In an attempt to keep my sanity, I started a small database of Mierzejewskis as I located them through immigration records from Ellis Island. This is in no way complete–these were the “easy” targets I’ve located so far. These records do not include any variations in spelling nor immigration records from anywhere except Ellis Island.
The records are located here. Consider it a work in progress. As I located new records, I will update.
September 29, 2011 at 7:52 am
Donna,
Hi! I have done that exercise and it is rewarding and pays dividends. Also, as a tool to get around misspellings …
If you know the village(s), get ALL people from those villages! Use Steve Morse’s One Step and query only on the village. It takes time and returns several thousand. DO NOT attempt if the ancestor came from a town or a city — too many. I put the data into an Excel spreadsheet(cut/paste, with much editing) and then scrutinized every name.
But I did so on Biechow (and all of its villages in its parish — Piestrzec, Chrzanow, etc.) and likewise for Pacanow.
I found my grandfather, spelled ‘CLIASZ’. The ship manifest had an old fashioned ‘E’ Written similar to today’s Euro (except only one cross line) symbol. Now that was a combination had not previously tried. But do you know once I knew about it, I found one other ELIASZ spelled/indexed CLIASZ.
September 29, 2011 at 8:09 am
Thanks, Mike. So many Mierzejewskis it makes my head spin, especially given both grandparents were unrelated Mierzejewskis. Hopefully some day this exercise will prove fruitful. I just started this, and it will take lots of time. Will check out Steve Morse’s site soon–my problem is I have to work on this in short, intense bursts.