Another Generation, Another Location?

 

Why is it that we see our ancestors as people who lived in the same location, generation after generation? I don't know about you, but when I think of great-grandparents and the generations beyond that, I'm surprised to learn that they moved on to new locations from the place where they were born.

In my current experiment—finding how far I can go on the lines associated with my paternal grandfather's Polish Puchała roots—I'm seeing my ancestors stay in one town for maybe a generation or two. Then, onward the trail leads me to another location—if, at least, I am still following the same line.

Now that we've pushed back from Thomas Puchała to his father Jan and his wife Susanna Radomska, I thought I'd try my hand at finding Susanna's Radomski roots. It was no surprise to discover that Susanna was born in the same town as the one where she married Jan Puchała. The daughter of Andrzej Radomski and Marianna Nierzwicka, Susanna was born in Lubichowo, as we can surmise from her baptismal record in the Catholic Church there on New Year's Day in 1824.

But the daisy chain of family connections bids us push just one generation further to find her parents. While looking for the Latin version of their names in church documents, a marriage record for Andream Radomski and Maryanna Nierzwicka showed up for November 13, 1814.

Only problem: the church record was not kept in Lubichowo, but in a Prussian town known as Hoch Stüblau. Now what?

Straight to that trusty search engine I went, where the Meyer's Gazetteer pointed out a place by that same name. At the same time, Google redirected me to a place called Zblewo. Sure enough, if you click on the "map" tab under the Meyer's Gazetteer entry for Hoch Stüblau, in smaller print, you can see the word Zblewo.

Back to Google Maps to double check distances and feasibility. 

Sure enough, if taking the most direct route between the two locations, the distance made sense. Though more of a walk than the towns I had checked before, Zblewo is still a reasonable distance at about seven and a half miles from Lubichowo.

On the other hand, looking more closely at the handwritten record itself, the location of the ceremony looked vaguely like it was written as "Libichowo." Perhaps the marriage ceremony was held in Lubichowo, but the record was kept in Zblewo? Something to check for more information on typical clerical procedures in the Catholic Churches in that place and time. 

The Problem With Diacritics

 

The search for my father's Polish Puchała ancestors runs into a problem: the surname requires use of a diacritical mark. Depending on who was writing the record concerning any of his key life events, my great-grandfather Thomas Puchała's name could show up in the document containing a "t" instead of an "ł"—or double that, in either case. Or the official could just as easily disregarded use of any diacritics and simply written the name with a plain, unembellished "l." Wildcards, by necessity, become my best search engine friend in such cases. Whether documented by a Prussian official in German, or a church cleric in Latin, that "ł" could end up being my research downfall.

Still, I'm hoping I pinpointed the right parents when I located a baptismal record for a "weiblich" named Thomas Puchała, born November 20 in 1844 (despite the translation from German being rendered as "female"). The transcription indicated Thomas' surname as "Puchata"—a slight pen stroke which, once I see the actual handwritten document, will surely be more accurately transcribed as "Puchała."

Those parents, by the way, were listed in the transcription as Johann "Puchata" and Susanna "Damska." But I can't just accept the transcriber's word for that. Until I can make it to a FamilySearch Center to view the actual document—access to that record set is currently limited—I can at least double check with similar records.

Sure enough, the transcription of an 1842 marriage record for the same Johann "Puchata" indicated his bride's name to actually be Susanna Radomska. And not that many years later, Johann's own death record in 1858 indicated the same maiden name for his widow. In between those two dates, there were baptismal records for their children, supporting that same name for the mother, and, sadly, confirming that same maiden name in death records for some of those unfortunate children, as well.

So far, all records for the Puchała line showed them remaining in Lubichowo, but I'm wondering whether that detail will remain constant for yet another generation. To double check, let's push back another generation and see whether we can find any indication where that leads.

Drilling Deeper Into Ethnicity

 

Let's just say I was influenced by the recent ethnicity update for DNA tests at Ancestry.com. The boast there, only a few days ago, was an increase in granularity of results, now linked to data drilling deeper into about 3,600 separate ethnic regions around the world. During this update, every DNA customer's results were re-analyzed, further refining the update.

On my side of the equation, having just made some discoveries furthering my understanding of my Polish roots, I wondered how well the Ancestry updates could drill down to my specific level. After all, having discovered the marriage record for the parents of Thomas Puchała's wife, Anastasia Zegarska, I now had a third Polish city to call my family's ancestral home. Known in Prussia as Ponschau, the place in Poland is now known as Pączewo. 

Pączewo, as it turns out, had a slightly different historical background than Czarnylas, where Anastasia was baptized, or Lubichowo, where she and Thomas eventually lived. While all three towns were located in the region of Pomerania, Pączewo was a bit different. It was noted to be part of a separate ethnocultural region known as Kociewie. 

The Kocievians, as I'm learning, were perhaps the Polish equivalent of an indigenous population. While their modern language is not that different from Polish, it is considered a separate dialect. 

