* * * * * * * * * * G E N  D O B R Y ! * * * * * * * * * *

Volume 2, No. 5. 31 May 2001. Copyright (c) 2001, PolishRoots(tm), Inc.
Editor: William F. "Fred" Hoffman, E-mail: WFHoffman@prodigy.net

***************************************

CONTENTS

   Welcome
   Manifest Errors
   Letters to the Editor
   Upcoming Events
   More Useful Web Addresses
   You May Reprint articles...

***************************************

*** WELCOME! ***
to the latest issue of GEN DOBRY!, the e-zine of PolishRoots(tm). If you
missed previous issues, you can find them at http://PolishRoots.org.

I received a number of really good responses to the last issue, especially
the article on the Ellis Island Website and misspelled Polish names. I'm
including them in the "Letters to the Editor" section because I think you
may find them interesting and helpful. Thanks to all who've taken the time
to send me comments, suggestions, and contributions. If you have anything
you'd like to say, please E-mail me at <WFHoffman@prodigy.net>.

Some of you may be getting tired of the subject of mangled names, but it
is a problem that frustrates many, many researchers. Not long ago I read a
really good discussion by Bill Tarkulich of how to deal with mangled names
and bad data in searches of the Ellis Island database. The note appeared
originally on PolandBorderSurnames-L@rootsweb.com; and I wanted to print
it in this issue of _Gen Dobry!_ for those of you who didn't see it, or
who saw it but didn't have time to give it much attention. I asked Bill's
permission to reprint it, and he agreed.

The reason I like it is that he uses a clear, analytical approach that you
may wish to imitate. In my opinion, his approach can be applied in all
kinds of searches, not just the Ellis Island database. The exact details
of application may vary from one case to the next, but the basic logic
behind his methodology is likely to yield results in almost any kind of
search.

Remember to visit PolishRoots.org, the Website that brings you _Gen
Dobry!_. It includes a link to the Website of the Polish American
Historical Association, which can also be visited directly at this address:

     http://www.pahaol.com/

***************************************

*** MANIFEST ERRORS ***

     by Bill Tarkulich <bill@iabsi.com>

Most people start off searching databases such as the Ellis Island one by
entering their ancestor's last name (surname) and first name as it was
known late in life. This most often results in zero or incorrect results.
They then post their surname to a few bulletin boards and lists; when a
week or two goes by, they abandon their efforts. One CANNOT assume, based
upon this short exercise, that the name is not held in a database or not
on a manifest. Good things in life don't come easy. Genealogical research
takes much time to do it correctly. And with the Ellis Island AFIHC
database, you have to compensate for its inherent errors, along with that
of others throughout the process.

This section describes various reasons why the surname or first name (or
both) may be erroneously recorded.

* In the Original Manifest *

   a. Most of our immigrants were illiterate and could not even spell
their own name. This caused (b):
   b. The shipping company clerk put down what they "heard." This varied
greatly due to the clerk's training and language background. This also
varied based on the immigrant's dialect. Less-popular languages and
dialects tended to be butchered more often.
   c. The shipping clerks often had poor penmanship.
   d. The shipping clerk could easily confuse the data of two passengers.

* Errors Introduced while Converting the Manifest to a Database *

The thousands of volunteers encoding the manifests into a database have
introduced a second level of errors due to such factors as:

   d. Variation in training and transcription methods.
   e. Inability to properly recognize old-style script.
   f. Typographical (mis-keyed) data.

* Additional Errors Introduced by the Immigrant *

   g. Immigrant did not understand the question being asked and responded
with the incorrect answer (i.e., "cousin" was given when "wife" was
correct).
   h. Immigrant was concealing information, e. g,, gave an incorrect age.

In my examination of several hundred manifests thus far, I have seen all
of the above events. It is absolutely impossible to trust the data in the
Ellis Island (AFIHC) database unless you can obtain corroborative evidence
elsewhere. This is true of any data point, but especially true with the
encoded AFIHC data. Don't try to construct a family tree based on the
AFIHC data alone.

