Hi All, Perhaps this is not the forum to discuss the topic that I need help with. If that's true, please, someone direct me to where I could find an answer to my question. While researching my ancestral genealogy I read the ship manifests & notice that my forebearers came to America with various small amounts of money in hand. The manifests alway state $7, or $40 and such. US dollars? Where were the immigrants able to change money? My main question revolves around the coins actually used by my ancestors in their homeland. We are fortunate to have recently acquired a huge curio cabinet in which we are placing pictures, eyeglasses, prayer books, Na papers,and various items that came from Europe with our ancestors in the late 1800s & early 1900s. I thought it would be nice if I could also place a little pile of coins or paper money amongst the displayed items. BIG CONFUSION here. I've been perusing eBay for old coins. I'm no discerning coin collector. I just want to be as correct as I can be. in obtaining a few coins. My paternal grandmother's family immigrated from the area of Inowroclaw, Poland in 1902 --so would have been using German coins in Poland? What coins would I want to purchase if I want coins dated before 1902? Polish Ducat (PLD) or silver Florin Zloty (PDF)? Talara? Groszy? My grandfather immigrated from the Lomza/Bialystok area of Poland in 1906. Would I want Russian Rubles? (RUEP) Austrian Kronen (ATK)? My maternal grandparents immigrated from the area of Pl~ock, Poland in 1910. Would their families have been using the Russian Rubles before 1910? Seems like lots of different money was circulating in Poland during the decades before my ancestors immigrated. I have read and reread the history of currency in Poland. clear as mud to me. Thanks in advance for any help. Bobbi McCaffrey

I have a little information for you on OSTAFIN's found in my family tree. None though seems to fit your timeframe. It seems that Walenty Ostafin traveled with Michael Kucyba, a great uncle of mine, to the USA. They arrived at Ellis Island in February 1905. They were from the town of Okonin in Galicia. Walenty was about 24 years old at the time and was sponsored in the US by Wojeich Ostafin. His destination according to Ellis Island was Detroit, MI. Farther back than that, I have some sketchy info on a Joseph Ostafin (Oslafin?) who married Victoria Kucyba sometime around 1830. According to my cousin (our family historian) they had 7 kids: Martin b:1832, Maria b:1834, Catharina b:1836, Andrzej b:1840 d:1858, Marianna b:1843, Mathais b:1846 and Jan b:1850 d:1851. For your information, the town Okonin is located about halfway between Tarnow and Rzeszow. Alan

I am looking for further information on a few Ostafin's that immigrated from Poland or Austria. I am looking for information on Wojchieh Ostafin and Katarzyna Bien, they were married and had at least one son named Andrew Ostafin, born around 1856. Andrew immigrated to the US in the early 1900's and was married to Pauline Swider. I am looking for anyone that might have information on this family line. Thanks in advance.

Dear Maciek, Let me thank you for your help. I could not reply to your email.. Laura DePaolis

Saturday, April 19, 2008 is PGSA Genealogy Saturday at the Polish Museum of America library, 984 N. Milwaukee, Chicago. Polish Genealogical Society of America (www.pgsa.org) volunteers will be available to assist you with Polish genealogy research questions from 10am until 1pm. This service is open to the public and is not just for members PGSA members (although we can probably talk you into joining!) There is plenty of free parking. You can also enjoy a visit to the Polish Museum of America. I'm just the messenger, so if you have questions, please email them to: PGSAmerica@aol.com. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

I am new to research on this side of the family, so please forgive my ignorance of Poland and the Polish language. I am learning new things everyday, what an adventure! My great grandfather immigrated in the late 1800s and I have several different dates on him. His name was John (Jan?) Bieniewicz. His birth date is recorded on different censuses, December 1855; 1855; 1852 and on his death certificate as Jan 1, 1855. He married in the US (probably the Bronx, NY) about 1887 to Antonina (also called Annette and we called her Anastasia, last name unknown) from Poland. Her birth date is listed as June 1865; 1867; 1867. They immigrated in 1884 or 1885 through Castle Gardens. John died in 1912 and Antonina remarried after 1917. I recently received his death certificate which said his parents were Paul Bieniewicz and Caroline Johawska. The handwriting on this document is very poor. It says John was born in Prussia while his parents were born in Poland. Paul was probably Pawel and Caroline – Karolina? Also what would you guess is Caroline’s last name really?? John and Antonina lived in Minneapolis Minnesota when he died. The closest match I find for John in the Castle Gardens records is Johann Bennerich. While it says that his origin is from Bremen, Germany on the ship Rhein, arriving 29 May 1884 – it is my understanding that origin is not always accurate. This entry matches his age and occupation. As John did not read or write (based upon the census – which might mean his literacy was in Polish??) I could imagine him telling the German or English record keeper that his name was John (Johann) Bieniewicz (Bennerich). The other Bieniewicz’ I find in Castle Garden records include Antoni Bieniewitz on the Eider arriving 31 Mar 1884 (too young) and Josef Bieniewitz on the Eider the same time (too young) and Joh Bienek who came over with a wife and children on the Hermann on 14 Feb 1884. I would appreciate any comments on Paul and Caroline. Past contacts have suggested looking in Chrostkowo. As I don’t speak or read Polish I hope that someone may be able to direct me to locations to look and a way to translate. Also as John was a naturalized citizen, how do I get those records. Thanks so much for any help. Bonnie

Here is some more information on Inowroclaw. Inowrocław miasto siedziba powiatu siedziba gminy 77647 osób woj. kujawsko-pomorskie pow. inowrocławski gmina Inowrocław tel. 0-52 Jim On Apr 11, 2008, at 1:45 PM, Raven Fan wrote: > Hi All, > > >> I believe Inowroclaw is a county. You must now find out the >> village or >> town >> that they came from in order to find the church. > > Inowroclaw is a city as well as a county. My ancestors were from > that area. > > Go to www.familysearch.org. Go to LIBRARY. Go to LIBRARY > CATALOG. Go to > PLACE. Type in: Inowroclaw Part of: Poland > > You will see just how many churches and records there are for the > area of > Inowroclaw. > You do need to narrow your search down to a town, if possible. > > I found my ancestors in Parafija Sw. Mikolaja which is the > Catholic church > in Inowroclaw city. > > Take care > Bobbi > > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots- > admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the > list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this > list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message jimpres1@mac.com

Hi All, >I believe Inowroclaw is a county. You must now find out the village or >town > that they came from in order to find the church. Inowroclaw is a city as well as a county. My ancestors were from that area. Go to www.familysearch.org. Go to LIBRARY. Go to LIBRARY CATALOG. Go to PLACE. Type in: Inowroclaw Part of: Poland You will see just how many churches and records there are for the area of Inowroclaw. You do need to narrow your search down to a town, if possible. I found my ancestors in Parafija Sw. Mikolaja which is the Catholic church in Inowroclaw city. Take care Bobbi

Hi all, and thank you Debbie for the recommendation of this book. I've ordered the book, and can hardly wait to get it. I just thought other listers may want to know that I found the book at a much lower price at Amazon.com after checking the listings that you posted, along with a couple other book sources. The savings will go into my fund for travel to Poland ; ) Pat Soika In a message dated 4/6/2008 2:21:54 A.M. Central Daylight Time, Debbie Greenlee writes: Message: 5 Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:56:01 -0500 From: Debbie Greenlee <daveg@airmail.net> Subject: [POLAND] Book Recommendation To: Poland Roots <POLAND-ROOTS@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <47F83BC1.3000700@airmail.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Regardless of whether you've been to Poland or not, I think everyone will enjoy the book, _A Polish son in the Motherland_, by Leonard Kniffel. ISBN 1-58544-441-3 Texas A&M University Press It's the true story of a man who moved to Poland for about six months in 2000, to search for his mother's family. Kniffel didn't do this after researching his ancestry though. He went over with some names, photos, village names and, I think, a good knowledge of the language. Those who've been to Poland will certainly smile time and again when reading of Kniffel's experiences. Those who haven't been to Poland yet will get a glimpse into what it's like to try and accomplish a goal. The book is a light read and very enjoyable. It's only about 245 pages, no pictures. http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/kniffel.htm http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?r=1&ean=9781585444 205 Debbie I have no connection with this book or the publisher. **************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)

Michelle, The parish was in the village of Zmigrod Stary. Debbie Michelle Urben wrote: > I recent was shown a Polish Birth Certificate for my Great-Aunt. It > helps to explain and give us even further details in to the family. We > are all very excited. Of course the certificate is written in Latin. I > have deciphered most of it though looking up websites, etc. But there > are still a couple abbreviations and the like that I just can't seem to > figure out. If anyone can help, I would be appreciative. Please e-mail > me at this address and I can forward you the document. > > Also, question: Under Pariosha is says Zmigrod Stary. Does that mean > that the church's name was Zmigrod Stary? >

I believe Inowroclaw is a county. You must now find out the village or town that they came from in order to find the church. MaryAnn ************** Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)

I recent was shown a Polish Birth Certificate for my Great-Aunt. It helps to explain and give us even further details in to the family. We are all very excited. Of course the certificate is written in Latin. I have deciphered most of it though looking up websites, etc. But there are still a couple abbreviations and the like that I just can't seem to figure out. If anyone can help, I would be appreciative. Please e-mail me at this address and I can forward you the document. Also, question: Under Pariosha is says Zmigrod Stary. Does that mean that the church's name was Zmigrod Stary?

-----Original Message----- From: poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com on behalf of singmore Sent: Tue 4/8/2008 9:58 AM To: poland-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [POLAND] Foreign email >For now, I think I will ask my relative to use the (~) after the diacritic and I will figure it out from there. Does anyone > >think this would this be a difficult or rude request? For the native speakers, it would take a considerable effort to accommodate you. The concept of adding ~ after the diactrical letter does not exist among Polish speaking people, and it is not a natural writing/reading style. Most of us read/write automatically in our native languages without giving much thought to the process itself. What you would be asking them goes against the grain, so to speak. It feels weird, it looks weird and it is not a part of a Polish language at all. It is a common practice among Poles to use plain letters with no diactrical marks, when for whatever reason, they cannot use the proper letters. Any Polish speaking person would understand it perfectly. Nobody would ever use ~. If one wants to see/write all diactrical marks in Polish (or other non-English language), it is easy enough to set up one's computer to display/write them. Also, most common email programs - like MS Outlook, for example, or the on-line ones like hotmail, gmail or yahoo - do support international character encodings. No need for ~. Ever. Cheers. Ella ********************************* Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com ---------------------------------- Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. ---------------------------------- Browse the list's archives here: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots Search the list's archives here: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

>From the polish Roots Website Roman Catholic duplicates for the Poznan Archdiocese are usually available in the Poznan State Archive. For the areas in the Gniezno Archdiocese, the archives in Bydgoszcz and Inowroclaw have most of the duplicates from the districts of Bydgoszcz, Inowroclaw and Strzelno. Duplicates from the neighboring districts were often kept in the parishes, and forwarded to the Archdiocesan Archive, along with the originals. The majority of the duplicates from the Western districts are now held in the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, An der Orangerie 3, D-14469 Potsdam, GERMANY. It's necessary to stress, though, that for some districts the civil duplicates are missing completely, or for some larger periods between 1808-1874. The reason for this is unknown but the only explanation is probably the destruction of the entire set of duplicates at some point in history, most probably in WWII or just afterwards, together with the justice court records. The major portion of existing civil duplicate records have been microfilmed by the LDS. On 4/8/08, John Ruther <chicagojohn@comcast.net> wrote: > I need to reach out for help here. I recently, like last week, discovered that my 2X's Great Grandfather, Jozef Bednarek immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1890's from Inowroclaw, Poland. I have no idea how to go about locating the name and address of the Catholic Church in Inowroclaw. I am hoping that someone can point me in the correct direction. > > Thank you all, > > Jack > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

I need to reach out for help here. I recently, like last week, discovered that my 2X's Great Grandfather, Jozef Bednarek immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1890's from Inowroclaw, Poland. I have no idea how to go about locating the name and address of the Catholic Church in Inowroclaw. I am hoping that someone can point me in the correct direction. Thank you all, Jack

>For now, I think I will ask my relative to use the (~) after the diacritic and I will figure it out from there. Does anyone > >think this would this be a difficult or rude request? For the native speakers, it would take a considerable effort to accommodate you. The concept of adding ~ after the diactrical letter does not exist among Polish speaking people, and it is not a natural writing/reading style. Most of us read/write automatically in our native languages without giving much thought to the process itself. What you would be asking them goes against the grain, so to speak. It feels weird, it looks weird and it is not a part of a Polish language at all. It is a common practice among Poles to use plain letters with no diactrical marks, when for whatever reason, they cannot use the proper letters. Any Polish speaking person would understand it perfectly. Nobody would ever use ~. If one wants to see/write all diactrical marks in Polish (or other non-English language), it is easy enough to set up one's computer to display/write them. Also, most common email programs - like MS Outlook, for example, or the on-line ones like hotmail, gmail or yahoo - do support international character encodings. No need for ~. Ever. Cheers. Ella

Hello LeAnn, Yes you have the correct record. I have located the census of 1910, and 1930, the obits, the military scans ancestry has to offer. I have yet to locate 1920 census. I thought I had done so, however cannot locate it on either of my comps. I have yet to locate the actual birth records of the children, and the marriage of anna and walter. I expect she may have possibly been pregnant when she married Walter. Only reason I say this is that, is family lore has her as an arranged marriage to Walter as she was a "Loose woman" However she was married upon her trip to the U.S. I have no idea what happened upon her arrival until her connection to walter with "their" first son. Marie On 4/7/08, LeAnn Cook <lady4justice@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > > Sorry the message below is late but it bounced back because the size was > too big with the previous email trail > > LeAnn > > > _____________________________________________________________________________ > April 6, 2008 > > > > > Marie: > > I found what I believe to be Walter Jr's military information. It > is under Walter B Stelnicki. > Dated: 20 May 1944 By my calculations he would have been 25 at > the time. The informaion says his birth was Feb 1919. He was at Ft. > Thomas Newport, KY. > Nativity State listed as PA. > > Address at the time was 1751 Brame Place, Toledo Ohio Lucas > County 43613. > > If this information is correct then Walter Jr. was born in PA.... > Michael was born about 1917 or 1918 in Pittsburgh, so it is possible > that Walter Jr. was also born there. I am going to try and see if I > can find any Pittsburgh records online and search for Walter Jr's > birth. > > > I went back through the emails and found the last name for Walter > and family. I am glad I picked up the correct information and > spelling. > > Our local library has Heirtage Quest online which contains > periodicals and newspapers, court records, etc. I have been searching > that for the Stelnicki family....but so far nothing concrete. > > LeAnn > > > > > > > The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the > strong. Mahatama Gandhi > > LeAnn > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at > Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as > long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: > researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Sorry the message below is late but it bounced back because the size was too big with the previous email trail LeAnn _____________________________________________________________________________ April 6, 2008 Marie: I found what I believe to be Walter Jr's military information. It is under Walter B Stelnicki. Dated: 20 May 1944 By my calculations he would have been 25 at the time. The informaion says his birth was Feb 1919. He was at Ft. Thomas Newport, KY. Nativity State listed as PA. Address at the time was 1751 Brame Place, Toledo Ohio Lucas County 43613. If this information is correct then Walter Jr. was born in PA.... Michael was born about 1917 or 1918 in Pittsburgh, so it is possible that Walter Jr. was also born there. I am going to try and see if I can find any Pittsburgh records online and search for Walter Jr's birth. I went back through the emails and found the last name for Walter and family. I am glad I picked up the correct information and spelling. Our local library has Heirtage Quest online which contains periodicals and newspapers, court records, etc. I have been searching that for the Stelnicki family....but so far nothing concrete. LeAnn The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Mahatama Gandhi LeAnn

Greetings all, A special thanks to all who responded to my inquiry regarding the Polish diacritics. Long story short, Eudora is limited in it's choices. For now, I think I will ask my relative to use the (~) after the diacritic and I will figure it out from there. Does anyone think this would this be a difficult or rude request? Now, to all my Polish speaking listers, how would one ask this in Polish? (Dear relative, please use a (~) after a diacritic so that I am better able to read your messages.) Thanks again... Laura DePaolis Sugar Land TX

I am interested in finding information specific to Upper Silesia (former German Gleiwitz, now Poland Gliwice). If anyone knows of lists or websites that focus on that area, please let me know. Thank you. Romola Chrzanowski >From: Dave Krause <davidekrause@gmail.com> >Date: 2008/04/06 Sun AM 11:44:39 CDT >To: poland-roots@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [POLAND] A German in Poland >Rose; >Thanks for your input. You are the second person to suggest that I >subscribe to that list. This may be the direction that I needed. >Again, thanks! >Dave > >On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 2:15 AM, Rosemarie55 <rosemarie55@shaw.ca> wrote: >> Dave >> >> I would suggest that you also (subscribe and )post your query on the Ger-Poland-Volhynia List at www.sggee.org. They focus mainly on Germans in Poland (and Volhynia area of the Ukraine, or what was called Russian Poland at one time. >> >> Rose >> >> >> >> From: "Dave Krause" <davidekrause@gmail.com> >> >> Hi; >> >> I stumbled across this Polish web site and was fascinated with the sometimes >> humorous, but mostly serious research that is taking place. I also got the >> impression that there is a lot of respect by the individuals involved with >> the site. >> >> I'm new to genealogy research so I need help ? and some direction. I'm >> researching my father and his roots. When I was 13, I asked my dad (age 66) >> to tell me about Germany. He showed irritation and told me that the subject >> was a closed book and to leave it that way. He died the next year. Needless >> to say, I haven't left the closed book closed! >> >> >> >> *What I know:* Dad (Edward Krause) was born in Boberfeld, Russia >> (misspelled as Boverfeld according to his ship manifest record) which is now >> Bobrowo, Poland on March 9, 1888 (or 1889) to a Wilhelm Krause ? a German >> farmer. He immigrated to the U.S. on September 24, 1909 aboard the >> Lusitania. He had an older brother, Ernest Krause who sponsored him by >> purchasing ship and rail passage to Montana. Dad's last listed address in >> Europe was Hanover, Germany. Dad's WWI draft registration indicated he was >> born in Cunian (Curyn?), Poland, Russia. I think dad didn't let the truth >> get in the way of a good story ? since his first wife helped him fill out >> the WWI draft registration. He and his first wife became naturalized >> citizens in 1915 in Vaughn, Cascade County, Montana. >> >> --------snipped---------- >> >> >> ********************************* >> Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com >> ---------------------------------- >> Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. >> ---------------------------------- >> Browse the list's archives here: >> http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots >> Search the list's archives here: >> http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >********************************* >Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com >---------------------------------- >Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. >---------------------------------- >Browse the list's archives here: >http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots >Search the list's archives here: >http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message