Part Of The Plan

My original goal for this web blog was to put the information I discovered into one location where it would be easily accessible. I was doing it for myself, if I’m honest, but I know that there are other family members that are interested, and other genealogists who share branches of my family tree.

The best source of genealogy information is familysearch.org, the website run by the Church of Latter Day Saints. Not only do they appear to have the largest database, they offer it to genealogists at no charge. Almost everyone else charges for a subscription, and many of those subscriptions lead you to the database of familysearch.org.

The LDS website uses an alphanumeric identifier for every person listed in their database. My father, Jerome Paskiewicz, for example, is LD58-8KN in the familysearch.org archives. I will be updating my blog info to include these identifiers. This should make it easier for other genealogists to connect my discoveries with theirs. That is where I will start.

Over the past 10 years, I received a few comments that have gone unanswered, because I haven’t been getting notifications. It never occurred to me that people were trying to contact me. If you have tried to contact me and didn’t get a response, try again. I will answer you. At this point, I really don’t want to respond to five year old comments.

Till next time.

Dismantle. Repair.

I recently announced that I am back. I sat down to type about three hours ago, then I realized that after a 10 year absence, I should review my genealogical rabbit trail, and re-examine the bread crumbs I have left on the path. I have spent the past three hours rereading my blog.

Most of my posts were stream of consciousness ramblings, if you will, sharing my discoveries as they happened. What I discovered, is that I was overwhelmed by the amount of data, including wrong information. I was frustrated by the process, the discovery of information I wasn’t looking for, and the rabbit trails that took me from my task.

The bulk of my discovery involved the children of Joseph Paszkiewicz, and my focus moving forward is to organize the information I have, and find answers to the unanswered questions. This post seems to be more of the same rambling, and I may not be able to get rid of that, but I do have a plan.

So Much Has Changed

As I mentioned in my last post, it has been 10 years since I’ve dug into any genealogical records. I had discovered the ship records of my family’s immigration to the United States, and had found the birth records of my great-grandfather, John Paszkiewicz, and his siblings, but I was unable to locate the birth record of my great-great-grandfather, Joseph. My belief was that Joseph’s birth record would provide the information I would need to add another generation to the family tree.

But, much has changed. Most notably, the creation and development of AncestryDNA. (as well as 23andMe, GEDmatch, etc.) Secondly, the digitizing of records and posting them to the internet, (ancestry, familysearch, etc) allows for the discovery of information from the comfort of home. No more ordering microfilm from the LDS and having to drive 40 miles to view it upon arrival. I honestly thought that I would be visiting Poland to find my deepest familial roots.

Having the records available to me without leaving home is life-changing. At the very least, time saving. My first attempt to locate microfilm resulted in me getting the wrong film. Money spent, weeks of waiting, hours of poring over records, only to discover nothing. This is still a time consuming task, but the elimination of ordering film, waiting for its arrival, the drive to view it, makes the term ‘life-changing’ only a mild exaggeration.

AncestryDNA has connected grass roots genealogists in ways we wouldn’t have thought possible. I have discovered a few first cousins with the help of AncestryDNA. Actually, they discovered me, and the rest of the Paszkiewicz/Paskiewicz family. Back in 2019, I got an email from a woman named Sara, who shares DNA with me, and she believes our common ancestor was Marianna Paszkiewicz, possibly (probably) the sister of my great-great-grandfather, Joseph. We shared what we knew from our individual searches, and while the evidence was convincing, there was no documentation to confirm it. While I have been stagnant in my research, Sara has not. She has been working with a genealogist who has made the connection through primary documents, and I will share that next time.

Has it really been ten years?

I’ll answer my own question. Yes. Absolutely, it has been ten years since my last post. I have occasionally returned to the archives, searching for more information on my past, but for the most part, I had reached dead ends in my research. I will use this brief post to say that I am back. Hopefully with some consistency. Time will tell, however ancestry DNA has brought me into contact with new relatives, and they have been sharing what they know. I want to pass that along.
My blog, to this point, was published in real time. As I made a discovery, I shared that with you. I plan to continue that. There are corrections that need to be made, as it seems that dates and ages were very often guessed at. The amount of information is overwhelming to me, and because its discovery doesn’t flow in a straight line, I am often left looking through chaotic piles of random information. But, I am rambling. I see that there are people who have messaged me. I will address that as well. Hopefully you found the answers to your questions. If not, I will be responding soon.
Anyway, all that to say, again, ‘I’m back.’

Normalcy.

One thing that has troubled me is the spacing between the children of Joseph and Julianna. John was born almost three years after the wedding. After that, the gaps were five years, four, two, three, two, one and two.

In the 1800’s a traditional Catholic family would be having a child about every two years. Gaps in the record often indicate missing children. Perhaps a death as an infant. In the case of Julianna, we knew that these were her only children. The 1900 census asked how many children did you have, and how many are still alive. Julianna answered, nine, to the first question, and, six, to the second.

