The beauty of the internet

Sorry folks, I’ve been away. The extended absence over the Christmas holidays and the busy-ness that ensued afterwards to keep up with work and other obligations (stuff piles up when you ignore it) kept me away.

But I want to point out something quite interesting that was contributed to this blog by the Rev. Thomas Extejt. He kindly identified a photo of Frank Plenzler and Sophia Szymanowski. His post states:

Dear Donna:
The wedding picture in your November ’11 blog is definitely my great-aunt, Sophia Szymanowski Plenzler, and her new husband, Frank Plenzler. I confirmed this with an older cousin who lives in Florida. Uncle Frank was a genius at carpentry, and incredibly strong for a little wiry man. Aunt Sophie loved everybody. I spent many happy hours at their house at 1240 Campbell St.

I wanted to put his response on the landing page of this blog since it was originally placed on the “About me” page–where it might be a bit obscure to others who I know visit here.

My New Year resolution is of course, to return and post as much as possible! Winter is here and I’m content to stay inside were it is warm and dry and untangle mysteries.

 

Wedding Wednesday: another wedding photo mystery

The theme today over at GeneaBloggers is Wedding Wednesday. Today’s photo is partially identified and was taken by F. E. Koella Studios on Division Street in Toledo. I have no date; however, the photo does have a few clues. You can click the image below to get a large-sized, high-res copy to zoom in on the identification written on the photo.

Wedding photo of Charles and Margaret Mielcarek

There are three persons identified on the photo: Josephine Plenzler Przybylski (woman in the middle) and the bridge and groom are Margaret and Charles Mielcarek. I do not have the bride’s maiden name. Also if you look closely at the groom and the first gentleman on the left, they seem to look quite alike–possibly they are brothers?

I have not yet identified a Josephine Plenzler–at least, not one from the families in Toledo. Was there a Josephine Plenzler who belonged to the branches who moved to Indiana or Minnesota?

If you have any information or can help identify any of the people in this photo, leave a comment here or drop me an email.

 

Wedding Wednesday: mystery photo

Today’s theme over at GeneaBloggers is Wedding Wednesday. Today’s photo is provided by John Plenzler, who graciously sent me a number of photos quite a while ago. It is a mystery photo. Per information that was provided with the photo:

Unknown wedding, may be descendants of Joseph and Eva Dauer. May be Sophie Plenzler and Steve Szymanowski, not sure need verification.  Bride resembles Barbara Szymanowski.  May also be Frank Plenzler and Sophie Szymanowski, Sophie was Steve’s sister. Click the photo to see a larger high-res scan.

Unknown wedding photo

I have no other clues. If any one can help identify these two, leave a comment here or drop me an email.

I love looking at old wedding photos. This bride has such a sweet face. Doesn’t the groom look ahem a bit as if he is wondering what he’d just gotten into? If you zoom in on the wedding dress, check out the detail. It appears as if there is an apron embroidered with hundreds of delicate stones–beautiful! If you zoom in on the bride’s stockings, they’re lovely and embroidered also.

 

Martin K. Plenzler: more library goodies

While scanning the voter registration and naturalization microfilm at the Toledo Lucas County Library this week, I also located Martin Plenzler’s Certificate of Naturalization. Click the image below to see a full-sized high-res scan of the document.

Martin K. Plenzler Certificate of Naturalization

Like Andrew Przybylski’s son, Frank, Martin Plenzler was naturalized under his father’s effort for citizenship. I did not find his father’s (Joseph Plenzler) naturalization documentation, but it is clearly stated here that Joeseph Plenzler was naturalized on 19 October 1891. We know that Joseph arrived prior to 1884, when Eva and her first two children, Martin and Joseph, sailed from Hamburg. Son John was born the following year in 1885.

