Spoke to my Grand Aunt-in-law today

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.