Ghostbusters: If I'm not mistaken, it was the first film my brother and I saw at a drive-in movie theater. Of course, we became huge fans, not only of the movie, but also the clothing, the toys, the breakfast cereal - you name it! Here we are at Halloween that year; I was the ghost and he was the Ghostbuster. ©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
When I was first starting my family tree research, I ran into a bit of a roadblock when searching for information related to one of my paternal great-grandmothers. At first, all I knew was that she was a Polish immigrant who lived in Cleveland, and who died when my grandfather was a young child. All my dad and his siblings knew about her was that she went by 'Lottie.' I was able to piece together some clues through other family documents I found: I knew she had died by 1920 because my great-grandfather was listed as "widowed" in the 1920 census. My great-uncle's obituary listed her name as "Lottie Gacka," so all right, I thought, now I have her maiden name. I searched the engines on various genealogy sites for Lottie Kowalski (her married name) and Lottie Gacka, but I couldn't find any records that I could definitively link to my great-grandfather. In fact, as I was scrolling through the many records returned by the search engines, I soon realized that 'Lottie' was a common nickname adopted by Polish immigrant women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. So, at this point, I feel like my only choice is to scroll through and check ALL of the records returned by the search engines, even those with names that would not initially seem to be a match, in the hopes of discovering some clue that would lead me in the right direction. I was doing this on FamilySearch.org and came across a 1919 death record for a woman by the name of 'Władysława Kowalska.' The record also listed her father as 'Stanisław Gacki.' Hmmm, 'Kowalska' and 'Gacki' are close to 'Kowalski' and 'Gacka,' but, again, I had NO idea if this really was her first name, so I couldn't be sure it was her. I printed it out, though, and hoped that it may be an important clue. Now, when I initially found this record, FamilySearch had not yet uploaded the actual image of the death certificate, so I couldn't learn anything else from it. Fast forward 6-8 months. I went back on FamilySearch to examine the record again and found that they HAD uploaded the actual death certificate: And there he was at the bottom - Informant: Dominik Kowalski - my great-grandfather. Now, I KNEW without a doubt that it was her. And then I was a tad angry with myself for not realizing that Poles traditionally spell surnames differently depending on if you are a man or a woman. I have read enough Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in my life to know that this is true in Russia, but I suppose I had never been exposed to it as part of Polish culture. This explains the 'Kowalska' instead of 'Kowalski' and even the 'Gacka' instead of 'Gacki.' Even though she had been in America six years, she maintained her female surname, even if she did adopt a more "American" first name. And then of course AFTER I went through all of this with the death certificate, I found my great-grandfather's immigrant ship manifest on which he listed Władysława as "nearest relative in country from whence (he) came." If only I had found THIS document first - then I wouldn't have had to go through the whole mystery with the death record and trying to figure out her real name. Ah, but we all know that researching family history isn't always that simple. :-) Because she died quite young, these are the only two documents I have found that reference Władysława. I am still on the hunt for her immigrant ship manifest; she came over about a year after my great-grandfather with her three sons ages four, two, and eight months. (I can't even imagine doing that on my own - she was obviously a very brave, a very strong woman.) By the way, the name 'Władysława' is the female equivalent of Władysław, which comes from the Russian name of Vladislav. It means "to rule with glory." ***STOP THE BLOG PRESSES! UPDATE!*** Ok, so literally right after I typed that sentence above about being on the hunt for her immigrant ship manifest, I went to Ancestry.com. Because I knew she was traveling with her sons, I tried searching for the manifest using the name 'Jan Kowalski,' who was her eldest son. I had previously discovered his immigration application papers, so I knew the exact date they entered the country and the ship name. I had to scroll through quite a few pages - 'Jan Kowalski' is literally the Polish equivalent of 'John Smith,' so there were a lot of records - but I found the manifest! Here is Władysława with her three sons, Jan, Stanisław, and Josef, all listed with her surname of 'Kowalska.' And her father, Stanisław Gacki, is listed as next of kin, so that matches the information on her death certificate. Source Citation: Year: 1913; Arrival; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: 2194; Line: 25; Page Number: 43.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. ©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder Yesterday evening after the kids went to sleep, I was casually fooling around on FamilySearch.org, trying to find any records from Poland regarding my great-grandparents. I didn't intend to spend much time on it; I was just killing some time before my own bedtime. I didn't find any Polish records, but I did FINALLY find my great-grandfather and his family in the 1930 U.S. Census. I had made several earnest attempts over the past year and a half to find it, with no success. Their last name of 'Kowalski' was transcribed as 'Koralski,' and Ancestry.com had listed 'Korchske' as an alternate possibility, which, of course, was WAY off. I suppose this may have been the first time I used the FamilySearch search engine on this name, and it obviously did a better job of pulling up close matches than the Ancestry search engine did so many times before. It was nice to be able to add a 'missing piece' to one of my family binders before going to sleep. If you use both FamilySearch and Ancestry regularly, do you find that one search engine performs better than the other for particular situations/topics? I am curious of other peoples' opinions. :-) Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Roll: 1770; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 227; Image: 285.0; FHL microfilm: 2341504. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls. If you use both FamilySearch and Ancestry regularly, do you find that one search engine performs better than the other for particular situations/topics? I am curious of other peoples' opinions. :-)
