This week's census form is the first U.S. census on which my Polish great-grandparents, Michael and Sophie Bodziony, appear. As the census form states, both Michael and Sophie were ethnic Poles from Galicia, a region in Eastern Europe that was part of Austria-Hungary at the time of their births in the 1880s. (Today, half of this region is located in Poland, and the other half is in the Ukraine.) Although the form states that Michael arrived in 1909 and Sophie in 1910, immigration papers and ship manifests prove that they both arrived in 1910. Michael and Sophie are listed with their three children, Stella, Joseph, and Veronica. Sophie actually gave birth to two other baby boys between 1911 and 1920, one who was stillborn and one who died just hours after birth. The family rented living space in a Cleveland neighborhood that was predominantly Polish; The census form indicates that Michael could speak English, but Sophie still could not. Michael worked as a chipper in a foundry. (I talk more about his job in this post.)
Bodziony Family, 1920
©2013, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
