I've been doing genealogy research for the past few years, and I've made significant progress on every branch of my family except for one, my maternal grandfather's branch, the Dominowski's.
In all my research I keep coming across a Wisconsin branch (with names similar to the ones I'm looking for but clearly not the same family, for many reasons), and the city in America where they were living is home to at least two separate Dominowski branches. Mine just happens to be the one with limited information.
Okay, so here's the situation. I can't find any information on what the name Dominowski means, where it comes from, or if there is a particular region of Poland/Russia where the name originated from.
Basically, I can't find any records of when they emigrated from Poland to the US. And resources for Dominowski's just seem to be pretty nonexistent.
Would anyone happen to know anything about the name, a place of origin, genealogy resources for it, or know anything about the Bay County, Michigan branch descending from John Dominowski and Josephine Nowak?
Believe this or not, but within an hour of posting this thread I found a marriage record in the Poznan Project that must be my immigrant ancestors. So I now know the town they were married in: Kozielsko Parish.
It was weird because I had been looking for years and suddenly within an hour of this thread being posted I found it. Crazy coincidence.
So I guess my question should be modified: Does anyone know anything about the Dominowski family in this region of Poland? Being married in 1868, and having a child in 1880, they came to America from Poland sometime in the 1870s, but they don't pop up on any immigrant list I've found.
What I'm worried about is maybe some came through Detroit, Michigan instead of the more traditional ports of entry? Is this a possibility? Does anyone know anything about Polish immigration patterns into Michigan during the 1860s-1900? I almost hope it's not the case because Detroit's records are not complete and most are lost forever it seems.
As to the name, I've heard that Dominowski means "land owner." This would make sense considering the family remembers them as being farmers in Poland. But what a poster mentioned about Dominowo is interesting, I'll have to look into that.
Hi! New here! I don't know if this helps or not, but, my great grandmother was Anna Domin, I am assuming that is the shortened version of Dominowski.
She was married to a Guziak, and lived in Harta, Poland, from what my aunt tells me, she had a bakery there. My grandmother Marya Guziak and her sister Teresa, came to America together and settled in NYC.
I am having the same problem with both sides of the family, and for some reason the only one left seems unwilling to help. go figure. I do recall someone saying that my grandfather Jan Chojnacki (john hojnacki) came in through the Great Lakes via Chicago ( but that he first had to go through Baltimore or Boston-no one seems to remember). I also know Baltimore and Boston also had an influx of immagrant. What research I've been able to gather is that Baltimore is a very hard dig due to incomplete records. They are there but not as put together as Ellis Island port of entry. I think Boston (and maybe Baltimore) may have lost some during fires, and may require you to go to different locations to get them. Best of luck VM.
Just an update for you guys: the LDS sent me a roll with all sorts of Polish information on it. A lot of it is hard to sift through. It's all in Latin and Polish obviously, and for many records there is no organization to it, just a simple, tightly packed, messy paragraph.
But at any rate I found the marriage record for my John Dominowski (Joannes) and Josepha, married in 1868. It also gave me two witnesses (who I am assuming are fathers, but it's just a guess) a Thomas Nowak and an Andreas Dominowski. They were married in the Parish of Kozielsko. Also have the priest name.
However, from what I could translate, there doesn't seem to be a month given. Has this happened to anyone else? I have a number date, and a year, but can't seem to figure out the month.
Also, I'm a bit confused about locations in Poznan during this time. Does anyone have any maps of the region (including small towns) that can help me figure things out? I'd like to straighten out the various Parish, town, villages, cities, provinces, etc.
In all, it gave me some more information, whichi s always good, but I'm back to a brick wall in tracing the Dominowski's in Poland. I have the names of men I assume are their fathers, but nothing else. Looking through the records I had as best I could, I found many other Nowak's and a few Dominowski throughout Kozielsko in the 1800s, but nothing conclusively linking them to my Dominowski and Nowak.
