The family that drew me to genealogy is becoming more and more known. Our Polish family tree is expanding! With the diligent assistance of fellow genealogist and friend, Michelle LePaule, some key documents have been found to further loosen the brick wall of the Szulinski's of Schenectady. I have long known that Albin Szulinski and Bronislawa (Podorska) Szulinski were processed through Ellis Island in May 1901 and made Schenectady their new home. The names of their ancestral villages were found on church records from their parish and from there we were able to find Bronislawa's baptismal record on microfilm from Salt Lake City.
And now, Albin's and Bronislawa's marriage record has been found. They were married in the administrative district town of Raciaz, about an hour's drive from Warsaw in 1890.
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| Albin and Bronislawa marriage record, 1890 |
From another record found, we have gained the knowledge that the Szulinskis had already started their family in Poland before embarking on their transatlantic journey. Michelle found a baptismal record from 1892 of Wincenty Szulinski, presumably the couple's first son. Sadly, Wincenty lived for only one year.
The other brick wall that has existed for many years is to discover more about their only daughter, Genevieve Szulinski (1910-1931). Again with the assistance and expertise of Michelle LePaule, I have learned that Genevieve had a son named Edmund Theodore Simondiski who we believe is still living. We tried to contact him but got no response. From obit records, we learned that Edmund's father remarried in 1938, moved to Massachusetts, and had a daughter named Charlotte. With no response from Edmund, we reached out to Charlotte who would be Edmund's half-sister.
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| Letter from Charlotte Hunt |
Back in the day, Charlotte married and moved to Minnesota. Michelle found her current address on a people search website. I subsequently sent a handwritten letter and on December 24th, I received a nice Christmas gift; a very nice response letter from Charlotte. The first page of the letter is here to the left. In the letter, Charlotte tells that after Genevieve died, Edmund was taken care of by her grandmother. She also tells the cause of Genevieve's death as tuberculosis.
My father and his brother knew so little of their father's family of origin in Schenectady. It is amazing to me that an entire family is being recreated through the work of genealogy and family history.
