Relationship Charts – xCousin yRemoved

Relationships across generations can be confusing to beginning and experienced genealogists alike. If she is my second cousin twice removed, exactly how are we related? What is my relation to my first cousin’s great grandchildren.?  Verbal or written explanations can be convoluted, but here are links to a few charts that are both clear and simple.

Generation Names by Alvy Ray Smith

A chart by Alice J. Ramsay

How Are We Related? An updated version of the Alice J. Ramsay chart from Crestleaf.com

A to Z Challenge – N is for Names

There are lots of interesting things to ponder about names. Does the name our parents give us have any bearing on how we develop as we grow up?  Does our first name have an effect on the first impression we make when meeting someone? Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having an unusual first name – or unusual spelling of a common first name?

My maternal grandparents gave most of their children Polish names – that’s how they appear in church baptism records. Here they are in order of birth

Baptismal Name	Common Name
Alexandria	Alice	Did “Alex” as a nickname become Alice?
Bronislawa	Bernice
Pelagia	Pauline
Stanislawa	Stella
Joseph	Joseph
Stanislaus	Stanley
Martha	Martha
Julia	Julia
Czeslaw	Chester
Emilia	Emily
Frank	Frank	Not “Francis” but the English version of Franz.

My own parents gave their three children middle names after the saints on whose feast day we were born.  I was born on the feast of St. Catherine. My next brother was born on the feast of St. Raymond.  But my folks had their limits. The next brother was born on the feast of St. Jehosaphat. His middle name is Joseph.

In Roman Catholic grade school, I was one Mary among many including the teachers who were all Sister Mary ………  How I longed to have an unusual name.  I envied Rita Hayworth’s daughter Yasmin. 

A to Z Challenge – M is for Minnesota

All four of my grandparents ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Why?

Weather was not a deterrent as my immigrant ancestors were accustomed to the harsh winters of Poland.  And it probably didn’t hurt that the geography is similar to their homelands just east of Poznan.  

In the late 1800’s the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis were booming. St Paul was the northernmost port on the Mississippi river. Lumber and agricultural products from areas farther west arrived in St. Paul to be transported down the river.  Railroads were expanding. Industry was booming. Two giant grain millers, Pillsbury and General Mills were thriving. 

New immigrants could find work.  It was a good place to be.

A to Z Challenge – L is for Latin

My ancestors were Roman Catholics in Poland.  That means that their baptism, marriage, and funeral records were all written in Latin. How fortunate for me that Latin was the language of the church and the records were not written in Polish – a very difficult language.

A to Z Challenge – K is for Kulturkampf

In its narrowest definition, Kulturkampf was Otto Von Bismark’s struggle with the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1870s. In actuality, it had an enormous effect on the Polish provinces of Prussia beyond the conflict between church and state.

Most Poles were Roman Catholics.  Kulturkampf affected every aspect of their lives.

In 1872, a decree demanded that the use of the German language was compulsory in all state schools. The Polish language was banned -  even as a foreign language. [1]   In all courts and public offices, down to the local post office, business was conducted only in the German language

This was a key move in the process of Germanification of the Prussian Poland. German citizens were encouraged to migrate to Poland, and were given priority when acquiring property and in hiring.

It is no surprise to me that my ancestors chose to emigrate to the United States.

Bibliography

God’s Playground – Norman Davies

Gold and Iron – Fritz Stern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkampf

http://www.britannica.com/event/Kulturkampf

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[1] God’s Playground – Norman Davies – Chapter 3, page 126, 127

A to Z Challenge – J is for Jumping to Conclusions

It is very tempting and much too easy to come to a conclusion before we have all the data. Click genealogists do this when they see a familiar name on someone else’s family tree and simply add new information to their own tree.

DON’T DO THAT!  (Sorry for shouting.)

Same name, same location, year is off by only 1 or 2. Must be the same person. Could be the same person, but it could also be a different person from a different branch of the same tree. Be sure to check sources both the other person’s sources and your own.

Having said that, I do engage in reasoned speculation.  Evidence points in a certain direction, but there is no real proof. There are varied opinions on whether to put speculative data in an online tree.  I do that hoping that someone will either corroborate my conjecture with proof or prove me wrong.

How do you handle your “educated guesses”?

A to Z Challenge – I is for Ignatz Ganas

Ignatz Ganas was my maternal grandfather.  He was born in 1870 at Chorzalki – a tiny village near Iwno, Poland. He died in 1940 – before I was born – in St. Paul, Minnesota.

His life before he came to the US is a bit of a mystery because it is mostly hearsay. I have copies of the church documents for his baptism and his marriage. I have a copy of the passenger list showing his arrival in the US. I have stories my mother told me.

Apparently his mother’s family owned a tavern and he told stories about working behind the bar as a child.  His father, Joseph, died when Ignatz was 3 years old. His mother, Marianna Jaskowiak Ganas, remarried when Ignatz was 6 years old.

The rest of my “knowledge” of him is family lore – none of which I have been able to verify.

He was sent to live with his mother’s twin brother in Berlin. His uncle was a tailor who taught Ignatz the trade.

Ignatz left Prussia/Germany just before his 16^th birthday in order to avoid conscription into the army.

I do know that he was back in Germany in 1893 because he sailed from Hamburg and arrived in the US in Baltimore that year. He was 23 then.

I would love to know where he traveled and how he lived for those 7 years. My guess is that he made a living tailoring. But where???

This is one mystery that most likely will never be solved. Back to my wish for a time machine.