A Marriage in New Brunswick

Posted on April 28, 2006 by Steve

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Canada have posted an index to a large number of vital records, and some of those records are linked to images of the original documents .  I searched for the marriage record of William McGinn and Lea Poirier who were the in-laws of my aunt, Bertha (Danko) McGinn .  As yet, the Provincial Archives have not linked the image to the index entry for this marriage, so I searched for this record while I was at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.

I found the image on FHL US/CAN Film 2024682 (you can click on the image below to enlarge it or you can view, download, and print a PDF Copy of the Marriage Record of William McGinn and Lea Poirier).

The Marriage Record of William McGinn and Lea Poirier

The Marriage Record of William McGinn and Lea Poirier

In addition, I looked through a series of films of the New Brunswick vital statistics from newspapers and found a entry for the marriage in FHL US/CAN Book 971.5 V2nb V. 99, which appears to be a transcription form The Daily Telegraph, Saint John, New Brunswick on 16 MAY 1895:

W.H. McGINN and bride passed through the city yesterday en route to Fredericton .  Mr. McGinn was married yesterday morn. to Miss L.A. POIRIER .  The ceremony was performed by Rev. Fathe Ouellett .  Mr. McGinn is superintendent of the electrical works at the Celestial City.

I also looked up the biographical entry for Pascal Poirier, who is related to Lea Poirier, although I’m not sure how (I’ll have to check with my McGinn cousins to find out about this) .  I found the entry in Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography FHL US/CAN Book 973 D36ap 1887-89 v. 5 .  You may recall from a previous post that Appleton’s contains at least 200 entries of fictitious individuals .  Pascal Poirier’s biography appears to be accurate, however:

     POIRIER, Pascal, Canadian senator, b. in Shediac, New Brunswick, 14 Feb., 1852 .  He is of Acadian descent .  He completed his course of studies at St. Joseph’s college, Memramcook, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Quebec in 1876 .  In 1872 Mr. Poirier was appointed postmaster of the Dominion parliament, which post he held till his appointment to the senate, 9 March, 1885 .  At an early age he contributed to the press, both French and English, and he has published “L’Origine des Acadiens” (Montreal, 1874).

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

Posted in McGinn, Poirier | 2 Comments

Dancing in the Aisles and Other Matters

Posted on April 27, 2006 by Steve

A few days ago, I promised to write more about Ceil Jensen’s multimedia presentation that she promised would have us dancing in the aisles .  At the Monday evening banquet of the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference in Salt Lake City, Ceil showed us the video she made of her adventures in the Polish Archives, complete with some great Polish music!  Everyone enjoyed the presentation and it was worth the wait!

Ceil visited several archives with Kasia Grycza, a charming and skilled genealogist and tour guide in Poland .  Just type Kasia’s name into your favorite search engine and you’ll find testimonials from people who have hired her to act as their guide and genealogical consultant in Poland .  Kasia arranged for Ceil to visit civil and church archives in Poland, and was even able to arrange for video interviews with the archive directors .  Everyone in the video was thoroughly interesting, informative, and at times the interviews were absolutely hilarious (and you thought there was nothing funny about visiting archives)!  Sadly, Ceil showed us the unfortunate state of the archives that operate with low budgets in facilities that lack climate control to preserve the valuable documents they house . Â Between the individual interviews, Ceil included music that certainly had everyone’s feet tapping and added a festive tone to the entire presentation .  Thanks, Ceil, and I know we all look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future!  By the way, Ceil has just published a new book called “Detroit’s Polonia”.

A couple of people have left comments on this blog, asking for summaries of the presentations at the conference .  For the first of these summaries, I’ll start with the last presentation:  the keynote speech at the banquet presented by Joseph B. Everett, who currently works for Ancestry.com and who spoke on “New Databases and Features of Ancestry.com” .  I had actually met Joe before, when he worked as a Supervisor on the International Floor at the Family History Library .  During two separate visits to the FHL in the past, he helped me translate Russian documents relating to my Niedzialkowski ancestors .  The amazing thing, though, is that he even remembered me from those two isolated occasions!  Wow, the guy has a good memory!