But does a region like that show up in this newest Ancestry update? I was encouraged to see that the latest DNA readout does break down the region around Poland into smaller geographical areas. For my father's side of my results, I show genetic heritage from what Ancestry now calls Northeastern Poland and Southern Poland. Also included are the more broad-based North Central Europe, plus the smaller Estonia and Latvia. But no Kociewie. Not even any Pomerania.

As I'm delving deeper into my ancestral roots and simultaneously endeavoring to learn the local history, I may be gaining a greater appreciation for the variations in ethnicity in a place now as remote to me as Poland. There are, however, limitations to what a company even as large as Ancestry may be able to accomplish.

For one thing, though they are expanding their reach, Ancestry.com is mostly a North-American-centric organization. In my personal experience, I have far better results with finding Polish DNA matches at MyHeritage than at Ancestry. Though Poland is currently not as impacted by restrictive regulations regarding direct-to-consumer DNA testing as, say, Germany or France, use of such options does not seem to be as widespread in Poland as here. Based on how this latest Ancestry DNA study was conducted, it's no surprise that regions as specific as what I'm now exploring did not make an appearance in their update.

Not now, perhaps, but someday....

In the meantime, whether making a showing in convenient scientific reviews at big genealogy companies or not, I can grow my appreciation for my roots by learning more about my ancestors' homelands and lives through the ample online resources providing such information. Document by document, as I uncover more details, I can then turn to Internet searches and queries to answer questions as they pop up. It's an ever-expanding exploration that broadens the boundaries of genealogy.

A Pause to Count

The last couple months have been rough on genealogical research results. Battling Covid for one month, then dealing with the dismay over access to Polish records this month, admittedly I haven't made much progress. But it's time for that biweekly tally. Regardless of the excuses, it's time to take the pause to count the progress.

In the past two weeks, that Polish challenge has yielded forty one new relatives entered on my family tree. It's been a hard-won minor victory, though truth be told, those were mainly descendants added to the immigrant lines I've already discovered. Some of them were added, thanks to connection to DNA matches I've already known about. But hey, progress is progress. I now have 40,300 people on my side of the family tree.

Granted, the past two weeks included a few days from the previous month's goal, when I was trying to do penance for not finding anything further on those Flannery ancestors back in County Tipperary, Ireland. Mostly, that work was again focused on DNA matches who descend from immigrant Flannery and Tully descendants from my father-in-law's tree. The 139 new individuals added to that tree push the total count for my in-laws' tree to 41,813.

I suspect the next two weeks will progress about as slowly as the results for today's report. I'll be back to that research question about my father's patriline. I'm mostly jumping between my tree, posted on Ancestry.com, and Prussian records digitized at FamilySearch.org, to slowly—painfully slowly—push my way back in time with actual documents. If not for speed in progress, at least it's encouraging to focus on the thoroughness of results. Finding documents for this family's previous generations has been rewarding in its own way. 

Adrift in my Own Personal Sargasso Sea

 

Today was one of those days when I just couldn't muster the resolve to hit the research trail where I had left off. Perhaps my mind was all awash with binding, slimy seaweed. I needed a break, a chance to shake loose of research frustration. Instead of pursuing those aggravating, elusive Polish ancestors of the Puchała persuasion, I set that goal aside for something a bit more mindless.

I worked on my DNA matches.

Yes, I know DNA can also be frustrating, and no, I wasn't fixated on finding cousins on the Puchała side of the family equation. I just decided to take my ProTools Shared Matches superpower out for a spin.

You can blame that little detour on an inspiration from a recent post by Dr. Rick Wilson of MyFamilyPattern.com. He urged: "Take a Genealogy Pause." I sure needed one.

The Wilson article drew from research on creativity. Since Dr. Wilson's academic focus is marketing, he did relate the blog post to his field, but I have spent nearly a lifetime pursuing just what it takes to make one "creative." And sometimes, its elusiveness is just what makes it seem so magical when we do find it.

It's times like that shower first thing in the morning, when our mind is still foggy from the previous night's dreams and we think we just let our brain wander on autopilot while we get ready for the day's events—when suddenly, this creative idea pops into our head. Taking our mind off the pressing details that drive us can become the time when our mind can thrive with creativity. Whether it's the drone of the white noise of a shower—or the ocean during a walk on the beach—somehow, when our mind disassociates itself from the rigors of work, it somehow simultaneously comes up with just the direction we need, the solution we were seeking.

My own genealogical "white noise" is cleaning up the neglected branches on my family tree. Often, it's also when I plug in new DNA cousins into their rightful place in the family constellation. It combines with a routine I've repeated so often, it now comes naturally. Other than checking verification from documentation, the process takes on a formulaic series of steps. Like knitting for some, I find it relaxing. Certainly much less taxing than pushing the limit on records availability for 1800s Poland—and then trying to decipher the foreign handwriting.

