Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Time for a Break.

Break TimeIt is time for a break so I won’t be posting to the blog for the month of October, unless there is something absolutely groundbreaking or so important it cannot wait. (Can you believe it is already October!?)

A couple months ago I posted how I am going to split up my genealogy time between the different lines I am researching, you can read that post here; Research Prioritization and Focus.

So, this is the beginning of a new quarter so I am making the switch from my maternal lines; Pakledinaz and Lucas, to my wife’s lines; Rogers, Capen, Nisgoda. My wife’s lines have, by far, been the most neglected in our research so I need to take some time to gather what information I have and ensure it is all updated in our database, Legacy Family Tree and everything is documented and cited correctly. As I’m doing this, I need to determine my next steps, develop my research plans, and then execute on those plans. Somehow I am thinking that it may take the whole quarter just to do this stuff.

Along with that, I have some loose ends on the Pakledinaz and Lucas lines to tie up before I can officially break from that line. I have a couple research logs that I have been following and I want to make sure they are tidied up and everything is documented correctly so when I pick up with this line in several months, I have a clean transfer and I don’t end up duplicating research. Plus, I still have some information that I’ve found or received and have not entered into the database yet. I don’t want to leave it lying around and then in a couple months it is forgotten or buried within papers of another line – mistakes I’ve made in the past and do not want to repeat.

Those are the excuses I have for taking a break from the blog for the month of October and I am sticking with them. I will be back on the first of November. Don’t forget that it is the first of the month so back up that data.

Have you taken a break from your blog to tidy up your research? How did that work out for you?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Raymond Lucas 1910 Census for Census Sunday

My Lucas line has been one of my most elusive lines to discover so I’m going to reanalyze all the information I have on them and post my findings here on my blog. I have already mentioned a couple of their records in these posts; Death Certificate - Raymond Lucas, Collateral Damage Can be a Good Thing, Census Sunday - Who is Frank Goodman and I will continue today with their record in the 1910 census.

1910 Census LucasFinding them in the 1910 census was not easy as their name is spelled differently and the actual image of the census is quite faded. However, using the search variants in Ancestry landed me their record. They are lines 42 – 47.

The surname looks to be spelled Lookec but it could very well be Lookes or Lookis. It still sounds the same just not spelled as we would spell it. Anyway, here is the information from the census.

General and address information: They lived in the town of Northbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts and this was enumerated on 21 April 1910. The only indication of a road name is an X in that block so I am assuming this is a rural area with no road names or addresses as the address block is blank. The dwelling number is 41 and visitation number is 44.

Individuals:

1. Raymond Lookec, head of household, 28 year old white male currently married 1 time for 6 years. He was born in Aust-Poland as was his mother and father. He immigrated in 1902(?) and is an alien. He speaks English. His occupation seems to be some kind of laborer at the woolen mill. He was working on 15 April 1910 and was not out of work in 1909. He can read and write. They are renting a house.

2. Katherine, wife, 32 year old white female currently married 1 time for 6 years. She has had 4 children and three still survive. She was born in Aust-Polish as was her mother and father. She immigrated in 1902 or 3? She speaks Polish, does not list whether naturalized or alien and lists no occupation. She can read and write.

3. Mary, daughter, 3 year old white single female. She was born in Massachusetts.

4. Joseph, son, 2 year old white single male. He was born in Massachusetts.

5. Raymond, son, 6 month old single male. He was born in Massachusetts.

6. John Pots?vek or Pods?bek, boarder, 32 year old white male. He is married one time for 7 years. He was born in Aust-Poland as was his mother and father. He is an alien and immigrated in 1909. He speaks Polish. His occupation is unreadable and works in the cotton ?? industry. He was not out of work on 15 April or anytime in 1909. It is unreadable whether he can read or write.

Here is some of my analysis from this census:

1. Raymond and Katherine immigrated in 1902/3 and have only been married for 6 years. I can assume they were married sometime in 1903/4. From this I can make a guess that they met and married in Massachusetts. Looking at all the other names and nationalities that lived around them in the census, they are very much like many immigrants of the day; they lived and worked around people very similar to them.

2. There is no street address given for them, just a dwelling number. Looking at the other people on the census, the two families enumerated before them share the same dwelling number. The other two families say that they are renting. The first family enumerated says that this is a home just like my great grandparents; the second family says this is a farm on farm schedule 13, however, no one in that household or anywhere else on the census lists an occupation as farmer or working in the farming industry. Seems odd to me as I thought that the same dwelling numbers meant that they would live in the same house, apartment building, or some other type of attached housing.

3. Raymond lists his occupation as a laborer in what looks like woolen mill. The occupations of the other families around them all list occupations relating to the mills and textile factories.

4. Katherine is listed as having 4 children but only 3 still survive; this is information I did not know before.

5. The children, Mary and Joseph, match what I already know about them with Joseph being my grandfather.

6. Raymond does not match what I’ve been told of the family. I believe this could be who they called Edward. Maybe one is a middle name?

Additional Searches from this record:

1. Marriage record between Raymond and Katherine sometime in 1903/4.

2. Continue immigration record search in 1902/3 for both of them.

3. The type of home living in seems odd. Need to try and do some research on how dwelling numbers were enumerated. My wife mentioned that maybe the mills had some kind of housing for the workers?

4. Search of the woolen and textile mills in the area – maybe they have some employment records in which I can find Raymond. Or, at the very least, I’ll get a sense of the kind of work he did.

5. Do a comparison of the records I have which shows Edward as a son and see if they match with the information on the census – are Raymond and Edward the same child?

6. See if I can decipher the boarder’s name. It seems to be similar to what I have as variants of Katherine’s last name, Podrushack, Pascrumba. Is it possible that this is her brother? His immigration record could prove vital in finding their home village!

That is what I have for the 1910 census of my great grandparents, Raymond and Katherine Lucas. Am I missing something or did I overlook an obvious piece of information?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Follow Friday–My Favorites from the Last Week (or so…)

Follow FridayThe below blog posts caught my attention over the past week or so and thought I would pass them along in case you missed them.

- How do I Plan to Save my Genealogical Research by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings.
- 7 Things I've Learned So Far by Dylan Landis on The Writer’s Digest.
- 9 Clever Newspaper Research Techniques for Genealogy by Kenneth Marks of The Ancestor Hunt.
- Tuesday's Tip: WWII History Network and The Form Everyone Wanted... by Jenny Lanctot of Are My Roots Showing.
- Tuesday's Tip - Is Your Genealogy in the Cloud? by Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.
- Expanding Your Genealogy Comfort Zone by Lynn Palermo, The Armchair Genealogist.
- Great-Grandpa Was Inked! (Robert Young - 52 Ancestors #27) by Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small.

I hope you find these useful or at the very least, interesting.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Collateral Damage can be a Good Thing–Tuesday’s Tip

Collateral DamageI’ve spent a lot of my research time focused on direct ancestors. This is only natural because those are the ones that we want to know about and finding one leads to another. However, what do you do when you get stuck? You seem to have tried every possible route to find some missing information, like a birthdate, birthplace, or in my case, the home village back in Europe.

So here is the tip for this week, in case you don’t want to read the rest of the post, check the collateral lines of your direct ancestors. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, even cousins may lead you to some information about your direct ancestor that you just cannot find while staying true to your line. I have done that with my maternal grandfather, Joseph Lucas. Here is how it has helped me so far.

My Lucas line has proven to be a very tough nut to crack. My grandfather was killed in Germany just after the end of World War II, when my mother was just 9 years old. So, there are not many memories of him or of his family. His father, Raymond Lucas, died in 1921 as I have recently found and wrote about in this post, Death Certificate: Raymond Lucas. His mother, Katie Lucas, remarried after his death to a Frank Goodman but apparently he died or left at some point before my mother came along because she does not remember him. She had very faint memories of her grandmother; remembering that she spoke Polish a lot and lived in the same building when my mother was very small. She believes she died about the time that World War II began.

I can put my great grandparents, Raymond and Katie, in Massachusetts starting about 1906. The census records and birth indexes have helped me do this. Their first known child, Marvella, according to the census, was born in Massachusetts about 1906. Their second child, Joseph (my grandfather), and their third, Edward are also listed as being born in Massachusetts, about 1907 and 1909. I have tried to confirm the exact birth date of my grandfather for years, but it still eludes me. I have lots of information on him with a couple different dates, all in December of 1907, so at least I can be pretty confident of the month and year. However, I am digressing and the search for his birth is for a different post.