Martin, because of his foreign birth, required naturalization papers in order to vote. We can determine the date that he filed and declared citizenship in order to vote via the instrument called “minor’s papers” or “father’s papers” at that time by looking at the ages on the document. It states that Martin was 32 and his wife Minnie was 27 at the time the document was executed. Minnie was born in 1886. Looking at the bottom of the document, where it indicates that Martin had registered to vote, it states he had resided in Toledo on Avondale for 25 years. So that aligns perfectly. He was a two-year-old child at the time of immigration. This means the document was executed sometime in 1913 since he lists his children, and daughter Florence was age five months. Florence was born in 1913. There is a small curiosity with the children however. The daughter named Edwina used the name of Edna. (Edna and her sister, Florence, actually merit their own post sometime in the future.)

A bit more library goodness to be posted in the near future.

 

Sunday’s Obituary: The value of digital digging

As a follow up to my previous post, I had to share an experience that led me to encourage someone who may be at wits’ end trying to knit together information on a family — you can’t determine relationships or perhaps you have a birthdate and unless a person is truly Methusala, you cannot ascertain a death date.

This happened to me recently. I was researching the Mruk branch of my maternal Plenzler family. I had known that my great-grand-aunt, Margaretha Plenzler Mruk, had a daughter named Mary. I knew Mary had married a gentleman named John Zielinski. However, I could not put my finger on all of Mary’s and John’s children. Like my maiden name, Zielinski  is a fairly common Polish name. There are many Zielinskis in the Toledo region. Not all are related. And given the fact that these individuals were named Mary and John, I was beginning to think I was never going to find their progeny.

I slowly chipped away at it and found their eldest son, Gabriel, through the 1900 census. Gabriel was a six month old child at the time of the census and he passed away in 1977. One by one, I managed to find the rest of their children using the 1910, 1920, and 1930 census data:

• Gabriel Zielinski, 1900 – 1977 (obit published in Toledo Blade October 31, 1977)
• Regina Zielinski m. Richard Burzynski, 1902 – 1958 (obit published in the Toledo Blade May 8, 1958)
• Edward Zielinski 1904 – 1958 (obit published July 16, 1958)
• Isabel Zielinski, m. Walter Urbanowski,  1906 – 1982 (obit published in Toledo Blade December 5, 1982)
• Mary Zielinski, m. Andrew Sieja, 1909 – 1997 (obit published in Toledo Blade May 31, 1997)
• Martha Zielinski, m. John Rywalski, 1911 – 2002 (obit published in Toledo Blade August 30, 2002)
• Emilia or Ameley Zielinski 1914 – 1935 — inaccurate census data, see below to learn of this child’s real name (death notice published in the Toledo News-Bee June 12, 1935)
• Ralph Zielinski 1918 – 2002

I was able to locate an obituary for each of the siblings except for Ralph and Ameley/Emilia. This proved invaluable to locate or discover who Emilia or Ameley was. It also shows clearly to me how we need to question the data that is provided by the census taker on census materials as well as our own assumptions. Clearly, transcriptions can be inaccurate, but I’ve also come across many instances where the census taker’s information was incorrect or inaccurate.

None of this seems remarkable other than I could find no traces of an “Ameley” or an “Emilia” Zielinski after about 1930. My hunches were that she had passed away, moved away, or married outside of the state or that on the 1920 census data, the name was  entered as “Emilia” and on the 1930 census the name was entered as “Ameley.” (Was Hooked on Phonics was popular in the 1920s or 30s?) So I went with searching for “Emilia”  and its diminutive version, “Emily.”

I had scoured the baptismal registries for both St. Stanislaus and St. Anthony’s parishes to no avail–all of her older siblings were baptized in St. Anthony’s parish. St. Stan’s was in the neighborhood and a new parish at the time, so I thought, ok… it’s possible she were baptized there as well. (Although I do plan to go back through those baptismal records and give them the once-over again.)

No marriages cropped up for Emilia, Ameley, or Emily. But that’s not unusual. I did have several female family members who never married.

