Map of the Piasutno Area – 1882

SOURCE:  Blackie & Son Atlas (Edinburgh, 1882), “German Empire, East Prussia 1882″; digital image, The Federation of East European Family History Societies, FEEFHS Map Library
(http://www.feefhs.org/maplibrary/german/ge-eprus.html : accessed 12 Feb 2011).

Of interest to me is the proximity of this village to Schon Damerau (or Gross Schöndamerau, or Trelkowo).  My grand uncle Józef Niedziałkowski was married twice, both times in Gross Schöndamerau in the interwar years when the area was still under German control.

Copyright © 2011 by Stephen J. Danko

Military Map of the Dubiecko-Nienadowa Region – 1894

SOURCE: Militär-Landesaufnahme und Spezialkarte der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie [Military Ordnance and Special Maps of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy]. Österreich: Militärgeographisches Institut, 1894. Family History Library microfiche 6,000,218, image 6. Family History Library, Salt lake City, Utah.

Click on the map to enlarge it. 

This map shows in great detail the area of Nienadowa (highlighted by a rectangular box around the name of the village) where my grandparents (and earlier Dańko ancestors) lived. the map even shows the locations of the individual buildings in the village. I don’t know which house was my great grandparents’ home, but since this map was dated 1894, I know that they were living in one of them.

The map also shows the village of Dubiecko where the parish church was located, the location of the San River to the south, and the locations of several other small villages in the area.

This map is similar to the online maps from the 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, but is dated about a decade earlier.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Austrian Military Map of Dylągowa – 1901 

SOURCE: Third Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 40-50, Przemyśl. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/40-50.jpg; downloaded 26 Apr 2008.

Słownik Geograficzny Entry for Dylągowa

Source:  Source:  Sulimierski, Filip, Bronisław Chlebowski, and Władysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) – Warsaw 1881, Volume II, page 244..

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Słownik Geograficzny entry for Dylągowa. Translated from the Polish, the entry reads:

Dylągowa (with Wola), a village, Brzozów powiat [district], about 25 km to the northeast of Brzozów, and 9 km to the southeast of the post office in Dynów.  A Roman Catholic parish is in the place, a Greek Catholic parish is in Pawłokowma.  There are 148 houses and 1000 inhabitants;  the larger property includes 154 mórgs [in Galicia, 1 mórg was about 1.422 acres] of soil under cultivation, 68 mórgs of pastures and gardens, 437 mórgs of pastures, and 103 mórgs of forest.  A full-time, one classroom school is in the village.  The first construction rights for the foundation of a church were lost.  It seems that the church here together with the church in Dubiecko was changed to the heretical Protestant church by Stanisław Stadnicki.  His son, Marcin Stadnicki, castellan (governor of the castle) of Sanok (1625), certified the endowment of the church, already restored to the Catholics, with a new charter.  The wooden church, built in 1706 under the name of Saint Sofia, was consecrated in 1711.  There are 875 Catholic residents.  14 villages belong to the parish:  Borownica, Dąbrówka, Gdyczyna, Huty, Jasionów, Jawornik ruski, Pawłokowa, Poręby, Pracówka, Siedliska, Sielnica, Wola, Wołodź, Żochatyn;  there is one school.  Altogether, there are 2537 Catholics and 113 Jews in the parish.

I have been told that the historical records of Baptisms, Marriages, and Births are no longer located at the church. The Diocesan Archives holds a copy, but researchers are not allowed to view them because the books are in poor condition.

The maps of the Third Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary and the entries in the Słownik Geograficzny were prepared at about the same time and make a good pair for studying places in and around the Congress Kingdom of Poland at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, a time period when the Eastern European ancestors of present-day Americans left their homelands for the United States.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

After receiving Barbara’s message, I signed up for a few Google Alerts. One was for “Nienadowa”, the Polish village of my paternal ancestors. The first alert I received was for Nienadowa, Przemysl, Poland, populated place.

This link brought me to GeoNames.org.

To my delight, the link provided information on the location of Nienadowa, including the altitude (271 m), the latitude, and the longitude (N 49° 50′ 0” E 22° 26′ 0” or, in digital form, 49.83333 / 22.43333): 

The Polish Village of Nienadowa, Poland on GeoNames

Now, using such genealogy databases as Legacy Family Tree, The Master Genealogist, and RootsMagic, I can include the coordinates for Nienadowa, providing an unambiguous location for the village of my ancestors.

Unambiguous location data is important for common place names. One can usually narrow down a place with a common name if additional information is provided (such as the name of the county and state for United States place names), but I think it’s great that, even if the administrative divisions of a place change over the years, the latitude and longitude stay the same.

