Steve's Genealogy Blog

Despite my best intentions not to get involved in any new projects, I’ve to index the records of the parish of St. John the Baptist in Krasne, Poland.

I began these efforts after reading about the Złotów parish records indexing project that Al of the Polish-American Genealogy Research blog started.

As another impetus, I discovered that many of the early Krasne parish records do not include the indexes usually included at the end of each year’s records, forcing me to examine each record individually.

The earliest records for Krasne that have been microfilmed by the Family History Library are the parish record books from 1657 . Beginning in 1808, the microfilmed records are of the civil transcripts.

On Saturday, I began to index the birth/baptismal records from 1808. I completed the index for the first 45 records. The surnames represented in these records are Boiarski, Chełchowski, Chotkowski, Gołąb, Intczak, Jakiebowski, Jakubiak, Jędrasik, Jegliński, Kaoprzak, Kieszak, Łyszkowski, Maculak, Malinowski, Mieszkowski, Milewski, Mosakowski, Mularczyk, Niedziałkowski, Obicziński, Piotrak, Pukrowski, Smurlika, Sobiesiak, Stępnowski, Suski, Szarlik, Trzaska, Wudziński, Zaleski, Zarodkiewicz, Zbikowski, and Zbyszyński.

These births occurred in the villages of Kozino, Krasne, Milewo Brzegędy, Milewo Gawary, Milewo Saweyki, Mosaki Godacze, Mosaki Rukle, Mosaki Stara wieś, Slasy Łozyno, Szczuki, Zalesie, Zbiki Antosy, Zbiki Filipy, Zbiki Gawronki, Zbiki Pańskie, and Zbiki Starki.

The surnames I know are in my own family history include Chotkowski, Milewski, and Niedziałkowski. The villages in which my ancestors resided include Mosaki Godacze, Mosaki Rukle, and Mosaki Stara wieś.

Initially, I’ve decided to include the following information in the index:  Surname, Given Name, Father’s First Name, Father’s Age, Mother’s Maiden Name, Mother’s First Name, Mother’s Age, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, House Number, Date of Baptism, Parish, FHL Film Number, Item Number, and Page.

I’m not including Occupations, Names of Godparents, Name of Priest, Information About Witnesses, or other information in the records.

I expect to finish the index for births/baptisms in 1808 this week.

Thanks, Al, for the inspiration to start this project!

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

The tenth edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy has been posted at Jessica’s Genejournal.

The next edition will be hosted here at Steve’s Genealogy Blog. The topic will be:

First (Given) Names: Did any of your ancestors have an unusual given name? Have you discovered the meanings behind the given names of your ancestors? Did your ancestors use any naming patterns for their children? Are there any given names that are particularly common in your family history? Did any of your ancestors have given names that you particularly like or dislike? Does your family celebrate “Name Days”? Did your immigrant ancestors change their given names after they arrived in America? Tell us about the first (given) names in your family. You can concentrate on one name, a few names, or you can go wild and write about the first names of all your ancestors!

Submit your article by midnight PDT on Sunday, September 21 using the Carnival Submission Form.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Father and Daughter

SOURCE: Father and Daughter (Worcester, Worcester Co., Massachusetts). Photographed between 1944-1946, probably by Henry Niedzialkowski.

This is one of the few photographs I have of my mother, Jane A. Niedzialkowski, with her father, Kostanty Niedzialkowski . The photo was taken in front of their home at 40 Barnes Ave., Worcester, Massachusetts.

I dated this photo based on the fact that other photos apparently taken at the same time show my Uncle Henry in his U.S. Army uniform. Uncle Henry enlisted on 19 Jul 1944. Since the terms of his enlistment were “the duration of the war plus six months” his term ended by Mar 1946.

Since the deciduous plants are devoid of leaves and the subjects are dressed warmly, this photograph may have been taken either in late Fall or early Spring.

Based on these observations, this photograph was taken sometime between Fall 1944 and Spring 1946.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Mother and Son

SOURCE: Mother and Son (Albany, Albany Co., New York). Photographed about 1950 by Jane A. Danko.

This snapshot of my father, Francis J. Danko with his mother, Marianna Dziurzyńska, was taken in about 1950 in Washington Park, Albany, New York. From the way the two of them are dressed, I guess that this was taken on a Sunday after going to church.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Continuing my efforts to record the locations of events in my database as they were known at the time of the event, I’ve researched the geography and history of the area where my Dańko ancestors lived, and I’ve developed a system for recording the events in several different geographical areas.

The information I’ve compiled will assist me in correctly recording both the locations of events and the source citations themselves.

The names of the locations in which my Dańko ancestors lived changed over the past two and a half centuries, but much less than the names of the locations in which my Niedziałkowski ancestors resided.