* Check Chronological Events *

A method I have found extremely useful is to construct a chronological
table of events for your immigrant. Include in this table the information
you find suspect. With all the data placed next to each other in
chronological order, patterns begin to emerge. I include data about
friends they may have traveled with also - immigrants often traveled with
friends and relatives. For this exercise, you hope to be able to determine
movement of immigrants. By showing who bootstrapped whom to this country,
indirect research can yield surprising evidence.

* AFIHC Search Methodology *

Many folks are often surprised at how different their names appear on the
manifests. I recently found one individual looking for Gregory Alexander
Krivchenia. When I finally located him, he was listed in the AFIHC
database as Grigori Krimcsenia. People have asked, "How did you do that?"
This will attempt to explain my methodology.

Here are some more tips on how to utilize the AFIHC (American Family
Immigration History Center) database at the Ellis Island site:

   http://www.ellisislandrecords.com/

These are my guidelines - there are exceptions to every rule here. Treat
this advice as you would any generalization.

Here are two assumptions I often use:

     1. Given Names were often changed by the immigrant AFTER arrival
(after leaving Ellis Island) to an "American" version, i. e., Petrus =
Peter, Gjorgy= George, Maria= Mary, etc. See this site:

   http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/foreign_names.txt

It is important to understand it was NOT the Immigration and
Naturalization Service and NOT the officials at Ellis Island who changed
their names. For more see this site:

   http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/history/articles/NAMES.htm

     2. Surnames usually have the first letter correct, sometimes even the
first two or three letters. After that, it's my experience that all bets
are off.

So how do we get from Krivchenia to Krimcsenia?

Data known on Gregory Alexander Krivchenia: from naturalization papers he
arrived in the USA through Ellis Island on Jan. 22, 1913. He was a
3rd-class passenger, lived in Werchi, Poland, Russia. Sailed from Glascow,
and from the date I believe the name of the ship was Caledonia.

Here's the plan:

- Conduct a partial text search. Go to the AFIHC search screen and enter:
     First name = G
     Last Name = Kri
The result will locate one record, someone with the surname "KRI".

- Now select "Close matches only". This feature gives you any surname that
begin with the "Last Name" you specified before. Now you find 1,232
matches. This is too many names to look at.

- Select "Passenger Search Profile, Name & Gender" - EDIT. At the bottom
of the next screen, select "male" as a way to shorten the list. Close
matches are now down to 978 names.

- Next, Select "Passenger Search Profile, Year of arrival" = EDIT. We are
lucky. We believe we know the year of arrival (or at least a range). We
enter "1913" for both begin and end year range. This results in 54 Close
Matches. This is a manageable number to look through.

- Now look through each and every name shown for a last place of residence
which looks or sounds like "Werchi" and was in Poland or Russia. Found one
at item 18.

- Confirm that the first name is an equivalent of Gregory (this step is
not critical).

- Confirm that surname listed is a phonetic equivalent (or close, given
spelling errors) to "Werchi". You MUST verify all this information by
looking at the original manifest. If the original manifest image is not
online, go to the National Archives or an LDS Family History Center to
verify. This is especially critical when the expected name is wildly
different. Most often, you will find that the AFIHC transcriber did not
correctly convert the handwriting to the proper letters.

* Still No Luck *

If you have no success with the method above, we now embark on an
iterative process. I would redo the first search, leaving the First Name
blank. It is possible that the given name was radically changed.

Second, I would begin to experiment with the second and third characters
of the Last name (surname). It may not be a phonetic match you are looking
for here, but a handwriting (or reading) error.  "Kri" could be "Kn",
"Kzi" or who knows what..

I try to get the subset of data down to 200 records or less and then begin
the manual search process. 200 lines are 8 screen loads at 25 names per
screen. This is my personal preference.

I ignore the "sailing from" and ship name information, as most often it is
incorrect and extraneous information. You will only need this if you can't
find the immigrant through the AFIHC database. You will need to know this
information if you want to look up the manifest by locating on microfilm,
organized by date and ship.

