I’ve been searching for information about Damjan Niedziałkowski ever since I found him in the Ellis Island Alien Passenger Manifests and various records in Worcester, Massachusetts. Damjan was from Pomaski, the same Polish village as my grandfather, Konstanty Niedziałkowski. Furthermore, Damjan settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, the same city in which my grandfather settled.
Several years ago, I made copies of relevant portions of the indexes from the church records of the parish of Szwelice, Poland (Szwelice was the village where the parish for Pomaski was located).
Digging through those indexes, I found the following entries (in Russian):
Baptismal Index for Szwelice, Poland – 1893 – “N”
SOURCE: Parafia Podwyższenia Św. Jana Chrzciciela (Szwelice, Maków Powiat, Łomża Gubernia, Congress Kingdom of Poland). Index of Baptisms 1893-1902, Damjan Niedziałkowski (1893); FHL microfilm 2103625.
In 1893, only two infants were baptized in Szwelice with surnames beginning with the letter “N”. These two were:
1893
Niedziałkowski Damjan 47
Napierkowski Beniamin 53
I have ordered the relevant microfilm to find the baptismal record for Damjan Niedziałkowski through my local Family History Center. As I recall, the indexes for Szwelice cover more recent events than do the actual microfilmed records, and so I don’t have high hopes that I will find the baptismal record for Damjan on microfilm.
On the positive side, a birth/baptism of 1893 corresponds to the information I already have on Damjan from the Alien Passenger Manifest and the 1930 US Federal Census.
It’s looking more and more like Damjan may be related to me. However, I don’t recall anyone in the family ever talking about him.
While at the California Genealogical Society’s library on Saturday, I visited Steve Harris’ collection of City and Telephone Directories. The most recent City Directory Steve had for Worcester was 1930, but he had a Telephone Directory for 1951. Damjan was not listed.
The second baptism in the index, Beniamin Napierkowski, is also of interest. My grandfather provided two different maiden surnames for his mother: Napierkowska and Zygmuntowicz. I have found other records that indicate that the mother of my grandfather’s siblings was Ksawera Zygmuntowicz, but I haven’t found my grandfather’s baptismal record to verify the name of his mother. It’s possible he had a different mother than did his siblings if his own mother died young and his father remarried. I keeping my mind open to the possibility that his mother’s surname may have been Napierkowska and his stepmother’s surname may have been Zygmuntowicz.
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