Prior to the first partition of Poland, my Dańko ancestors lived in Nienadowa, Powiat przemyski, Wojewódstwo ruskie, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

On 05 Aug 1772, the date of the first partition of Poland, the area in which the Dańkos lived was annexed by Austria and the name of the place in which they lived became Nienadowa, Powiat przemyski, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria.

In 1804, Austria extended its reach and became the Austrian Empire. The name of the location where the Dańkos lived became Nienadowa, Powiat przemyski, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austrian Empire.

After the defeat of the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Austria attempted to reinforce the power of the empire by negotiating with the Magyars.

After the Ausgleich of February 1867, the Austrian Empire became the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and so the Dańko family resided in Nienadowa, Powiat przemyski, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austro-Hungarian Empire.

World War I ended in 1918 . 

On 28 Jun 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles, Poland reemerged as the Second Polish Republic. The Dańkos now resided in Nienadowa, Powiat przemyski, Wojewódstwo lwowskie, Second Polish Republic.

The names of these places didn’t immediately change on the exact dates cited. However, the events that occurred on those dates were pivotal for the resulting changes in place names. For the purpose of my genealogy database, I will use the dates cited as the defining dates for the changes noted above.

This summary should provide me with a good reference for recording the names of the places in which my Dańko ancestors lived at various points in time.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

While continuing my research on my ancestors, I’ve discovered two areas where the information I had entered into my genealogy database was deficient: identification of locations and source citations.

I am trying to record the locations of events in my database as they were known at the time of the event. To achieve this goal, I’ve researched the geography and history of the areas, and I’ve developed a system for recording the events in several different geographical areas.

The information I’ve compiled will assist me in correctly recording both the locations of events and the source citations themselves.

The locations in which my Niedziałkowski ancestors lived provide a particular challenge because the borders changed so often over the past two and a half centuries.

Prior to the third partition of Poland, my Niedziałkowski ancestors lived in Klonowo, Powiat ciechanowski, Województwo mazowieckie, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

On 24 Oct 1795, the date of the third partition of Poland, the area in which the Niedziałkowskis lived became part of the Prussian Empire and the place they lived became Klonowo, Kreise Przasnysz, Departement Plozk, New East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia.

On 09 Jun 1807, the Duchy of Warsaw was formed. By this time, my ancestors had moved a short distance from Klonowo and were now living in Mosaki Godacze, Powiat przasnysz, Departament płocki, Duchy of Warsaw.

On 09 Jun 1815, the Congress of Vienna created the Congress Kingdom of Poland. Even though they hadn’t moved, my ancestors were now living in Mosaki Godacze, Powiat ciechanowski, Województwo płockiej, Congress Kingdom of Poland.

On 29 Nov 1830, the November Uprising began. This rebellion against the Russian Empire ultimately failed, and the Russian Empire began to exert greater control over the Congress Kingdom of Poland.

By 07 Mar 1837, the Russian Empire reorganized the administrative divisions of the Congress Kingdom of Poland and established Gubernias in the Russian tradition. My ancestors now lived in Mosaki Godacze, Powiat ciechanowski, Gubernia płocka, Congress Kingdom of Poland.

In 1842, the Powiat was renamed Okręg and my ancestors now lived in Mosaki Godacze, Okręg ciechanowski, Gubernia płocka, Congress Kingdom of Poland.

On 22 Jan 1863, the January Uprising began. This rebellion against the Russian Empire failed, and the Russian Empire incorporated the Congress Kingdom of Poland into the Russian Empire. The Coat of Arms of the Congress Kingdom of Poland was abandoned.

By 1867, the incorporation of the Congress Kingdom of Poland into the Russian Empire was complete. The Russian government now referred to the area as the Vistulan Country. By now, my ancestors had moved a short distance to the village of Pomaski. They now resided in Pomaski, Okręg makowski, Guberniya lomzhinskaya, Vistulan Country, Russian Empire.

The names of these places didn’t immediately change on the exact dates cited. However, the events that occurred on those dates were pivotal for the resulting changes in place names. For the purpose of my genealogy database, I will use the dates cited as the defining dates for the changes noted above.

This summary should provide me with a good reference for recording the names of the places in which my Niedziałkowski ancestors lived at various points in time.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

This past couple of weeks has resulted in disaster.

My blog was apparently hacked and I was forced to abandon my theme and revert to a default theme.

Then, in an attempt to make the blog hacker-proof, I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress and changed my password.

In the process of doing all that, the links to the Categores and Static Pages became non-functional and the Static Pages themselves seem to have disappeared.

I ended up reverting to the previous version of WordPress, which restored the links to the Categories, but somehow created thousands of separate posts for all the images and PDF files I had incorporated into all my posts.

I attempted to restore from backup, but that process did not work.
So now, I’m going back and manually deleting all the extra posts and recreating the Static Pages.

I’ll try to participate in the Geneal-Blogger Group Games, but I won’t have much time for that as I continue to work on the blog.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko