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Tombstone Tuesday: James Whitcomb Riley

7/28/2014

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PictureGrave site of James Whitcomb Riley, Crown Hill Cemetery
A couple of weeks ago, my son was spending his mornings at an art workshop at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  Across the street from the museum lies Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery, so my daughter and I decided to explore it one day, after dropping him off.  

First of all, the cemetery, is HUGE: 555 acres, which makes it the third largest non-governmental cemetery in the United States.  I downloaded their map onto my phone, because I wanted to see some of the more 'famous' graves before we had to go back to pick up my son. 

There is an actual Crown Hill at the cemetery, which is the highest point in the city of Indianapolis.  I drove our car to the top of the hill, and that's where we began our adventure.  At the top of that hill is buried James Whitcomb Riley, a nationally-recognized Indiana-born author and poet, known especially for his children's literature.  Riley's name is an everyday word to those of us living in the Indy area; the Children's Hospital is named after him, as is the Riley Children's Foundation, which funds not only the hospital, but camps and other programs dedicated to the health and well-being of children.

Even having known about Riley's legacy in the city of Indianapolis, I still was still emotionally touched when we walked up to his grave site.  Underneath beautiful classical columns lay his stone and this plaque.

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Plaque near gravestone of James Whitcomb Riley
I gave my daughter some coins to place on his grave.
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She sat next to a life-size statue of a child reading before we continued our adventure walking around the cemetery.
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James Whitcomb Riley is not part of my family tree, but I enjoyed this visit to his grave just as much as I do when I visit family members' graves.  Sometimes we genealogists are so focused on finding just OUR ancestors that we don't realize there are so many amazing stories and amazing people to learn about outside of our families who have had great impacts on our lives and our communities.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Sibling Saturday: The Bellan Siblings, 1956

7/25/2014

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A photo of my mom with her only sibling, my Uncle Bill, from December 1956.  At the bottom, there is a scan of what my grandmother wrote on the back of the photo; she was pretty good at labeling photos, and I sure am grateful for that today.
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Bill and Jennifer Bellan, December 1956
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©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Happy Birthday, Cleveland!

7/22/2014

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PictureCleveland from the air, 1937 (Source: NARA)
On this day in 1796, a Connecticut Land Company surveying team arrived near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the southern banks of Lake Erie and founded Cleveland, Ohio.  The city was named for General Moses Cleaveland, who was the leader of the group.

If you follow my blog, or know me personally, then you know that I was born and grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland.  My working-class (i.e. poor) great-grandparents emigrated from various parts of Europe between 1890 and 1920 and settled in Cleveland.  ALL of my family's American history remains there, along with most of my close living relatives.  I'm not there, and for someone who values family history so much, it's often hard to be away from the place I came from.

Most people think fondly of the place in which they were raised, but Clevelanders have a unique pride that is truly difficult to explain to an outsider.  Why do I personally take so much pride in a city? True, some of it has to do with ordinary nostalgia, but I've come to realize that most of my pride is far deeper than that.  And it has been through my family history research that I have come to this realization: my family, along with hundreds of others like mine, literally built this city.  My great-grandfathers sacrificed hours upon years of their lives in foundries and steel mills, creating the materials and tools that were building not just Cleveland, but cities and infrastructure all over America.  And maybe I've always known that my ancestors "worked in the mills," but actually seeing "Steel Mills" under the 'Industry' section of my great-grandfather's 1920 census form and "Ferro Machine Foundry" listed as employer on my other great-grandfather's WWI draft card - it makes my pride for my family AND my city grow exponentially.

Cleveland saw an immense population growth during the 30-year span when my immigrant ancestors arrived; the population grew from about 260,000 to 796,000 between 1890 and 1920, when the city was the 5th largest in the U.S.  Even though they didn't have a lot of money, my grandparents came of age in a thriving city full of growth and opportunity.  By contrast, I grew up in a Cleveland that was constantly being joked about, a Cleveland that was losing jobs, losing people, losing hope.  We took the jokes in stride, and when people teased us about our river catching on fire, we laughed it off, but inside we knew that that pollution, as horrible as it was, was our ancestors' livelihoods, and represented food on the tables and clothes on the backs of our working-class families.  No, our sports teams never win anything, but, perhaps against better judgment, we never give up on them, and that is a quality that is in our blood.  My ancestors never gave up, no matter what life threw at them. And if there is one thing in life I want my kids to learn, it is to never give up.

I've thought of what my great-grandparents and grandparents would think of the Cleveland of today. They would be proud, and they would recognize some of the economic and social growth and excitement that is going on there today.  My great-grandparents came to Cleveland to reinvent themselves, to improve their lives, to build a city that is better for their children. That's exactly what Cleveland is doing today.

Here links to some websites that are great resources for Cleveland history:  

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History by Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Historical Society

The Cleveland Memory Project by Cleveland State University Libraries

Cleveland Historical by the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University

Cleveland, Ohio History by the Ohio History Connection

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder


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Surname Saturday: Golonka, Southern Poland

7/18/2014

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I have recently been working on uploading to my family history website all of the baptism, marriage, and death records that I collected on my recent trip to Salt Lake City (SLC) a few months ago.  One of the families that I spent a lot of time researching was that of Michael Bodziony, who was my paternal grandmother's father.  According to his 1883 baptism record from the town of Świniarsko, Poland, his mother was named Sophia Golonka, son of Joseph Golonka and Anna Bawotek. (Aren't these Polish baptism records wonderful - names of the parents AND grandparents!)

