08.31.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Danko, Tropilo at 12:01 am by Administrator
Franciszek Tropiło, the son of Jan Tropiło and Katarzyna Dańko, married Stanisława Krannerwetter.
The Wedding Photo of Franciszek Tropiło and Stanisława Krannerwetter
Photo reproduced with permission
I don’t know when or where the wedding of Franciszek Tropiło and Stanisława Krannerwetter took place, but it was probably in the 1930s in Nizankowice, the home village of the bride. Nizankowice was in Poland at the time of the wedding, but is now in Ukraine.
Most of the people in this photo are relatives of the bride. Three people, Katarzyna Dańko Tropiło, Franciszek Tropiło, and Marysia Tropiło were mentioned in the Biography of Katarzyna Dańko I posted yesterday.
In the top row are Helena (sister of the bride), Helena’s husband, Helena’s son, Kolumban Krannerwetter (uncle of the bride and brother of Andrzej Krannerwetter), the wife of Alojzy Krannerwetter, Alojzy Krannerwetter (brother of the bride), and Marysia Tropiło (adopted daughter of Katarzyna Dańko Tropiło).
In the bottom row are Jadwiga Krannerwetter (stepmother of the bride), Katarzyna Dańko Tropiło, Stanisława Krannerwetter Tropiło (the bride), Franciszek Tropiło (the groom and son of Katarzyna Dańko Tropiło), the bride’s grandmother, and Andrzej Krannerwetter (father of the bride).
Thanks so much to Kasia Tropiło who provided this photo and gave me permission to use it in my blog.
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08.30.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Biographies, Danko, Tropilo at 12:01 am by Administrator
Kasia Tropiło sent me the following biography of her great great grandmother, Katarzyna Dańko. We think that Katarzyna Dańko may be my first cousin, three times removed.
Katarzyna Dańko was born on the 10th of March 1879 in Nienadowa, Galicia (now Poland) in house number 215. The midwife was Marianna Klimczyk. She was baptized on the following day, March 11th, by the Reverend Karakulski from the Dubiecko parish. She was part of a large family; she had eleven sisters and one brother. There isn’t any information about Katarzyna’s sisters.
A family story relates that Katarzyna’s brother was extremely strong, but also very calm. His calmness was frequently a subject of the ridicule of his friends. Once, when his friends’ jokes became hard to tolerate, he lifted one of his opponents over his head and threw him behind a fence, finishing all the rude jokes forever. Supposedly, he also fought a bear, the property of Gypsies passing by the village with their camp. He had two sons: Henryk and another one whose name is unknown, who most probably was a member of the crew of a plane shot down in Italy during World War II.
On the 9th of February 1898, shortly before her nineteenth birthday, Katarzyna married Jan Tropiło. They maintained quite a large farm in Packowice near Nizankowice (both now located in Ukraine). When they moved to Packowice is unknown. They didn’t have a child for six years, which may indicate they had problems conceiving and may explain why they had only one son, a fairly uncommon circumstance at the time. Their son Franciszek was born in 1904.
Many years later (10-15) someone abandoned a baby, a little girl, in front of their house. They adopted the baby and raised her as their own child. The girl was named Marysia.
It is known that Katarzyna was a quack veterinarian. According to family legends, she had some supernatural abilities and from that she was thought to be a witch. After her husband died, she lived at the edge of the village and the villagers passing her house with their carts were so scared, that they rushed their horses past her house “just in case”. Franciszek Tropiło told his son about a time when he and his mother were going to church. They were late, and in front of the church stood a large group of people, all with their backs to them. They were still quite far from the group when Katarzyna whispered to her son, “Look, now they will all turn around and look at us”. In the same moment, everyone turned around to look at Katarzyna and Franciszek.
After her husband died in 1931, Katarzyna ran the farm on her own. There exists a list of farm implements and livestock dated the 9th of February 1940. The area of the farm was 13 mórgs (1 mórg = 1.422 acres).
