Trying to trace my family back to Poland

[dżejk13]

I'm trying to find information about my great-grandparents who came from Poland.
My great-grandfathers name was Stanisław Kowalski, I know he was born around 1884 in the part of Poland occupied by Austria and he came to the US around 1911. One of my relatives here thinks he may have been from Krakow.
My great-grandmothers name was Katarzyna, and there are several versions of her maiden name: Hajdasz, Kajdasz, Kajdosz, or Kajezarz. She was born 14 November 1890 in the part of Poland occupied by Russia. She may have come to the US with my great-grandfather, but I've also heard that she came to the US shortly after him.
I know they were married in Poland, and had 2 children there, Peter and Victoria, and that Peter died in Poland, but Victoria went with them to the US. Unfortunately, I don't know where in Poland they were married, or an exact place they lived.
I've also heard that the surname might have been changed from Kowalozyk or Kowalczyk to Kowalski.
I understand that may not be enough information to find anything, and the popularity of the name Kowalski will probably make it even more difficult, but I greatly appreciate any help. Dziękuję bardzo!

~Jake Kowalski

[Zenek]

Hi Jake.
Have you tried to begin with the lists from Ellis Island? Thats a starting point. There you have place of birth etc.
Pozdrawiam
Zenek

[Marynicz_Marcin]

Do You know where Peter and Victoria were born?

[dżejk13]

Zenek - I have tried, but no luck yet

Marcin - I don't know exactly where, but I know Victoria was also born in the part occupied by Russia, and she was born around 1910 or 1911.

[Zenek]

Try to search for Stanisław Kowalski/Kowalczyk/ and try a wider span in years. Like between 1905-1915. There must be some Stanislaw(try maybe Stanley or Stanislaus). After that you sort them out from what town/region they are from. You need a map from 1910 and there you can see it the town is within the Austrian part (Galicia).
Zenek

[redie]

Kowalski/Kowalczyk is too common last name in Poland.

Maybe we should focus on Katarzyna's maiden name?
The first and second version of her last name still exists among the Poles.

http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/hajdasz.html
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kajdasz.html

[Magroski49]

Zenek - I have tried, but no luck yet

Marcin - I don't know exactly where, but I know Victoria was also born in the part occupied by Russia, and she was born around 1910 or 1911.

Jake,

I use www.stevemorse.org > Ellis Island Gold form
You can narrow your search by typing just Stan* or Kat* in First Name field.
Last name field offers three options.
You can also select Ethnicity fields (Austrian, Galician, Polish, Russian).

I did find a Katarzyna and a Wiktorya there.
Katarzyna arrived on June 19, 1912, sailing from Antwerp on ship Krooland.
She was single, 20 years old, from Bachowice (Austria, by then) and her father was Jan Kajdas, living in Bachowice. She was going to meet a friend, Ignacy Forryciarra(?), in Buffalo, NY. I cannot read the address: it looks like Jones ? 69.
Three other Kajdas came from the same place:
Jozef, in 1903
Franciszek, in 1909
Ignacy, in 1913

Wiktorya arrived on June 23, 1913, sailing from Antwerp on ship Zeeland.
she was single, 18 years old, and her father was Jan Kajda. The place listed is Wozniki, less than 2 miles away from Bachowice. She was also going to Buffalo, NY, to meet her brother Jozef. In my opinion, they were siblings.

As to Stanislaw only four matched the criteria b. 1883-1885, arrival 1910-1915, austrian-galician:
2 Kowalski, Stanislaw Blizianka, Austria 24 1886
3 Kowalski, Stanislaw Starosol 27 1883
4 Kowalski, Stanislaw Czance, Austria 30 1883
5 Kowalski, Stanislaw Katarynce, Austria 30 1883

Hope this can be of some help.
Gilberto

[MajaWojdalski]

Hi Jake,

I found a family tree on ancestry.com with the persons you mentioned above well documented (includes pictures). It is managed by jcbkowalski. Is it your page? If not I can either send your contact info to the tree manager or send you the info available -. Let me know.

Maja

[Rudź_Katarzyna]

Dzień dobry.

Miejsce urodzenia powinno być w ich aktach zgonu. Z tego co rozumiem umarli oni w U.S.A.

[Zenek]

The place of birth must be in the death certificate.
Zenek

[dżejk13]

Gilberto - thanks for the help, but I know Katarzyna was already married when she came to the US, and Victoria/Wiktorya would have had the last name Kowalska/Kowalski, and was about a year old when she came.

Maja - That is my page, but thank you.

Katarzyna/Zenek - I've seen the death certificate for my great-grandfather, and unfortunately all it gives as his place of birth is Poland, no town name. I've been trying to find his naturalization records from when he became a US citizen, hoping there would be more information on them, but I haven't been able to find them.

[Magroski49]

Jake,

I have visited your family tree in Ancestry and one thing called my attention. You mentioned Stanley in 1915 NY State Census and there is a link to that Census sheet. However, the name listed there is Wojciech Kowalski, in line #18. The name Stanley is in the line above, but belongs to the Socha family. I assume you are aware that many immigrants choose an american name, for many reasons, but Wojciech is rendered as Albert, and Stanislaw is rendered as Stanley. It seems unlikely to me that he would choose Stanley rather than Albert, but who knows? In the following censuses his name is listed as Stanley. A brief search in Ancestry showed that hundreds of Stanislaws were married to Katarzynas, which makes you reasearch a bit harder.

Good luck!
Gilberto

[dżejk13]

Gilberto,
A distant cousin of mine told me that Stanley had 2 brothers named Adalbert and Florian. Maybe it's possible that the Wojciech in that census is Stanley's brother and he Americanized his name to Adalbert? I'm pretty sure that without someone in my family coming forward with more information about my great-grandparents, this is a near hopeless task trying to find them. The names are just too common and I don't have enough information to be able to discern who's my ancestor and who's just someone with the same name. Thanks for your help though.

[laoracz]

1920 United States Federal Census about Katherine Kowalski
Name: Katherine Kowalski
Age: 29
Birth Year: abt 1891
Birthplace: Russia Poland
[Russia;Poland]
Home in 1920: Buffalo Ward 10, Erie, New York
Race: White
Gender: Female
Immigration Year: 1911
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Stanley Kowalski
Father's Birthplace: Russia Poland
[Russia]
Mother's Birthplace: Russia Poland
[Russia]
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Stanley Kowalski 37
[39]
Katherine Kowalski 29
Victoria Kowalski 9
Helen Kowalski 6
Edward Kowalski 4
[4 0/12]
Frank Kowalski 3
[3 0/12]
John Glowacki 42

[dżejk13]

I have a scanned copy of the birth certificate for my grandpa's brother, who was born in the US, and it has my great-grandmothers maiden name on it, but it's hand written and difficult to read. If I knew how, I would post it on here, but the best I can tell is her maiden name was Kajdasz or Kajdosz. If I had to guess I would say Kajdasz. I know she was born on November 14th, 1890, but unfortunately the only information I have on where she was born is that it was the part of Poland that was occupied by Russia. If anyone has any suggestions on how I might be able to find more information, I'd greatly appreciate it. Unfortunately it seems there is no one left in my family that might know exactly where in Poland my family came from, so it's been very difficult to locate any information. Dziękuję bardzo za pomoc.