Some ancestors present more twists and turns to their life story. Anastasia Zegarska was one of those hard-to-trace ancestors. But it was her husband, Thomas Puchała, who lost me as I tried to trace his own life story. With that, I was left with following the only family members remaining to him: his widow, Anastasia, and her two surviving children, Rosalia and Teodor.
Even then, finding Anastasia and her two children in any further Polish records—not to mention, her disappearing husband Thomas—has been, so far, an unsuccessful pursuit. Obviously, though, the three surviving family members did show up in New York, but the gap between their last written appearance in what was then Prussia and their discovery in New York City cost me the years between 1872 and (possibly) 1910. In the meantime, Anastasia appeared in records with two additional surnames: Kusharvski and Krauss (also recorded as Krouse). To count it all up, when looking for Anastasia, we are looking for a woman who was widowed three times. Where are the records?
It would be nice to find those missing marriage records, of course, but what would be even more helpful would be to find Anastasia as she moved from 1870s "Schwarzwald" in Prussia through her immigration passage to New York City. The search would also cement details not only about the two other men she called her husband, but would also help to narrow down the year and location of her first husband's death. If those records are even still in existence and not a casualty of a subsequent war, it would be helpful to find solid documentation of this widow's life trajectory.
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