Through FamilySearch.org's online search engine, I was able to find an indexed record from the nearby town of Brzezna, Poland that was likely Sophia's baptism record.  I confirmed that it WAS her baptism record when I was able actually look through the microfilm and found Sophia's marriage record to Michael's dad, Joseph Bodziony (also in Brzezna), in which her parents are also listed. 
Fortunately, the Golonka family had been in Brzezna for a few generations, so I was able to use the same microfilm to trace back that line to Sophia Golonka's grandparents, Thomas Golonka and Petronella Iwanszczonka (or Iwanska), who would be my 4x great-grandparents!  Not bad considering that I started out my genealogy journey not even knowing who Michael's parents were!

Here is the present day distribution of the surname Golonka in Poland today, according to Moikrewni.pl:
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According to that site, there are about 4,400 people in Poland today with the surname Golonka, so it's not terribly common. You can see that there is a heavy concentration of the name in southern Poland, in an area that was called Galicia when my great-grandfather was born.  In fact, Nowy Sącz County, where both Świniarsko and Brzezna are both located, has the second-highest concentration of the name, behind the county of Limanowa, which is just to the west.

'Golonka' literally means 'knuckle' in Polish.  The word is used to refer to the Polish dish of ham hocks, which technically aren't pig knuckles, but instead are the animal's ankles.  In any case, my love of pork products can now be attributed to genetics - it's literally in my bloodlines.  :-)

A native Polish speaker also suggested to me that the name might carry the meaning of shaving or of being shaven.  The Polish verb for 'shave' is golić, so the surname might have the same root.
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Golonka
Family members, the link to the new and updated Golonka ancestor page is here.  The link to Michael Bodziony's paternal Bodziony ancestors is here.  I am still working on acquiring some additional records, so check back and let me know if you have any questions!

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder


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Wordless Wednesday: Kowalski Honeymoon, July 1939

7/15/2014

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My paternal grandparents, Casimer and Veronica (Bodziony) Kowalski, July 1939
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Cas Kowalski
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Veronica Bodziony Kowalski
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Tombstone Tuesday: Graves of Memphis

7/7/2014

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My family and I are on vacation this week.  We made a two-day stop in Memphis, Tennessee on our way to our final destination, and, not surprisingly, I have photos of gravestones to share.  And, although these graves have nothing to do with my or my husband's family histories, I still found them fascinating.

Our first destination was Graceland, former home of the late Elvis Presley.  Towards the end of the tour, we were able to view his family's burial plot on the grounds of the estate.  Neither me nor my husband are fanatical Elvis fans, but we do enjoy his music from time to time and we appreciate his strong influence on music history. The burial plot was beautiful, with a lovely, clear fountain, and a semi-circular pergola and brick wall with some really nice stained glass windows embedded in it.  

He is buried with his parents, Vernon Elvis Presley and Gladys Love Smith Presley, and his paternal grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley.  There is also a small memorial plaque dedicated to Elvis' twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, who was stillborn.  The tributes written on the plaques of each stone are just very endearing and you can tell they were written with love.  
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The small print on Elvis' stone reads, "He was a precious gift from God we cherished and loved dearly.  He had a God-given talent that he shared with the world, and without a doubt, he became most widely acclaimed, capturing the hearts of young and old alike.  He was admired not only as an entertainer, but as the great humanitarian that he was; for his generosity, and his kind feelings for his fellow man.  He revolutionized the field of music and received its highest awards.  He became a living legend in his own time, earning the respect and love of millions. God saw that he needed some rest and called him home to be with Him. We miss you, Son and Daddy.  I thank God that He gave us you as our son.  By: Vernon Presley"

Later that evening, we took a drive to Memphis National Cemetery.  The weather was nice, and we wanted to spend some time outside so that the kids could walk and run around a little. (Yes, normal parents would probably look for a playground or park, but we're not normal :-))
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Memphis National Cemetery
It was a good decision, because the kids enjoyed it and it was the first time they had ever been to a national cemetery.  We had to explain to them that these were the graves of people who served in the military and their family members.  My son tried to read some of the stones, but he needed help with some of the military abbreviations and state names.  My daughter found the graves with the prettiest flowers and wanted me to take photos of her next to them.  
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We looked around at some of the graves, just kind of noting where these people were from and when they served in the Armed Forces. There isn't a whole lot of information on these small stones, but my husband found one that was particularly interesting and told a bigger story indicative of the time and place in which this man served.  Dale Moore was a sergeant in the U.S. Army and served in Korea and Vietnam.  He passed away at a relatively young age, possibly while on duty.  Buried with him is his wife, Yung Min Moore, a woman he evidently met while he was serving in the Far East.  She lived a good deal longer than her husband, but it doesn't appear that she remarried.  And the baby, born in 1962 - just tugs at your heartstrings.  
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We were initially surprised to find large monuments for the states of Minnesota and Illinois, but not after we looked around and saw how many Civil War soldiers from those states were interred here. Once we got there, we also did a little reading about the cemetery (aren't smartphones wonderful?) and learned that this cemetery has the second-most number of 'unknown' interments of any national cemetery, with over 8,800 interments being unknown.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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