So how do you spell Miller?

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:

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

What I had already discovered relative to Alexander:

1. In all census records available, he indicated the year of immigration as 1900.
2. From his marriage, death, and various census records I know his age at those times and the approximate year in which he was born.
3. 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!

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....

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.

My visit with great aunt Stella Miller

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

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.