Genealogy help with the surname Plis/Ples/Pless

Members of the same Plis/Ples/Pless family came to the US over the period of about 10 years, each young sibling came one at a time from circa 1880s-90s. It is puzzling that the places they came from show the family had moved often. Immigration papers say one sibling came from Kepno, another Kolbuszowa, another Brylewo etc. One about every other year came to the US. They were all young enough to be sent and to travel alone (unmarried and young), and their parents never came to the US. The children met up with their siblings in one Pennsylvania town. Only the children came to the US, and they never returned to Austria/Poland to visit their parents.

First, historically speaking, what is going on in these cities/areas at the time they are leaving?

Secondly, what was transportation for these areas like? Was it a chore to move all their household goods to cities that are far away?

Third, where should I begin to look to find where the parents were buried?

Thank you!

I noticed that people with the Plis surname are about to locate mostly in the Kolbuszowa town.
moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/plis.html
From the above site it can be also seen, that the Ples last name also exist nearby. The Pless surname is the rarest name in Poland from those listed before.

Thank you very much! I have never seen that link before. You have been very helpful. There are currently PLIS families located there. So that is where I will begin searching.

@wasanah2

You wouldn't be talking about Dupont, would you?

I was in error when I said they came to the same town. They came to the same area. I will try to edit the post. It appears the some arrivals came to DuPont and some to Shenandoah. The towns are about an hour's distance by car. @DominicB Do you know of the family?

Here are the parents: Marcin or Matt Plis and Agnes (Awaza) Plis

Their children who came to the US: Karolina Plis born 1879, Simon Plis born 1880, Katherine Plis born 1881, Joseph Plis, born 1884 and Jan Plis born 1888. They immigrated in the 1890s and 1900s. Jan was the last (that I know) to come over and he came from Kolbuszowa.

Thank you!

@wasanah2

I'm originally from Dupont and I know the name Plis, though I don't know any of them personally. A good number of the Poles who came to Dupont came from the area of Kolbuszowa, which is why your post struck my eye. Have you tried contacting the Plis's who still live in Dupont? One of them might have done some research that could help you.

@DominicB

I have been in contact with Plis cousins, but none currently in DuPont. Ancestry dot com ends the line with Matt/Marcin and Agnes Plis. We can't find anything else. And with the children coming from different towns, didn't know where to start to look in Poland. I found the church in Kolbuszowa, and perhaps they have records. There is a big cemetery next to it. I don't know Polish. Do you think Matt is a common nickname for Marcin? I would think it would be for Matthew or Matthias... Perhaps they weren't sure of the name.

You are right that those coming over knew each other. Katherine Plis married a man who came over with her brother. The couple had to know of one another before making the trip because they married once she got there.

I wouldn't have thought so. Marcin is the Polish equivalent of Martin.


Matthew = Mateusz in Polish
Matthias = Maciej/Maciek

Probably shortened to Matt, as the name would be easier to pronounce.

@Chemikeim

Thank you so much.

Another nickname I came up with for one brother of the siblings is Woj. Can you tell me what name Woj. might be?

Thanks again!

Probably Wojciech. Wojtek is a diminutive of it I believe.
I don't think it has an English equivalent.

Adalbert

@Chemikiem

Thank you again. I have another difficult name. This one is a last name. In the US they were spelling it: Cubinsky, Ciubinsky and Chubinski

Is there a Polish spelling that would help me research that name? It's coming up empty and I can't find any immigration records for them with those spellings. I'm almost certain I'm not finding records for them because their Polish records are spelled differently.

Thanks in advance again!

I would say that this should be Kubiński. You may find it written without the diacritic above the 'n'.


I'm guessing that these two are just different spellings for the same name, unless someone Polish knows better.
Names back then were often butchered especially if they were difficult to pronounce.


You're welcome!


I'd never heard of this so had to Google it. German name apparently. Maybe Albert was derived from it as some point.

More likely to be Czubiński, based on the information given.

Ciubiński also exists, but is very, very rare, and most likely a rare spelling of Czubiński limited to a single, very small family.

Thinking about it some more, this may be Czubiński, and


, this one possibly Hubinski.
Try a search for all 3 names and see what comes up.

You beat me to it. I started thinking about it after I wrote that post. Probably you are right, but with genealogy it's never worth taking anything for granted.

Indeed. Speculation can lead you up blind alleys. What matters is what can be documented.

Exactly, and the OP said " I can't find any immigration records for them with those spellings", so presumably more than one family member, and if not in the same location, surnames might well have been spelt differently, even from the same original Polish surname.

@Chemikiem
An example I like to use is one I encountered while working in a small town in the Midwest. The original surname ***** was spelled give different ways by different branches of the family: Kunz, Kunce, Koons, Coons and Coontz. The last three I could see; they wanted to to change the pronunciation for obvious reasons. The second one, though, was obviously not well thought out.

Stupid censor. The original name was spelled K u n t z

Haha, no! But back where they originally came from, it was probably just an innocuous surname, they had to go to the US to discover a rather different interpretation ;)

But your point illustrates perfectly what I was trying to say, the same surname may well have been spelled differently, and for that reason the OP should check out all three.

@Chemikiem and @DominicB

I wasn't finding anything with the spellings they used in the US. I said "they" because the name changed over the generations too. And the same person would have different spellings over the course of a lifetime. I will try all you suggest. I did quickly run the suggestion Kubinski through and found a lot them but did not find Michael or any form of Michael. He was born in 1878....Austria. Since a lot of people who immigrated there came from the same town, I was thinking about checking the same town as the Plis family came from.

Will check out the other suggestions too. THANK YOU BOTH so much!!

In addition to what I said above...

Michal Kubinski or however the name is spelled, they called him MIKE SUBINSKY on the 1920 census. Another form yet! This was a good find though because he reports the year he immigrated to be 1891.

I suppose I should look for all the possible variations. I at least have the year (if he reported it right) that he came over. What a mess!

From what you have said here in reference to the Plis family, I am presuming that he was born not in Austria the country, but the part of the former Poland that was ruled by Austria. In the last Polish partition from 1795 - 1918, Poland didn't exist as an independent country, it was ruled by Austria,Russia and Prussia.


I cannot find any reference to this being a Polish surname, although maybe others would know better than me.Unfortunately, it's entirely possible his name was not spelled correctly and there is no way of knowing if this was a mistake or not!

I have found a link to a Michael Hubinsky born in Austria in 1877 ( estimated birth date ), the other name variants turned up nothing of relevance. It is probably not him, but family members listed include Catherine, Mathew, Nicholas, Mary, and Anthony. It is a 1930 Census listing:-

familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCHX-95C

Incidentally, what is the connection between the two differently named families? The more information you can provide would give everyone a better chance of helping you.

Karolina (Caroline in the US) Plis, the daughter of M. Plis and Agnes Awaza was born in Kupno (5 miles from Kolbuszowa) in 1879. She immigrated by herself in 1899 to her brother Woj (whom I can't find, but can find other siblings) in Shenandoah PA. She married Michael Ciubinsky (or however it's spelled) in the US. They had a child in 1901.

Michael Ciubinsky was born Sept. 1878 (from Social Security death index) in Austria and died 6 April 1944. Parents are listed as UNKNOWN on his death certificate. His name was spelled Ciubinsky, Chubinsky, Cubinsky, Chiebinski.

I found Karolina coming to the US. But I haven't found her husband to be (Ciubinsky), nor did I find Woj., who is supposedly her brother. She had several brothers already there, so Woj is another mystery. I can't find him anywhere.

So the connection of Plis to Ciubinsky happened in the US. However, it was noted that several of the people from that same area ended up in this coal mining town. Often they knew one another but they usually traveled alone and married soon after. It would appear that Karolina Plis married Ciubinsky rather quickly after arriving since there was a child in early 1901. So there is a great possibility they knew each other from before their respective voyages.

Hence I'm trying to look for the Ciubinsky fellow in the Kolbuszowa area. The spellings have me frustrated.

@Chemikiem please see above.

Thanks in advance.

I found this record too, but the immigration date gives 27th April 1901. Pretty sure it is the same person as place of birth is Kupno.


Even quicker than previously thought if the date from this record is correct!! Something isn't quite right here. Where did you obtain the immigration date for Karolina from?

familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JFJH-YY6


I can't find him either unfortunately, sorry I can't be of more help.

@Chemikiem

You're correct. I am doing too much at once. If I could focus on one person at a time, I could keep them all straight I think. But I haven't been. 2 branches of the family come from Poland and two from Lithuania and all the spellings! So I mixed up the Polish Karolina with the Lithuanian Karolina with a different last name. Sigh. All 4 branches of the family converged on the same area in Pennsylvania, all within about 10 or 12 years span of time. That entire generation on the chart came to the US from the "old country."

Last night I found Karolina Plis' marriage certificate and she would have had time to meet her husband there in Pennsylvania, so I was wrong. I need to go slower so I don't mix people up.

I found on Family Search yesterday a very good resource. I will have to order it from a Family Search Center at an LDS church. It is the church records for the Catholic church in Kupno. This is exactly what I need as it would show family connections and life cycle events. So my next step is to go that direction.

Thanks for your help! And I'm sorry about the misdirection. Too much coffee and too much searching in too many directions.

That would account for the differing dates then!


Hope something turns up for you, although you may find them hard work as the cursive script is quite difficult to read, even for native Poles. Quite often, these type of records have been uploaded on this forum for help with translation. You could always do that if you find any records and have problems with deciphering them.


Maybe try just one family branch at a time!
Good luck!

@Chemikiem

Thanks for the good advice and counsel! I will definitely apply it!

When I get the church records, I will surely seek help here if I can't read them. The LDS source says I can order it, and it also says it's in LATIN. I was stressing over reading the Latin....and I hadn't even considered that the church leaders might have bad penmanship! This should be interesting.

Thanks again, Chemikiem.

Crikey! Not sure how many Latin readers this forum has! But it would still be worth uploading because you never know!


No problem :-)

@Chemikiem

Yes, Latin! I don't know how this search could be made more complicated. I'm in luck though. I have a daughter who studied Latin for years and was one of few that actually enjoyed it. She might be up for the challenge. However, I hadn't considered the penmanship...everything she ever read was in type-set.

I hope we can decipher it.

Thanks again!