Some of the new features Joe talked about included the complete England and Wales Census collection, the doubling of the Historical Newspapers collection, and the addition of new Canadian Records .  In connection with the Historical Newspapers collection, he pointed out that, when searching this collection, one should enter the search terms, including names, in the keyword box .  The Historical Newspaper collection is not indexed for First Names and Last Names, so the search engine just looks for the keywords anywhere in the newspapers .  Joe gave us examples of how to search for newspaper articles and census records for Lt. Col. Francis S. “Gabby” Gabreski, a World War II Ace Pilot .  It was quite an interesting story.

One other point Joe mentioned was that Ancestry.com has added the ability for researchers to add alternate names, add comments, or report image errors for some of the databases, including census records .  I actually took advantage of this new feature, since my grandfather, Kostanty Niedzialkoski, was indexed in the 1920 US Census as Kostanty Pudgealkoski!  The alternate names that users add are then available to all users, so that poorly transcribed names won’t be a brickwall for future researchers .  I have attached an image of the 1920 Census record for my grandfather so you can see why his name was so badly transcribed in the index .  Click on the image below to view a larger image .  Kostanty is enumerated on line 77, and my grandmother Helen is on line 78.

Kostanty Niedzialkowski in the 1920 US Federal Census

Kostanty Niedzialkowski in the 1920 US Federal Census

Finally, I want to point out a couple of features of this blog to those of you who visit regularly .  You can post a comment by clicking on the “Comments” link at the bottom of each of the entries .  The first time you post a comment, the comment must be approved by the Administrator (that’s me) before it appears on the blog .  After the first comment is approved, your future comments will automatically be approved without any intervention from me .  Second, if you post a comment and want to return to the main page, just click on the banner “Steve’s Genealogy Blog” at the top of the page .  Third, you can visit my website by clicking on one of the links to the right of the blog under “Steve’s Genealogy Web”.

Thanks for visiting, and be sure to leave a comment!

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

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World War II Draft Cards

Posted on April 26, 2006 by Steve

The Family History Library (FHL) holds 166 microfilm reels of World War II Selective Service System Registration Cards for the state of Massachusetts .  These are the Draft Registration Cards for the Fourth Registration conducted in 1942 and include men born between 28 APR 1877 and 16 FEB 1897 .  The original cards are located in the National Archives at Boston .  Note: The FHL holds copies of World War II Selective Service System Registration Cards for other states, too.

I was particularly interested in these records since I have been unable to find my grandfather’s birth and baptismal record in Poland .  In various official documents, my grandfather stated that he was from the village of Pomoski in the Łomża Gubernia of Russia-Poland, but I couldn’t find his birth and baptismal record in the church records for the village of Pomoski (there was no church in Pomoski itself; the residents of Pomoski belonged to the Parish and Church in Szwelice) .  Since these World War II Draft Registration Cards included the place of birth, I thought this might help me find my grandfather’s birth and baptismal records.

WWI Draft Card KN Obverse

WWII Draft Card KN ReverseI have attached images of the obverse and reverse of my grandfather’s Draft Registration Card found on FHL US/CAN Film 2251612 (click on the thumbnails, above, to see larger images) .  My grandfather listed his name as Konstanty Niedzialkoski, but signed his name as Kostanty Niedzialkowski (he used the spelling Kostanty Niedzialkowski for most of his life) .  The address, 18 Huntington Ave. in Worcester, Massachusetts, was owned by his uncle, Franciszek Niedzialkoski . Â Surprisingly, Kostanty listed his place of birth as Warsaw, Poland, not the village of Pomoski!  Perhaps Kostanty was born in Warsaw, but lived in Pomoski.

In addition to my difficulty in finding Kostanty’s birth and baptismal record, I haven’t been able to find the marriage record of Kostanty’s parents (Teofil and Ksawera) in Pomoski . Â My working hypothesis is that Teofil and Ksawera were married in another location and Ksawera gave birth to Kostanty in the same place she was married . Â A family connection does exist in Warsaw, since Teofil’s mother was born in Parafia Świętego Krzyża (Holy Cross Parish) in Warsaw .  So, I have another lead to follow now, although this may be a tough one – the records for Parafia Św. Krzyża held by the FHL include documents that date only from 1826 – 1876, too early to include records for my grandfather or my great-grandparents.

Nonetheless, the information on my grandfather’s World War II Draft Registration Card gives me some additional information and another lead to follow.