* Wildcards *

I understand that the "%" character is a wildcard, where it may substitute
for one or more unknown letters in a name. I have had varying degrees of
success with this character.

The more useful and powerful wildcarding technique, is when a wildcard is
embedded in the MIDDLE of a search string (entering 'T%RK' would yield
TARK, TORK TNRK, TIRK and so on). I have had varying degrees of success
with this method, mostly failure. I suspect that as they rework the search
engine, it may become more effective.

Using these tips may help you do the impossible, i. e., find names that
have been thoroughly mangled.

***************************************

*** LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ***

Subject: Names and the new Ellis Island site

I ran into a real obvious obstacle while looking up names on the website.
My great-grandmother and her two children (my grandfather and his sister)
came over separately from her husband. I could not find the name until I
used the female form -ska instead of -ski. Perhaps this little piece of
info might help a few million frustrated individuals.

Greg Kirnie <greg@mds.acsol.net>

-----

Subject: Misspellings at Ellis Island

Have been very delighted - as I can imagine the genealogical community is
- about the new Ellis Island site. I think the article on common
misspellings of Polish names should be very helpful. But you might want to
let readers know it's not likely to stop there.

I listed off all the individuals with my grandmother's maiden name, since
I know she had many cousins who came to the US both before and after she
arrived in February of 1907. I printed out the list of both Pilecki and
Pilecka names and was amazed to find the number of different ways her
village name, Gwoznica Gorna, was rendered. Some were probably original
misspellings, others may be misreads of old fashioned handwriting:

     Grosmica
     Gwoznicagorna (1 word)
     G. Gwoznica
     Goznice Gorna
     Woznica
     Gwomica
     Gwormica
     Gwoznice Gor

Any one looking for this village as a clue to narrowing down the list who
had no inkling of possible transliteration errors would miss quite a few
people!

Marge Wolan Sullivan <HJCS@aol.com>

[Marge sent another note with more specific examples:]

If you need another example, here are variants of my grandfather's village
of Konieczkowa and the years the entry was made. Spelling seems to have
gotten more accurate in later years--but not always! I'm pretty sure these
are all the same village because they are all for my Szpiech and Smela
relatives.

     Koniecz Rowa 1898
     Konieczkawa   1906
     Konieczkova 1910
     Konieczhowa 1913
     Konieczkow  1907
     Konieczkowa, Galicia, 1910
     Konieczkova, Austria 1913
     Kouieskowa, Austria 1907
     Konieckowa, Galisia 1907
     Kaniescakova, Galicy 1908
     Komoczawa, Galicy 1905
     Konieczkowa, Austria 1912

Marge Wolan Sullivan <HJCS@aol.com>

-----
Subject: Misspelled names

I wanted to share with you that I tried to find an ancestor by the name of
Stawowy. Found the male under Slawowy arriving in 1912. According the 1920
census, I knew his wife and 2 children arrived in 1913. I looked under 10
different spelling variations on and off for 2 weeks. Finally I looked at
all the names beginning with "Staw." There they were....under STAWOWA!

I knew about -ski and -ska, but I didn't think that a female Stawowy would
be a Stawowa!

Mary Light <MALIGH@aol.com>

     [Editor: You make a good point. We hear a lot about -ski/-ska, but
it's very easy to overlook the names ending in -owy/-owa. The explanation
is the same: grammatically speaking, names ending in -ski and names ending
in -owy originated as adjectives. As such, they change endings depending
on gender (and other grammatical considerations). STAWOWY means literally
"of the _staw_" (usually referring to "body of water, pond," although
_staw_ can mean other things). It takes a masculine ending -y when
referring to a male; but when referring to a Mrs. or Miss Stawowy, you
would indeed say Stawowa.
     [This is completely apart from the practice of adding the suffix -owa
to form married feminine versions of noun-derived surnames, e. g., a male
is Nowak, but his wife is Nowakowa (in modern Polish this usage is
becoming archaic).
     [There are other kinds of names - names such as Wozny, Okopny,
Koscielny - that originated as adjectives, and they do the same thing.
Females of those families would be Wozna, Okopna, Koscielna, etc. The
forms with -ski/-ska forms are the ones we run into all the time, so
they're easier to recognize. But these others do the same thing... For
that matter, not all names ending in -ski or -ska are adjectival; Laska
can come from the noun _laska_, and in that case is not the feminine of an
adjective Laski.
     [The bottom line is, whenever you make a general statement, count on
it: there will be exceptions. But the only way to proceed is to start with
the general statement, then tackle the exceptions if need be.]

