Another American Line

 

When searching for descendants of my second great-grandfather Franciszek Jankowski, there is one more line I should mention: the line of descent that leads to my own branch of the family. 

Franciszek had another daughter who had headed to America from their Prussian village of Żerków: Marianna. Actually, years before her sister Stanisława married Franciszek Janczak and moved to Buffalo, New York, Marianna had made the journey to New York City—and stayed there.

The trip, taken in 1889, brought Marianna from Hamburg in Germany, along with her three surviving children, Jan, Sofia, and Mieczyslaus. Presumably, Marianna's husband, Anton Laskowski, had taken that same route nearly two years earlier, if I've found the right passenger list for his crossing to New York.

Anton's voyage in 1887 marked the same year as their youngest son's passing. With so many deaths in the extended family leading up to that year, I imagine Marianna's husband decided enough was enough, and went looking for a way to provide a better life for his family. I can also presume that Anton made the voyage along with others from his village—or possibly had received information from family members or close friends who had made that same journey before him. There was likely news of jobs to be had and, hopefully, better living conditions.

Life in America brought varying outcomes for each of the three Laskowski children. Jan, the oldest, took on the Americanized name John, and within twenty years of his arrival in New York City, found himself a bride born in New Jersey of Polish immigrant parents. The two went on to raise seven children, six of whom lived to adulthood—a wry reversal of the fate that might have faced them, should their parents have remained in Poland.

Second-born Mieczyslaus, not quite seven at the time of the family's big trans-Atlantic adventure, was quick to adapt to his new home. Not only did he choose to change his given name—at first, using the family's nickname for him, Michko, then taking on his American identity with the name Michael—but unlike his older brother, he eventually shortened his obvious Polish surname to a more nondescript Lasko, as can be seen on his application for a marriage license on April 13, 1909.

The Laskowski's third-born child became known as Sophie in New York, a place she likely remembered far better than her native Żerków, a dim memory to the mind of the three year old who left home with her family. Like her older brother John, Sophie chose to marry a fellow Polish immigrant, but even that choice led to a tangled research project for family members, for it was he who wished to disguise his surname, for reasons the family still doesn't know, by taking on a totally unrelated, dissimilar surname. Those of his grandchildren who remembered him never could coax him into telling about his family's past. It's only been recently that research has led to telltale records to piece together fragments of his family history.

From the possible brick wall roadblocks that these immigrant changes could have incurred, a wide variety of online resources has allowed us to piece together the generations leading to Marianna Jankowska, the oldest of Franciszek's daughters who left home for America. For Marianna's story, as well as that of her sister Stanisława, I suspect much of the details we've found have been owing to the fact that they left Poland for America. It is far easier for my family to research our Polish ancestors here, where records are kept in the language we understand—English—than it has been to determine the right record has been found in Poland, if it can be found at all. Progress has been made, thanks to the volunteer efforts of researchers transcribing Polish records at websites like BaSIA and PTG, but there are still many gaps.

Now that we are at the end of the month, the question becomes, "Now what?" For my Twelve Most Wanted for 2026, we've used this one month of October to attempt researching not just one but two different ancestors. With Franciszek Jankowski being the selection for November, I haven't yet begun the new month when I've already run out of options. It's time to re-examine the research plan and see whether we need to set a new course for the upcoming month.