One of my research goals is to identify where Raymond and Katie were born and their home village in Europe. From the census and other documents I have been able to conclude that their nationality and language was polish and they were born in Russia. If you study a little about the changing Polish borders and areas in Europe, being Polish and Russian is a very real possibility. The census also tells me that they immigrated about 1901. However, the search for any immigration records, either arrival, departures, or naturalizations have been fruitless. It is almost like they just appeared out of thin year, which I am sure, many of you have encountered with your at least one of your ancestors.

I was at a dead end trying to find Raymond and Katie and additional information about my grandfather. So, I took some advice that I heard, and the same advice that I am giving today, check the collateral lines. I decided to see what I could find out about my grandfather’s brothers; Edward, Teddy, and Anthony. My mother said that Edward and Teddy never married, at least not that she was aware of. However, Anthony was known in the family, he was Uncle Tony. I remember talk of him as a small child. My mother remembers him and his family well. So, Anthony was my next search.

From the census records I knew that he was born in Detroit, Michigan so that is where I started. I searched the normal birth and death records first. I was successful and found his birth record and death record but neither provided any new information about his parents. Along with my own search, my mother was in touch with her cousin, Anthony’s daughter, and asked if she had anything about her father. I wasn’t expecting the information I received.

Baptism for Anthony LuksysShe had the baptism certificate for her father, but it wasn’t for Anthony Lucas, it was for Anthony Luksys! The parents were Roman Luksys and Catherine Paskruba. Everything but the surname Luksys matched the birth record of Anthony. I was a little surprised and excited, maybe this is the breakthrough I needed.

I have yet to make a certain breakthrough with this information but it has led me to more clues which I would not have without the name Luksys. I knew my grandfather and his brother were born in Massachusetts but not quite sure where. With the new information I can search for a new surname and I was able to find a record of Edward Luksis born to Raymond and Katie Pascrumba in Northbridge, Massachusetts on 14 August 1909. I have also found a record for my grandfather from the church records in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, part of Northbridge.

Although I have yet to find any arrival information for Raymond and Katie, the name Luksys is in the same area of Massachusetts at the same time. I have found naturalization and other records for a Samuel Luksys and although I cannot make a connection between the families there are too many similarities that I cannot ignore. Samuel lived in Upton, Massachusetts, right next door to Northbridge and he worked in Whitinsville, part of Northbridge. These are the same places where my grandfather and his brother were born. Samuel worked at the Whitins Machine Works and Raymond (great grandfather) is listed as a machinist in the birth record of his son, Edward.

Even though I have not achieved the breakthrough I am looking for, the moral of this story is that if I had not gone to my collateral lines, I would not have the additional clues to follow which I am confident will lead me to that breakthrough.

Do you have any collateral line success stories? Share those on your own blog or in the comments section here.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Photo Courtesy of: Leigh Marriner.

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Csihas–Surname Saturday

Csiha - Surname CloudVariants of the surname are Csias, Csiharsch, Czihas,

My Csihas ancestors start with Rupert Csihas, my 6th Great Grandfather. He was born abt 1720 in Bohemia. It is here that he married Helena Eleonora ?? and they had the following children:

1. Simon – born abt 1751 (5th Great Grandfather)
2. Susanna – born abt 1753
3. Josef – born abt 1757.  He married Katharina ?? on 25 November 1777 in Batschsentiwan, Batschka, Hungary, Austria’'.
4. Johann – born abt 1761 and died 5 May 1826 in Milititsch, Batschka, Hungary, Austria. He would marry three times; Elisabeth Prislinger in 1799 in Doroslo, Anna Maria Pfaltz on 22 Jan 1782 in Batschsentiwan, and Katharina Schroeder on 19 June 1894 in Doroslo.
5. Anna Klara – born abt 1765

Rupert and his family are immigrant ancestors. They emigrated from Bohemia in 1766 and settled in the village of Batschsentiwan, Batschka, Hungary, Austria. As part of their travel, they passed through Vienna in June of that year to register for the land they planned on settling. During registration Rupert reported his occupation as a sculptor. In 1768 we know that they resided at house number 47 in Batschsentiwan.