The GeoNames service also provides alternate spellings for the place name, if appropriate.

A case in point is the Lithuanian village of Butrimonys that I visited in October. Butrymonys is the location of the parish church that my maternal grandmother’s family attended.

Butrimonys ca. 125 m
Butrimance, Butrimantsi, Butrimantsy, Butrimonis, Butrimonių,
Butrimonys (English), Butrymańce, Бутримонис  (Russian)
populated place
N 54° 30′ 0” E 24° 15′ 0”
54.5 / 24.25
GeoNameId : 600213

This location is distinct from another village of the same name just a short distance away at N 54° 15′ 0” E 25° 9′ 0” (54.25 / 25.15). Without the exact coordinates, one might not be certain which of these two villages is the correct one. Both are located in the Dzūkija region of Lithuania.

The plethora of alternate spellings provided includes Polish, English, and Russian spellings, all very useful when reading historical maps and documents. In particular, my great aunt used the spelling Butrymańce on documents she filled out in the United States, something that confused me until I realized that it was the Polish spelling of Butrimonys.

I’ll be adding a few more Google Alerts in the weeks to come.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

The Earliest Known Locations of Stephen J. Danko’s Ancestors

The yellow marker is Likiškės, Lithuania, the earliest known location of my Chmielewski ancestors and of my Wojnowski ancestors – the source of my mitochondrial DNA.

The purple marker is Mosaki, Poland, the earliest known location of my Chotkowski ancestors.

The red marker hiding behind the purple one is Klonowo, Poland, the earliest known location of my Niedzialkowski ancestors. This is also the source of my maternal grandfather’s Y-DNA. This Y-DNA matches the R1a haplogroup, a group to which more than 50% of Polish men belong.

The blue marker is Warszawa, Poland, the earliest known location of my Gutowski ancestors.

The orange marker is Sielnica, Poland, the earliest known location of my Dziurzyński ancestors. This is also the source of my father’s mitochondrial DNA.

The turquoise marker hiding behind the orange marker is Nienadowa, Poland, the earliest known location of my Dańko ancestors. This is also the source of my Y-DNA.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Both the maps and the gazetteer were prepared over many years. The map that includes the village of Nastasów, Congress Kingdom of Poland (now Nastasiv, Ukraine) was published in 1889. The Słownik Geograficzny entry I translated yesterday was published in 1885.

Map of the Village of Nastasiv (Nastasów) and Vicinity

SOURCE: 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 43-49, Kolomea. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/43-49.jpg; downloaded 01 Aug 2007.

On this map, one can find many of the villages mentioned in the Słownik Geograficzny entry for Nastasów except for Draganówka, which is on a different map (Sheet 43-50, Brody), and a few other villages such as Strusów which are just out of the view on this map. The first few letters of the names of the villages of Myszkowice and Mikulińce are just visible on the eastern edge of this map, and the tops of the letters of the village of Zadrość are visible at the southern edge of this map.

In combination with the Słownik Geograficzny entry, the location and lifestyle in Nastasów really starts to come to life.

The Family History Library (FHL) has microfilmed copies of the records from the parish church in Nastasów from 1786-1832. The FHL has also microfilmed copies of the records of the Roman Catholic Consistory in L’viv from 1600-1948 and the Greek Catholic Consistory in L’viv from 1607-1945. The records from the Consistory in L’viv should include records from Nastasów, and with luck will include more than just the 1786-1832 records in the microfilms for Nastasów itself.

With this information, I’m ready to start looking for the records of my stepmother’s Halaszyn ancestors.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

The Słownik Geograficzny entry for Szulmierz did not mention the name of the parish for Szulmierz, but indicated that the reader should compare the entries for Sulmierz and Dunoch. The entry for Sulmierz stated that the parish was located in Niedzborz. The entry for Dunoch stated that the Dunoch was a forested area belonging to Kosiczyn, Szulmierz, Włosty and others, and that the parishes for this area were in Koziczynek and Lekowo.

So, which of these choices is the place where the records of the residents of Szulmierz are located?

Map of the Village of Szulmierz and Vicinity

SOURCE: 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 38-53, Mlawa. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/38-53.jpg; downloaded 25 Jun 2007.

The map of Szulmierz also shows the locations of the parishes of Koziczynek and Lekowo.

Niedzborz is not on this map and, in fact, is too far from Szulmierz to be a reasonable distance to travel on foot, by horse, or by wagon. I conclude now that Sulmierz and Szulmierz were two different villages, and that the parish for Szulmierz must be either Koziczynek or Lekowo.

Fortunately for Erik, the Family History Library has microfilmed the records of both of these parishes.