-----

Subject: PAF Companion 5.0 - A BIG disappointment

I was very disappointed with PAF Companion 5.0. I was ready to switch to
The Master Genealogist, after having used PAF 3.0 for 3 years. The LDS
Family History Center in SLC, let me know that foreign scripts, such as
Cyrillic, were in the offing.

Because the PAF program is so universal, being developed and used by many
LDS people, I wanted to stick with that program, the program I cut my
teeth on when I took up genealogical research 3 years ago.

The long-awaited day came and I received PAF 5.0. It permitted the use of
Cyrillic characters. But I found one problem with it: it would not print
out Cyrillic characters that I had placed in the NOTES section.

This was upsetting. Even worse was when I received my PAF Companion 5.0
disc for $13.50. I soon discovered that the beautiful charts it prints do
not support Cyrillic fonts.

I tried installing my Word Perfect 9.0 and found out that Companion 5.0
only supports up to WP 8. This means that one must use the Wordpad word
processor to print. And that means none of the Cyrillic fonts will print
out. Instead, only upside down question marks are printed in place of my
characters.

The LDS response to my complaint was: "When a new release of PAF Companion
comes out a fix will be there to work with WordPerfect 9."

A user in the PAF 5.0 users group with Yahoo.com, who is more familiar
with computers than I, looked into my complaint and e-mailed me this
response: "Okay, as I suspected, PAF Companion 5.0 is not a Unicode
application. It will neither display nor print Cyrillic. The only
character sets that Companion supports are '8859-1' (western European
languages) and '1252' (the Microsoft Windows 'superset' of 8859-1). So
Companion only supports Western European languages. Ouch!"

Now, why make PAF 5.0 in Unicode to support other languages, and then
issue a disk for PAF Companion 5.0 that does not support the languages of
your new version of your genealogical program?

Ed Potereiko <epotereiko2@hotmail.com>

     [Editor's Note: I'm afraid it's the same old crap -- if your
ancestors didn't come from western Europe, they don't count. At least
that's what a lot of genealogists and software makers seem to think. Maybe
it's time more of us spoke up and let them know just how wrong they are!]

-----

Subject: What is Correct?

Disregarding spelling errors, how does a genealogy researcher know when
the data he finds is the right or correct answer pertaining to his
relatives? If the data does not present a clear-cut correct answer, does
one use a "gut" feeling or some type of mental probability analysis to
evaluate the information? How much satisfactory information does one need
to find in a genealogical discovery to accept the data as correct?

To illustrate my point, this example pertains to a 1907 ship passenger
list entry. Most of the incorrectly spelled data in the entry was
satisfactory to me, but the ship's name was incorrect and the entry
indicated travel by the immigrant to a different part of the USA which I
was never aware of after many years of research.

My grandfather's initial naturalization papers (Declaration of Intention)
indicated he arrived in New York on March 16, 1907 from Hamburg on the
Kaiser Wilhelm II. Research at the nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts branch
of the National Archives revealed that the ship line for the Kaiser
Wilhelm II operated from Bremen, not Hamburg, and that this ship did not
arrive in New York on any date close to March 16, 1907. However, I did
find on the passenger list for the S.S. Patricia, which arrived in New
York from Hamburg on March 16, 1907, a name spelled Franz Kuschinski,
which is linguistically consistent with my grandfather's first and last
name, Franciszek Kosinski. Also, his village of birth was entered,
although spelled incorrectly as Nieczyki instead of Nieciki. His age, 18,
and last place of residence in Poland, spelled Lomsa (Lomza), were also
entered more or less correctly.