I let the situation rest a while as I went on to the mind numbing exercise of locating all of the Mierzejewskis I could possibly find in immigration manifests. So this weekend after putting the Mierzejewski exercise aside, I decided to backfill some of the Zielinski family story with obituaries and thought I’d check to see what could arise from that effort. Since Ralph and Martha were the most recently deceased in 2002, it was a piece of cake to find Martha’s obituary which gave me the needed information to locate Amelia. Here is her obituary published in the Toledo Blade on August 30, 2002, transcribed below:

RYWALSKI, Martha R. (Zielinski)

Martha R. Rywalski, age 90, of Sylvania, Ohio, died peacefully after suffering from a massive stroke on Thursday, August 29, 2002, in her home. She was born on December 14, 1911, to John and Mary (Mruk) Zielinski in Toledo, Ohio. Martha had worked as a clerk for the former Valley Fruit House. She was a member of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church where she was baptized and married. She was a member of the St. Francis Guild and enjoyed bunco.

Martha was preceded in death by her loving Husband, John, in 1969; brothers, Gabriel (Helen), Edward (Helen), and Bernard Zielinski; sisters, Isabel (Walter) Urbanowski, Regina (John) Burzynski, Mary (Andrew) Sieja, and Amelia Zielinsk; son, Donald Rywalski; son-in-law, Gerald Hagen, and great-grandson, Scott Wambold.

She will be deeply missed by her loving daughter, Barbara (Rywalski) Hagen, daughter-in-law, Lois (Donald) Rywalski, grandchildren, Dr. Suzanne (Bob) Wambold, Gary (Sally) Hagen, Gail Rywalski, David (Amy) Rywalski; great-grandchildren, Melissa and Abigail Hagen, Kelli and Katie Wambold, and Morgan Rywalski, and by brother, Ralph (Phyllis) Zielinski.

Family and friends may visit at the W.K. Sujkowski & Son Funeral Home, 3838 Airport Hwy., on Friday from 2-9 pm. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, August 31, 2002, at 10 am followed by Mass of Christian Burial at St. Stanislaus Church at 10:30 am. A wake service will be held on Friday evening at 7 pm in the mortuary.

When I read that, I began to wonder why I hadn’t thought of “Amelia” as a possibility for her name! Now I knew that Amelia had passed away and I was able to sort through the rest of the obituaries. Not all mentioned the siblings who had passed away previously, however, it was obvious the Amelia was not mentioned as a survivor. Since the earliest date of death I had found for any of the siblings was for Regina and Edward in 1958, I was able to safely assume that Amelia had passed away sometime between the time of the 1930 census and 1958. That narrowed it down to about 28 years.

Then using FamilySearch.org, I was able to pinpoint Amelia’s date of death by locating her death certificate. Amelia passed away at the age of 20 on June 11, 1935.  She did not have what we would consider a obituary by today’s standards; however, it was common practice in the 1930s and 1940s for undertakers to include a classified ad in the local newspapers called a death notice. I located Amelia’s death notice published in the Toledo News-Bee on June 12, 1935, transcribed below:

ZIELINSKI, AMELIA–Age 20. Tues. Beloved daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John, sister of Mrs. R. Burzynski, Mrs. I. Urbanowski, Mrs. M. Seija, Mrs. M. Rywalski, Gabriel, Edward, Ralph, and Bernard. Funeral Sat. 8:30 a.m. from the residence, 1737 Buckingham and 9 o’clock at St. Stanislaus Church. Interment family lot, Calvary. Young Ladies Sodality, please attend. Sujkowski & Son.

 

Tombstone Tuesday: George Aumiller

After posting about the gravestone I’d found for a Maryanna Aumiller, I went through all of the photos I have from Calvary.  Sure enough, I found I’d taken one of Maryanna’s husband, Adelbert “George” Aumiller. I hope eventually to establish some connection with the Aumillers to the Plenzers and hopefully in the future locate any possible Dauer relatives through my great-grandmother, Eva Dauer Plenzler.