According to this list, the farm included:
- 2 cows
- 2 heifers
- 1 calf
- 1 horse (2 years old)
- 30 hens
- 3 geese
- 3 ducks
- 2 pigs (6 months old)
- 2 carts
- 1 iron harrow
- 3 horse collars
- 1 decimal scale
- 20 stacks of rye
- 20 stacks of wheat
- 15 stacks of oats
- 15 stack of barley
- 1 quintal of corn (1 quintal = 100 kg)
- 1 quintal of beans
- 80 quintals of potatoes
- 14 quintals of beets
- 1 plow
- 6 containers for cereal (each able to hold 4 quintals)
- 2 wooden beds
- 1 new iron bed
- 1 bambitel (we’re not sure what this is; it may be some kind of furniture)
- 2 wardrobes
- 1 cupboard for dishes
- others items such as forks, sacks, axes etc.
- religious paintings
The list indicates that Katarzyna’s farm was prosperous.
The Red Army and World War II reached Packowice on the 17th of September 1939. In February 1940, the first transports left Poland carrying exiles for Siberia. Katarzyna and Marysia didn’t avoid that destiny. The reason their family appeared on the list of deportees is not known. Because of the large number of people arrested, the Russian occupiers didn’t even attempt a pretense of legal action. In czarist times there existed a procedure of “exile in administrative mode”, mostly used against the land owners. Perhaps, at this time, owning a prosperous farm was a sufficient reason to be taken away.
Soviet soldiers entered the house in Packowice and found Katarzyna ill and lying in bed. It’s hard to say why, but the soldiers suspected that Katarzyna was lying down in order to hide a weapon under her quilt. They told her to stand up. She did so with difficulty, but it was enough for the soldiers to say that Katarzyna could be taken away. She and her adopted daughter collected some of their belongings and Katarzyna began her last, tragic journey.
The journey was lengthy, and Katarzyna and Marysia ended up in Omska Oblast. It is estimated that about 108 thousand people from eastern Poland were arrested and sent to the Gulag. Next, 320 thousand people were deported to the villages in the far north of Russia and Kazakhstan. That last number included the tragedy of Katarzyna and Marysia.
It is unknown how the Soviets decided who would just be deported and who would be sent to the Gulag. Deportations were used as punishments, but were also a part of a plan to settle the northern regions of Russia. Deported people suffered at least as much as those who were sent to the Gulag. Those sent to the Gulag had a place to sleep and a daily portion of bread, but the people deported to north Russia didn’t even have that. They were left on their own.
In the adverse conditions of Siberia, an inhospitable climate and a strange landscape, Katarzyna, exhausted, lost her mind. She had run into the taiga from which she never returned alive. In those times, people were buried under only a thin layer of earth. In order to bury her mother in a casket , Marysia had to sell one of the greatest treasures someone could have there – an eiderdown quilt.
Marysia survived the deportation. She, like many Polish people, became a soldier in the Tadeusz Kosciuszko First Division and she managed to return to Poland. After the War she was married. For reasons unknown, her husband took her last name. In that way, more Tropiłos appeared in the phone book even though they weren’t related to the other Tropiłos by blood.
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08.29.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Blogs at 12:01 am by Administrator
I first found out about Ancestry’s Internet Biographical Collection on Monday from Dick Eastman’s blog. I didn’t pay much attention, but I noticed that several people were rather angry about the collection.
Then, on Tuesday, Janice of Cow Hampshire left on comment on my blog alerting me to the fact that Ancestry had cached my blog in the Internet Biographical Collection and was requiring a paid subscription to view the cached pages. Thanks, Janice. You got my attention.
Viewing the Cached Pages
By the time I looked at the collection, Ancestry had already made changes, making the Collection a free database and including a link to the original website on the record page. I did not see the original presentation of the database that originally created so much furor.
The current format of Ancestry’s cached database is not much different than the search results obtained from Google, Yahoo!, or the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. My blog is cached in all those places. One notable difference, though, is that the cached pages on Google and Yahoo both include a disclaimer at the top of the cached page indicating that the content does not belong to them. Ancestry and the Wayback Machine currently do not include such disclaimers.
