Yesterday I was given a photo of my Great Grandparents, Andrew and Paulina Ostafin. On the back of the photo it shows their dates of birth, and also states their towns where they were born in. Now I know Andrew translated to polish is Audrzej or something similiar to that. For Andrew it says the town Okuninia or Okaninia I really can't read the writing its very tiny. I tried googling those two names and nothing came up. The only closest matches I got were Okonia or Okuninka. Can anyone familiar with towns in Poland help me out? If I knew the correct spelling of this town I might be able to start searching for a birth record. For Paulina it says she was born in Kamionka. Andrew was born in 1867 and Paulina was born in 1877. On the photo it also states when they came to the US, for Paulina it says March of 1903 and Andrew Feb. or March of 1900. But when I did a recent search at both ancestry.com and ellisisland.org I couldn't find records of either of them for those years, alt! hough I found a record for a Paulina Ostofin who arrived here in USA in 1905. On the same record is a daughter Maria and I believe that is my great grandmother Paulina Ostafin and her daughter Maria. I also saw on the same record a Magdelena Swider right above Paulina's name. I know my great grandmother had a sister named Margaret, so I almost certain this Magdelena is her. The last name is obviously correct because that was my grandmother's maiden name. For Andrew I found a record but its in 1907. He is under Audrzej Ostafin. It says he is from Okonia, and I believe I can make out he is going to Easthampton, MA. Which would be right, because thats where they lived in Massachusetts. If anyone can help me out with any info that would be great. Also if anyone knows how I can obtain birth records for my grandparents, could they lead me in the right direction for that as well? Thanks so much! Ron

Ron, To start with, you may want to post a readable image of the photo so that those who are familiar with the language can provide their own opinions with regard to the spelling found there. For example, the Polish version of Andrew is ANDRZEJ, not Audrzej. Polish is a declined language and, as such, your transcription could well have included word endings based on sentence usage. That would influence the proper rendition of the town name. Cheers, Roman rgdtad05@aol.com wrote: > Yesterday I was given a photo of my Great Grandparents, Andrew and > Paulina Ostafin. On the back of the photo it shows their dates of > birth, and also states their towns where they were born in. Now I > know Andrew translated to polish is Audrzej or something similiar to > that. For Andrew it says the town Okuninia or Okaninia I really can't > read the writing its very tiny. < Big long paragraph continued... > > Thanks so much! > > Ron