Diggin' for Family

Time for a Break.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:32:00 +0000

It 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

Raymond Lucas 1910 Census for Census Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 14:23:00 +0000

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.

Finding 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.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 11:00:00 +0000

The 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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 21:10:00 +0000

I’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.

She 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.

Csihas–Surname Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:03:00 +0000

Variants of the surname are Csias, Csiharsch, Czihas,

My Csihas ancestors start with Rupert Csihas, my 6^th 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 (5^th 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 5^th 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 (5^th great grandmother) on 22 Sept 1795.

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

1. Franz – Born 22 Aug 1796 (4^th 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 (3^rd 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 2^nd 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).

This Day in History–16 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On 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

This Day in History–15 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On 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

This Day in History–14 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 11:08:00 +0000

On this day in:

1754 – Charity Capen (Wife’s 5th Great Grandaunt) was born in Braintree, Massachusetts.

1777 – Maria Johanna Morlock (5th Great Grandaunt) was born in Schellbron, Neuhausen which is in the current state of Baden-Wuertemberg, Germany.

1935 – Joseph Lucas married Teresa Pakledinaz (Grandparents) in Carleton, Michigan.

And Happy Birthday to my big brother, Bill Shaw.

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 20:34:00 +0000

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

Thinking About Research Questions by Pat Thomson of the Patter Blog

A Beginners Guide to Newspaper Research for Genealogy by Kenneth Marks of the Ancestor Hunt blog

Photo Scanning - ScanMyPhotos.com Review by Jennifer Shoer of the Scrappy Genealogist blog

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

Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

This Day in History–10 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1757 – Malatiah Capen (Wife’s 2nd cousin 7 times removed) was born in Stoughton, Mass.

1757 – Jane Capen (Wife’s 2nd cousin 7 times removed) was born in Stoughton, Mass.

1905 – Selina Ann Canter Cantelo (Grandaunt) was born in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

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

Tuesday’s Tip–Is My Source Lying to Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:23:00 +0000

I am going to give two tips for this post and then offer a ‘what if?’ case study from one of my records.

1. Don’t always trust your sources at first glance especially secondary sources. Try and have at least two or more separate sources which tell you the same information. Of course, there are exceptions to this but I believe they are few and far between.

2. Get in touch with older or distant family members who knew the ancestor you are researching. Of course, this is not always possible depending on how far back you are researching. For instance, the record I’ll talk about below if for my great grandmother who passed before I was born. Her daughter, my grandmother, passed before I started researching so I can’t talk with her either. My mother knew her grandmother but didn’t know enough about her to answer questions that I had. However, when I started researching I still had great aunts, my grandmother’s sisters that I could contact. They have been a great help with stories and information that I just can’t get anywhere else.

So, if you don’t read anything else in this post, you have the two tips that I believe are priceless when researching your family history. For the rest of this post, I’m going to describe how those two tips combine to help piece together my great grandmother’s arrival in the United States and what could have happened if I did not follow these tips.

For the rest of this post I am going to be using the ship manifest which shows my great grandmothers arrival in the United States. You can read my initial post about that manifest here: Ship's Manifest. More specifically, I’ll be talking about the information given in the final destination questions on the manifest, shown in the picture below.

Looking at the final destination questions of the manifest it tells me that Anna was going to join her cousin Jakol Dorjak in Trenton, NJ. If I knew nothing else about Anna and where she was at different times after she arrived in the United States and I did not follow the tips I gave above, I would probably start a search for her in Trenton, NJ. She arrived in August of 1909, so I would start with the 1910 Census in Trenton. I would not only search for her but also the cousin, Jakol Dorjak. Before I start searching, I want to know this Dorjak name. I look through the family book of Anna’s home village and I cannot find a Dorjak so I suspect the spelling is a little off. I find a similar name, Doriath. I search through the names and I can find a Jacob Doriath who is Anna’s cousin. I also find Franz Doriath who I suspect is the Franz Darjack traveling with Anna. The information on age and family matches what is said about him on the manifest. He has a brother, Josef, who he says he is going to join and their father is Josef, the closing living relative in country of origin. So, I’m pretty sure the Dorjak/Darjak names on the manifest are actually Doriath. I cannot find any Doriath or variant of it living in Trenton, NJ in the 1910 census so I expand the search to surrounding areas and other sources like city directories, etc… I’ll keep searching and expanding my search to maybe even trying to find the other Doriath lines hoping to find where Anna settled. As you can see this search could go on and on but I am not going to find Anna in New Jersey or the surrounding areas. Of course, I did not do all this searching for Anna because I followed my own advice above and checked different sources and I asked family members.

