More Findings on the Szulinski's from Schenectady

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.

  

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.

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.

Finding Bronislawa's Ancestral Homeland

Source: Liberty Ellis Foundation

The primary goal of a research trip I made to Schenectady, NY, in 2013 was to discover the ancestral villages of my Polish great grandparents. The searching involved lots of leg work, including visits to churches, cemeteries, former residences and city government offices. The death records of my great grandparents obtained from the city hall did not provide the names of their ancestral villages. This fact caused me to visit one more parish office that hot summer weekend before driving back to Massachusetts. Ultimately, this visit tipped the balance between a limited finding and an exciting discovery.  Before I share that discovery, a little background will show the full circle of a passionate genealogist.  

Genealogy searches often begin with either a census record or a ship’s manifest; true in this case as well. Several years ago, through diligent research done at the California Genealogical Society and Library in Oakland, CA, and with the help of my friend and genealogy colleague, Jerry McGovern, I learned of the fourteen day Atlantic crossing of my paternal great grandparents, Bronislawa and Albin Szulinski (later anglicized to Bessie and Albert).  In Hamburg, Germany, they embarked on the Pretoria (shown above) destined for a new life in New York on May 5, 1901.  A little research on Polish history pointed to the likely reason for their trip.  The country was involved in an extended period of poverty in the 1890s which caused a mass emigration.  Bronislawa and Albin may have simply wanted to emigrate for a better life in America. Notice the one letter variation of the surnames (Szulinski and Siulinski).  The name change appears to have been brought about by my grandfather, Adam T. Siulinski, before or at the time of his Maine marriage in 1928.

1901 Pretoria's manifest listing the names of Bronislawa and Albin Szulinski
Source: Ancestry.com

Obtaining the records of immigrant ancestors after emigration is a far less complicated endeavor than obtaining records generations later. When I am able to make the ancestral trip to my family’s Polish homeland, I will need to know exactly where to go.  Thus, I never gave up my quest to discover where Bronislawa and Albin came from in Poland.  Hearing my grandfather talk about his upbringing, I understood his family to have been devout Catholics, so I focused my research on the two Polish-connected Catholic churches in Schenectady: St. Adalbert’s and St. Mary’s.  The parish office at St. Adalbert’s provided the burial locations and causes of death for Albin and two of his sons, Walter and Joseph, but did not offer any information related to places of origin in Poland.

Thomas Adam Szulinski's baptismal record from St. Adalbert's parish records.
-name later changed to Adam T. Siulinski-

The other Catholic parish office I visited is where I struck gold in the form of a sacramental record.  St. Mary’s Church had since closed so it was a challenge to find the location of where the records were being stored.  After being rerouted a few times from one office to another, I found the right place and the right person to talk to.  Kudos to Debbie May at the Church of St. John the Evangelist who did the Szulinski lookups for me.  A few months after my Schenectady visit, an envelope arrived in my mailbox containing a copy of the sacramental record of my grandfather’s baptism (see image), and which happened to reveal the names of the ancestral villages of both Bronislawa and Albin (see image above).

Baptism record of Bronislawa (Podorski) Szulinski
Source: Salt Lake City Library microfilm.

Having discovered these Polish place names, I ordered birth and marriage microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City specific to the areas shown on the baptism.  A few weeks later, I was searching through rolls of microfilm trying to find the birth and marriage records of Bronislawa and Albin. So far, I have found Bronislawa’s birth record from 1870 (see above), and what a find that was. There is nothing more pleasing to a genealogist than finding original records.

Google map image of Kraszewo Czubaki, Polish ancestral homeland of Bronislawa (Podgorski) Szulinski showing the close proximity to Warsaw.  My grandfather had always said his family was from Warsaw.

All the time, travel, and effort were well worth acquiring the knowledge of my immigrant ancestors’ places of origin. I look forward to the day I will visit these towns in Poland.  When I do make the trip, I expect to be as fortunate as I was with Jacki and Stephanie, to meet more Szulinski family members.  Minimally though, I am certain to find more exciting discoveries!

The Szulinski Brothers of Schenectady

"The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future."

The above quote comes from the title page of a booklet called "Growing with Schenectady". It was prepared for the 1948 sesquicentennial of the city. If you, like me, have never seen this word before it means a one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary. The booklet told the development story of one of Schenectady's key industries: the American Locomotive Company (ALCO).

The photo shown here is a postcard image of the ALCO plant. This company along with General Electric served the world by their respective industries and my two great uncles contributed to the effort by devoting their life's work to these companies. Our immigrant ancestors were true die-hard industrialists.

My grandfather, Adam Siulinski, Sr., had two brothers. Their names were Joseph Szulinski and Walter Szulinski. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of these two men but they lived their entire lives in Schenectady, and they were blue collar workers. The little information I found comes from newspaper articles I found on the FultonHistory website (these were articles orginally published in the Schenectady Gazette).  According to the articles, they both died in their fifties of unstated illnesses. Eventually I would like to find some living relatives, descendants or friends of these men who can speak about them from knowing them. Walter had a daughter, possibly adopted, and Joseph did not have any children.

Walter worked for General Electric for eighteen years in the Relations and Utilities Department until he became ill. Chris Hunter from the Schenectady Museum says that this department was probably located within GE’s Central Station Department, which was responsible for equipment sales, installation, and service to utilities. Walter was an Army veteran from World War II. Walter's passing in March 1959 garnered a full newspaper article in the Schenectady Gazette: "Szulinski Dies at 51; Was GE Employe". Notice the misspelling of "employee". The Gazette's copy editor was apparently on vacation. He was survived by his wife, Ann Olejnik Szulinski, and a daughter, Miss Patricia Ann Szulinski.

Source: Wikipedia

In the early 1880's, on a train trip from Albany to New York, Thomas Edison envisioned Schenectady as the perfect factory location for his new business that was to become General Electric. He liked the area because of its transportation, roads, railroads, and water. If anyone is interested to learn more about the history of General Electric, there is a comprehensive book available on the web called Men and Volts.


The 1923 Schenectady Directory has Joseph Szulinski working at General Electric. When he got married to Gladys Niegowski in 1945, the marriage announcement (Schenectady Gazette, 8-1-45) showed he worked for the Army Service Forces Depot as a "Packer". The Depot was a United States Department of the Army maintenance, distribution, and supply depot from 1941 through 1969. Mostly the depot shipped motor vehicles to the Port of New York. At its peak it employed four thousand people. Joseph died July 6, 1960 and is buried in the family plot at St. Mary's Cemetery.

These men were common and hard working folks but the stories involving the companies they worked for were anything but common. Like the story of the first transcontinental truck delivery accomplished by five crew members of the ALCO company arriving at San Francisco City Hall on September 20, 1912. Their cargo was three tons of Parrot Brand Olive Silk Soap. It took them 91 days. Although, ALCO was known for building locomotives, they also made cars and trucks.


Thanks to Chris Hunter from the Schenectady Museum for providing research information for my post.
Sources for this post:

Army depot information: http://www.fsadva.com/ and http://dmna.state.ny.us/forts/fortsQ_S/schenectadyServiceForceDepot.htm

Photo of ALCO plant: http://web.me.com/gino.dicarlo/ginospage/TandS/Schenectady.html

Edison story information: http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/mvgw/history/113.html

Albin Szulinski Revealed

The odd title to this post comes from the impact that genealogy often provides: information not known about an ancestor is revealed through research and a bit of luck. The children of Adam Thomas Siulinski, Sr. (Jack and Adam, Jr.) did not get to know their grandparents, Bronislava (Bessie) and Albert (Albin) Szulinski. The name change and the son becoming separated from his family of origin presumably came about from Adam, Sr. marrying a woman of another faith from the family's traditional Catholic creed. Here is the only image I have of Albin Szulinski. It came from a photo album in the possession of Adam and Jean Siulinski who reside in South Portland, Maine.

Thanks to Beth Snyder from RAOGK for offering this obituary to help shed away the mystery of who Albin Szulinski really was:

Obituary April 13, 1943 Schenectady Gazette

Mass will be celebrated this morning at 9am in St. Adalbert's Church for Albin Szulinski, 70, retired, who died Saturday at his home, 1019 Second Ave, after an illness of about a week.  Burial will be in St. Mary's cemetery, McClellan St.  The A B Brzozowski funeral home, 644 Crane St., will be open this morning after 3:30pm. He was born in Poland and lived in this city about 50 years.  He worked at the American Locomotive Co. about 25 years and at one time was employed about 10 years at the GE Co.  He belonged to St. Josefa society 181, Z P R K.  He retired in 1931. Besides his wife, Mrs. Bronizlawa Podoraki Szulinski, he leaves three sons, Adam, Joseph and Walter Szulinski.There are three grandchildren.

Although, genealogists can provide factual information about an individual who lived many years ago, offering a sense of what their personality was really like is a challenging task indeed. Mr. Szulinski seemingly was a very traditional, conservative hard-working industrial worker from Schenectady, New York having immigrated from Poland around the turn of the century. Any child's fascination with locomotives might have its origins in the place Albin chose to work most of his life: the American Locomotive Company. Could Albin have worked a train as famous as the Nation's First Diesel-Electric Locomotive, Alco from 1924?

Source: THE SCHENECTADY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE - a service of the Schenectady County Public Library.

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.