As a historical note, the following notice appeared on page 10 of the New York Times on 24 APR 1942, calling older men to register for the fourth registration of the World War II Draft:

All Men 45-64 Required To Register at Week-End

     All men in New York City, whether citizens or aliens, who reached their forty-fifth birthday on or before Feb. 16, 1942, or who will not have reached their sixty-fifth birthday by April 27, 1942, must register for selective service either tomorrow or Sunday between 1 P. M. and 6 P. M. or on Monday between 7 A. M. and 9 P. M.

They must register in their own local board area .  Selective service headquarters advised them yesterday to learn immediately the address of their local board .  It was suggested that they ask neighbors who already had registered where to find the local board; then go to the board to learn whether to register there or elsewhere.

Daily commuters will not be registered in New York City.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

Posted in Niedziałkowski | 2 Comments

My Last Day in Salt Lake City

Posted on April 25, 2006 by Steve

Family History Library
Family History Library

WOW! What a great time I had in Salt Lake City .  I managed to obtain copies of an enormous number of original sources (and quite a number of derivative sources, too!).

As genealogists, we often classify information as primary or secondary, depending on whether the source was generated at the time the event occurred, by someone who was a witness to the event (primary) or whether the information in the source was provided at a later date or by a person who was not a witness to the event (secondary) .  We also realize that a source can contain both primary and secondary information .  For example, a death certificate may contain primary information about the death, but secondary information about the birth.

However, even before we consider whether the information is primary or secondary, sources can be classified as original or derivative sources .  Original sources are the first place where the information was recorded and derivative sources include indexes of records, transcripts of records, and abstracts .  More about all this later.

It’s late here in San Francisco, and I’m ready to call it a night .  My flight back from Salt Lake City was pleasant and largely uneventful, except for an unfortunate encounter between the plane’s engine and a bird during the landing .  Well, thanks to the skilled pilots at Southwest Airlines, we landed safely in Oakland, despite the rather odd experience of landing with the aroma of roast poultry in the cabin!

I have a lot to report about the conference itself and the information I found at the Family History Library .  Check back later to see some of the most interesting documents I found and details about the sessions of the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

Posted in Daily Journal | Tagged | 1 Comment

GuestBlog from Ceil Jensen

Posted on April 25, 2006 by Steve

This morning, I’m grateful to Ceil Jensen for providing a GuestBlog (I’ll provide my own blog at the end of the day) .  I asked her to write a bit about her own research at the Family History Library this past week .  By the way, last night at the conference banquet, Ceil showed us the multimedia presentation she promised would have us dancing in the aisles!  More about that later!  Here’s Ceil’s blog:

I spent a week in Salt Lake researching material for my forthcoming book “Sto Lat” A Modern Guide to Polish Genealogy. The most interesting find was the cattle brands registered to the Polish ranchers in Bexar Co. ,Texas. I had never thought about that aspect of western life in terms of the Poles. An article in the Summer 2001 “Polish Footprints” published by the Polish Genealogical Society of Texas showed  brands registered to Poles including Anton Kobus, Joseph Michalsky and Jacob Lubinsky. It was serious business. The article was illustrated with a “Certificate of Registration of Marks and Brands” registered in Karnes Co., Texas.

Ceil
Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko and Ceil Jensen
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Sunday at the Conference

Posted on April 24, 2006 by Steve

Sundays the Family History Library is closed, so my day was a little more mellow than the previous two .  I spent some time reading on Sunday morning, had a leisurely lunch at Trofi (the restaurant at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center, where I am staying), and then attended the afternoon sessions of the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference.

Ceil Jensen talked about school records (come to think of it, I don’t even know where my own school records are!) and the Polish State Archives .  She claimed her multimedia presentation would have us dancing in the aisles but, alas, technical difficulties prevented us from seeing the multimedia part of her talk . Â After Ceil’s presentation, Kalile Mehr from the Family History Library (FHL) explained how records are obtained from the former Soviet Union sphere.

Dinner at the Olive Garden with five other conference attendees was great .  I can’t remember when I had such a good time at dinner!  All in all, the time we had for dinner was way too short .  We were heading back to the conference before we knew it.

Kahlile Mehr presented the final talk of the day and discussed East European Internet sites .  I’ll post the list on my website after I get home from the conference .  By the time the day’s events were over, I returned to the hotel to plan my strategy for Monday.

