AugustaBlvd
16 Oct 2023
Genealogy / Help Translating 1880s Marriage Bann (Chicago - Polish) [24]
Hi Everyone!
I know it's been many months since I posted here, but I wanted to circle back in light of some new findings as I think they answer some questions regarding my quest to learn where my second great grandmother Antonina Dudzik was from. Warning - this is a long story, but i've tried to be as succinct as possible, and i've attached several images as evidence.
Recently I was able to find evidence of my great-great grandmothers arrival in the United States. I was always told she had immigrated with her sister, and this record supports that noting her being accompanied by Josephine Dudzik, who is listed as 23 years old (5 years older than her). The date of their arrival in 1881 is supported by US census records for Antonina.
With this information, I was able to find an Illinois marriage record for Josephine, and further searched the records of St. Stanislaus Kostka (antonina's church) to find a proper marriage entry from her 1882 marriage to John Pienkowski.
Unlike the banns for Antonina's marriage, I was lucky to find the actual marriage record (see attached), and this document is much more legible. To me, it clearly shows that Josephine's parents are: Franciscus (Dudzik) and Antonina Fifielska, with her hometown as Włościbórz.
While I was happy to see the hometown matched my expectations, I was surprised that the parents clearly didn't match, as (my) Antonina's mother was listed as Carolina Ozadow* in the marriage banns. My first thought was that maybe it was a typo because of Antonina's name being the same, or that they were cousins, so I rechecked some information I had found on the Polish site Geneteka for the Włościbórz area, which is part of the Waldowo Parish (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship).
I found proof of two marriages in the Waldowo parish - the first between Franciscus and Antonina in 1845, and then another between Franz (Franciscus) and Carolina Orzada in 1862. Presuming the ages of Josephine and (my) Antonina were correct (born in 1858 and 1863 respectively) - it seemed like this verified the general hometown location, and parental history, but didn't really solve the relationship aspect.
So then I went ahead and checked the death records, finding an entry in 1861 for Antonina Dudzik. This was 1 year before Franz's marriage to Carolina Orzada in 1862, and 2 years before the birth of (my) Antonina in 1863. To me, this solidified that Franz had remarried after the death of his first wife, thus Jospehine was (my) Antonina's half-sister and she was probably named in honor of the first wife.
I also did find evidence on Family Search that supports that Antonina probably died giving birth to an Elisabeth Dudzik in 1861. Antonina died in August, and Elisabeth later in September.
So in conclusion, while I have never found birth records for (my) Antonina or Josephine, based on all of this other evidence, it looks like they were half sisters, and were probably from Włościbórz.
Apologies again for the long story, but I wanted to circle back and show appreciation to those of you whom had helped me in this project! I have truly appreciated all of your feedback and expertise as I have just been finding my way. I also hope sharing this was interesting, and gives some sense of closure. Or if you're not convinced, or feel that i'm missing something - feel free to add comments too :)
Cheers
AB
EDIT - this wont post the images I attached from geneteka, so here are links to the marriages and death records:
geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=S&w=02kp&rid=S&search_lastname=Dudzik&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1840&to_date=1865&rpp1=&ordertable=
geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=D&w=02kp&rid=D&search_lastname=Dudzik&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1861&to_date=1861
Hi Everyone!
I know it's been many months since I posted here, but I wanted to circle back in light of some new findings as I think they answer some questions regarding my quest to learn where my second great grandmother Antonina Dudzik was from. Warning - this is a long story, but i've tried to be as succinct as possible, and i've attached several images as evidence.
Recently I was able to find evidence of my great-great grandmothers arrival in the United States. I was always told she had immigrated with her sister, and this record supports that noting her being accompanied by Josephine Dudzik, who is listed as 23 years old (5 years older than her). The date of their arrival in 1881 is supported by US census records for Antonina.
With this information, I was able to find an Illinois marriage record for Josephine, and further searched the records of St. Stanislaus Kostka (antonina's church) to find a proper marriage entry from her 1882 marriage to John Pienkowski.
Unlike the banns for Antonina's marriage, I was lucky to find the actual marriage record (see attached), and this document is much more legible. To me, it clearly shows that Josephine's parents are: Franciscus (Dudzik) and Antonina Fifielska, with her hometown as Włościbórz.
While I was happy to see the hometown matched my expectations, I was surprised that the parents clearly didn't match, as (my) Antonina's mother was listed as Carolina Ozadow* in the marriage banns. My first thought was that maybe it was a typo because of Antonina's name being the same, or that they were cousins, so I rechecked some information I had found on the Polish site Geneteka for the Włościbórz area, which is part of the Waldowo Parish (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship).
I found proof of two marriages in the Waldowo parish - the first between Franciscus and Antonina in 1845, and then another between Franz (Franciscus) and Carolina Orzada in 1862. Presuming the ages of Josephine and (my) Antonina were correct (born in 1858 and 1863 respectively) - it seemed like this verified the general hometown location, and parental history, but didn't really solve the relationship aspect.
So then I went ahead and checked the death records, finding an entry in 1861 for Antonina Dudzik. This was 1 year before Franz's marriage to Carolina Orzada in 1862, and 2 years before the birth of (my) Antonina in 1863. To me, this solidified that Franz had remarried after the death of his first wife, thus Jospehine was (my) Antonina's half-sister and she was probably named in honor of the first wife.
I also did find evidence on Family Search that supports that Antonina probably died giving birth to an Elisabeth Dudzik in 1861. Antonina died in August, and Elisabeth later in September.
So in conclusion, while I have never found birth records for (my) Antonina or Josephine, based on all of this other evidence, it looks like they were half sisters, and were probably from Włościbórz.
Apologies again for the long story, but I wanted to circle back and show appreciation to those of you whom had helped me in this project! I have truly appreciated all of your feedback and expertise as I have just been finding my way. I also hope sharing this was interesting, and gives some sense of closure. Or if you're not convinced, or feel that i'm missing something - feel free to add comments too :)
Cheers
AB
EDIT - this wont post the images I attached from geneteka, so here are links to the marriages and death records:
geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=S&w=02kp&rid=S&search_lastname=Dudzik&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1840&to_date=1865&rpp1=&ordertable=
geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=D&w=02kp&rid=D&search_lastname=Dudzik&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1861&to_date=1861
1881 Arrival
1882 Marriage Josephine Dudzik