Now, after viewing the original documents, I found that Joseph and Julianna were as consistent as a good Catholic family can get. It turns out that after the birth of John in 1868, we had a birth in 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, and 1880. I am going to recheck 1878. I may have missed one. Also, I am going to check before the birth of John. There may be a child to be found.

Unfortunately, I have to decide how to redo my entire blog site, as the pages on Joseph and the timeline are full of erroneous information.

Primary Documents. More Questions.

The thinking in genealogy research is that only the information on primary documents can be trusted. A birth certificate, a death certificate. A marriage license. The information contained in these documents should be reliable. Should be. As I learned with my father’s birth certificate, even the primary documents can contain errors. But at least the dates should be right.

After two hours in the LDS Family History Center, I have found the birth and baptism records for six of John and Julianna’s nine children. This is mostly good news. I have facts now that come from primary sources. Good news. The data contradicts every other “fact” I have uncovered so far.

For example, according to the census of 1900, John was born in January of 1867. The fact is, he was born on, January 27, 1868.

According to the ship records on castlegarden.org, Helena was 12 years old when she arrived in 1888. Her birth record shows that she was born on May 10, 1870. The ship record is a primary document as far as establishing when the Paszkiewicz family came to America.We know for a fact when the ship sailed. The ages of the passengers are not verified. Helena was not 12 when she arrived, She was 17.

It turns out that all five birth records I have found for the daughters are off by about five years, compared to the census and ship records I had previously.

Beyond that, the new information shows that I may have made some flawed assumptions. The 1900 census asks females how many children they have had, and how many are still living. Joseph arrived in the US in 1886 with his son, John. Julianna arrived in 1888 with eight Paszkiewicz females. All under the age of seventeen. It is not a stretch to assume that these were the eight daughters of Julianna. Yet, the birth records may prove otherwise.

The ship records indicate that Josepha was 16 when she arrived in the US. That would make her birth date approximately 1872. The official birth records show Ladislawa being born on June 4, 1872. I have yet to find a birth record of Josepha. It could be that Josepha is older than John. Or, it could be that she is related in some other way, and not a daughter at all.

The official church birth records show Ladislawa being born on June 4, 1872, as I mentioned above. According to the ship records, Wladislawa was a nine month old baby when she arrived in 1888. No mother could be off on the age of their daughter by 16 years. Especially when she is only 17 years old. This baby Wladislawa is either a relative or a second daughter of Julianna with the asme name.

 

Different Film, Different Results?

My first microfilm experience left me high and dry. I did not find any reference to Paszkiewicz anywhere. I am not sure how I got this particular film. It apparently was from the wrong area of Poland.

The film that just arrived should be the one with the marriage record of Joseph and Julianna. My hope is that these people stayed close to home. Once I find the marriage record, I will begin my search for siblings of Joseph, then the birth/baptism record of Joseph, which should include the names of his parents.

Again, this plan hinges on the hope that the Paszkiewicz family stayed in the same area from 1840 to 1865. We’ll see.

My Film Debut

I just got an email that my microfilm has arrived in Charlotte. It will be available to me for 90 days. My day off next week is Wednesday, so I will be heading down there then.

I got a glimpse of what the records look like, when Lukasz sent me a snapshot of Joseph and Julianna’s marriage record. I should be able to recognize the name, Paszkiewicz. On the marriage record, the names were in Latin. Joseph was listed as Josephus. I don’t know if the records will be in German or Polish.

I don’t know how large an area is contained on the microfilm. These are the records of various Catholic churches in Poland. There could be three churches or three hundred. I hope to add a new generation to the tree.

Hoping to Move Backward. In Time.

The film I have requested contains church records from the area where Joseph Paszkiewicz was married. My hope is that one of the records will contain information about the parents of Joseph, or his siblings. Certainly, being Catholic in the mid 1800’s Joseph was not an only child.

As much as I want to add another generation to my family tree, I am equally excited about the prospect of finding the brothers of Joseph, if there are any.

Being able to connect genealogical dots with other Paszkiewicz families and determining who I am related to will be an added bonus.

Family History Center

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the largest database of genealogical records in the world. In addition to the familysearch.org website, they have a number of Family History Centers around the world. After finding one in Charlotte, I decided to pay a visit. I had microfilm numbers from Lukasz and the Posen Project. This was in the middle of March, 2011.Unfortunately, the film I needed was not at the Charlotte Center. This came as no surprise, since there are very few people of Polish descent in the Carolinas. There would be no reason for those films to be here. If I remember correctly, the cost to have the microfilm sent to Charlotte was $25 each. It is now January, 2012. I have decided to have the film sent here. I went online yesterday, to familysearch.org, and ordered the film online. The cost was only $5.50 each. Now I wait.