Though I've not much news to share for the effort, it's been a relaxing break, and I'll be ready to tackle those Puchałas after the weekend is over. In the meantime, a lot of new DNA matches have found their place in my family tree, a refreshing result, indeed.

Add One More for the Road

 

As I'm examining the road connecting the two Polish towns where my great-grandparents, Thomas Puchała and Anastasia Zegarska once lived, I'm also pushing back the branches on their family tree. Since I am having trouble identifying the previous generation on the Puchała side, I've turned to track his wife in hopes of discovering any collateral clues.

It didn't take long, in tracing the Zegarski side of the family, to realize there was a third town I could add to this proximity equation. Anastasia's parents, Jan and Marianna, had a large family, which included a number of Anastasia's siblings who eventually also migrated to the United States as Anastasia did, herself. Though those Zegarski children were all born in Czarnylas, as was Anastasia, their parents apparently were not.

The elder Zegarskis were married in 1833 in a town called Ponschau. Not knowing where that location was, I wanted to repeat the mapping exercise I had done yesterday. But first, I thought I'd look up some information about the place called Ponschau. 

Surprise! The Prussian name for the place where Jan Zegarski married Marianna Wojtaś was no longer called by that German-language designation. The search engine assured me that the current name for that location is now Pączewo.

It was encouraging to discover that Pączewo lies in the same county and province as Czarnylas and Lubichowo, the two towns we've already mapped. Just in case, though, I decided to pull up Pączewo on a map to compare distances. After all, besides concern over the risk of selecting the wrong one of two towns by the same name, just as we'd expect for the courtship of Thomas and Anastasia, we need to assume the same transportation limitations would impact whether their parents would meet.

The map certainly relieved my concerns about selecting the right location, both for this newer discovery of  Pączewo, as well as for the two towns I had checked yesterday. 

Feeling a little bolder, I also tried my hand at locating the three towns—by their Prussian names, mind you—in the Meyers Gazetteer. Better yet, I requested the online version of the gazetteer to pin all the Catholic parishes in the area during that era. As you can see by clicking the "map" tab for this readout, the three towns formed a rather neat route, all within reasonable walking distances, and each being home to the three Catholic parishes in the area.

Whether Thomas had decided, after his marriage, to move westward to settle in Lubichowo, I can't yet tell. I'll likely take some time to explore records in Lubichowo to see if I can find any further signs of Thomas' parents—or even siblings—there. Wherever Thomas originated from, though, we'll still need to check the local geography to see whether the distances make sense.

Mapping Where They Met in the Middle

 

Maps, whether historic or modern versions instantly accessible online, are a wonderful addition to the toolbox we use to uncover the life details of our ancestors. Since I had had such good fortune using online maps to determine the feasibility of courtship connections for my father-in-law's Irish ancestors, I thought I'd turn to Google Maps once again to pinpoint the location of the towns in Poland where my paternal ancestors Thomas Puchała and Anastasia Zegarska once lived.

I had been amazed—and quite pleased—to discover that I could enter the name of a townland in Ireland and have it come up in the search results on Google Maps. If it worked for townlands in Ireland, it should work for obscure places everywhere else in the world, right?

Records I had found online for Thomas Puchała mentioned a town called Lubichowo. For Anastasia, I had found mention of a place now called Czarnylas. I plugged those two names into Google Maps, just to double check that they were within a reasonable distance for traveling by foot or even by horse. After all, it was unlikely, at the time they were married in 1868, that two people would even meet if the distance between their homes was prohibitively long.

The first result to my maps query, however, puzzled me. 

Even if they met in the middle, this trip of nearly 185 miles would take over thirty hours of walking for this potential couple. Hardly a reasonable commitment, even for star-crossed lovers.

I went back to my search terms to double check parameters. Looking back to entries at Wikipedia for each of the towns, I noticed the maps included coordinates for each location. This time, I returned to Google Maps and plugged in the coordinates I had found at Wikipedia, rather than entering the town names.

This result seemed more likely.

This time, Lubichowo and Czarnylas were a more reasonable hike of about two and a half hours, if one took the shortcut. If a couple met in the middle, they could arrive at their destination in little over one hour.

This, however, pointed out the obvious: Google Maps wasn't exactly wrong, per se, in outlining the first trip. As we find in more familiar territory back in our own country, sometimes there are two towns with the same name—maybe even within the same state. Frustrating, yes, but a reminder to ensure that when we research our family history, we've found the right town for the right ancestor, for surely, that other town might oblige us by featuring another search result with the very same names as the relatives we're seeking.

This little map-drawing experiment calls me to go back and double check my research on yet another detail. If there are two Polish towns with the same name, what if I've selected the wrong one? There's a reason for that question besides the unexpected results on this mapping experiment: the fact that, as the territory changed hands from one governmental entity to another, the names for the towns also changed. In this case, the revision was from the names the towns are called in Poland today to the German names imposed upon those locations during the Prussian rule. We need to go back and double check what we had found about that town of Czarnylas.

Above maps courtesy of Google Maps.