But the passenger list indicated that he was going to join his brother in
Steubenville, Ohio. I had always thought that his life in the USA began in
Massachusetts because the earliest record I could find of him was his
local marriage record in 1911. Other later records I found never indicated
he lived outside of Massachusetts. I could find no record of his life
between 1907 and 1911.

Because of the ship's name being different than what was indicated on his
naturalization papers, and the previously unknown information about his
life in Ohio, would one accept this passenger list entry as my
grandfather? I did, but I do have some doubts.

Richard Kosinski <rjkosinsk@worldnet.att.net>

     [Editor: This is an excellent question! To date I have not had any
brilliant revelations with which to answer it. While I'm waiting for
insight to strike me, I thought I'd do the really smart thing and share
the question with more than a thousand experienced researchers - the
readers of _Gen Dobry!_. So folks, what do you say? I know many of you
have faced this problem - what practical standards do you apply in
deciding what is correct?]

***************************************

*** UPCOMING EVENTS ***

June 21, 2001 - PGS-MA MEETING

On June 21, 2001 Thursday at 6:30 PM, the Polish Genealogical Society of
MA will meet at Jones Library Lower Level Meeting Room, Amherst. The
speaker will be Matthew Bielawa, who will speak on Researching Family
Records of Ukrainians and Poles in Western Ukraine, and Eastern Galicia
and focus on vital records, marriage records, cadastral maps and
documents, land records for tax purposes with examples. Matthew has
visited and worked at archives in Ukraine & Poland. Q&A. New acquisitions
will be on display. Open to all. Free. Bring a friend. Directions: The
library is at 43 Amity St. just off North Pleasant St. in the center of
town. Strictly enforced public parking across from library at 25c per hour
before 6 PM. Call (413) 586-1827 for more details.

=====

June 22-24, 2001

POLISH FEST - America's Largest Polish Festival

Maier Festival Park - Summerfest Grounds
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

For more information visit the Website:

   http://www.polishfest.org

=====

September 2 - 15, 2001

TRIPS: JUST POLAND, or POLAND-ROME, or POLAND-LWOW

[Editor: Daniel J. Kij, who has led trips to Poland in the past, provided
this information on this year's trip. If you're interested, more info is
available; his snail and e-mail addresses are given at the end of the
note]:

This is the first release as to dates, prices, cities, etc. on our POLAND
2001 TRIP. It's like "Three Trips in One 14-day Time Span": JUST POLAND,
or POLAND-ROME, or POLAND-LWOW, all beginning with our flight from Toronto
to Warsaw on Sunday, September 2, and concluding with our return from
Warsaw to Toronto on Saturday, September 15, 2001.

A highlight of the trip will be the European premier of Peter Gorecki's
"Cantata in Honor of St. Stanislaus," to be performed in Wroclaw in
conjunction with the 600th anniversary of the Church of St. Dorota.  Mr.
Gorecki, a composer/arranger/orchestrator/accompanist, has served as
organist and choirmaster at the pioneer Polonia parish in New York State,
St. Stanislaus BM Church in Buffalo. He has been Director of several WNY
singing societies:  Chopin, Paderewski, Kalina, Polish Singing Circle, and
German Schwabenchor, and has recently been selected as National Choral
Director of the Polish Singers Alliance of America.

If you're interested, contact me - soon! Seats are limited!

