Brick Wall Broken!

"Genealogy is a pursuit of hidden knowledge, and success at the end of the search is like the perfect outcome of a mystery murder". -Graham Landrum

It was three years ago when I began searching for the records of my grandfather's family of origin at the Transylvania Public Library in Brevard, NC. After countless hours of research, the mother of Adam T. Siulinski has at last been found one month prior to a planned trip to the city where she raised her family. Bronislawa Podorski Szulinski's obituary was found on Google News Archive which popped up through navigating the Albany State Library website during a late night search at my home in Oakland last weekend. This incredible find will be a point of reference that I can use to find vital documents for my grandfather's family members, and will piece together other documents I have already found to confirm the path of this Polish immigrant family's journey. The source of Mrs. Szulinski's obituary (seen to the left) is the Schenectady Gazette printed on May 14, 1953.

One of the reasons why this find is so significant is because the Szulinski family in Schenectady became disconnected from the newly forming Siulinski family in Portland as far back as 1928 when Adam Siulinski married Ouida Dykeman. Their sons, Adam Jr. and Jack, never got to know this half of their family line. Here is a time that the work of genealogy can open a window (if only for a glimpse) to shed some light on a long forgotten family.

As noted above, the two family names are spelled differently. What has been speculated is that when Adam married outside the traditional faith of the family, a separation occurred thereby cutting off communication for all those years. Or, did Adam just choose to stay out of touch because of other family-related reasons? What is certain is that somewhere along the line, Adam changed his name from Szulinski to Siulinski.

Armed with the facts about Mrs. Szulinski's life, I used another website (fultonhistory) to find the obituaries of Adam's brothers, Walter and Joseph. They both died in middle age, but what of?...Stay tuned. Also, Adam was known to have a sister but she was not named in Mrs. Szulinski's obituary possibly because she was not living at the time. Here is another part to piece together the family that Adam came from.

Over these years, many people have helped me break the brick wall. I would like to formally thank four of them: Jerry McGovern, Marybeth Frederick, Nancy Servin and Michelle LePaule.

Jack's School Days

As you know from an earlier post, Jack attended Morrill Day Nursery while his mother worked at the card shop in downtown Portland. He attended a few different elementary schools as the family moved a number of times. He attended West School in Portland for junior high then went on to Deering High School. He remembers walking three miles to school even in heavy snow as there were no school buses at the time. When asked what his favorite subjects were he replied:

Well, English and history were my worst but my best subjects were science, geography and math.  Those were always my best subjects and I went through school that way.

There were no organized sports in elementary school but he and his brother did participate in activities at the Portland Boys Club.  He played freshman football at Deering but soon after began working after school which ended up taking time away from school activities (more on Jack's early work days in another post). He also played tennis with his friends in his free time. Did you know that Jack's nickname in high school was Jackson? Take a look at his high school (1946) yearbook page:

While a junior in high school, Jack was offered an opportunity to attend the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine.  In 2007, he reflected on this experience as learning monotonous procedures such as cleaning your sink with a toothbrush or making your bed to utter perfection. It seems the training was heavy on routine at the expense of the normal high school life of attending classes and socializing freely.  In June of 1945, he received an honorable discharge as a midshipman from the academy and returned to Portland.

After graduating from high school, Jack enlisted into the Navy and began basic training in Bainbridge, Maryland in August 1946. His interest in science and math from his days of youth carried right into his choice of what he would end up studying in the Navy, and later in college. Upon initial entry into the Navy, he enrolled in Seabee School and studied in the electrician field later to work as a "construction electrician" at various posts in the Pacific and Alaska. Check out the little newspaper piece from Pauline's scrapbook:

The original Seabees formed the Construction Battalions (CBs) from World War II. The Seabees have been featured in a lot of popular culture including a John Wayne movie from 1944, and Ward Cleaver, the fictional father from Leave It To Beaver, was a Seabee. 
(Source for information and the Seabee emblem:  wikipedia.org)

When he got out of the service, he used the GI Bill to take courses at Portland Junior College and then enrolled at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in a field that would lead to his career of life: photography.  The GI Bill was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 and included generous provisions to fund education for returning servicemen. This bill had an enormous impact on American economic society in the 1950's.
(Source: http://www.loti.com/fifties_history/The_GI_Bill.html).

In this newspaper clipping (probably from the Westbrook American), Jack is being interviewed by the reporter on the street, again taken from Pauline's scrapbook:         
Click on images to expand them.

     Finally we see Jack's 1953 graduation book from RIT...