GENMTD-L Archives

Archiver > GENMTD > 2003-04 > 1049733240


From: Singhals <>
Subject: [GM] Re: Kwiatkowski research help needed....
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 09:34:02 -0700
References: <b6clf7$vhr$1@askin-17.linkpendium.com>


> I am having a problem discovering the origin of my great-
> grandfather, Joseph Kwiatkowski. He was born in Germany on February
> 24, 1867 and supposedly immigrated to the US on January 13, 1892. I
> have his Naturalization Papers and they state that he was born in a
> town named Blato or Bilato, Germany.
>
> For two years I have searched for this town and have come to the
> conclusion that the spelling on his Naturalization papers was a
> phonetic spelling by the interviewer. There are many sound-alikes
> in both Germany and Poland, but I have no idea which would be the
> correct town.
>
> Moreover, the papers state that he came on the ship Dresden from
> Bremen to New York on January 13, 1892, but the Dresden did not
> commence voyages from Bremen to New York until MAY of 1892. I had
> someone do a lookup in the Germans to America books and was told
> that he is not there. I wrote to NARA in Washington and he was not
> found in their January 13, 1892 passenger lists.
>
> I also asked them to check January 13, 1893 records because the
> Dresden DID come to New York on that date, but NARA says the records
> for that date were too faint to read. I can't find him in the Ellis
> Island database either.
>
> I have his death certificate, St. Stanislaus (Cleveland) church
> marriage record, and all the census records, but none have any birth
> information other than "Germany" or "Poland". Can anyone offer any
> suggestions as to how I can discover the origin of this elusive
> ancestor? I would love to find his specific town of birth so that I
> can check out German church records. Thank you in advance for ANY
> help. Anne
>
>


It seems to be axiomatic that immigrants remembered the day and
month of their arrival but forgot the year and often the name of the
ship. I would suggest taking the year in which he was naturalized,
subtracting 3, and looking at every 13 Jan arrival in NYC from there
backward until you find him. There's a better search engine than
the one at ellisislandrecords.com, and I think it'll let you do that
(link off jewishgen).

When checking indices, particularly ones typed from a manuscript,
you cannot underestimate the problems caused by poor handwriting or
even unusual handwriting! I wasted 20 years finding one of my
immigrants because the index showed a b where I was looking for a t
or a d; the original handwritten document, once I found it, showed
that the person writing the list had a nasty habit of making his t
and then crossing it without lifting his pen, turning a perfectly
legible t into a b in every instance!

Cheryl



This thread: