Jasiak, Jozwiak from Byczyn/Bychyn/Byczyna

Hello, I have been unable to locate which area/country/location would have been: Last Residence: "Bychyn" in 1913. Found the following in researching "Jasiak" some censuses list Russia Poland others Poland for nationality. Several different spellings even when they were on the same ship, listing the same person as brother--very hard to put the pieces together! Any suggestions?

This morning I found that the records for Bremen, Germany port were destroyed by bomb in the war.

from: Ancestory.com: Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1948 and 1954-1957 Immigration & Travel

Name: Maryanna Jasiak
Arrival Date: May 1903
Age: 30
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1873
Gender: Female
Race: Polish
Port of Departure: Bremen, Germany
Ship Name: Breslau
Port of Arrival: Baltimore, Maryland
Friend's Name: Josef Jasiak
Last Residence: Bychyn
Page: 167

lol

Glad I was able to make you laugh!

I do understand, but the Passenger List gave race as: "Polish"; and the last residence as: "Bychyn".

???????

:)

Did you check the 'Deutsches Auswandererhaus' (German Emigration Center) in Bremerhaven?
dah-bremerhaven.de


American officials have always been obsessed with race (even if they were actually talking about ethnicity) - then and now. Just look at the latest census forms.

Thanks for the link,

"Bremen Passenger Lists 1920 - 1939

In the archives of the Chamber of Commerce in Bremen there still are approx. 3.000 passenger lists from ships from Bremen. This accounts for 70 percent of the passenger lists from ships, which departed from Bremen (Bremerhaven) in 1907/1908, 1913/1914 as well as between 1920 and 1939 to the USA, Canada, South America or Australia. All other passenger lists from Bremen were destroyed. The lists after 1945 are still subject to the data protection law and are preserved in the Bremen State Archives."

But, I still have not been able to locate where Bychyn was located (passenger list listed as last residence) I viewed the passenger list, but does not give where?

The only one I found is this one:
wikimapia.org/3622104/fi/Bychyn-saari
which seems to point to an island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. According to Google Translate, Bychyn saari means 'Bychyn Island'. Does that help?

The closest Polish name to that is Byczyna (an American would spell "cz" as "ch"). The town Byczyna (Pitschen) was in Prussian Upper Silesia at the time. Nowadays the surname Jasiak is expanded in the poviat (district) Sieradz which borders the former Prussian Silesia. In my view it is possible that the person might have settled as a migrant worker in Pitschen (migration to Prussia in search of jobs did happen quite often those days), but originally may have come from the neighbouring "Russia Poland" (the Congress Kingdom of Poland created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 ) and as such may have used the Polish name of that Silesian town when indicating the place of her last residence (it was not her place of birth!).

Byczyna was listed among other Silesian Polish names in an official Prussian document, the patent of Prussian king Frederic II, issued in Polish in Berlin in 1750 and addressed to his subjects living in the Duchy of Silesia ("Wszyscy obywatele na na Xięstwie Śląsku" - the document started).

I looked up the actual record on ancestry for you. It is a bit illegible. There were 5 people traveling together, likely a family.

Jozwiak, Antoni (age 25)
Jasiak, Maryanna ( 30)
Jasiak, Maryanna (7)
Jasiak, Dominika (2)
Jasiak, Alexandra (1)

They're listed as not being able to read or write, so the names likely got spelled as they were heard. They're listed as ethnic Poles from the Russian partition.

They were heading to Jamaica, Long Island to a brother named "Josef Jasiak".

The town they came from is unfortunately mostly illegible. It could easily be interpreted as "Brzchyn" or something similar.

---

I found them on the 1905 NY census listed as Jasiak living on North 6th Street in Brooklyn.

It looks like the Antoni and Josef were brothers, and Maryanna and her three daughters were joining her husband Josef. It looks like Josef emigrated in 1900. He's listed as working as a day laborer and his wife doing housework. The children were in school.

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Looks like they eventually settled in Massachusetts and had a few more children. There's a family tree on ancesty with some more info:

trees.ancestry.com/tree/19734432/family?cfpid=29333922682

They list the birth place of

Jozef Jasiak and Maryanna Wisniewska as Kaliski, Mazowieckie, Poland. That makes the town listed in the ship manifest likely to be:

Gmina Brzeziny in Powiat Kaliski, Wielkopolskie.

Hope that helps!

JASIAK: patronymic nick from Jaś (Johnny).

JÓ-WIAK: patronymic nick from Józwa, peasant version of first name Józef.

NOTE: Josef is not a Polish spelling.