At the time I found the manifest I already knew that Anna was married and living in Detroit in 1914, I had a copy of my grandmother’s baptism record which showed this. Between 1909 and 1914 I had no idea where Anna was, where she met her husband or where she had her first two children. I had not found them in any census yet.

So, with the manifest and my grandmother’s baptism records it looked like Anna immigrated to Trenton, NJ in 1909. Then, in December of 1914 she gave birth to my grandmother. Everything in between was a mystery. This is pretty much all I knew about Anna at the time. If I had not followed my advice above and tried to contact family for information, I would have spent many countless hours searching as I described above. I did start to search in the Trenton area but at the same time I also contacted family, my great aunts to be exact, to see if there were any family stories about my great grandmother’s immigration. I was told that Anna immigrated with another family where she was going to tutor their children in English for room and board. They weren’t sure where she was lived for this but they also said that they believed Anna and John (their parents) met at Anna’s brother’s house, Adam Hinterhauser. But again, they didn’t know where this was. However, I had a knew clue to follow and a connection that I could make. I had found an Adam Hinterhauser in a ship’s manifest but didn’t know who this was and if there was any connection to Anna. Now I could make the connection that this could be Anna’s brother. In the manifest Adam said that his final destination was Youngstown, Ohio. To not drag this on too much longer, this is the final connection that put the pieces together. I found Anna and John in Youngstown, Ohio in the 1910 census, they were married. In fact, they were married in January of that year as I found out by writing to the Archdiocese of Youngstown and asking if they had a record of a marriage between Anna Hinterhauser and John Pakledinaz. They were very helpful, found the record of their marriage on 15 January 1910, and even sent me a copy of the marriage certificate.

With all this information, I believe that Anna’s final destination was probably Youngstown, Ohio where her brother already lived and she was going to be tutoring children in English. Things changed fast after she got to Youngstown. She met her future husband and they married just 5 months after she arrived in the United States.

Can I completely disregard the information about Trenton, NJ and her cousin? No, I can’t! I have two theories about this information.

1. The information recorded about her final destination was incorrect due to recorder error or maybe misunderstandings.

2. Anna, on her way to Youngstown, was going to stop and visit with her cousin for a while before moving on to her final destination with her brother. Jacob Doriath is Anna’s cousin and there is a Jakob Doriath arriving in NY in 1908 hailing from the same village as Anna, the ages match so this could be her cousin although is final destination is listed as NY. When asked what her final destination was she could have misunderstood and told them her next destination, which was to visit her cousin.

I would tend to believe that my second is more probable since her cousin is named in the document. This is just a theory and more investigation and research may lead to more proof that is concrete but I honestly doubt I will ever know the exact travels of Anna between New York and Youngstown, Ohio.

I made many mistakes in the early days of my family history hunt. However, in those early days I also read a lot of advice on how to conduct your research and the two tips I presented here are some of what I learned back then. I am glad I listened to that advice or I would have spent many useless hours searching for Anna in all the wrong places.

What was some of the best advice you remember from your early days of your genealogy journey?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Question Guy photo courtesy of: Scout

This Day in History–9 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1703 – John Preston (Wife’s 2nd cousin 8 times removed) was born in Dorchester, Mass.

1904 – Thomas Walter Canter Cantelo (Granduncle) was born in Pontypridd, Eglwiysilan, Glamorgan, Wales.

