on the first name of Stanley which is a very common name. This is a trick that I learned at that conference a few weeks ago. If you're having trouble with a search, try searching on a known person of interest that has a more common first name. Especially in the census databases, this trick has worked well for me.

So I search for just Stan* in Passiac County, Passaic New Jersey. A list of 183 possible matches is presented. I get to about 125 into the list and I come across an unusual entry, with a notation for an alternate spelling. The name was listed as Stanley Sbatchik with a possible alternate spelling of Stanley Shatchik. I open the record and look down the scanned image of the handwritten census data and find Stanley Shatchik. Could this be him?

The year of immigration 1909 matches, his age 26 matches, and he is married as well but the real indicator is the person that appears one line below his, his wife Agatta age 18.

Think about it. The census taker is writing down what he/she heard, most likely in a very thick Polish accident. What was heard was "Saacheek" and they did their best to get it right. The census taker more or less scribbled Shatchik onto the page. To make matters even more difficult, when these handwritten records were finally digitized and indexed the person doing that job could not tell if the second letter was a "B" or an "H" and incorrectly recorded the census takers incorrectly spelled name as Sbatchik, making it nearly impossible to find.

1910 US Census

(look down towards the middle to see if you can find Sbatchik)

One step forward, two steps backwards....

2009-05-20T19:49:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-05-05T17:24:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-02T20:03:00.011-04:00

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.

My visit with great aunt Stella Miller

2009-04-29T19:28:00.005-04:00

So yesterday I went to visit Stella at her home in Webster. She has lived there for over 30 years, right across the street from where Aunt Connie lived for a number of years. She had everything organized for me. I brought my laptop and software to show her what I had collected so far and to also make it easier to record new information.

The first thing she showed me was a family tree, hand written on 3 sheets of paper, she had received from "Mrs. Miller" (Stacia Kozlowski my Great Grandmother and wife of Alexander Miller). Much of what was written down I had found through various census records, but there was information there that I did not have. I need to go back now and fill all this in. She then showed me a picture of the Kozlowski family. This is the picture that I posted up on facebook. Without even checking the names, I guessed correctly which young man was Peter Jr. (Kerry's Grandfather). There is such a resemblance to Louis the lineage is unmistakeable.

Peter P Miller -Technical Sergeant/Tail Gunner, Air Corps

We talked a bit about Peter (pictured above) as I was interested in his military service record. In the process of this discussion I learned that many of the Miller boys, 5 in all in fact, were enlisted men in WWII. They were Ziggy, Walter, Joseph, Peter, Alex and Felix.

Peter was a Technical Sergeant in the Airs Corps and was an aircraft Mechanic and Tail Gunner. He spent most of his time strapped to the seat in a canopy on the underbelly of a B17 Bomber, a Flying Fortress. He was part of the 12th and 15th Air Force, 301st Bomber Group, 352nd Bomber Squadron. He was assigned to Manuel Formosa's crew (and flew missions with other pilots) flying a total of 65 missions in all, receiving credit for 51.

On his second raid over Regensburg, 31 planes left and only 7 came back. He was awarded the Air Medal with 8 Oak Leaf Clusters. A stone with his name engraved in it makes up part of the verterans war memorial in front of the the Webster town hall. I was there today to check it out.

The Name Change and Other Assorted Tid-Bits

Before Peter and Stella were married in 1945, he made a point to tell her that his last name was really Kozik. He wanted to make sure that she knew that before they were married. He recalls that it was his Grandfather Wojciech Kozik and not his father Alexander, that changed the name after arriving in the states. Stella told me that he (Wojciech) held a good rank in the Polish Army, but was forced to leave Poland after becoming involved in a "duel". This duel resulted in the death of the other man (bad for him, good for us) and resulted in him being kicked out of the army. He worked for a period of time in the Pennsylvania coal mines before coming to Webster, Massachusetts.

Now I don't know how much of that recollection is fact, how much is exaggerated, or how much of it is just plain fantasy. I do know that I did find an immigration record for an Alexander Kozik whom passed through Ellis Island, New York on his way to stay with his father Wojciech who lived in Webster, Mass in the year 1900.

I'll write a follow-up, and include additional pictures of the Miller Boys. In closing, here is one of the few pictures that I have ever seen of my grandfather Stanley with is beautiful wife Mary of the day of Stella and Peter's wedding. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do..

Walter M Miller

2009-04-26T08:12:00.006-04:00

I decided to try and locate Walter Miller's service records and any other military related information. Stella told me that Walter was killed in Africa and that little piece of information proved to be very useful.

I searched the Military Records Collections on Ancestry.com and located Walter's Enlistment Record. Like so many other brave men of the time, he enlisted for service. He enlisted out of Fort Devens, Massachusetts on October 24, 1942 where he received Service # 31186469 and was assigned to the Army Corps group as a private.

Walter was part of the Allied push in Northern Africa. I plan to do additional research into his particular unit to understand exactly what they were responsible for and where they were doing their fighting. It's difficult to get records released from the goverment unless you're next of kin. Mania would be the only one able to make this request as Walter was never married and therefore had no children.

Walter is in fact buried in Africa at the North African American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia.

He died from his wounds on October 28, 1943 (only 1 year and 4 days after enlisting) in the hospital in Tunisia, and now rests at Plot E Row 7 Grave 2. Walter received the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster medal.

You can find this information by following this link and searching on "Miller Walter". Look for Walter M Miller, PVT 31186469 towards the bottom of the first page of returned results.
Here is the link http://www.abmc.gov/search/wwii.php

A wonderful video and downloadable PDF brochure of the cemetery, its history, and great information on the importance of the battles that were taking place in Northern Africa at the time can be found here. This is a great history read.... http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/na.php

I also sent the cemetery administration an e-mail request to take some digital photographs of Uncle Walter's gravesite to have as part of our collection.

Happy reading.

Found Alexander Kozik (MILLER) immigration record

2009-04-25T20:14:00.002-04:00

So I think I'm getting to the bottom of the name change...

If you follow the link above (the Ellis Island site is free you just need to register) and look at line 23, you see a record for an Alexander Kozik, age 24, on his way to Webster, Ma.

He arrived in 1900. What makes me think this is him? A few things;

1) In all census records for him (1910, 1920, and 1930), he indicated that he arrived in 1900.
2) He lived in either Dudley or Webster his entire life.
3) The immigration record indicates Austria as his homeland (Poland, or Galacia, was part of Austria in one of the many separations of Poland.)
4) His father's name is George. I know this because it's listed as such on his marriage certificate. (to Stacia Kozlowski)
5) In the immigration record, it indicates that he is going to stay with his father who lives in Webster Ma. His father's name is Wojciech. This is George in Polish.

What I didn't realize is that his father was already in country. This is something that I will need to verify. I should be able to locate his death record, immigration record, etc...

The search continues.....

Spoke to my Grand Aunt-in-law today

2009-04-25T19:06:00.003-04:00

While filling details on the Miller family this afternoon, I came across the obit for my Grand Uncle Peter Miller. The obit mention that he leaves his wife Stella, whom I just assumed passed away as well. I did a WhitePages search for her and sure enough, found her still at the address that was listed in the obit. I just got off the phone with her...

After catching up for a bit we started talking about the Miller family.

Peter, her husband, was a tail-gunner in WWII. He flew missions in and around Italy. his obit states that Peter was a decorated war verteran. I wonder what medals he aquired while in service. My Dad had an airman's flight jacket back when I was about 10 years old which was from an Uncle that was a gunner in a bomber. This was Peter! I mentioned that my Dad had this jacket and my aunt told me that it couldn't be his because she has it up in the attic! I'm positive that the jackert my dad had was from an Uncle that was a gunner in a bomber during WWII. I can't wait to see this jacket. Unfortunately the jacket that we had in our family was cut up by my cousin when he was staying with us. Too bad, I would have like to have had this jacket for history sake.

I asked about my grand-uncle Walter whom died in WWII. I always thought Walter was the owner of this jacket (as it turns out now, this was Peter's). She told me he died in Africa and that Peter had the chance to visit with him in the hospital before he passed. He found out about his brother from a fellow serviceman that mentioned to him that while in Africa he ran across a Walter Miller that had recently been wounded and placed in the hospital.

I then asked her the million dollar question: What was Alexander Miller's real last name?

Without hesitation, and with great conviction she said "Kozik". After asking her to spell the name, I now feel quite sure that this was the name that I've been searching for. My Great Aunt Mania also said "It was Kozak or Kozik or something like that" when I had the chance to ask her.

Stella was quite sure that this was the name and that it was explained to her that it was difficult to obtain a job in the early 1900's as a Polish alien, so changing the name made it much easier to get "in the door" and get a job.

I am going to visit Stella on Tuesday after work. She has many pictures and lots of family information to share. I expect to have pictures and documents scanned and imported into the database. I can't wait....

More on Tuesday - right now I'm going to look for Aleksander Kozik in the immigration records.

Focused on Blanchet Line Tonight

2009-04-18T22:47:00.002-04:00

Wow. What nice progress this evening. I focused on the Blanchet line, and ended up locating marriage records as far back as my 12th Great Grandfather.

All of this was found by starting with Hospice Blanchet and finding Marriage records on the following site:

http://bms2000.org

I have a subscription to this site, which allows me to view the details of the record. These details include the date of the marriage, the location, the bride and grooms mother and father.

Once you have the father and mother (which lists her maiden name), you can easily search for their marriage record. You continue in this manner until you run out of search hits.

While adding the information to the tree, Family Tree Maker is busy looking for matches. Several were found in OneWorld.

I plan to go back now and look for the actual Church Record in the Druid Collection to add as additional details and source information.

Searching French-Canadien ancestry is pretty easy once you know where to look....