Right now, I’m in the FHL, and concentrating on obtaining proof of what I already know .  I’ve found a few surprises, including incorrect dates that I had in my files, and a surprising (to me, anyway) cause of death!  I’ll have to check the information I have at home and see how the new sources compare with the old.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

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First Full Day of the Conference in Salt Lake City

Posted on April 22, 2006 by Steve

Well, it’s getting to be close to the end of the first full day of the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference here in Salt Lake City .  I’m bushed, and it’s only 7:40 PM!  We have one more session tonight and then I’ll be ready to hit the sack!

The first session this morning was on “Professional Techniques for the Family Genealogist” by Ceil Jensen .  I asked Ceil if she’d like to “Guest Blog” in this space and she said she’d love to tell everyone about what she thought was her best find so far at the Family History Library (FHL) .  Check back in the next couple of days for her Guest Blog.

After Ceil’s presentation, several others presented lectures on how to best use the resouces in the FHL, all of which were great (and I thought I already know my way around the FHL 🙂 !)

Ugo Perego gave us an update on the research at the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation .  Two years ago, I heard a presentation by the Foundation, and at that time, there was no way for participants to see the results of their DNA analysis .  The Foundation encouraged participation in order to further the science of molecular genealogy .  But now, the results will be provided online, and you can compare your own results with the results of others (while protecting the privacy of living individuals, of course) .  There is no cost for the analysis, but you may have to wait a long time to see the results.

It’s also been a productive time for me at the FHL .  I’ve been looking for Birth, Marriage, and Death records for two branches on my family tree .  I found the marriage record for the parents of my Aunt Bertha’s husband George McGinn, a newspaper clipping mentioning the wedding, and a delayed birth record for George’s older sister, Pascaline .  Plus, I found a biography for Pascal Poirier, a senator from New Brunswick who was an ancestor of George and Pascaline.

Today I also found 21 death records for other people in my family file, so I consider this a very productive day .  It’s about time for me to get a bite to eat and then head to the last session of the day (Ceil Jenson is speaking again tonight on “Maps for Polish Genealogy:  Old, New, Electronic” .  Good night!

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

Posted in McGinn, Poirier | Tagged | 3 Comments

First Day at the Family History Library

Posted on April 21, 2006 by Steve

Right now, it’s about noon in Salt Lake City, and I’m writing from the Family History Library (FHL) .  My plane was about two hours late last night, and I arrived at the hotel after midnight, but I still managed to get to the FHL before 9 AM this morning.

When I arrived at the FHL, I retrieved the five vault films I had previously ordered, and I ordered an additional five films which should arrive on Monday .  I found what I was looking for in four of the five films .  I found seven relatives, including my grandfather, Michael Danko, in the Massachusetts World War II Draft Registration Cards for men born between April 28, 1877 and February 16, 1897 .  By the way, the FHL has the draft records for Massachusetts.

The big find for me, though, was on the fifth film I ordered:  Naturalization Information for my grandfather, Kostanty Niedzialkowski .  The film contained my grandfather’s Certificate of Arrival (showing a date of arrival of 24 May 1910), his Petition for Naturalization (dated 18 Jul 1939, and his Declaration of Intention (dated 27 April 1955) .  I already had a copy of his Certificate of Naturalization, dated 1955, but I also previously had a copy of his Declaration of Intention, dated 02 June 1917!  The 1917 Declaration stated that it expired seven years from the date signed, so I guess my grandfather made his Declaration of Intention in 1917, the Declaration expired in 1924, so he made another Declaration in 1955, at which time he actually did become a citizen.

Time for me to get back to my research .  I’ll post some of these records I found, but I probably won’t be able to do that until I get back home next week.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

Posted in Niedziałkowski | Tagged | 1 Comment

Heading to Salt Lake City

Posted on April 20, 2006 by Steve

My flight to Salt Lake City leaves from Oakland at 7:30 PM tonight .  I’m all packed, but I’m not sure I’ve ever really been ready for a genealogy research trip .  I’ve been preparing for the last couple of months, trying to get my Family Tree Maker files in order, trying to organize my sources so I don’t spend time looking up documentation I already have, and searching the Family History Library (FHL) catalog for the books and microfilms I want to see while I’m at the FHL.

I found a bunch of films that were in the Granite Mountain Vault, so about two weeks ago I sent off an email to the FHL asking if they could get those films to the FHL in time for my visit .  Two weeks is a good lead time for this task;  one time I only gave them a week and they weren’t able to get the films in time for my visit.

One unusual set of films I want to look at is the Massachusetts Selective Service System Registration Cards [World War II]: Fourth Registration .  These cards represent older men, born between 28 Apr 1877 and 16 Feb 1892, who registered for the draft in 1942 .  I set up a custom report in FTM to find any men in my file for whom I had recorded a birth, marriage, or death in Massachusetts, and who were born in the appropriate period .  This gave me the names of 55 men to look up in this set of films .  Unfortunately, this collection includes 166 microfilm reels, all of which are in the vault!  I guess nobody knows about this set of records and has never requested them before!  Well, I couldn’t order all 166 reels, so I ordered the four I thought would be the most relevant for me .  When I get to the FHL on Friday, the first thing I’ll do is order some more films and hope that they’ll arrive before I leave on Tuesday . 

Some of the other sources I plan to look at are:

  • Petitions for Naturalization for Worcester Co., Massachusetts,
  • Selective Service Records and Exemptions as Aliens for Massachusetts in 1917-1918
  • Roman Catholic Church Records of Butrymance Parish in Lithuania (1834-1841)
  • Roman Catholic Church Records of Saint Krzyza Parish in Warsaw (1826-1876)
  • Roman Catholic Church Records of Krasne Parish in Poland (1657-1892)
  • Roman Catholic Church Records of Szwelice Parish in Poland (1780-1890)
  • Protestant marriages in the District of Bedford, Quebec (1804-1879)
  • Non-Catholic Civil Registration Index for Bedford, Quebec (1899-1989)
  • New Brunswick Vital Statistics from Newspapers (1784-1896)
  • New Brunswick Births, Marriages, and Deaths (1801-1925)
  • Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography

I’m looking forward to seeing Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography .  There is one biography in particular I’m interested to read, but this source is rather notorious for containing at least 200 fictitious biographies!   Most family historians don’t trust published genealogies that don’t list the sources of the information, but here’s a case where the source might not be trustworthy, either!

So, I should have plenty to keep me busy!  I’ll let you know how things are going!

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

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Three New Pages

Posted on April 19, 2006 by Steve

Thanks for the kind comments people have left me both on the blog and elsewhere .  It’s nice to get some feedback!  Last night I started to set up the actual website .  You can connect to the pages using the links on the right side of the blog.

The first page is About the Author, with some information about me.

The second page is part of my family tree, starting with my earliest known Dańko ancestor, Józef Dańko down through my grandfather and his siblings .  I ran into a few difficulties here, the biggest of which was that when I copied the Register report from Family Tree Maker (FTM) to my webpage, all the formatting was lost .  I have now reformatted the report and will link the events in the report to the actual images as I post those images to this site.

The third page is the start of my Vital Records page .  For now, I just have links to some sources of vital records in the United States, but will add more as time goes by.

When I first started entering information into FTM back in 1999, I noticed that FTM offered three basic report types:  the Register Report, the NGS Report, and the Ahnentafel Report .  All three are useful from different perspectives, and I chose the Register Report for my webpage on the Descendants of Józef Dańko, although I may decide to add an Ahnentafel Report later.

The Register Report and the NGS Quarterly Report are descendant-ordered, that is, they start with a single individual and show all the descendants of that person .  The reason for the names of these reports is that these are the report formats preferred by The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Register Report) and The National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGS Quarterly Report), two very well-respected genealogy journals .  The third type of report is the Ahnentafel Report (Ahnentafel is from the German for Forefathers Table) and is ancestor-ordered, meaning that the Ahnentafel lists all the ancestors of a single person and the resulting report is essentially a pedigree chart .  The Ahnentafel uses a strict numbering system, where the subject of the Ahnentafel is #1, a father’s number is always twice his child’s number, and a mother’s number is always twice her child’s number plus one .  Thus, except for the person listed as #1 (who can be either male or female), all the even numbered individuals will be male, and all the odd numbered individuals will be female.

Well, I’ve rambled on enough for today .  I have to pack tonight and get ready to fly to Salt Lake City tomorrow evening .  I plan to post on this blog each day during the conference directly from the Family History Library, so keep checking back .  Be sure to leave your comments, too!

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko

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