Here is the photo for Adelbert “George” Aumiller:

Adelbert "George" Aumiller grave Calvary Cemetery, Toledo, Ohio

The grave location in Calvary is: Grave: 921, Range or lot: 6, Section: 3

 

Wednesday’s Child: Ronald Jankowski

Today’s theme over at GeneaBloggers is Wednesday’s child.

Ronald Jankowski was the son of Florence Plenzler and Stanley Jankowski. Florence was the daughter of Martin Plenzler and Minnie Machowiak. Interestingly, Stanley was widowed when Florence passed away in 1946. He then married her sister, Edna, in 1950 Edna was widowed a few years prior when her husband, Daniel Sieja passed away.

Ronald was born December 14, 1933 and died February 13, 1934 of pneumonia.

Ronald S. Jankowski, Calvary Cemetery, Toledo, Ohio

 

Elizabeth Plenzler Zalas

This post continues on with the siblings of Joseph Plenzler.

Elizabeth was born in Poznan in March 1866. A passenger manifest from Philadelphia places her date of immigration as April 27, 1888 at the age of 22. About a month later, she married Joseph Zalas in South Bend, Indiana on May 30, 1888–making me think the marriage was already planned when she left Poland.

By 1900, Elizabeth and Joseph were living nearby in St. Joe’s, Indiana and had six children per the census:

1. Stanislaus (b. October 1889)
2. Joseph (b. November 1890)
3. Tekla (b. August 1893)
4. Agnes (b. January 1895)
5. Martin (b. September 1896)
6. Wiktor (b. November 1899)

What’s interesting about the 1900 census data for the Zalas family is that it shows that a Kazmier Mruk is living with the family as a border. Elizabeth’s sister, Margaretha had married a Michal Mruk. There very likely is a connection, that perhaps this Kazmier is a brother to Michal Mruk and is an area for future research. Also note that one of the daughters of Margaretha Plenzler and Michael Mruk, Tekla, married John Przybylski. I have not yet found whether there is a link from this John Przybylski to my branch of the Przybylski family; however, my instinct tells me there is some link. These families all came from villages surrounding Gluszyna and Wiorek, Poland. Again, it’s another area for research.

By 1910, the census shows three more children born to the family:

1. Clara (b. 1902)
2. Lucia (b. 1904)
3. Hermonin (Harry) (b. 1907)

Joseph was naturalized in 1924. He passed away July 1, 1927. His obituary was published July 2, 1927 in the South Bend Tribune and is transcribed below:

Joseph Zalas, age 60, died in his home, 1052 West Ford Street at 9 o’clock Friday morning, following an illness of four months. He was a resident of South Bend for 40 years. He was born in Poland March 1, 1867, and is survived by his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Zalas; three daughters, Mrs. Agnes Kluk, Mrs. Lucille Cwidak, and Miss Clarice Zalas, and five sons, Stanley, Joseph, Martin, Victor, and Henry, and two sisters, Mrs. Mary Janiszczak and Mrs. Hattie Plencner. Funeral services will be held Monday morning in St. Casimir’s Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. S. J. Gorka, C. S. C. officiating. Burial will take place in St. Joseph’s cemetery.

There is a name in this obituary that leads to another Plenzler connection: Mrs. Hattie Plencner. Remember that Plencner is a variation on the Plenzler name and it was used interchangeably within this family. This may mean one of Joseph’s siblings married a Plenzler sibling. However, The only sons that I am aware of within this generation are John (who lived in Middle River, Minnesota) and Joseph (who lived in Toledo, Ohio). So we have another clue to another Plenzler who may have immigrated to the US–another area for research!

