Trying to find a town called Masana Delma (Mszana Dolna) in Poland - Sentysz surname

I have my grandfather's citizenship papers. Name Kasmir Sentysz says he was born in Masana Delma Poland. I can't find it anywhere. Anybody know where it is or what it's called today?

Mszana Dolna?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mszana_Dolna

Could very well be, thank you. I've found at least six different spellings of his name so who knows. Thank you so much.

Interesting. I wonder what they are. Would you mind sharing it with us?

SENTYSZ: possibly orignated as a Polonised form of the Hunagrian name Sándor (Alexander).

His first name is Kazimieri, Kazmier, Kasmir, Casmir,
Last name is Sentysz, Sentyz, Sentyrz, Semtyz Senty

Driving me nuts.

Sorry for the slow response.

There is no question about his first name.
If he was born in Poland and baptized in Roman Catholic Church his official first name was written down as KAZIMIERZ. End of story.

Anything else are various versions of this name - most of them poorly spelled:
+ Casmir - wrong spelling, should be Casimir = English and French version of Polish Kazimierz
+ Kasmir - wrong spelling, could be German Kasimir
+ Kazmier - possible corruption of the folk variation of Kaźmierz (notice z-acute here)
+ Kazimir = Czech, Slovak and Slovene versions of this old Slavonic name
+ Kazimieri = probably a corrupted version of Kazimierz (someone took z for i)


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir

In regards of the last name: Just sent us the images of any available certificates and we will solve the puzzle for you.

Here are some, I'll send more in a minute. Thanks.

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Unless you provide better quality copies not much can be gained by inspection of those pictures. Some are hardly readable - including the headers at the top of documents.

I cannot therefore decipher your grandfather's surname: it could be either Sentysz or Sentyrz.

But if the Mszana Dolna is actually his birth place (I does not appear on any of those images you sent) then the statistics might help to decide what is his most probable surname. According to "Moi Krewni" database, moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/sentyrz.html, there are 80 people named Sentyrz in Poland. 48 of them reside in Limanowa County - which is shown in red on the attached map. Mszana Dolna is a town in Limanowa County.

If you replace the name Sentyrz with Sentysz in the link above the numbers drop from 80 to 52 for entire Poland and from 48 to 5 in Limanowa. Statistically Sentyrz wins over Sentysz in that region. You may want to Google [Sentyrz Mszana Dolna] to see how many people of that name appear there. That's how the situation looks today and it does not mean that it looked the same 120 years ago. For example, I saw several birth records from around 1840s from Mszana Dolna with surnames Senterz but none with Sentyrz.

I can only confirm what Polonius3 said in message #5 - this surname is of a foreign origin. Other source derives both Sentyrz and Sentysz surnames from the German names Santer or Sander, which in turn come from Alexander. Limanowa itself was settled in 14th c. by German settlers, so this does not come as a surprise.

I understand that they're difficult to read and I'm sorry about that. Is there a ay I could mail them to you? Do you have access to Ancestry.com? That's where they're stored. In any event, thank you so much for all your help. I've found a few Polish websites but, unfortunately for me, they're in Polish! My Mother wouldn't teach us Polish because they thought we should be "American". Let me as you one more thing and then I'll leave you alone. Is the name "Brenkus" a Polish name? I believe it was my grandmother's maiden name.

Thanks again for your help.

It appears so. There are 166 people of this name in Poland, as reported by "Moi Krewni", moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/brenkus.html
Most of them (101 to be exact) are in Nowy Targ county, just south of Limanowa County.

The surname Brenkus, together with other such names: Brenk, Brenka, Brenkacz, Brenko probably derived from the verb "brzękać, brzęczeć", which may be translated as to buzz, tinkle, clang - as in "sheep bells tinkled".


No, I am not a member of the ancestry.com club. But you may try again to scan the same or other documents, focusing on some portions of the documents only - as we do not need all this additional information on the right hand site.

Besides, some of the documents you sent look smaller than the originals - as his draft registration card, where even the printed information is completely lost. Magnifying the missing or fuzzy portions results only on bigger missing or fuzzy portions. I am not criticizing, just trying to be helpful.

I finally was able to enlarge my documents. Can you help me with my grandfather's history? Thanks.

Not sure if these uploaded the last time. Sorry

I see no new scans of your documents here. They probably did not get through due to some image size limitations on this forum. Store the images somewhere else (free image hosting websites, such as picasa, flickr, photobucket) and post their URL links here.

I found a couple of documents on familysearch. I believe these are for the same person. I can see your frustration with how the 1st and last names are spelled.

One image is from the Philadelphia marriage license index, with his name and the surname of his future wife.

The other image is for his World War 2 draft card

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  Philadelphia marriage license
  
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  World War 2 draft card
  

Thank you. I'm trying to upload several documents but they won't attach. I'm working on it though and appreciate your help.

Working on the assumption that the the person identified by maxym is your grandfather, we have the following data:

Kazimier John Sentyz, born 1892-02-12, Mszana Dolna, Poland
Wife: Katherine Sentyz
Address: 207 Tasker St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Get baptism certificate from the Parish
The straightforward approach to obtain the birth certificate of your grandfather is to contact the Parish of Saint Michael Archangel in Mszana Dolna (Parafia Św. Michała Archanioła w Mszanie Dolnej), [parafiamszanadolna.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=7&layout=blog&Itemid=7]. This web page provides telephone number, tel. 018-331-00-87. To use it from abroad you have to precede it with your international call number + 48 for Poland + the rest (ignoring leading zero). So calling from Canada or US would require this sequence: 011 48 183310087.

A bunch of extensions is listed below the main number; hopefully someone there would speak English. But before you call them - contact them by email: mszana@katolicki.eu .

You have to explain to them about your spelling doubts: Kazimier vs. Kazimierz (possibly Casimirus in Latin) and Sentyz vs. Sentyrz vs. Sentysz. Giving them the exact birth date should solve the puzzle. You will have to pay something for the service. Ask them. Fees depend on various things (soft copy vs. hard copy vs. photocopy) and parish, but should not be more than few dollars. Sending something in advance would not harm.

There are other alternatives. Many parish records are being digitized now all over Poland. Similar work is being done for Registry Offices. The result would be either in form of a direct access to the records on line, or at least the exact pointers to paper or digitized archives. Unfortunately, the work for the region of Lesser Poland (Kraków) is at the moment very spotty.

National Archives
Apparently there is one database available from Mszana Dolna: births covering the period 1890-1900 (no marriages and no deaths). Here are the details where the archives are stored: Archiwum Państwowe w Krakowie, Oddział w Nowym Sączu (National Archive in Kraków, Nowy Sącz Branch)

[baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.php?l=pl&mode=showopis&id=17710&miejscowosc=Mszana%20Dolna&gmina=Mszana%20Dolna&wojewodztwo_id=32&wyznanie_id=23].

Apparently, the records are not microfilmed, so you have to negotiate their services via email and phone or to find someone in Nowy Sącz to do the searching and copying for you. The access is free for everyone, so your representative does not have to show any proof of kinship to your grandfather.

Indices from Parish Books of Małopolskie Voivodship
This database is also very spotty. It contains the following data, pertaining to Mszana Dolna:
+ Births: 1825; 1839; 1844
+ Marriages: 1825; 1839; 1844
+ Deaths: 1825; 1844
Because of the years involved, it does not apply to your grandfather. But it has this advantage that it is available on line in a simple text form, [rootsweb.ancestry.com/~polwgw/archives/mszanadolna.html#births25] . Switch between various records at the top of the page. Then search for the text SENT. Surprise, surprise! At those early years the only names similar to your granfather's were SENTERZ. Not Sentyrz, not Sentyz, not Sentysz but SENTERZ!!!

I hope this helps.

Hi Brennan, I am finding some of the same problems trying to locate family who is also from there. I have found it spelled masana dolna, malopolskie poland.

Aslo, Mszana Dolna, Poland. There is a Catholic Church there called Parafia sw. marii magdaleny rabce - zdrouju (St. Joseph Parish). Hope that helps! Good Luck! Vicki

Also, check the ellis Island website if he came to the us.

Hi, I am also trying to find out info on my grandfather names Sebastyan Ligas, also born in Mszana Dolna Poland. I am having no luck so far, but have been emailing Catholic Churches in the area to find his birth certificate. My grandfather spelled it with a Wszana instead of an M. You will have better luch finding it now. Good luck, Victoria Ligas Cox

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the info. Is your name Brennan, my son is Brendan. Any names of cemetaries in the area, I may check their also. Thanks again, Victoria

Merged: Sebastian Ligas - Looking for birth Certificate

I am looking for a birth certificate for my grandfather. He was born in Galicia, which is now Poland. his name is Sebastian Ligas. he is from the town of Mszana Dolna, Poland.

that's nice to know.

or is the point of your post that you'd like us to help in some way ?

Hi,

I am looking for online archives for this town (Mszana dolna)

I can see that someone put on a link , It seems not to be working anymore.

Anyone available to help.

I am researching the Amsterdamer family.

many thanks