Hi my name is Roberta Hall. I am a 5th generation Polish American. I have no Polish heritage left as my family has fully integrated the American way of life. Only Polish I have left is in my blood, only wish I knew how to speak the language. My ancestor's arrived in the States via the Port of New York in December of 1882. Their names have been Americanized and based on documents I have found not one person spelled it the same way. This is want I have: 1) My great great grandparents: Joseph Schemenkowski and Mary Wisnovsky/Wisnewski. 1900 W. Kewaunee, Kewaunee Co., Wis. USA Household # 252 Scimenkufsky, Joseph b. Dec. 1838 in Polish, Rus. (possibly Brevier?) Mary (wife) b. Jan. 1847 in Polish, Ger. Anna (dau.) b. Jun. 1878 in Polish, Ger. Frank (son) b. Oct. 1879 in Polish, Ger. Daniel (son) b. Dec. 1883 in Wis., USA 2) Frank my great grandfather's marriage license is spelled Franz, Sieniskowski. He married in Wisconsin in 1901. 3) Frank believed he was a citizen of the U.S. based on the papers his father showed him. I don't have a copy of those papers but Frank was 3 at the time the family emigrated to the States. As it turned out Frank was not naturalized at the time of emigration so in 1913 he filed papers to naturalize. On those papers Frank spells his name Shenenkowfski. He states he was born in West Prussia, Germany and that he emigrated thru Bremen in November of 1882 arriving in New York in December of that same year. He doesn't know the name of the ship. 4) Generations of the family follow the Catholic religion. buried at St. Hedwig Catholic Cemetery Schemenkowski, Joseph, wife Mary, son Frank his wife Eva, grand son Louis his wife Sophie, and great grand children Louis and Regina. Along with son John Wisnicky. buried in another Catholic cemetery is another of Joseph and Mary's son's Daniel Sheninkosky. The correct spelling of the name is an obvious issue and has made my search difficult. I have no experience researching in Polish archives and language would be a problem and I can't read or speak it. Can anyone help me, I would really appreciate it. My grandmother has since passed but she had 8 children resulting in 27 grand children. I am the only one in the family who is attempting to find our roots. I have many cousins waiting to see what I can learn. Thank you to anyone who can help, Roberta Hall Chicago, Ill.

Roberta, Finding exactly where your folk were from in Poland will be what you need to achieve before you can hope to locate Polish records. The surname spellings will vary in America, but once you are looking in the correct town or village the Polish spelling should start to become obvious to you and probably remarkably consistent. Have you seen this excellent collection of pages as background reading for Polish research? https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Poland Some sites for American databases rely on exact spelling so you need to think of variations even greater than you already have. Alas Wisniewski and Wiszniewski are very common surnames. My recommendation would be to try and find church records for your earliest family in America. If you are able to view the actual church books for records of extended family somewhere amongst them might be more specific information about the area they came from, which often is not included on certificates. Dorothy has also given you lots of good ideas of places to search and leave messages. Kind regards, Bronwyn. On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 4:17 PM, roberta hall <jhallvoyager@att.net> wrote: > Hi my name is Roberta Hall. I am a 5th generation Polish American. I have > no Polish heritage left as my family has fully integrated the American way > of life. Only Polish I have left is in my blood, only wish I knew how to > speak the language. > > My ancestor's arrived in the States via the Port of New York in December of > 1882. Their names have been Americanized and based on documents I have found > not one person spelled it the same way. > This is want I have: > 1) My great great grandparents: Joseph Schemenkowski and Mary > Wisnovsky/Wisnewski. > > 1900 W. Kewaunee, Kewaunee Co., Wis. USA > Household # 252 > Scimenkufsky, Joseph b. Dec. 1838 in Polish, Rus. (possibly Brevier?) > Mary (wife) b. Jan. 1847 in Polish, Ger. > Anna (dau.) b. Jun. 1878 in Polish, Ger. > Frank (son) b. Oct. 1879 in Polish, Ger. > Daniel (son) b. Dec. 1883 in Wis., USA > > 2) Frank my great grandfather's marriage license is spelled Franz, > Sieniskowski. He married in Wisconsin in 1901. > > 3) Frank believed he was a citizen of the U.S. based on the papers his > father showed him. I don't have a copy of those papers but Frank was 3 at > the time the family emigrated to the States. As it turned out Frank was not > naturalized at the time of emigration so in 1913 he filed papers to > naturalize. On those papers Frank spells his name Shenenkowfski. He states > he was born in West Prussia, Germany and that he emigrated thru Bremen in > November of 1882 arriving in New York in December of that same year. He > doesn't know the name of the ship. > > 4) Generations of the family follow the Catholic religion. > buried at St. Hedwig Catholic Cemetery > Schemenkowski, Joseph, wife Mary, son Frank his wife Eva, grand son > Louis his wife Sophie, and great grand children Louis and Regina. Along with > son John Wisnicky. > buried in another Catholic cemetery is another of Joseph and Mary's > son's Daniel Sheninkosky. > > The correct spelling of the name is an obvious issue and has made my search > difficult. I have no experience researching in Polish archives and language > would be a problem and I can't read or speak it. > > Can anyone help me, I would really appreciate it. My grandmother has since > passed but she had 8 children resulting in 27 grand children. I am the only > one in the family who is attempting to find our roots. I have many cousins > waiting to see what I can learn. > > Thank you to anyone who can help, > Roberta Hall > Chicago, Ill. > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > POLANDBORDERSURNAMES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >