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

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.