Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Alright, awesome. Thanks Polonius3.

Any idea on Banash? Or is it possibly spelled Banach?

Genealogy / Valentine Stolarz, Anna Banas, Jacob Mastej, Francis Bil [30]

So far I've mainly been using family search, rootsweb, and ancestry.com...with little results. At least nothing (As I said before) that that takes me further back than my great grandparents. I did find the ship records for Jacob Mastej, and I'm pretty confident I found the ship records for Walenty. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of information from it.

What do you mean there are many places with the same name in Poland? As far as Biadoliny, Zawadka, or Zarzecze is concerned? I've mainly concentrated on Biadoliny since it relates to the Stolarz side.

Alright, now that I've taken a look at the documents I do have copies of, it looks like I haven't in fact found Walenty Stolarz on a passenger list. I have Jozef Stolarz, and Jacob Mastej both coming from Hamburg. Not much information provided by Jacob Mastej other than saying that he's from Zawadka, and on Jozef Stolarz's immigration papers, he again lists Wawrzyniec Stolarz as his father. As well as his last residence being Hamburg, his race being Polish, and his nationality/country he's from as being Austria.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Well yes, Stolarz is a word so it is a bit easier, but I was just saying I have pretty much ZERO luck tracking my genealogy with that surname. Other than information I already know, I haven't been able to find any other information.

As for the name Mastej, the story is (And I did look it up on Ellis Island) that the name when my great grandfather Jacob lived in Poland was Mastej, but when they came into the Ellis Island, they told them to change the spelling to Masti so it would be easier for other Americans to understand. They've since changed it back to the original spelling of Mastej however. So as far as I know, Mastej should actually be the original spelling...unless of course Mastej wasn't the original spelling either haha.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

It seems to be a name that I tend to run into a brick wall with. I have enough trouble finding much information on the name Stolarz, but when it comes to Mastej, I can never find anything.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Any idea what Mastej means?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Stolarz means carpenter, correct?

Genealogy / Valentine Stolarz, Anna Banas, Jacob Mastej, Francis Bil [30]

Alright I see where you're coming from, thanks for the help :)

Thread attached on merging:
Four Dead Ends?

I posted here awhile back with some of my information, and asking for some assistance. I have slightly more information now, but it's mostly things I've found out through other family members and such. The internet really hasn't been very good to me when it comes to helping me find additional information on my genealogy.

From my fathers side of the family, I basically have information on all four of my great grandparents, all of which came from Poland.

Walenty Stolarz born 1879 in Biadoliny Poland. Died in 1939 in Hammond Indiana
Married to:
Anna Banash (Banach/Banas?) born 1879 in Biadoliny Poland. Died 1967 in Hammond Indiana

Jacob Mastej born 1888 in Zawadka Poland. Died 1936 in Hammond Indiana
Married to:
Franciska Bil born in 1893 in Zarzecze Poland. Died 1979 in Hammond Indiana

I've had pretty much no luck finding any information on Franciska, or Anna...and can't figure out anything regarding their maiden names. I have a feeling there is a spelling variation that I'm missing. I admit I've devoted the most time to trying to find out information on Walenty, as well as spending some time trying to find out information on Jacob. Everybody listed above immigrated from Poland, and I can't seem to get any generations further into Poland. The closest lead I have in Poland is that Walenty had a cousin named Jozef Stolarz who also came to the United States (He died without being married or having any children). Jozef and Walenty's fathers would be brothers, and I found Jozef's fathers name in Jozef's work book...and his fathers name was Wawrzyniec Stolarz. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out any information on him either. My hope was that since he would be Walenty's father's brother, that I could find out some more direct information through that route...unfortunately it's proven to be another brick wall. People in my family seem to not come up in most online searches no matter what website I try.

Since I've been trying to work on this for a couple years now, I have to admit I'm getting kind of frustrated and a little desperate for any ounce of information. I've drilled my poor grandmother (My last living grandparent) for information so many times, I'm sure she's sick of hearing about it haha. So by this point, any information would be helpful, and I'm really open to suggestions. I should also point out that I don't know any Polish, which probably also isn't helping my situation.

Regards,
Josh

Genealogy / Valentine Stolarz, Anna Banas, Jacob Mastej, Francis Bil [30]

Alright I'll see what I can come up with, thanks for the link. Somehow I'll just have to bride the language barrier haha. What is the best way to use the website? Being that it looks like a social networking site...not exactly somewhere I would find anything about old relatives.

Genealogy / Valentine Stolarz, Anna Banas, Jacob Mastej, Francis Bil [30]

Well I sure have trouble finding much for Stolarz if it's really common. Half the time when I look at different surname lists, it never shows up.

My grandma told me it was spelled "Banash", but anything I've found for her was spelled Banas...it very well could've been Banach at some point, I wouldn't know.