Elizabeth passed away December 19, 1950. Her obituary was published in the South Bend Tribune the same day and is transcribed below:

Mrs. Elizabeth Zalas, aged 79, of 1502 West Ford street, died at 4:25 a.m. today in her residence after an illness of three days. She was born in Poznan Poland, March 6, 1871, and came here 65 years ago. Surviving are four sons; Stanley, Joseph, Martin and Harry; two daughters, Mrs. Agnes Jackson and Mrs. Lucille Cwidak; 19 grandchildren; sixteen great grandchildren and a sister; Mrs. Constance (Kunegunda) Zalas, all of South Bend. Friends may call in the St. Joseph funeral home after 5 PM Wednesday until funeral services at 9 am Saturday in St. Casimir’s Catholic church. Burial will be St. Joseph cemetery. She was a member of St. Anne’s Society.

I do not have an original of this obituary as it was shared with me via email as a transcribed copy.

Family oral history tells that Elizabeth, Catherine, and Kunegunda  communicated with the family in Toledo via written letters and that there were personal visits between the families; however, I have no direct evidence of this although find it a credible story. South Bend, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio are only about 160 miles apart. By the 1890s and early 1900s, there were several railroad lines in Toledo that would have made this possible.

As usual, if you have insights, comments, corrections, etc., let me know.

 

Katarzyna (Catherine) Plenzler

As promised earlier, I’m going to focus on the siblings of my great-grandfather, Joseph Plenzler. So far, I’ve found two Plenzler siblings who settled in Toledo after emigration to the US: Joseph and Margaretha.

A brother, John is discussed in an earlier post. Catherine, Elizabeth, and Kunegunda are all documented by Lucky Ladlewski. Each of the sisters had settled in the South Bend/St. Joseph area of Indiana.

Catherine married Jacob Niemier in Głuszyna,  Poland in 1881. (I do not have the marriage record.) Thanks to Judy Stewart, we have a photo of Catherine.

Katarzyna (Catherine) Plenzler Niemier

Catherine and Jacob arrived in the United States 1887 per the 1900 US census. At the time of the 1900 census (see here and here, the data spanned over two pages), the family was living in South Bend, Indiana. Children were listed as

• Mary, age 17. Mary was noted as having been born in Poland and was employed as a cigar maker.
• Wojciech (Albert), age 14. Albert was also noted as having been born in Poland.
• Lucya, age 11.
• Piotr (Peter), age 9.
• Melchoir, age 6.
• Joseph, age 4.

By the 1920 census, twp more children were added to  the family:

• Anna, age 16
• Alec, age 13

And a grandchild was also noted on the 1920 census: Irene, age 1-1/2. Peter is noted as living with the family still in 1920 and the census notes that he was widowed.

The 1910 census also showed a child, Aloizy (Aloysius), age 3, this most likely is the child listed as Alec in the 1920 census.

Catherine passed away January 15, 1944 in South Bend. I have a copy of Catherine’s obituary (unfortunately, I do not know where it was published) and it is transcribed below:

Mrs. Catherine Niemer, aged 75, died at 1:55 p.m. Saturday in her home, 1503 West Poland street, after an illness of six weeks. She was born in Poznan, Poland, March 28, 1868, coming to South Bend 56 years ago. Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. Mary Kazmierczak, Mrs. Lucille Hes, and Mrs. Anna Vargo, all of South Bend; five sons, Albert, Peter, Melchiar, Joseph, and Aloysius, all of South Bend; two sisters, Elizabeth Zalas and Gwendolyn Zalas, both of South Bend; 33 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be conducted at 9 a.m. Wednesday in St. Casmier’s Roman Catholic church and burial will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

As always, if you have more information, please do share! Send me an email or leave a comment here and I’ll follow up.

 

Wedding Wednesday

Today, one of the themes over at GeneaBloggers is Wedding Wednesday. Today we have a wedding photo for Joseph (Joe Pie) Plenzler and Josephine Grzechowiak. They were married in 1913 in Toledo, Ohio.

Individuals in the photo, from left to right: Bessie Krolkie (friend of the bride), Robert Plenzler, Joseph Plenzler, Josephine Grezchowiak, Joseph Grzechowiak, Mary Plenzler.

Joseph Plenzler and Josephine Grzechowiak wedding, Toledo, Ohio, 1913 (click for larger size high resolution photo)