Seeing the location of Szulmierz on a map came as a bit of a surprise to me, because Szulmierz is very close to some of my own ancestral villages in Poland. If you look at the far right of the map above, you’ll find the village of Klonowo, and if you look at the lower right hand corner, you’ll find Pałuki, the location of Klonowo’s parish.

And, if that wasn’t enough of a blogging coincidence, take a look at the village between Szulmierz and Koziczynek. It’s a village named Lipa – a village named for the linden tree. Jasia of Creative Gene recently wrote about her surname Lipa and the significance of the linden tree in Poland.

Gazetteers can provide a lot of information about a locality. Maps can provide a visual aid to the geography. The two, together, can provide more genealogical clues than either one alone.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Euratlas.com provides a series of maps of Europe through the past 2000 years, allowing the viewer to see how the map of Europe changed with time.

While these maps provide a good overview of Europe, most Polish genealogists will also want to see higher resolution maps.

Two of the best, high-resolution historical maps of Poland available on the web are the Illustrated Geographic Atlas from 1907 (on the website of the Polish Genealogical Society of America) and the Miltary Maps of the Austrian Empire from about 1900-1910. The Military Maps of the Austrian Empire cover much of central and eastern Europe, not just Poland.

The Polish village of Pyrzowice is included on both maps but, in the Illustrated Geographic Atlas, the name of the village is spelled Pyżowice. In Polish, the letters “rz” and “ż” are pronounced identically, so the spelling difference is not unexpected.

Map of the Village of Pyrzowice and Vicinity

SOURCE: 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 37-50, Oswiecim. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/37-50.jpg; downloaded 27 Jul 2007.

Click on the map above to see a larger and more deailed image.

Not only is Pyrzowice shown on the Military Map of the Austrian Empire, but the parish of Sączów is also shown. Sączów is the place where the records for the village of Pyrzowice were maintained. Unfortunately, the Family History Library Catalog does not yet appear to have records from Sączów on microfilm.

I remember that, at a conference of the United Polish Genealogical Societies, a representative of the Family History Library showed the locations in Poland where the Library was planning to film records, and western Poland was on their schedule. With luck, Sączów may be one of the parishes to be filmed in the near future.

Tomorrow: How using gazetteers and maps together can help answer genealogical questions.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Agnieszka, who is from the region of Krasne, corrected the spelling of the name of the parish, and from there I was able to find the parish and village on the Military Maps of the Austrian Empire. The name of the village from which Tomasz came was Klonowo and the name of the parish was Pałuki. These two villages are shown on the map below, which is a portion of one of the Military Maps of the Austrian Empire.

Portion of the Military Map Showing the Villages of Klonowo and Pałuki

SOURCE: 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 38-53, Mlawa. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/38-53.jpg; downloaded 25 Jun 2007.

I checked the Family History Library Catalog for records from the parish of Pałuki and was pleasantly surprised to find the following entries:

Księgi metrykalne, 1658-1836

Roman Catholic parish registers of baptisms, marriages, banns, deaths for Pałuki (Ciechanów), Warszawa, Poland. Includes comprehensive index. Text in Latin.

FHL INTL Film 1496612 Items 7-14: Akta urodzeń (w nieporządku) 1658-1694 Akta małżeństw (w nieporządku) 1662-1694 Akta zgonów 1691-1692 Akta urodzeń 1694-1715 Akta rozmaitości 1694-1701 Akta małżeństw 1694-1722 Akta zgonów 1694-1753 Akta urodzeń 1716-1739 Akta małżeństw 1723-1747 Akta urodzeń 1740-1754 Akta małżeństw 1747-1781 Akta urodzeń 1754-1760

FHL INTL Film 1496613: Akta urodzeń 1760-1775 Akta zgonów 1754-1781 Akta urodzeń 1775-1800 Akta zgonów 1781-1820 Akta małżeństw 1781-1826 Akta urodzeń 1800-1826 Akta zgonów 1821-1831 Indeks zgonów 1781-1808 Indeks małżeństw 1694-1808 Indeks urodzeń A-F 1695-1808 Indeks urodzeń G 1695-1794

FHL INTL Film 1496660 Item 1: Indeks urodzeń G 1794-1808 Indeks urodzeń H-Z 1695-1808 Indeks urodzeń 1808-1836

Akta urodzeń = Records of Births
Akta małżeństw = Records of Marriages
Akta zgonów = Records of Deaths
Akta rozmaitości = Miscellaneous Records
w nieporządku = in disorder
Indeks = Index

Wow! These records go back all the way to 1658, a century and a half before most church records were kept in Poland! Based on his age at the time of his marriage in 1785, Tomasz Niedziałkowski was born in about 1754, so these records potentially include three or four generations before the birth of my 4th great-grandfather.

