Autographs of Passengers on Board M.S. Batory to New York

List of Passengers M.S. Batory from Gdynia Tuesday, July 25th 1950 Copenhagen, Wednesday, July 26th Southampton, Friday, July 28th to New York

Several years ago Deborah Wade provided Olive Tree Genealogy with a transcribed list of the passengers on board MS Batory from Gdnynia.

Deborah wrote "Off and on, I collect old menus and ephemera connected with trains, cruises, airplanes/airports, etc. The passenger list I'm about to transcribe is one such item. Maybe one of the passengers will be significant to a fellow genealogist. Although this voyage was in 1950, I believe there is some history behind the Batory: I have read that it was the last Polish passenger ship to leave Poland before the Nazis gained control in the late 1930's."

Recently Kelli Phoenix sent photos of an autographed Passenger List booklet from the MS Batory.  Although the ships sailed on different days, this kind of ephemera can be very helpful.  Perhaps you will find an ancestor name or address in Kelli's photos.

3 Essential Websites for German Family History Research

 Following is a guest post from Legacy Tree. Be sure to read to the end and then claim your exclusive offer as an Olive Tree Genealogy reader - Receive $100 off a 20-hour research project using code SAVE100, valid through Oct. 31st, 2017.

3 Essential Websites for German Family History Research

#1 – www.MeyersGaz.org

For years, novice genealogists who found themselves embarking on the road of German genealogy were discouraged when needing to decipher an entry for their town in Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs (commonly known simply as Meyers or Meyer’s Gazetteer of the German Empire) due to the old German font in which the book was printed and the plethora of abbreviations that were used. To address this obstacle, the website www.MeyersGaz.org was created.

This online database not only explains the text and various abbreviations in the town entry that are found in the original printed version of Meyers, but also pin-points the location of the town on both historic and modern maps, indicates the Catholic and Protestant parishes to which residents of the town would have belonged, and notes the distance from the town to all parishes within a 20-miles radius.

The database also allows users to search for a town using wildcards. This is especially useful when the exact spelling of a town is not known. For example, if the record on which you found the new town name indicated that the person came from Gross Gard…. where the second part of the word was smudged or illegible, you could simply put “Gross Gard*” into the database. In this case, the only two options would be Gross Garde in Pommern and Gross Gardienen in East Prussia. If you have a common town name such as Mülheim, you can filter the search results by province.

 Excerpt for Gross Gardienen entry on MeyersGaz.org.

#2 – www.Kartenmeister.com

Kartenmeister is a database for towns which are found east of the Oder and Neisse rivers in the former German Empire provinces of East Prussia, West Prussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia. This area is now part of modern Poland. The database allows users to search for towns using either their German or Polish name.

Again, using Gross Gardienen as our example town, we learn that the Polish name for the town is now Gardyny and is located in the Warminsko-Mazurskie province. Like MeyersGaz.org, collaboration between users is encouraged. Individuals can enter their email address into a mailing list according to the town they are interested in and specify surnames they are researching in that town.

Entry for Gross Gardienen on Kartenmeister.com

#3 – www.LostShoeBox.com

This website is an index to seventeen websites focused on research in Poland. The list of websites corresponds with a map of Poland divided into its various modern provinces. Each number (representing a website) is listed on the map in each province for which it has records. Some websites are listed for nearly every province, while others show up for only one or two. The seventeen websites featured on lostshoebox.com include either direct access to digital images, indexes to vital records, or lists of microfilms or other archival holdings. 

Map of Poland from www.lostshoebox.com.

If we were searching for records for Gross Gardienen or other nearby towns, we know from Kartenmeister that we would need to look in the Warminsko-Mazurskie province. The map shows the number 3, 10, and 14. On the website, a list below the map shows that those numbers bring us to the following websites: http://szukajwarchiwach.pl/, https://www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl/, http://olsztyn.ap.gov.pl/baza/szukaj.php.

The third website on the list for the province brings us to the website for the Polish State Archive in Olsztyn. There are a plethora of digital images for both Evangelical church records and civil registration records available on this website.

Camille Andrus is a Project Manager for Legacy Tree Genealogists, a worldwide genealogy research firm with extensive expertise in breaking through genealogy brick walls. To learn more about Legacy Tree services and its research team, visit Legacy Tree. Exclusive Offer for Olive Tree Genealogy readers: Receive $100 off a 20-hour research project using code SAVE100, valid through Oct. 31st, 2017.


   

Join Me on a Cemetery Walk Through Panna Maria, Texas

Panna Maria (meaning Virgin Mary) is the oldest Polish settlement in the United States. It is located in Karnes County, Texas, United States. 

Thanks to  Sonja Nishimoto who sent me 262 photographs of tombstones taken by her in 2008, I now have the Panna Maria Cemetery Walk online on Olive Tree Genealogy  YouTube Channel.

