A Polish Immigrant in New York City

 

Finding an immigrant ancestor's arrival in his adopted country can be a challenge, especially for those arriving from a land where English is not the primary language. For my great-grandfather Antoni Laskowski, that native tongue was Polish. While his new home in New York City may have had pockets of fellow immigrants from his homeland, Antoni and his wife Marianna nevertheless had to adapt to interactions with government officials in a language which they barely understood.

When I look at their entry in the 1900 census, for example, I learn that not only were their children listed with Americanized names—Jan had become the predictable John, and Mieczyslaus was now a more pronounceable Michael—but their surname had been shortened to Lasko. One might almost think the enumerator had given up on completing the surname entry, as in the way he wrote it, there seemed to be a period followed by a long space after Lasko, until I realized that, years later, their son Michael did indeed go by that shortened surname.

Their entry in the 1900 census also put their birthplace as Germany, which technically was what the place was considered to be at that time. But upon reading their stated date of arrival in the United States as 1890, I realized there was yet another census which I could check to see if there was further information: the New York State census taken in 1892.

Finding the Laskowskis in that earlier state census, I could also see that they were listed as aliens, not naturalized citizens, from Poland. Yet I also could spot some additional names in the household—names which, perhaps, this time I can track to see whether they lead to collateral lines for Antoni's family back in Żerków. Among those names was someone called Andrew Laskowski—more likely to have been called Andrzej, like Antoni's maternal grandfather, back home in Poland.

This Andrew, listed in 1892 as being twenty six years of age, may well have been born in Żerków, the Laskowskis' home in Poland. You can be sure I'll be following up on that clue later this week, as one of my goals this month is to trace the collateral lines for Antoni's father, Mateusz Laskowski. All I've been able to find, so far, have been the baptismal and death records for his infant sister Antonina Laskowska, whose brief life began and ended in 1821.

Whatever happened to Andrew Laskowski, that extra member of the extended Laskowski household in 1892, I can't say yet, but it may be a productive detour to take, in hopes of discovering more relatives among my great-grandfather's ancestors.