©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder I posted this photo on Facebook a couple of years ago, but I saw it in my "old family pics" photo album on the computer and I just had to make it part of my blog. I was pretty close with my cousins growing up. We saw each a lot for birthdays, holidays, baptisms, first communions, weddings, random visits, etc. I didn't have many cousins; four on my Dad's side and only one on my Mom's side. My husband, whose parents had more siblings than mine, has many MORE cousins, but he was never as close to them as I seemed to be with mine. I now have more appreciation for my cousins, for the 25 yr old inside jokes we share at holidays, and for the good-natured jesting we direct at our elders at family get-togethers. :) I recently came into contact with a couple of Tony's 'cousins' through Ancestry.com. I say 'cousins' because they are not his plain-old first cousins as I was discussing above. I learned early on in my family tree research that figuring out the difference between first cousins, second cousins, removed cousins, etc. is tough! So, one 'cousin' with whom I exchanged emails is actually first cousins with Tony's DAD, so that means he is Tony's first cousin once removed, because one generation separates them. The other cousin is actually a first cousin of Tony's GRANDMOTHER, so she is Tony's first cousin twice removed because two generations separate them. Confused yet? Yeah, I thought so. What about second cousins? Second cousins share the same great-grandparents, but not the same grandparents. So, for example, my mom has a first cousin named Ginger. Ginger is my first cousin once removed. Ginger's children, Tom and Steven, are my second cousins. Adele and Louis Licciardi were their great-grandparents AND my great-grandparents. Similarly, third cousins have common great-great-grandparents, and so on. Because I am a very visual person, I found this chart helpful to understanding these relationships. (From Genealogy.com) So, pick one set of ancestors, start in the top left corner and label them "parents". Then, you can find the relationship between two of their descendants by seeing where the row and column meet for those two particular people. It takes a little practice to become comfortable with all of the terms and what they mean. But, in the end, it's kind of fun, especially if you are interested in genealogy.
©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder Most people don't generally view cemeteries as pleasant places; some even consider them creepy or unlucky places. For a genealogist, cemeteries and the gravestones within them are invaluable sources of information about people and communities of the past. The information inscribed on gravestones - names, dates of birth and death, relation words such as "wife, "mother," or "son" - can serve as an important starting point in discovering when and where our ancestors lived. Gravestones can also help validate information about ancestors that may have been located in other sources or passed down verbally through the generations. There is a free website called FindAGrave.com that is essentially a catalog of interments from cemeteries all over the world. It is completely run by volunteers who set up memorial pages for friends, relatives, or even complete strangers who have passed on. Once a memorial is posted, anyone can "request a photo" of any particular grave. Volunteers receive photo requests via email from cemeteries located near their homes, and then go out to the cemeteries, search for the grave(s), take photos of them, and post it on website. I found a photo of my great-grandfather's grave on the site, which was helpful to me, because he is buried in Arizona (where none of my family lives). It was taken by a complete stranger who assists in cataloguing cemeteries for the website, and she even managed to track down and post his death certificate as well. I became a volunteer grave photographer a couple of months ago. I like to take photos, and it gives me something different to do with the kids outdoors. Sometimes, I actually think they enjoy walking around the big old gravestones and large trees that are often in the older cemeteries we visit. One day, I tracked down an older grave for a woman living in Kentucky. She sent me a very kind 'thank you' email that was so, so appreciative, it just made my day. She told me the story of how, in the post-Civil War era, her great-great-grandfather enlisted the help of his brother-in-law in discovering the fates of his southern family members. She was trying to find where this brother-in-law ended up and my photograph of his gravestone confirmed the location of his final resting place and seemed to give her some sort of peace. I felt like I had really made a difference in this woman's life. Most of the photo requests I search for, I cannot find. This is especially true of people buried pre-1900. Weathering renders many stones unreadable and, oftentimes, broken stones are not replaced and graves simply become unmarked. Sometimes, it saddens me when I have to tell a person that I could not find the graves of their ancestors. Nobody wants to hear that a family member, even one from generations ago, has been forgotten or neglected, even in death. But still, most people thank me for going to the cemetery and looking, even if it was unsuccessful. Just the other day, I received three emails saying that three of MY grave photo requests had been fulfilled. A volunteer in western Ohio visited three separate cemeteries in Mercer County and photographed graves of Tony's ancestors. What I LOVE about these gravestones is that they are inscribed in German. Through my research, I already knew both of these men were German immigrants, but these stones give me a sense of the culture of the region at the time of death. Andreas Brunswick (first photo) immigrated to America in 1853. He lived for 45 years in western Ohio, yet his gravestone is written in German. So obviously, some communities in the region were still speaking German (or German/English hybrids), even as late 1898. The second photo is the grave of Tony's great-great grandfather, Theodor Tumbusch, who arrived in America in 1861. Unfortunately, he died quite young in 1870, so the only real what I call "life" documents relating back to Theodor are his immigrant ship roster and the 1870 U.S. Census. The gravestone has helped me confirm the spelling of his name and his dates of birth and death.
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