How Can I Enforce My Copyright?
My blog is protected by copyright. A while back, an attorney who specializes in copyrights, patents, and trademarks recommended that I add a copyright statement on my blog. While a copyright notice is not required in order to protect my creative work, the notice is intended to remind others that the work is, indeed, copyrighted.
However, to file suit to enforce the copyright, I must register my creative works with the United States Copyright Office. Online works must be submitted in full, regardless of length, either on CD or in printed form and a $45 fee must accompany the registration. If the work is not registered, I cannot sue to enforce the copyright.
If I register the work, I can sue for actual damages. Given that I don’t make any money on this blog, I’d have a hard time proving actual damages. But, if I had registered the creative work before the act of infringement, I could sue for statutory damages up to $150,000 without the need to demonstrate actual damages.
Unfortunately, a district court in Nevada determined that Google’s cache complied with Fair Use in the United States. If authors don’t want their website or blog cached, the author must take the initiative to prevent their online works from being cached. Other genealogy blogs have mentioned ways to do this. Note that this same precedent may not apply in other countries, however.
With all this information, it seems that it’s up to me to ensure that my blog is not cached. A lawsuit would probably not be productive.
Be aware that I am not a lawyer and I am not qualified to give others legal advice. The discussion above is based on my own limited understanding of copyright law.
To Cache or Not To Cache?
One problem with online information is that content that’s here today may be gone tomorrow. If my blog is removed from the Internet, the cache may be the only way to recover the information previously there. Broken links abound on the Internet. So do cached representations of what was once located on missing web pages.
If I decide to stop paying for web hosting, my blog will disappear. If someone who uses free hosting through Blogspot, WordPress, LiveJournal, etc. doesn’t post anything for a while, the host may delete the blog. The content would be lost unless cached.
If, however, I want to erase all traces of my blog from the Internet, cached remnants may remain. I guess this means that we should be careful when posting information on the Internet. Once posted, it may be cached forever. Or maybe not. It all depends on how long the cache is preserved.
So What Will I Do?
Since Ancestry is now allowing free access to the cached pages of my blog and is now providing a more easily located link back to my blog, I don’t have any significant issues with my blog being cached by Ancestry. At this point, the cache appears to be little different than the caches maintained by Google, Yahoo! and the Wayback Machine. If I don’t like the idea of my blog being cached, I can take steps to prevent cached posts from all sources, not just Ancestry.
The debut of Ancestry’s Internet Biographical Collection has generated a lot of justifiable anger. I’m grateful to those whose posts and comments encouraged Ancestry to change their policies on this database. I’m also encouraged by the fact that Ancestry actually listened.
With luck, someone may actually find my blog through the cache on Ancestry, and I’m all for that. And, if Ancestry continues to maintain the cache of my blog after the blog itself ceases to exist, well I’m all for that, too.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.28.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Baptismal Records, Niedzialkowski at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 21 Mar 1734, Katarzyna Niedziałkowska, sister of my 5th great grandfather Ignace Niedziałkowski, was baptized.
The Baptismal Record of Katarzyna Niedziałkowska - 1734
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum ab Anno 1716 ad 1740 et Copulatorum ab Anno 1723 ad 1747, Księga II, p. 51, Katarzyna Niedziałkowski baptism (1734); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 11.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Katarzyna Niedziałkowska - 1734. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Klonowo
On the 21st day of March I, Antoni Smosarski, baptized a girl Katarzyna born of the noble Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancja, legitimately married.. The Godparents were Walenty Łoszewski and Przeciszewska. [one word] x x
As with other records from Klonowo, this record refers to a previous record to discover the year of the event.
The relevant record begins:
In the year of the Lord 1734
At the end of the record is a word (or possibly two words) that I can’t figure out. The word(s) are followed by two letters “X”, suggesting that someone signed this record. This is odd, since I haven’t seen any other records from this parish where anyone signed the record.
