mateuszw1990
14 May 2012
Genealogy / Martin Kotwila [5]
I'm coming back with some fruitful results of internet-based research ;)
I have done some research over the time and I found some interesting information about this ancestor. I have searched through 1940 US Federal Census.
It turned out that my great grandfather lived back in 1940 in the same place as stated on a envelope from 1946 which I have. In the actual census he was written down as ''Martin Katifila''. Who knowns in how many variations this surname was written in various official documents... Also the place of residence was the same in 1935.
And now it gets interesting. He is written down as a lodger in a household lead by a widow with seven children with ages spanning from 3 to 26. The widow was also of Polish origin as him. Despite living in the US since early 1910s, he had an Austrian citizenship (his family village was in Austria-Hungary when he left).Considering that he lived there for at least 5 years or so before 1940 Census, maybe it can be assumed that (at least) some of these children were his. I don't want to jump to much further going conclusions...
Too bad that I can't ''decode'' widow's surname from (therefore children's as well)... It would allow me to make some further research on the web. It would be much easier to find out at least some information how their life went on... if they ever got married etc.
Also he left his own family by going to the United States and never visiting his homeland ever again... although he never managed to persuade his wife to sell a farm and join him... Twisted history. Well, at least now I know a bit more about my ancestry. I hope that some of you might find this interesting.
I'm coming back with some fruitful results of internet-based research ;)
I have done some research over the time and I found some interesting information about this ancestor. I have searched through 1940 US Federal Census.
It turned out that my great grandfather lived back in 1940 in the same place as stated on a envelope from 1946 which I have. In the actual census he was written down as ''Martin Katifila''. Who knowns in how many variations this surname was written in various official documents... Also the place of residence was the same in 1935.
And now it gets interesting. He is written down as a lodger in a household lead by a widow with seven children with ages spanning from 3 to 26. The widow was also of Polish origin as him. Despite living in the US since early 1910s, he had an Austrian citizenship (his family village was in Austria-Hungary when he left).Considering that he lived there for at least 5 years or so before 1940 Census, maybe it can be assumed that (at least) some of these children were his. I don't want to jump to much further going conclusions...
Too bad that I can't ''decode'' widow's surname from (therefore children's as well)... It would allow me to make some further research on the web. It would be much easier to find out at least some information how their life went on... if they ever got married etc.
Also he left his own family by going to the United States and never visiting his homeland ever again... although he never managed to persuade his wife to sell a farm and join him... Twisted history. Well, at least now I know a bit more about my ancestry. I hope that some of you might find this interesting.