Steve's Genealogy Blog

Following up on the challenge from Lisa of 100 Years in America, Donna of What’s Past is Prologue has issued a challenge to describe where our ancestors were 200 years ago.

This will be a bit difficult for me, since I don’t know who all my ancestors were 200 years ago. Even so, the places where my ancestors were living were limited to three general areas: the Przemyśl Powiat of Galicia, the Warsaw Departament of the Duchy of Warsaw, and the Vilna Guberniya of the Russian Empire.

My paternal ancestors were all living in and around the parishes of Dubiecko and Dylągowa in the Przemyśl Powiat of Galicia. This area had been occupied by Austria since 05 Aug 1772 and, while they were ethnically Polish, they lived as citizens of Austria.

• My 3rd great grandparents, Wojciech Dańko and Marianna Jedlińska were living in Nienadowa, Galicia . My 2nd great grandfather, Paweł Dańko, was 9 years old and living with his parents in Nienadowa.
• My 3rd great grandparents Andrzej Szymański and his wife Anna were also living in Nienadowa, Galicia. My 2nd great grandmother Zofia Szymańska was born in about 1808 in Nienadowa.
• My 3rd great grandparents Wojciech Sowa and Katarzyna Zalew were also living in Nienadowa, Galicia.
• My 3rd great grandparents Wojciech Jach and Jadwiga Markowa were also living in Nienadowa, Galicia.
• My 2nd great grandfather Stanisław Dziura was not yet born. His parents, whose identities I have still not discovered, were probably living in Sielnica, Galicia.
• My 2nd great grandmother Katarzyna Martowiczowa was not yet born. Her parents, whose identities I have still not discovered, were probably living in Sielnica, Galicia.
• My 2nd great grandfather Andrzej Jara was not yet born. His parents, whose identities I have still not discovered, were probably living in Nienadowa, Galicia.
• My 3rd great grandfather Michał Matwij was probably living in Nienadowa, Galicia. I don’t know who his wife was, but she, too, was probably living in Nienadowa.

My maternal grandfather’s ancestors were all living in and around the parish of Krasne in the Warsaw Departament of the Duchy of Warsaw . In 1807, Napoleon had annexed this part of Poland, freeing it from occupation by Prussian Empire but making it dependent on France. These ancestors witnessed dramatic changes in their homeland as it passed from an independent Poland to Prussian control in 1795, then to French control in 1807, and finally to Russian control in 1815.

• My 3rd great grandparents Tomasz Niedziałkowski and Cecylia Chotkowska were living in Mosaki-Godacze, Duchy of Warsaw.
• My 3rd great grandparents Wojciech Milewski and Anna Malonka were living in Rukle, Duchy of Warsaw. My 2nd great grandmother Karolina Milewska was born in 1808 in Rukle.
• My 2nd great grandfather Wojciech Gutowski was not yet born. His parents, whose names I don’t know, were probably living in the Duchy of Warsaw.
• My 2nd great grandmother Anna Jabłonowska was not yet born. Her parents, whose names I don’t know, were probably living in the Duchy of Warsaw.
• The ancestors of my great grandmother Ksawera Zygmuntowicz were probably living in the Duchy of Warsaw. I don’t know the names of any of her ancestors, but it is likely that her grandparents were living at the time.

I have been able to trace my maternal grandmother’s ancestors to what is now Lithuania . In 1808, the area was part of the Vilna Guberniya of the Russian Empire, having been occupied by Russia during the first partition of Poland in 1772 . These ancestors were ethnically Polish.

• The ancestors of my great grandparents Wincenty Chmielewski and Anastasia Wojnowska may have been living in the Wilna Guberniya of the Russian Empire. Or maybe not. I have not been able to identify any of their ancestors or trace their migrations. At some point, these ancestors lived in Poland and moved to Lithuania.

In looking over what I’ve written, I’ve discovered that two of my ancestors were born in 1808, and at least four of my ancestors living in 1808 were named Wojciech.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

The 1949-1950 Albany Telephone Directory (Albany, New York) that I discussed yesterday showed my father, my uncle, and my uncle’s service station in the white pages. My uncle’s service station was also listed in the yellow pages of the same directory.

John Danko Service Station in the 1949-1950 Albany Yellow Pages

SOURCE: New York Telephone Company .  Albany telephone directory 1949-1950 (Albany, N.Y.: New York Telephone), yellow pages 19.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the John Danko Service Station in the 1949-1950 Albany Yellow Pages.

The yellow pages included only a small line listing for the service station that simply read:

Danko John Service Sta 90 Northern blvd..5-9428

The service station was a Socony Mobil station and I remember it well. My father worked there for many years until he was offered a position working directly for Socony Mobil Oil Company. The station was on the corner of Northern Boulevard and Sheridan Avenue, just a few blocks from where my grandmother lived on Colonie Street. As a youth, I always liked the red flying horse logo of Socony Mobil. Socony is an acronym for Standard Oil Company of New York.

In November 1991, a section of Northern Boulevard was renamed Henry Johnson Boulevard in honor of Henry Lincoln Johnson, a highly decorated member of the all black 369th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard . 

The building that housed the station is still there, but has been vacant for many years, the perimeter of the property surrounded by a chain-link fence.

In the 1949-1950 Albany Telephone Directory, the phone numbers included only 5 digits. Later, telephone exchanges, including HObart, HEmlock, and IVanhoe were added at the beginning of the phone numbers . From the mid 1950’s until the late 1980’s, my family’s phone number was IV2-9139.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

The California Genealogical Society and Library houses an impressive collection of genealogical research materials. Just down the hall from the library’s facility at 2201 Broadway, Oakland, CA, is Dr. Stephen G. Harris’ collection of over 5000 City Directories and Telephone Directories.

Steve Harris and His Collection of Directories

SOURCE: Steve Harris and His Collection of Directories. Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 12 Jan 2008.

Steve’s collection of directories includes volumes from all across the United States. I found several geographic areas of interest to me in his collection, including Albany, New York; Worcester, Massachusetts; Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and New York City.

One directory of special interest to me was the 1949-1950 Telephone Directory for Albany, New York.

Cover of the 1949-1950 Telephone Directory for Albany, New York

SOURCE: Cover of the 1949-1950 Telephone Directory for Albany, New York. Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 12 Jan 2008.

In this volume, I found a listing for the residential addresses of my father Frank, my uncle John, and John Danko’s Service Station.

Danko Entries in the 1949-1950 Telephone Directory for Albany, New York

SOURCE: New York Telephone Company .  Albany telephone directory 1949-1950 (Albany, N.Y.: New York Telephone), 47.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Danko entries in the 1949-1950 Telephone Directory for Albany, New York . 

My father is listed residing at 19 New Scotland Avenue in Albany. Uncle John is listed residing at 783 Park Avenue, an address at which my family lived between 1955 and 1961. Uncle John’s Service Station was at 90 Northern Boulevard. My dad worked as a mechanic at the service station for many years.

I didn’t have enough time to look through and photograph all the directories I would like. I’ll have to visit again in the near future and continue my research in city and telephone directories.

Steve Harris’ collection is open to members and guests of the California Genealogical Society the second Saturday and third Friday of each month . Members should check in at the main desk in the California Genealogical Society and Library and they will be directed to Steve’s collection.

Steve can be contacted at wizard848@earthlink.net.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

My original intent when starting my genealogy research was to prepare a Family History for my father as a Father’s Day gift. One of the first things I did was to call as many relatives as I could find and ask them to help me fill in the information in our common family tree.

In the process of doing this, I contacted many relatives whom I hadn’t seen in decades and I met several others for the first time. Everyone I contacted was happy to help with this project.

When I first started, I really didn’t expect that I would be able to discover much about my Polish ancestry. Much to my surprise, I was able to make significant progress on learning about the families of three of my grandparents.

I decided to start this blog as an attempt to publish the details of my ancestry and link digital images of the original documents to the events in my ancestors’ lives. Doing so has led to an embarrassment of riches in the number of new family members I’ve contacted in the United States, Poland, Lithuania, England, and Scotland. Most of these new family members contacted me, after finding information about their own ancestors on my blog.

Those who have contacted me include:

• Piotr, my half-second cousin from Kraków, Poland contacted me. I had heard about the Dańko relatives living in Kraków but really didn’t know how to reach them. Fortunately, they contacted me. Piotr sent me photos of his family and provided me with the first connection to my relatives in Poland.
• Liz, in England, who was able to correct a misspelled Polish surname. Liz is also my half-second cousin. Liz’s mother fled to England during World War II.
• Wincent, in England, who sent me photos from his trip to the North Pole. Wincent is also my half-second cousin. Wincent is Liz’s first cousin. His mother also fled to England during World War II.
• Kasia, in Warszawa, Poland. While we don’t have the critical document to prove our relationship, Kasia and I are relatively certain that we are fourth cousins, twice removed. Our common ancestors appear to be my 3rd great grandparents, Wojciech Dańko and Marianna Jedlińska. Kasia sent me a biography of her second great grandmother (my second cousin, twice removed), Katarzyna, who died during World War II in the Forgotten Odyssey.
• My second cousins, once removed, David and James, both contacted me. I had heard stories of their parents from my uncles, but I had never contacted them. Because some critical documents in my grandfather’s ancestry are missing, both David and James are participating in the DNA study to prove or disprove our family relationship.
• Walter and Ed, both of whom are cousins of my cousins, contacted me and provided a lot of details about their families, even though we are not, technically, related.
• Louise, the wife of a cousin of a cousin, who likewise contacted me because I had blogged about her husband’s family. She, too, filled in many details about her family that I did not previously know.
• Charlene, a very distant cousin of a cousin contacted me and sent me scans of handwritten vital records from her family. These handwritten records are essential in understanding the family relationships in this branch of the family, since these records predate governmentally mandated vital records.
• Tadeusz from Poland, contacted me when he found information on his relatives on my blog. Tadeusz is related to the husband of my half-second cousin once removed, Rita Meleski. Tadeusz provided me with information on the ancestry of Rita’s husband.
• Thomas, my first cousin once removed, contacted me when he found information on his paternal ancestors on my blog. I met Thomas only once, back in 1974. Thomas was only four years old at the time the one time we met.
• Jerry, a distant cousin of my cousins contacted me to learn more about his living relatives. As it turns out, Jerry and our mutual cousins live in the same city, but had never met each other.

I’ve also contacted people who have connections to my family:

• Paul from Scotland, who I contacted via the message boards while researching the ancestry of my Aunt Sophie’s husband Clark Gibson. It turns out that Paul is descended from Clark Gibson and Clark’s first wife, Margaret Coyle. Paul’s relatives in Scotland had been searching for information about Clark for many years before we met each other on the message boards.
• Paulette, whose Dziurzyński ancestors come from the same Galician village as my own Dziurzyński ancestors. Moreover, both of our ancestors changed their surnames from Dziura to Dziurzyński at about the same time in history. We are fairly certain we are related, but we have not been able to gain access to the parish records to find out exactly how we are related.
• Liliana, my second cousin through my maternal grandmother, was born in Lithuania not far from where our common ancestors Wincenty Chmielewski and Anastasia Wojnowska lived. Liliana and her brother Aidas hosted my trip to Lithuania in October and introduced me to several other relatives there.
• Ralph, my second cousin once removed, who I contacted several years ago. Ralph brought me around Worcester County, Massachusetts and showed me Sky Farm where my grandfather’s uncle ran a dairy.

When I began the search for my family history, I had no idea I would be able to meet so many relatives previously unknown to me or my family. In particular, finding relatives still living in Poland and Lithuania has helped me feel a real connection to the homelands of my ancestors.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko