This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: biesik, peplinski Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/DFC.2ACE/505.605.1.1 Message Board Post: I would be interested in knowing what other details you have and please feel free to email me anytime. With respect to your questions: Jan Biesik and Susanna Stoltz - their sons Paul and Nick list Szatapy, Poland as their birthplace on citizenship papers, as you mentioned. And Nick added Schartapay, Germany on his. I was unable to find a village or town by this exaxt spelling in tax records and gazeteers of Prussia from 1772 to the late 1800s. However, there is a Szatarpi, Poland mentioned as being located at approx. 54N longitude 18E latitude in the late 1800s (see the web page: http://gov.genealogy.net/ort.jsp?id=209955). Szatarpy (Polish spelling) is still on modern Polish maps (for example, see the web page: http://www.pilot.pl/big_pilot.php3?z_city_id=1732&katalog=n14_&max_katalog=n14_&x_obr=771&y_obr=1304&x_15=98636&y_15=83519&form_t=0&tool=3&info=&lang=pl). It is located approx. 20 km east of Kościerzyna (formerly known as Berent, West Prussia). This puts them in the heart of the Kashubian region of Poland Regarding the variations in spelling, Paul and Nick would most likely use the Kashubian version and not necessarily the Polish version. And "sz" in Polish is spelled "sch" in German (I am a German & Polish translator). I have heard that both Jan and Susanna lived in Stevens Point, and that Jan died while on a trip back to Poland. Nobody in my family can explain why he was not brought back here for burial -- perhaps too expensive? Further research would require determining which parish the town of Szatarpy belonged to. Because they were Catholic, I have not been able to find this information on German genealogy sites, which give only Lutheran parishes in West Prussia. Regarding John and Clara. Her name was Clara Brigitte Peplinski. They were married October 1, 1887 in Stevens Point, which you have on your website. She stated she was from "Stadt Berent" (she knew German - it means town of Berent). This was and still is the "capitol" of Kashubia, a region in Poland from where the majority of Poles in Stevens Point originated. Her parents' names were Carl Ludwig Peplinski and Paulin Troka. Carl had a Polish father and a German Lutheran mother. Paulin's father was German and her mother was Polish. [Underneath this information, taken from Clara's daughter's notes in 1923, is written Rhein River, Birent, Germany]. Clara came to this country with her father when she was 9, but returned to Poland. She returned to the US permanently when she was 16. She lived briefly with relatives in upstate New York, and then worked for a while in Detroit as a waitress/cook before settling in or near Stevens Point with relatives. Clara's father was bo! rn in Skorzewo, Poland, a few miles north of Berent. Clara's mother, Paulin, died sometime after 1870? and Carl remarried, probably to Marianna Kropilowska on November 19,1878. A tentative birth date for Carl is July 29, 1837, if this is indeed that Carl. Some of the 8 children from this marriage emigrated to the Milwaukee area and to Berlin, Germany. Clara's father Carl had a farm and also escorted people to the US. He evidently knew some English. They also worked on farms in upstate New York due to (so the story goes) some relation they had there. At least one of Clara's brothers and one of her half-brothers settled in Richfield Springs, NY. Research on Clara's parents is difficult to sort out as the town of Berent burned several times in the 1800s and 1900s. Even Clara herself stated that "all her church records were burnt in a fire". German tax records from 1772 (the so-called Kontributionskataster or Prussian Land Registry from the Marburg state archives in Germany) list several Peplinski and Troka families living in the Berent area. No Biesiks are listed at all in West Prussia, but there are some "Bieseck's" and several Stoltz's, all residing in various districts around Berent. My research indicates that many families from West Prussia entered through the port of Baltimore in the 1870s-1880s. But we must wait for more passenger lists to be published as I have not yet found either Biesiks or Peplinskis there. If I remember correctly, there was 1 Biesik listed through the port of New York, but his country of origin was listed as Austria. There were also several Biesiks coming from Slovakia. I don't remember which port they came through. Obviously no relation.