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

Anna Hinterhauser–Immigration-Ship’s Manifest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 16:16:00 +0000

This is the manifest that show Anna Hinterhauser arriving in the United States. Anna is my Great Grandmother and one of our immigrant ancestors. This is what the manifest tells me:

Ship: She traveled aboard the SS Mexico of the French Line and rode in second cabin. This wasn’t the worst accommodations for her sea trip so we know she may have had a little more comfort than most who traveled as steerage passengers.

Departure and Arrival Information: She departed the port of Havre, France on August 7, 1909 and arrived in New York on August 20, 1909. This was a long trip for Anna if you include her travel to the port. I’m not sure how she got from her home village of Miletitsch (present day Srpski Miletic, Serbia) to the port of Le Havre in France but I would make a guess that it was a combination of carriage and train. The distance is almost 2000 kilometers and would take almost 19 hours by car today.

Personal Information: Anna was 19 years old, female, single and worked as a servant. She was able to read and write. Her country of citizenship was Austria and her race was Magyar (Hungarian). Her last permanent residence was in the village of Militic in Austria. Her mother, Rosalia was her closest relative in the village she came from.

Final Destination: Her final destination was Trenton, NJ. She had a ticket to her destination and she paid for it herself. She had $15 on her and had never been in the United States before. She was going to join her male cousin Jakal Darjark at 1010 Anderson St in Trenton, NJ.

Other Information: She was never in the hospital or other institution for reason of insanity or unstable mind, she was not a polygamist or an anarchist, and she was not coaxed or paid to come to the US for reasons to work as labor.

Health and Description: She was in good health and was not deformed or crippled. She was 5 ft 2 in tall with a fair complexion, flaxon hair, auburn eyes and no distinguishable marks.

Place of Birth: She was born in the village of Militic, Hungary.

My Observations from all the Information on the list: Anna did not travel alone. There are three other passengers that surround her on the list that have the same last permanent home; Magdelana Rohrbacher, Franz Dorjack, and Peter Welchner, It would seem that Franz may have been a cousin to Anna because she said she was joining a cousin by the name of Darjack. However, I’ve looked through the Miletitsch Family book and cannot find this family but I can find the other two passengers traveling with Anna. I would assume that the Dorjack name is misspelled so I’ll have to look closer at the families and see if I can make any matches with the little information that I know. Anyway, it is good to know that Anna was not traveling alone on such a long journey.

With all of that said, how trustworthy is the information given? This list could be considered a primary source by some researchers since we can assume Anna was right there giving the information to the clerk who was recording it. However, I think this is more of a secondary source as Anna was not filling out the paperwork on her own and the clerk was probably in a hurry and the accuracy was secondary to the speed of processing the passengers. So, the information has to be in question until it can be proven.

In my next Tuesday Tip post I will present some additional information which makes me distrust some of this record.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

Citation for this record: "Original Ship Manifests," online images, Ellis Island Online (http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp : accessed 28 Jul 2014), manifest, S.S. Mexico, 20 August 1909, Anna Hinterhauser.

This Day in History–7 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1792 – Magdalena Hinterhauser (4th Great Grandaunt) was born in Brestowatz, Batschka, Hungary, Austria.

1806 – Leonhard Teppert (4th Great Granduncle) was born in Weprowatz, 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

Are Josephi and Oliva Pakledinac My 3rd Great Grandparents?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 18:19:00 +0000

Josephi Pakledinac and Oliva Simunic in Legacy Family Tree

Are Josephi Pakledinac and Oliva Simunic the parents of Markus Pakledinac, which would make them my 3^rd Great Grandparents? This is the theory that I have and one that I must work to prove. In this post I am going to write out the information that I have discovered that leads me to this theory.

The source for all of this information is from the Family Search images, Croatia Church Books, 1516 – 1994, specifically from the Parish of Sotin covering years 1857 - 1885, unless otherwise noted.

The basis for my theory is that John Pakledinac and Jakob Pakledinac are cousins. Therefore, their fathers, Marcus and Bonus Pakledinac are brothers. The records show that both of them were the son of Josephi Pakledinac, which was married to Oliva Simunic. Therefore, Josephi and Oliva must be my 3^rd Great Grandparents.

Facts of my theory:

My Great Grandfather, John Pakledinaz, is the son of Markus Pakledinac, born 16 March 1885 as I presented in this post: Birth Record of John Pakledinaz.
The baptism record of Jacobus Pakledinac, 1 May 1857 lists parents as Josephic Pakledinac and Oliva Simunic.
The baptism record of Theresia Tadianovic, Oct 1865, shows the witness as Marcus, son of Josephi Pakledinac.

Baptism Records showing Marcus as the son of Josephi Pakledinac
My Great Grandfather, John, had a cousin named Jakob. The immigration manifest for John says that he was coming to join his cousin, Jakob, in Youngstown, Ohio. I wrote of this manifest in this post: John Pakledinaz – Immigration-Ship’s Manifest.
I have Jakob Pakledinac living in Youngstown, Ohio in 1918 and lists his birthdate as 11 August 1876.[1] He also appears in Youngstown for most of his life past 1918.
I have Magdalena plus children arriving in New York in 1903 to join her husband Jakob Pakledinac in Youngstown, Ohio.[2]
Baptism records show a Jakob born to Bonus Pakledinac and Maria Jvic on 11 Aug 1876.
Baptism record of Josephus Lovric, 24 July 1868 shows witness of Bonus, son of Josephi Pakledinac.

Baptism Records showing Bonus as the son of Josephi Pakledinac

Some Conclusions from the facts:

Jakob Pakledinaz, born 11 Aug 1876, son of Bonus Pakledinaz and Maria Jvic is the same Jakob Pakledinac that is living in Youngstown, Ohio in 1918. All the evidence matches with birthdates and village of origin for Jakob.
The above Jakob Pakledinaz is the cousin of John Pakledinaz whom he was joining when he immigrated in 1905.
Since John and Jakob were cousins then their fathers, Marcus and Bonus, were brothers.
The baptism records of Both Marcus and Bonus show that they are the sons of Josephi Pakledinac, therefore making them brothers.

Some Fuzzy Areas and my rationale that clears them up:

There could be more than one Josephi Pakledinac in Tompojevci which could mean Bonus and Marcus may have different fathers, although both named Josephi. All references to Josephi appear to be to the same person. Either he is being referred to as the father of someone or the husband of someone. The records do show a Catherine, wife of Josephi in 1868. This leads me to believe that there may be two Josephi Pakledinac’ in Tompojevci, one married to Oliva and one to Catherine. However, I investigated further (and jumped forward in the records) and found that Oliva died in September 1858. Then there is a marriage record for Josephi to Catherine in May 1862. I cannot find anything else that would tell me there were two Josephi’s.
The Jacob Pakledinaz living in Youngstown, Ohio may not be the cousin John said he was joining when he immigrated. This is a key part of my theory since if they are cousins then their fathers were more than likely brothers. However, I cannot put Jakob and John together in Youngstown, although I know both of them lived there. John married Anna Hinterhauser in Youngstown in January 1910 and they are shown in the 1910 census for Youngstown. I cannot show Jakob in Youngstown or anywhere for that matter before 1918 except for the arrival of his wife in 1903 to join him in Youngstown. However, he appears to live the rest of his life in the Youngstown, Ohio area. I find him in the 1920, 1930, 1940 census in Youngstown and also a record of his death in Youngstown in 1942. A 1910 census record of Jakob living in Youngstown would be great, but that has eluded me thus far. However, with all that said, I find it very unlikely that there was another Jakob Pakledinac in Youngstown. Too much coincidence with such a unique last name.

So, is Josephi Pakledinac and Oliva Simunic my 3^rd Great Grandparents? Have I discovered another generation in my Pakledinac line? I’m thinking that the probability is high.

However, this is still a theory and I can’t prove it and only continued research will tell the tale. I will continue my discovery into these church records and will hopefully find the birth record for Marcus that will ultimately prove who is parents are. I’ll also pursue the collateral line of Jakob Pakledinac in Youngstown, Ohio and maybe more of his story will help prove or disprove my theory.

What do you think? Has my bias and wanting for this theory to prove true clouded my judgment? Have I missed anything?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for the family,

Chris

[1] Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

[2] "New York, Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JFGY-2JX : accessed 06 Sep 2014), Magdalena Pakledinac, arrived at New York, 02 Jul 1903, on the Pennsylvania; citing National Archives, Washington D.C.

This Day in History–6 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1698 – Ebenezer Capen (Wife’s 1st Cousin 9 times removed) was born and sadly died that same day in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

1833 – Horace Leavitt Ames (Wife’s 2nd cousin 5 times removed) was born in Keene, New Hampshire.

1904 – Lily Cantelo (1 cousin twice removed) was born in Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales.

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

This Day in History–5 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:
1693 – Susanna Capen (Wife’s 7th Great Grandaunt) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
1794 – Mary Capen (Wife’s 2nd cousin 7 times removed) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
1824 – George Lafeyette Ames (Wife’s 2nd cousin 5 times removed) was born in Keene, New Hampshire.
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.

This Day in History–4 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1805 – Friedrich Andreas Danneil (Wife’s 5th Great Granduncle) was born in Unseburg, Prussia.

1808 – Johanna Teppert (4th Great Grandaunt) was born in Weprowatz, 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

This Day in History–3 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1809 – Josef Piller (3rd Great Granduncle) was born in Milititsch, Batschka, Hungary, Austria.

1847 – Carl August Rudolf Michaelis (Wife’s 3rd Great Grandfather) was born in Neumarkt, Schleswig, Germany.

1886 – Douglas Henry Shaw (Great Granduncle) married Annie Ellen Thompson in Beaverton, Ontario, Canada.

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

Editorial Calendar-How I Use It-Tuesday’s Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Do you use an editorial calendar to help you manage the content of your blog? I did not use one for the longest time after I first started blogging. I actually did not know what an editorial calendar was and I'm not sure where I got the idea to start using one for the first time. But now I cannot imagine trying to plan and organize my blog posts without using one.

You can look up the correct definition of an editorial calendar and you'll probably find several. However, for my basic needs I define it as a calendar to help manage what content I intend to post to my blog and when I want to publish that content.

There are several different forms or types of an editorial calendar. A popular type that I have seen and read about, especially for genealogy bloggers, is an excel spreadsheet. There are others that are plugins for your blogging platform, there are even companies that produce editorial calendar type software that you can pay for. I have tried the excel spreadsheet and also tried using my to-do list, toodledo.com. However, none of those really worked that well for me. The spreadsheet was just another document I had to open and maintain. The to-do list approach kind of worked and I still use it a little to manage posts but it didn't give me the overall picture I needed to see what I was going to post. So, I turned to google calendar.

I already use google, as do a lot of people. I have a few different accounts; one for the family, a personal account, and one for genealogy. Each account comes with a calendar and you can set them up to share/edit from your other accounts. The picture above shows my google editorial calendar. It does what I want and need an editorial calendar to do and I didn't have to spend a dime or make another document.

The calendar gives me a visual snapshot of my intended content for my blog. I can see where there are holes so when I am scheduling content I don't post too much in one day and leave other days completely blank. I’m spreading things out and trying to keep the blog fresh with new content and not dormant for too long.

The calendar lists all the posts that I've completed and intend to complete. When you add an event into the calendar, you have color coding options and you can also assign it a specific time (obviously because it is a calendar). I use both of these to help tell manage posts.

Red = I have not started writing that post yet.
Yellow = I have started writing but not complete.
Green with a time = Post is complete and scheduled to post on that day and at that time.

The red and yellow stand out more because they have no specific time assigned to them, that event is an all-day event. I like that because it makes them much more visible; staring me in the face saying "finish me".

I said that I have different accounts on google so I just use the calendar that comes with my genealogy account as my editorial calendar. I use my other google account calendars as regular calendars. For instance, the family account is where we put all our appointments and commitments. What is good with using your google calendars and sharing them is you can view more than one calendar at a time. The picture below is an excerpt from our family calendar with my genealogy calendar activated - both calendars are visible. I like this because I can see what posts I need to work on alongside any family commitments we may have which makes planning the time to work on posts a little easier. This calendar is not that full right now but wait a month or so when scouts and sports start up for our kids - I'll be very thankful I have this setup.

If you only have one google account or you don't want to use two separate accounts, you can still have separate calendars which work just like mine. Google allows you to make additional calendars within your account. Here is a step by step if you don't know how to do that:

Open your google calendar
On the upper right corner, there is a cog wheel with an down facing arrow, click that.
A menu will open, click on settings, you will now be in your google general calendar settings
On the upper left, there are tabs, click on the calendars tab.
The first section shows 'My Calendars', this is where any calendars that you currently can view and edit will show up. Go under that and click on 'create new calendar'. This brings up the new calendar setup.
Name the calendar, type in a description if you want, make sure the calendar time zone is correct and then go to the top or bottom and hit 'create calendar' again
You are sent back to your normal calendar view and on the left side of the screen, under the heading 'My Calendars' your new calendar should appear. You're done.

Now you can see and edit all your calendars at one time. If you want to hide one of the calendars, say you just want to see your blogging calendar, then go to the "My Calendars' on the left side and click on the calendars you want to hide. Click on it again to view it.

As I said, I did not use a editorial calendar at first but now it is a must-have for me. There are several different options to explore when creating one for you, google calendar is just the option that works best for me.

Do you use a different type of editorial calendar? Do you have any suggestions for how I use mine? If so, please leave a comment and let everyone know.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

--------------------------------------

This Day in History–2 September

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1724 – Elijah Capen (Wife’s 2nd cousin 8 times removed) married Elizabeth Bird.

1817 – Theresia Piller (3rd Great Grandaunt) 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

Farming Ancestors of the 1700s–Labor Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 12:39:00 +0000

On the occasion of Labor Day, I thought I would try and explain at least one of the many occupations that our ancestors claimed as their own and how that life may have appeared. The most predominant occupation that I have discovered for our ancestors is that of farmers. This is especially true for ancestors before 1900 who all lived in Europe. Being farmers should be of no surprise because agriculture and farming was the leading occupation for most during these times. A look at the occupations that I have discovered shows farmers for the past 300+ years. Instead of covering all that time, I am going to focus on some of our oldest ancestors who were peasant farmers in 18th Century Europe, in the region which is now in and around Serbia.

I cannot be 100% certain that all of these ancestors were farmers and will probably never be able to confirm this. However, all four of these ancestors have one thing in common (besides being my ancestors). They all emigrated from their homelands during the 18th century to this region.

The ancestors and their families that I will be talking about are as follows (all part of my maternal line):

Martin Hinterhauser (6th Great Grandfather), village of Brestowatz or Backi Brestovac

Joseph Morlock (6th Great Grandfather), village of Filipowa or Backi Bracac

Johann Adam Teppert (6th Great Grandfather) village of Apatin

Rupert Csihas (6th great Grandfather), village of Batschsentiwan or Prigrevica

All of these ancestors were of German decent, three of which I can trace back to modern day Germany. So maybe a brief history covering how, I believe, these ancestors became farmers in a region which, today, we do not typically think of as German.

This area, back in the 1700s, was known as the Batschka. It is predominantly flat and fertile lands for agricultural purposes. Through the 1600s and early into the 1700s the land was disputed territory between the Ottoman's to the east and the Hapsburg's to the west. The Hapsburg's finally won out but as the Ottoman's retreated, they left the land in total destruction. The Hapsburg's, beginning with Emperor Joseph I wanted to regain the fertile lands and provided great incentives for any Germans they could convince to leave their homelands and settle the area. The incentives changed over the years but the basics were free land, at least tax-free land for so many years. They were also offered the many items they would need to help them settle their land and begin farming. The items included horses and everything needed to use the horses to plow the fields and pull their carts, they also received other farming tools like shovels and sickles. They were also given the typical items needed for preparing and cooking food. You can see the entire list here; Specifications of goods & tools, supplied to a colonist. You can also read a more extensive history at this site; Batschka.

Although these reestablished settlements needed trade workers, most of the colonists came to start a new life and work the fields as farmers. So, more than likely, our ancestors first years in their new homes were spent in the fields, planting, tending, and harvesting what they could from the land.

Anyone who has done any type of farming or even prepared their own personal gardens knows that there is a lot of work involved, even today with our modern conveniences and machinery. Our ancestors of the late 1700s had no machinery, they had to depend on the strength of their back, their horses, mules, oxen, or cows, and their neighbors. The fields required constant attention and a day in the fields would typically start before dawn and continue past dusk.

Undoubtedly, the fields were not the responsibility of just one family, it was a community affair. A family may have a few acres that 'belonged' to them but the work had to be shared and everyone chipped in; the whole community depended on the food that these fields produced. And it was not just up to the men of the community, everyone helped out to get the crops to the tables. If someone wasn't in the field helping then they were at home taking care of small children not old or strong enough to work in fields along with all the other daily chores of life in the 1700s like preparing and cooking meals, washing, and tending to the animals of the household, which could have been chickens, goats, and probably cows.

So, on this labor day when we think about the labor that built this country, take a step back and remember our peasant farming ancestors who broke the ground in these new communities and paved the way to our existence today.

I’m pretty sure all of us have some kind of farmer in your ancestry, where did they farm? Write a post on your blog about it or let us know in the comments for this one.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Photo Attribution: Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Sources used in this post:
- Leeb, Alex. “Life of a Schwob”, Danauschwaben Villages Helping Hands, 2004, http://www.dvhh.org/banat/lifestyles/schwob_life.htm.
- Tullius, Nick. “A Short History of the Danube Swabians” Donauschwaben Villages Helping Hands; Danube Swabian History, 2013, http://www.dvhh.org/history/1700s/DS-history~tullius.htm.

This Day in History–1 Sept

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000

On this day in:

1685 – Priscilla Capen (Wife’s 1st cousin 9 times removed) was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

1751 – Sarah Capen (Wife’s 3rd cousin 7 times removed) was baptized in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

1772 – Ägidius Morlock (5th Great Granduncle) was born in Schellbron, Neuhausen, Germany.

1906 – Selina Russell (3rd Great Grandmother) died in Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales.

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

Data Backup Day–Don’t Lose all that Hard Work!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 10:00:00 +0000

Tomorrow is data backup day for a lot of family historians and I am no different. If you are not backing up your data tomorrow then I hope you have another day set aside at least once a month to do a backup. I thought I would post this the day before to show how I backup my data which may help someone with their backup routine and maybe others can give me some tips on my process.

Before I say anything else, the most important thing about backup is that you are using a backup scheme that works best for you and your situation and one that you will stick to. But, at the very minimum and what I’ve always been told is that it is a good idea to backup your data to at least one other type of media that is physically separated from what you are backing up. For instance, if your are backing up the hard drive on your desktop computer, the media you are backing up to should not be within your desktop tower. It should be to an external hard drive or a flash drive or maybe DVDs. Like I said, that is the minimum, I like to exceed this for extra piece of mind and it doesn’t really take all that much effort.

My backup plan is centered around multiple copies in different locations. Here is what I do:

1. I own a 1 TB Western Digital My Book Live drive that is connected to my home network via our router. I use the software that came with the drive and I have it setup to backup all the files on the two hard drives in my desktop, this includes all of my genealogy data. This software is a continuous backup so I don’t have to remember to push a backup button. However, I do check it at least once a week to make sure it is working properly.

2. In order to have all my genealogy data with me wherever I go, I use Dropbox. I have it installed on my desktop and on my Surface Pro 2, which is my laptop. So, it also serves as another backup of my data. Not only do I have it on my desktop and my Surface Pro 2 but it is also located in the cloud. By the way, I share genealogy data with my sister who is in a completely different state and she has Dropbox on her computer also, so there is another mode of backup.

3. I own two 1 TB WD my passport external drives. One of these drives is for all my genealogy data and the other is for all the other important files that I need to backup. These are my third layer of backup and I keep both hard drives locked up in my desk at work. I bring them home on the 1st of each month, do my backups and take them back to work.

The first two parts of my plan are almost automatic, I don’t really have to think about them too much and my data is being backed up. I had to set them up initially and I do check them quite often to ensure things are working the way I want them to work, but for the most part they work in the background. The third step is the one that really takes any time and effort. I have to physically connect these to my desktop via USB and then copy all the files I want to backup onto the drives. Depending on the mood of my computer, the process can take as little as 30 minutes but it has also taken up to about an 2 hours. However, the extra piece of mind that this step gives me is worth any amount of time it takes.

So, that is how I backup my data each and every month. It is the system that works best for me and gives me piece of mind. There are a lot of different ways to backup your data, Thomas MacEntee, of Geneabloggers has a whole page setup with backup resources here: Resources For Backing Up Your Data.

Do you have any suggestions on making my system better? How do you backup your data? Write a post on your own blog about your backup plan or share it in the comments here.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Pakledinac (Pakledinaz) Family of Tompojevci

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 11:39:00 +0000

For the past month or so, I have been making my way through church records from the Sotin parish located in what is now Croatia but at the time of these records it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My ancestors are from the nearby village of Tompojevci. Sotin is where the main parish was so that is where I look for church records. My goal for this was to confirm my great grandfather’s birth and parents and look for other family in the village. The records are extensive, covering birth, marriage, and deaths from 1795 – 1895, so I have many records to go through; you can read what I have already written about these records here; Old Country Church Records.

I would like to say that I am through with the records but I am not, I have only made it through the baptisms for years 1857 – 1895 with minor browsing through all the other years. However, I wanted to share what I have uncovered so far.

As I mentioned, the goal was to look for family of my great grandfather, John Pakledinaz. What I have to report about his mother, father, and siblings is not great happy news. I am happy to find his family and put more of my history together, but I cannot imagine what his parents and the rest of the family had to go through during this time.

John’s parents are Marcus and Elisabetha (Bankovic) Pakledinaz. They had 10 children that I can find in the records, only 4 of those would live past their 1^st year of life, and one other would die at age 15. It is not uncommon to have children die within months of birth in this era, I have run into it with other families I am researching but I have not had a family that lost this many children so early in life. I cannot and will not even try to imagine losing one of my children. I cannot begin to feel how devastating this must have been for Marcus and Elisabetha, my 2^nd great grandparents. Here is a list of their children:

1. Marianus – born (listed as their first-born) 10 October 1866, died 13 October 1866, just 3 days old.

2. Joannes – born 2 December 1867, died 22 August 1883, just 15 years old.

3. Adamus – born 24 March 1870, died 29 Aug 1871, just 1 year old.

4. Elias – born 20 July 1874, died 19 Dec 1874, just 5 months old.

5. Magdalena – born 24 October 1875, died 4 December 1875, just a month old.

6. Barbara – 26 December 1876, died on ??. I hope to find some more about her.

7. Josip – 19 March 1879, died on ??. He immigrated to the US in 1906 and sometime before 1920 changed his name from Pakledinaz to Parker. In 1930, he was in Michigan with his family – I lose track of him after that.

8. Matija – born 19 February 1881, died 11 August 1881, just 5 months old.

9. Gjuragj – born 10 May 1883, died 24 February 1885, just 1 year old.

10. Ivan (John, my great grandfather) – born 16 March 1885, died 13 March 1957 in Detroit, Michigan. I’ve written about him in these previous posts: Birth Record, Draft Registration Cards, Immigration Ship Manifest, Surname Saturday - Pakledinac (I am going to have to update my Pakledinac page soon with the new information I am finding).

As I continue through these records, I will make additional posts on my findings of our Pakledinaz (Pakledinac) and Bankovic ancestors. My goal is to be through them by the end of September.

The citation for these records are: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, "Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994," database and images, Family Search (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2040054 : accessed 17 Aug 2014); Roman Catholic (Rimokatoli?ka crkva) > Sotin > Births (Ro?eni),Marriages (Vjen?ani), Deaths (Umrli) 1857-1885

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris