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Posts by mlouisehill  

Joined: 20 Aug 2012 / Female ♀ 		Last Post: -
Threads: Total: 1 / In This Archive: 1
Posts: Total: 3 / In This Archive: 3 		From: Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.
Speaks Polish?: no

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mlouisehill   
20 Aug 2012
Genealogy / Jon Dziedzikowski from Suwalki (immigrated to USA 1888) [9]

Yes, I'm in search of any type of information about one of my ancestors. He came to the United States when he was 18 (he was born in 1870). Unfortunately, I cannot name the church he came from; all our grandmother could say was that he came from Suwalki. His name was Jon (Ian) Dzeidzeikowski. His father's name was Piotr, and the family story is that Piotr owned a lot of forested land, used for lumber.

Jon (Ian) settled in Berea, Ohio, where he opened a grocery store. He also helped others immigrating from the Suwalki region.

I have found very little about the name Dzeidzeikowski in POland. I would be interested to simply know if there is such a name!

Thanks ever so much --
mlouisehill   
22 Aug 2012
Genealogy / Jon Dziedzikowski from Suwalki (immigrated to USA 1888) [9]

Thank you Boletus and Magdalena. I'm sure it's been corrupted! I do think it's likely that I spelled the Dziedzikowski name incorrectly, too -- unfortunately, the main thing that was lost over the generations was any proficiency with the Polish language. The name was ultimately changed to "Doskey" in the USA. I figure it's close to impossible to locate folks in Poland, given the changes and the history that has occurred. The only search that is harder than this one (which is my paternal grandmother's family) is the search for relatives on my paternal grandfather's family. The name there is Gorzynski -- or at least that's the most common spelling I've seen of it. That name was changed to Hill!

Thank you again for taking the time to respond.
all the best to you!

Oh! I just found a letter written by my grandmother, where she spelled the name Dziedzikowski. So yes, I botched that.
Thank you all the same for your helpful comments!
mlouisehill   
23 Aug 2012
Genealogy / Jon Dziedzikowski from Suwalki (immigrated to USA 1888) [9]

Ah, yes, and this is where it starts to get complicated. There was such a trend in the USA during the early 20th century to erase any clues of ethnicity, especially when it came to Eastern Europeans. (This was, in part, due to a fear of Communism! Poles had the added disadvantage in that a Pole shot President McKinley in 1901. One reason given for the name changes in my family was to erase any possible connections with the stereotypes that emerged after that.) My grandmother (who died about 20 years ago at the age of 92) worked very hard to become an American, and for many years refused to talk about her Polish ancestry. When she finally wrote it down, she was in her 80's, so it's likely she didn't remember or know about the characters (or she was just being lazy, or figuring it wouldn't matter to us!) There may be one other place where I can get that information, maybe ---

You are most kind with your help! I will keep digging, and be happy even if it just yields a tiny glimmer of the past of our family on Polish soil (or Russian, or German -- one thing my grandmother insisted that I remember, when she finally did talk to me about this, was how Poland's borders kept changing.)

Thanks again, ever so much --