One difficulty here is that these older records tend to include very little information. As long as the names of the parents are listed, I should be able to trace this line back farther in time. My previous experience with Polish records from this time period is that the maiden name of the mother is often not listed in the baptismal records, and the handwriting is difficult to read.

Still, I have great hopes these records will help me trace my Niedziałkowski line back a few more generations.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

The two final lectures of the 28th Annual Conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) were both presented by Ceil Jensen.  Ceil’s lectures are always entertaining and packed with useful information, and I was sure not to let my mind wander lest I miss something important.  Having spent many years as a school teacher, Ceil observes everything going on about her, and she’s sure to notice anyone not paying attention.  Still, I haven’t yet seen her assign anyone to detention for not paying attention in her genealogy lectures!

Ceil’s first lecture of the day was entitled Sto Lat: A Plan for finding 100 Years of Ancestors.  The lecture was based on her forthcoming book Sto Lat: A Modern Approach to Polish Genealogy to be published by the Polish Genealogical Society of America.  Ceil mentioned that a study of our Polish ancestors starts with vital records, the Social Security Death Index, and the US Census.  A free genealogy toolkit of useful forms is available at Lineages, Inc.

One of the most important pieces of information Polish genealogists need in order to find their ancestors in Poland is the name of the ancestral village, but even if we know what the name of the village was, we might still have difficulty finding the village on a modern map.  Finding villages that might have disappeared from the map, or village names that were later changed, or even the names of villages that were misspelled in our ancestors’ records presents a challenge that may be resolved by consulting Shtetl Seeker.  Shtetl Seeker provides a Slavic language-based Soundex that can result in success when the normal English-based Soundex fails.

Ceil also mentioned this blog and Jasia’s blog in her lecture.  Thanks for the plugs, Ceil!

The final lecture of the conference, also presented by Ceil Jensen, was on Maps for Genealogy: Old, New and Electronic.  I had attended an earlier version of this lecture at the United Polish Genealogical Societies Conference in Salt Lake City this past April, but Ceil’s lecture today presented a lot of new information.  One good point that Ceil made in her lecture was that maps of the appropriate time period are crucial to understanding where our ancestors lived, where to find other records concerning our ancestors, and why our ancestors migrated to the places they did.  One valuable resource for finding maps of the appropriate time period is Google Earth.  With Google Earth, a free, downloadable application, a researcher can find maps of various time periods for the places the world over.

Help with finding maps of various places around the globe for different time periods may be obtained by placing a request with the Library of Congress Ask A Librarian service.  With this service, the best results will be obtained by providing information that is as specific as possible, with the exact name and time period of the place and the latitude and longitude of the place in question, if possible.

An excellent set of 1907 maps of Russia-Poland, The Illustrated Geographic Atlas of the Kingdom of Poland can be viewed on the PGSA website.

Military Maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from about 1910 are available.  These maps cover Galicia, the Austrian Partition of Poland, and include regions adjacent to Austria-Hungary, including Russia, Prussia, and others.  By clicking on the appropriate section of the index map, researchers can view a very detailed map of the selected region.

A map of German-Poland is available online in the collections of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in An Atlas of the German Empire.  Kartenmeister can provide the corresponding German and Polish names for villages in the Prussian Partition of Poland.

Finally, for maps of Poland today, visit http://mapa.szukacz.pl/.  Type the name of the Polish village or city in the box under Miejscowość and click on the Pokaż button.

So much information was presented at the PGSA Conference, and I can only relay a small amount of that information here.  if you have further questions, leave a comment or send me an e-mail.  I’ll try to answer your questions directly, but if I don’t know the answer I can let you know how to contact someone else who may be able to help.

Well, I have to be honest, because of my concerns about the weather and my flight schedule, I skipped out on the last 15 minutes of Ceil’s lecture on maps.  I suspect she noticed me trying to slip away through the door of the lecture hall, and I’ll have to apologize profusely the next time I see her (and I’ll probably have to make reparations by volunteering at the UPGS Conference in 2008, which Ceil is co-chairing with Linda Ulanski)!

I drove through the rain and reached the airport, where there was quite a long line of cars trying to reach the rental car return location at Midway Airport.  One of the airport workers told me that this kind of traffic jam always happens on a big football weekend.  No. 1 ranked Notre Dame hosted No. 21 ranked Penn State on Saturday, September 9, so that might have been the game in question.

Final Score from Saturday’s Game: Notre Dame 41 – Penn State 17.