Daniel J. Kij
1200 Electric Avenue
Lackawanna NY 14218-1417
(716) 822-5258
E-mail: danieljkij@aol.com

=====

September 12-15, 2001

THE 2001 FGS/QUAD CITIES CONFERENCE

"A Conference for the Nation's Genealogists"

The RiverCenter, Davenport, Iowa

For more info:
   Our email: fgs-office@fgs.org
   Our website: http://www.fgs.org

Register Online at:
   http://www.fgs.org/2001Conf/fgs-2001.htm

=====

October 5 - 7, 2001

FEDERATION OF EAST EUROPEAN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES
-- INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 2001 --

Ramada Inn South Airport
6401 South 13th Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Conference details, as they become available, will be posted at:

   http://feefhs.org/conf/01mil/01mil-hp.html

or by return mail from:

FEEFHS, PO Box 510898, Salt Lake City, UT 84151-0898

=====

October 6, 2001

MASS-CONN-ECTION II

Last year's first Mass-Conn-ection Polish Genealogical Conference was a
big success, so a second one is planned for this year. Like the first,
this conference is being sponsored jointly by the Polish Genealogical
Societies of Massachusetts and of Connecticut/the Northeast. It will be
held on Saturday, October 6, at General Jozef A. Haller PAV Post, Grove &
Broad St., New Britain, CT. It will include a Beginners Workshop, and
talks on Records in Poland, Polish Surnames, and Using the US National
Archives. There will be a Polish lunch! The price is $35. Register early
by mail: PGSCT, c/o MASS-CONN, 8 Lyle Rd., New Britain, CT 06053-2104.
Telephone: (860) 223-5596. Conferences on Polish genealogy are not often
held in New England, so if you live in the area, this is one you want to
attend! You can learn more by e-mailing PGS-CT/NE at: pgsne2@aol.com.

***************************************

*** MORE USEFUL WEB ADDRESSES ***

http://sites.netscape.net/stephenpmorse/ellis.html
     David Shapiro <legacydave@hotmail.com> recommended this site on
Poland-Roots-L@rootsweb.com for those having trouble with the Ellis Island
website. He said "It really works!"

http://geoengine.nima.mil/
     Jan P. Rapalski <ripr@pipeline.com> posted a note about this site on
PolandBorderSurnames-L@rootsweb.com. He explained it can be used to get
overhead images of ancestral villages in Europe. "The U.S. Defense
Department's National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has provided
on-line imagery from the French SPOT imaging satellite (cira 1997-98?)
which covers all of Europe. The data is at 10 meter resolution which means
that objects smaller than about 10 meters in diameter can not be clearly
discerned. But what you will discover is an excellent view of the terrain,
roads, buildings and other landmarks. Also it's only in black & white; but
it's much better than a map.
     "To use this data, go to the site and select the Tabs:
         NIMA Coverage = Check DOI 10M
         View = (Select one of the three, you can change this later)
"You then zoom-in by continually clicking on the map. Keep going until you
get to the photos (wait for each image to load!); however the end-game -
finding the right place on the photo mosaic - can be tricky. You can
short-cut by directly entering the latitude/longitude; however,
correlation assumes the figures you have are correct for the location...
If the village is very small you may have to locate it by its proximity
and direction from landmarks shown on the map and obvious from the photo."

http://www.familysearch.org
     Of course you all know about this site, but in a note to
PolandBorderSurnames-L@rootsweb.com, Rose Ingram <rosedon@sageserve.com>
mentioned a new addition you might have missed. The complete transcription
of the 1880 United States census can now be ordered on CD-ROMs from the
LDS Website for $49.00. From the home page click on "Order/Download
products"; on the next screen click on "Software products." Of the options
that appear on the next page, click on "Census and Vital Records." On the
second page of the resulting list, the last item (at least as of now) is
"#50168000, the 1880 US Census, complete record." Click on it for
information. The set of CD's contains approximately 50 million names
divided into seven regions and accompanied with a National Index.

***************************************

YOU MAY REPRINT articles from GEN DOBRY!, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following
notice appears at the end of the article: Written by [author's name,
e-mail address, and URL, if given]. Previously published by GEN DOBRY!,
Vol. 2, No. 5, 31 May 2001. PolishRoots(tm): http://PolishRoots.org/.

***************************************
Copyright 2001, PolishRoots(tm), Inc. All rights reserved.