Also rather odd is the fact that, apparently, only the surname of the Godmother is provided.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.27.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Baptismal Records, Niedzialkowski at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 31 December 1713, Barbara Niedziałkowska, sister of my 5th great grandfather Ignace Niedziałkowski, was baptized.
The Baptismal Record of Barbara Niedziałkowska - 1713
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum ab Anno 1694 ad 1715, Księga I, p. 71, Barbara Niedziałkowski baptism (1713); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 8.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Barbara Niedziałkowska - 1713. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Klonowo
In the same year [1713] on the 31st day, the same baptized a girl Barbara born of the married Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancja Żaboklicka. The Godparents were Jakub Smolenski and Konstancja Żaboklicka.
As with other records from Klonowo, this record refers to a previous record to discover the month and year of the event and the name of the priest who presided over the event.
The relevant record begins:
In the year of the Lord 1713 [on the 17th day] of December,
Rev. St[anisław] Uzdowski
While the relevant record is not entirely clear, it is sufficient to be able to identify the month and year as xbris (December) 1713. The name of the priest is still difficult to discern, but other records on the same page clearly show that the name of the priest was Stanisław Uzdowski. Now I should go back to some of the records I previously translated to see if Rev. Uzdowski presided over other Niedziałkowski baptisms.
Note that the Godmother is Konstancja Żaboklicka - the same as the maiden name of the mother. I’ll have to look in other records to see if I can identify this second Konstancja.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.26.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Baptismal Records, Niedzialkowski at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 14 Aug 1725, Marianna Niedziałkowski, sister of my 5th great grandfather Ignace Niedziałkowski, was baptized.
The Baptismal Record of Marianna Niedziałkowski - 1725
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship,
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum ab Anno 1716 ad 1740 et Copulatorum ab Anno 1723 ad 1747, Księga II, p. 25, Marianna Niedziałkowski baptism (1725); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 11.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Marianna Niedziałkowska - 1725. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Klonowo
In the same year [1725] on the 14th day of August, the same baptized Marianna, born of Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancja Żaboklicka. The Godparents were Zofia Klonowska and Kazimierz Długołecki.
As with other records from Klonowo, this record is dark and difficult to read. Again, the record refers to a previous record to discover the year of the event and the name of the priest who presided over the event.
Discovering the correct year is not a problem, since the indexes clearly state the year, but the name of the priest is still a problem. In this case, I believe that the name of the priest was Pawel Różniewski, but I need to look at other information on other pages of the record book to be certain.
The surname Długołecki appears again and again in the names of the Godparents of the children of Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancja Żaboklicka. Possibly, the Długołeckis were related to the Niedziałkowskis, were good friends, or were neighbors.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.25.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Baptismal Records, Niedzialkowski at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 27 Feb 1722, Kazimierz Niedziałkowski, brother of my 5th great grandfather Ignace Niedziałkowski, was born. He was baptized on 01 Mar 1722.
The Baptismal Record of Kazimierz Niedziałkowski - 1722
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship,
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum ab Anno 1716 ad 1740 et Copulatorum ab Anno 1723 ad 1747, Księga II, p. 30, Kazimierz Niedziałkowski baptism (1722); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 11.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Kazimierz Niedziałkowski - 1722. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Klonowo
In the same year [1722] on the 1st day of March, K Smolarski O[rdo] P[raedicatorum] [Dominicans] baptized an infant by the name of Kazimierz, born on the 27th of February of Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancja Anna Żaboklicka. The Godparents were Józef Długołęcki and Anna Długołecka.
Unexpectedly, this record includes both the date of birth and the date of baptism. Most records from this time period include only the date of baptism.
The name of the mother is given as Constantianna in the Latin record. I have translated this as Konstancja Anna. Curiously, the name of the mother seems to be spelled in different ways from record to record.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.24.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Baptismal Records, Niedzialkowski at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 15 Aug 1727, Klara Niedziałkowska, sister of my 5th great grandfather Ignace Niedziałkowski, was baptized.
