. . . But There are Others

 

While Jan Olejniczak may have me stuck, wobbling on whether his identity is one and the same as American immigrant John Olenzak, I can always look for information on the rest of the family. After all, there are others among the children of Bartholomaeus and Catharina Olejniczak to research. Perhaps information on one of these siblings of our Jan will help shine a light on the whole family's story.

Bartholomaeus and Catharina had at least one other son besides Jan—or Joannes, as his Catholic baptismal record dubbed him. Though he may not have emigrated like his younger brother, Walenty—or Valentinus, as his baptismal record described him—was at least easy to find in websites featuring Polish records or transcriptions. At this point, that is all I'm seeking.

Let's take a look at what we can find. In the baptismal record for Valentinus—remember, this is the Latin version of his Polish given name—we discover he was born in Micholowo, the same place where immigrant John Olenzak stated his birth to be, according to his naturalization record. Valentinus, or Walenty, was born on January 31, 1867, and was baptized only a few days later in Żerków, home to many of my father's ancestral connections.

Fortunately, from that point, there is further information on Walenty. In November of 1897, he married twenty one year old Franziska Mikołajczak, daughter of Stanislaus and Marianna (Smolka) Mikołajczak. Thanks to the index at the Polish website BaSIA, I was directed to this website page to view scan number 108, showing their marriage information. The record was registered at Jarocin.

Shortly after that point, Walenty and Franziska welcomed their first child, a daughter whom they named Katharina. Hers was not a long life, I discovered by thumbing through records bearing her parents' names, for she died in the same year in which she was born. This was followed by more such news, according to records I found on FamilySearch.org. Their son Adam died on the day of his birth, April 27, 1911. Once again, a daughter Ewa, born on December 4, 1913, died within hours of her birth.

These are the type of sad stories I have encountered while researching others in my father's ancestry, hinting at the poverty these Polish forebears may have endured as an ongoing burden throughout their lives, whether short or long. But there were others, too, as I joyfully discovered when I switched to search the transcriptions at the Polish website BaSIA. All told, putting that website through its paces by naming the parents, Walenty and Franziska, I found eight additional children for whom no death record followed their registration of birth—yet.

At least until I can find further information, I now have a third generation descending from my third great-grandfather Nikolaus Olejniczak through his son Barthothomaeus' other son Walenty. The possibilities for DNA connections could be descendants of any of these eight: Ignatz, Marianna, Agnes, Kasimir, Stanislawa, Johanna, Stanislaw, and Pelagia. Discovering more details about their own identities will help make connections with DNA matches a bit more likely.