Update of New Records from FamilySearch

FamilySearch Adds More Than 4.3 Million Indexed Records and Images to Chile, China, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United States

FamilySearch has added more than 4.3 million indexed records and images to collections from Chile, China, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United States. Notable collection updates include the 687,546 indexed records and images from the new Chile, Cemetery Records, 1821–2013, collection; the 541,382 images from the Portugal, Beja, Civil Registration and Miscellaneous Records, 1609–1950, collection; and the 579,293 indexed records and images from U.S., BillionGraves Index, collection . Search these diverse collections and more than 3.5 billion other records for free at FamilySearch.org.

Searchable historic records are made available on FamilySearch.org through the help of thousands of volunteers from around the world. These volunteers transcribe (index) information from digital copies of handwritten records to make them easily searchable online. More volunteers are needed (particularly those who can read foreign languages) to keep pace with the large number of digital images being published online at FamilySearch.org. Learn more about volunteering to help provide free access to the worldís historic genealogical records online at FamilySearch.org.

Poland Genealogy - My First Venture

Recently a marriage record I ordered from the online Manitoba Vital Records website arrived.  I don't have ancestors in Manitoba but my two nieces do. Helping them find their Polish ancestry was something I wanted to do but it is proving very challenging.

The groom's name is misindexed as Wasyl Ludyjko in the online index but it is actually Wasyl Sudyjko. Mixing up upper case "S" and "L" is a common transcription error in records.

Immigration Records

I had previously found Wasyl in Ancestry.com records arriving in St. John, New Brunswick Canada on board the ship Mount Temple in 1905.  He has been misindexed as "Wasyl Sudefks" The ship sailed from London England and the passenger list recorded him as Wasyl Sudeyko, age 23, born Galicia and heading to Winnipeg (Manitoba)

Census Records

The next record that *may* be for Wasyl is the 1906 census for Manitoba where he is listed as "W. Suduk" age 25, single.

The 1911 census for Selkirk Manitoba confirmed Wasyl was married now:

Suedeyko Wasyl   M Head M Apr 1881 age 29 immigrated 1904, Naturalized, Greek Catholic, born Galicia
Suedeyko Jessie   F Wife M Jul 1886 age 24 immigrated 1906, born Galicia
Suedeyko Annie   F Daughter S Jun 1910 age 11 mos born Manitoba

I had one other clue about Wasyl. I knew that eventually the surname became Sedak and the family lived in Selkirk. Sure enough he was found in the 1916 census for Selkirk Manitoba. This was another example of a badly indexed record - the entire family was listed with the surname Wasil instead of Sedik!

Sedik Wasil     33
Jessie Wasil     31
Annie Wasil     6
Mike Wasil     4
John Wasil     2
Mary Wasil     0

Death Record 1922

The last record I was able to find was a death record for Wasyl in 1922. He was recorded as "William Sedit" born 5 Oct. 1882 [sic] Here his wife's name was given as "Josepha Scukie" We know this is the correct man from other confirmed details given by his daughter to her granddaughters (my nieces). His mother is name as "Mary" and there is no name recorded for his father.

Marriage January 21, 1909

So back to the marriage record I received recently. This record shows the parents of both bride and groom, plus ages and birth places. The challenging part is finding out where these towns are today and what their names are (if they have changed) I had sucess finding Wasyl's birth place which is recorded as "Bilcze Zolate Galicia" According to JewishGen it is now called Bil'che-Zolote, Ukraine and is in the Province of Ternopil Oblast, some 460 km SW of Kiev.

His parents are named as Michael Sydyjko and Dorka Lueyk or Cueyk. Perhaps one of my readers will have a better idea than I of Dorka's surname.

The bride is listed as Josepha Skurycka, 22 born Lycztiwi (?), Galicia. Her parents are Wajtko Skurycki and Kateryna Kaczrat. Again, help from my readers would be appreciated in the reading of their names and Josepha's birth location. It could be Lycytiwi or I may have misread the last bit "tiwi" but I do not find either listed on JewishGen.

Cemetery Records

I also found both William and Jessie buried in East Selkirk St Stanizlus Roman Catholic Cemetery, St Clements, Manitoba

Obituary Records 

I was lucky enough to find Jessie (Josepha's) obituary in the Winnipeg Free Press in 1963 but no clues as to her origins were found:

Obit Jessie Sedik, March 16, 1963. Winnipeg Free Press

Came to Canada from Austria in 1907 and lived Selkirk Manitoba until 1942, then moved to Toronto
Predeceased by husband Wasyl in 1922
4 daughters survive - Mrs Harry Zalenksy (Annie) of Prince Albert
Mrs Mary Wynyyk of Selkirk
Mrs. Kay Zaleski of Toronto
Mrs J. Robinson (Lena) of Toronto
2 sons - John and Michael of Selkirk
8 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren

Questions

One question I have is what would the Polish name be for "Michael" and what would the English name be for "Wajtko"? If anyone knows please enlighten me!

And so a marriage record has great information but leaves me still struggling. And I have not yet found Josepha (Josefa, Jessie) on a ship arriving in either Canada or USA. It's always fun and exciting to be exploring a new area of genealogy research but I confess to finding this very challenging indeed.