The Baptismal Record of Klara Niedziałkowska - 1727
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum ab Anno 1716 ad 1740 et Copulatorum ab Anno 1723 ad 1747, Księga II, p. 30, Klara Niedziałkowska baptism (1727); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 11.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Klara Niedziałkowska - 1727. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
In the Year of the Lord 1727 [on the 5th of August], I [two words?]rzewski
Klonowo
In the same year [1727] on the 15th day of August, the same baptized Klara born of Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancja. The Godparents were Agnieszka Długołęcka and Tomasz Łoszewski.
As with many church records from this time period in Poland, the priest did not sign every record. He just referred to the year and his name in a previous record. In this case, the previous record was so dark in places that I could not read the priest’s name. Fortunately, the year is legible even if the priest’s name is not. Click on the PDF copy of this record to see the beginning of the previous record with the year and the name of the priest.
I’ll have to look at other records for the year 1727 to see if I can figure out the name of the priest. All I know for certain at this point is that his surname ends in -rzewski.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.23.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Niedzialkowski, Death Records at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 28 Apr 1805, my 5th great grandfather, Ignace Niedziałkowski, died. I copied this record from the microfilm at my local Family History Center on my way home from work on Wednesday night.
The Death Record of Ignace Niedziałkowski - 1805
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Kreise Przasnysz, Departement Plozk, New East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia). Liber Mortuorum ab Anno 1781 ad 1820, Księga III, p. 57, Ignace Niedziałkowski death (1805); FHL microfilm 1,496,613, item 5.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Death Record of Ignace Niedziałkowski - 1718. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Location of Dwelling
Klonowo
Death Register of the Parish Church of Pałuki for the Year 1805, [page] 57.
On the 28th day of April in 1805, the noble Ignace Niedziałkowski died [two words?] 97 years old , married from Kamienice administered the sacrament, buried in the cemetery -
Kind of Death
Death from old age
This record shows that Ignace was 97 years old at death but, since he was born in 1718, he was actually 87 years old when he died.
The record also has a reference to married from Kamienice administered the sacrament. This may mean he was married outside his own parish. This requires some additional investigation.
Note also the reference that Ignace was from the nobility. This reference to the nobility of the Niedziałkowski family is also found in the records of Ignace’s children.
In this blog, I’ve tried to indicate the name of the place at the time the record was created. From 1795 to 1807, Klonowo and Pałuki were part of the Kingdom of Prussia, and so I’ve used the proper place names for that time period in the source description for this record: Pałuki, Kreise Przasnysz, Departement Plozk, New East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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08.22.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Baptismal Records, Niedzialkowski at 12:01 am by Administrator
On 09 Feb 1718, my 5th great grandfather, Ignace Niedziałkowski, was baptized.
The Baptismal Record of Ignace Niedziałkowski - 1718
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum ab Anno 1716 ad 1740 et Copulatorum ab Anno 1723 ad 1747, Księga II, p. 6, Ignace Niedziałkowski baptism (1718); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 11.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Ignace Niedziałkowski - 1718. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Klonowo
In the year of Our Lord 1718, on the 13th of February, I, Franciszek Wzdowski O[rdo] P[raedicatorum] [Dominicans] baptized Ignace, born of Krzysztof Niedziałkowski and Konstancia Żaboklicka. The Godparents were Jan Pajewski and Petronela Gadomska.
This record reveals not only the date of baptism of my 5th great grandfather, but also names his parents, my 6th great grandparents.
These records are difficult to read, partly because the microfilm is dark, but also because the priests used a number of Latin abbreviations. Some of these abbreviations (such as Lev for Levantes = Godparents) are readily apparent to me, while others are enigmatic.
Update: Thanks to both Barry and Miriam who provided comments below with the information that the abbreviation Dni stands for Domini, and so Anno Dni means Anno Domini = Year of Our Lord.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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