Searching for Kopczyk Relatives

I have had little luck in finding information on my husband's great-grandparents family lineage. The direct origin of his family is sketchy as U.S. records have them listed as coming from Austria, Poland-Austria, Russia-Austria, Hungary-Austria and Czech-Austria. Ultimately all records after 1920 simply list Poland thereafter for all family members records.

His grandfathers name was Anthony Kopczyk, he was born April 15, 1880 according to War Records and passed c.1947 in Trenton, New Jersey and his grandmothers name was Laura Kopczyk born c.1888 and passed c.1941. According to a 1910 Census Record, they are denoted as having filed papers, but considered Aliens. The records further state that they were already married over a year in 1910 and other Census Records denote them as being naturalized in 1906.

I was told by his father (last remaining elder) that his mothers maiden name was Uliasz and that her first name may have originally been Walerjia or Valeria, prior to becoming naturalized and taking the name Laura and his fathers name may have originally been Antonius or Antoni, prior to becoming naturalized and taking the name Anthony.

I obtained a 1906 Ellis Island Record of his grandfathers visit here in 1906 (denoting his status as a single alien at that time), traveling with the following cousins whom were all siblings, Ludwig Szul, Wojciech Szul, Josef Szul and Josefa Sawzek. The records further denotes them as saying they currently lived in Niewistka, Rzeszow, Austria. According to future Census Records they remained living near each other, on the same street in Trenton, New Jersey from 1910 until there deaths.

Strangely enough, I have not been able to find a valid marriage record, naturalization records, or death records on either of his great-grandparents, even though they supposedly married and died in the U.S. However, their names are listed as indicated above, on the U.S. Social Security Records of all 9 of their children. My husbands father was a young child when they died, thus does not know anything about them at all. All aunts, uncles and great-aunts and uncles have passed. I am trying to find out who exactly his great-grandparents parents were and who their siblings were.

(An interesting note) Twins highly run in the Kopczyk gene! Throughout my research I have found 2 other Kopczyk's in Pennsylvania, and have completely traced their family lines to find that they have twins in both their families as well, but I have not been able to tie them to my husbands family. Their 2 obituaries have provided their parents names from Domaradz, Austria (Jan Kopczyk and Antoinette Wojcik), but I have no proof that my husbands great-grandfather may be the brother of Frank (Franciszek) Kopczyk 1890-1958 and John (Jan) Kopczyk 1881-1960, as the obits only denote living relatives.

My father-in-law said his grandfather was estranged from his family (his father was estranged from him siblings), which may explain why his name may have been omitted from the obits. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no info on his great-grandmother, only the name and birth/death range I provided ... I am at a complete standstill ... I have searched both Polish websites and Genealogy Sites, but it has been to no avail ... Please help :-)

The information you gave is a little confusing.. There's only one Anthony Kopczyk listed in the Social Security Death Index, but he was born 10 Dec 1894 and died in Michigan in Nov. 1963. Also, I found a Valeria Kopczyk in the index. Are these individuals related to your family?

familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3AAnthony%20%2Bsurname%3AKopczyk&collection_id=1202535
familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3AValeria~%20%2Bsurname%3AKopczyk&collection_id=1202535

I was trying to be as detailed as possible. Yes, I have seen those records, those individuals are actually connected to the other two Kopczyk Families I denoted I found in the U.S. in my initial post, whom I have not been able to connect to my family as of yet.

This is why it has been so difficult for me to locate them, because it appears as though they did not exist, but records prove otherwise.

Anthony and Laura Kopczyk lived in Trenton, Mercer County, N.J. I have 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 Census Records, WWI Draft Record, WWII Draft Record, Ship Manifests and their 9 childrens SS Death Records that continuously validate that they were married in the U.S., Naturalized between 1904-1906 and always living in Trenton N.J., however I cannot seems to locate their actual death records, marriage record or naturalization records.

My husband's father indicated to us that his grandfather died in 1947 and grandmother was born 1888 and died in 1941, but this is simply what he was told as a child. It has been neither confirmed nor denied. Only fact we have other than what I listed above, is that he was born April 15, 1880 because both his Draft Records verify that.

You will note through the years in the records from 1915 to 1940 the address does not change.

Looks as if your ancestors are from Galicia. Jewish or catholic? If the latter, try to locate the church books of the Rzeszow parish. Otherwise this page may be of help:

geshergalicia.org/towns/niewistka

By the way, I saw that you've got a ton of good advice on the Ancestry boards and other web sites already. Have you followed all leads?

Yes I have, every single one including the link you just suggested.

Sorry ... Catholic

Okay. Have you checked these records already?

familysearch.org/search/catalog/731809?availability=Family%20History%20Library

The pages below could be of interest, too:

thoughtco.com/polish-genealogy-databases-online-1422285
mikeburger.com/rzeszow.html

I have used FamilySearch before, but have not looked through catalogs. Would that produce different docs then utilizing the record search function on their site.

Depends on whether the microfiches are already indexed or not. I haven't checked, but very often they are not. Even if, I would still not trust any transcribed record in the LDS database. Too many errors and unreliable.

IMO, your only chance will be to go through the scans of the vital records and church books yourself. Since you know the birth date of your great grandfather, it should be fairly easy to find his other siblings and then the names and marriage record of the parents. Provided of course, the relevant documents have survived the wars. Order the microfilms from Salt Lake or write to the Polish state archive that is holding the originals would be my advice. Many catholic church books are already online, and so are civil registration records. The Polish state archives did a really good job in the past couple of years.

Yes I see what your saying. I have been looking through them for the past hour and see some records come up that I have seen through the generic search, but many that have not ... Hopefully I find something ... Thank you 😊

I'm a Kopczyk from Michigan.