Batschsentiwan is currently called Prigrevica and is located in Serbia. You can read more about the Batschsentiwan settlement here: DVHH Village List - Batschsentiwan.

Ruperts wife, Helena, died in Batschsentiwan on 24 November 1780. Rupert followed her in death 12 years later, 17 August 1792 in Batschsentiwan.

Simon, their first born and my 5th great grandfather, would marry 4 times in Batschsentiwan.

1. Katharina Seider on 24 January 1775
2. Katharina Harjung on 26 August 1788
3. Barbara Weber on 2 July 1793
4. Anna Maria Schiebli (5th great grandmother) on 22 Sept 1795.

Simon and Anna would have 2 children, both born in Batschsentiwan :

1. Franz – Born 22 Aug 1796 (4th Great Grandfather)
2. Simon – Born 30 April 1805

Franz would marry Anna Kutsch but I am not sure where or when. I am assuming they married in Batschsentiwan but it could have also been Milititsch as this is where all their children were born. There children were:

1. Josephus – born 1818 (3rd Great Grandfather)
2. Johann – born 1829 and died 22 Sept 1909. He married Theresia Steckart on 22 Nov 1860 in Milititsch.

Josephus, also known as Josef, married Anna Maria Piller on 10 August 1843 in Milititsch. They would have five children, all born in Milititsch.

1. Jakob – born 12 Sept 1843 and died 25 May 1849
2. Josef – born 31 Oct 1844 and died 22 Nov 1844
3. Magdalena – born 11 March 1846 and died 19 Dec 1917. She would marry two times:
           a. Jakob Doriath (1840 – 1891) on 7 Aug 1865
           b. Josef Schuy (1838 – 1899) on 29 Jan 1894
4. Anna Maria – born 5 Feb 1848
5. Rosalia, by 2nd Great Grandmother

Rosalia was born 27 July 1850. She married Augustine Hinterhauser (1848 – 1891) on 30 June 1873. She died about 1915 maybe in Germany. They had 10 children with their last being my Great Grandmother, Anna Maria Hinterhauser. I’ve posted many times about her: Ship Manifest, Tombstone Tuesday, Census Sunday, Ancestor Appreciation Day

These are my Csihas ancestors, please let me know if your ancestors fit in anywhere, maybe we are related.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Sources used:

- Jakob Schuy and Paul Scherer, Ortssippenbuch Batschsentiwan 1763-1827 (Lappersdorf, Germany: Forschungsgemeinschaft Mittelbatschka zu Hd. Herrn Andreas Pfuhl, 1992), Page 53 - 55, Family 0260 - 263.

- Jakob Schuy, Ortssippenbuch Miletitsch(Racz Milititsch-Srpski Miletitsch-Berauersheim)in der Batschka, (Schriesheim, Arbeitskreis Donauschwaebischer Familienforscher, 1987)

- Római Katólikus (Roman Catholic) Egyház, Rácmilitics, "Halottak Anyakönyvek (Death Registry) 1826-1895" (Salt Lake City: Filmre vette a Genealogical Society of Utah, 1964. FHL Film 0638191).

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

This Day in History–16 September

This Day in HistoryOn this day in:

1664 – Susanna Capen (Wife’s 1st cousin 9 times removed) was born in Dorchester, England.

1673 – Dorothy Capen (Wife’s 1 cousin 9 times removed) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

1805 – Mathias Piller (3rd Great Granduncle) was born in Milititsch, Batschka, Hungary, Austria.

1915 – Edith Kater (Wife’s Great Grandaunt) was born.

 

Thank you for reading – if you find a link to our family or would like to know anything more about those listed above, please contact me.

Keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Monday, September 15, 2014

This Day in History–15 September

imageOn this day in:

1774 – Sarah Capen (Wife’s 3rd cousin 7 times removed) married Joseph Pratt.

1848 – Adam Piller (1st cousin 4 times removed) was born in Milititsch, Batschka, Hungary, Austria.

Thank you for reading – if you find a link to our family or would like to know anything more about those listed above, please contact me.

Keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.