I've been researching my Piastafamily tree. So far I've found my great grandfather's name was Piotr Piastaand my grandmother's maiden name was Katie Tracewska. They had at least one daughter who married and stayed in Poland.
They also had three sons that migrated to the US. in 1890's to early 1900's:
Joseph Piastaborn in 1867 he married Leonora Sobiech or Sobiecki Piasta.
Adam Piastaborn in 1873, in 1894 he married Franciska Majicewski or Majk in Poland
Walenty Piasta born in 1884 married Carolina Sobuta.
Records list the three sons were from Gibałka and one record dated later mentions Lomza.
I found there are at least 69 Piasta's living in Ostrołęckie (I think Gibałka is in that provience)
Also I do not speak Polish :) I am hoping someone reading this might know my relatives in Poland?
Merged: Looking for information on the Pajka family from Ostroleka
I'm hoping to find more information on my great great grandfather's family. I will share with you all I know, and would appreciate and input or insight you can provide! What I know comes from family history/documents, and researching on FamilySearch.org and a paid membership to Ancestry.com .
Valente (Walenty?) Pajka, born 1860. Married to Frances Mroz born about 1860. They emigrated to Massachusetts in 1893 with their children: Anna Pajka Joseph Pajka Mary Pajka Rose Pajka Valente Pajka Stanislaus Pajka Frances Rose Pajka
My grandfather, Stanislaus, was born in 1886 in Ostrolenka (Ostrołęka). I have this information from his WWII draft card. Specifically, for town and county it says "Kibalka, Poland" and under county it said "Ostrolenka". I'm assuming that county/country were put backwards. However, I haven't had much luck in locating information on Kibalka, but that is what was written. This is the only piece of geographical information I have on the Pajka, Mroz, Piasta or Grec families.
In 1910, he married Helena Piasta. They had eight children: Estelle Pajka Statza Pajka Chester Pajka Helena Pajka Walter Pajka Frances Pajka Stanley Pajka Tadeusz Pajka
Helena's parents were Francis Piasta and Marianna Grec.
This is where I come to a halt. I can find information on the generations born in the US, but nothing further back than I have stated. I'd love and insight or information, especially on what/where Kibalka might be. Thank you for your time!
Ostrolenka is the German name of the City of Ostrołęka. There was a famous battle where Napoleon defeated the russians so that Ostrołęka is mentioned on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. From 1918 to 1939 the city was part of the Województwo białostockie ("County" or district of Białystok). At the beginning of 1939 this county was incorporated to the "Warszawa district (County)".
The Germans then created the county of Scharfenwiese with Ostrolenka as "capital" and incorporated the territory to their province of East-Prussia. I found a map of parts of the old "Scharfenwiese-district"
However I couldn't find "Kibalka" there. Try the city archive in Ostrołęka. Maybe the town of Kibalka was incorporated to the city of Ostrołęka.
I'm assuming that county/country were put backwards. However, I haven't had much luck in locating information on Kibalka,
Why would you assume it's put backwards? Ostrołęka is the county as for "Kibalka" the only thing that comes to mind is (Kibałka - proper spelling btw) but that's a surname. Perhaps there is a small village by that name in that area or there might have been one at one point in time. Anyway good luck with your search and never veer off course that the paper trail sets for you as that will definitely set you on a wild goose chase.
Try searching this database and map from 1907. On my great-grandfather's WWII draft card, he had written that he was from "Yagleovat, Poland". I figured that that was written phonetically, so I started looking at possible towns and came up with Jeglijowiec.
Here's a list of towns: rootsweb.ancestry.com/~polwgw/towns.html#j
I bet your town might actually be Kobyłka.
Check if you can get a better spelling of it on the ship's passenger lists.
Katey, I'm Ralph Pajka, son of Stanley Pajka who is the Son of Stanly Pajka from Kadjwo just outside Ostroleka. the names of your relatives sound very much like min but there are too many that I hadn't heard of. My Grand Father, Stanly is from kadjwo. We found the town a bout 7 years ago on a trip to poland. My father took two phots from the 19teens. One was a church where his father was from, and we found that in Kadjwo. The other was a log cabin, and someone at the church recognized it. They took us to it, and My cousin Martin Pajka, was still living in it. My grandfather was born in the cabin. Martin and My grandfather came over to the US, but his grandfather returned to Poland. I think his name was Valentene. My Grandfather and Mother had 5children that I know of. Antoinette, was born in Poland. Stella, born in the US, Connie(Uncle Connie), born in the US, Stanley(my dad), and Steve.
I think my grandfather was married in the US to a lady(my grandfather) who was from the same town back in Poland. My grandfather worked in the coal mines in PA before working in the mills and finaly at Alcoa in Cleveland. He passed away in his mid 60's from a heart attack. Interestingly, in our trip to Poland we looked through a few cemetarys in search of some ancestry, but found Sobieck's, my moms maiden name, more often.
Thank you everyone for your very helpful responses. I think my spam filter starting diverting alerts, because I did not see any of these until now.
Ralph, Did any of your relatives settle in Massachusetts? There are many similar names, it seems, and it has not been a common surname in my research. I would love to travel to Poland someday, and am glad you had the chance to do so!
Katey, Sorry, I hadn't checked this forum for a while. The Pajka's I am aware of settled 1st in PA and then Cleveland. I know I have some relatives in the Detroit area too. One branch that moved from Cleveland to California made it pretty big in the flower growing and importing business. There are quite a few Pajka's still in Ostroleka, and I exchange Christmas cards and a few facebook posts with them. There were not a lot of Pajka's buried in the local cemetery's and my cousins indicated they were all relatives, so if your family may have come from that area, we are probably somehow related.
I understand there are a few teachers and even a college professor Pajka in the US. We have had a state trooper in PA. I believe there is a Pajka college professor in Poland too.
I am sorry I am about 4 years behind all of you in my research, but I do have things to add. My great grandfather is Jozef, married to Elenor Sobieck. I have my family tree down, all 161 of us from Jozef and Elenor, who is burried alongside his daughter Maryanna + Jozef Kolnacki, as well as my parents, Cecelia Kolnacki Wajer + Roman Wajer, Sr. I don't know if any of you even look at this site anymore, but to Piasta, either you know about Frances married to a John Florence who resided in Detroit or you missed a large chunck of the family. They had 6 males to start, then the last 3 were girls. If anyone researches this posting, I live in Woodstock, CT. My home phone # is available from directory assistance. Please call and we will swap info. I hate E-Mail. Thank you.
If anyone is interested in the Piasta family tree that settled from Poland to the Webster and Dudley MA area as well as Michigan there's a lot of family trees made on ancestry dot com
Don't check site too often. Reply to RWajerPiasta: My grandparents on my mom's side were Sobieck. My grandfather was Frank Sobieck. His second wife was Rose and I believe her maiden name was Genic. Unfortunately, I don't know much about either the Sobieck's or Genic's. I did find more Sobieck's in Ostroleka when we visited years ago
I don't know if anyone looks at this website anymore. I have not posted anything in 4 years. Using Ancestory.com is expensive, confusing, incorrect and incomplete. I have created my own website: PiastaFamilyTree.org Please visit my website for the information and questions I have regarding the Piasta family. Thank you.
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