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

Volume III, No. 11. 30 November 2002.
Copyright (c) 2002, PolishRoots(R), Inc.
Editor: William F. "Fred" Hoffman, E-mail: WFHoffman@prodigy.net

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CONTENTS

   Welcome
   Polish Immigration to Canada - Some Sources and Information
   Letters to the Editor
   Specificity!!
   A Notice to Passengers on Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamships
   Genealogical Advisor
   Boniecki's _Herbarz Polski_
   Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture Published
   Polish Gifts: Books, Movies, etc.
   Upcoming Events
   More Useful Web Addresses
   You May Reprint Articles...

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*** WELCOME! ***

to the latest issue of GEN DOBRY!, the e-zine of PolishRoots(R). If you missed previous issues, you can find them at

   http://polishroots.org/gendobry/gendobry_index.htm.

Visit PolishRoots.org, the sponsor of _Gen Dobry!_, and take advantage of the many resources offered there. Even those of us who visit there often still turn up new pages -- for instance, I found this one:

   http://polishroots.org/international_resources.htm#Poland

It has all kinds of links that you might not think of trying yourself, but could be well worth a look!

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*** POLISH IMMIGRATION TO CANADA - SOME SOURCES AND INFORMATON ***

submitted by Lindy Kasperski, Regina, Saskatchewan <lindyk@bfsmedia.com>

   [Editor: Lindy posted this note to several mailing lists, but I wanted to reprint it here so more people could get a look at it. DO NOT ASSUME this info is no use to you. An awful lot of Poles who immigrated first to Canada ended up crossing into the U. S. -- as documented by a series of articles by Kathleen LaBudie-Szakall in several issues of PGS-Michigan's _Polish Eaglet_. I have a feeling more than a few brick walls might fall if people thought to focus their eyes northward! Thank you, Lindy!].

I promised Fred Hoffman in October at the Polish Genealogical Society Annual Conference in Chicago that I would post this information when I had a chance, and I am now following through. I would also like to say a quick hello to Virginia Hill from Texas and Ceil Jensen of Michigan (great job on your workshops!). It is always great to meet in person contacts made over our Polish genealogy discussion groups. I will attempt to periodically update and add to this information if it proves beneficial to others.
           
The website for the National Archives of Canada is here:

   http://www.archives.ca/

Click on English as language (or French if you prefer) and then click "National Archives of Canada" (as opposed to "National Library of Canada"). You should now be at this page:

   http://www.archives.ca/08/08_e.html

On the left side is a box that contains "ArchiviaNet online research tool."  Click there and you will get to this page:

   http://www.archives.ca/02/0201_e.html

This is the ArchiviaNet table of contents.  It is a great source of information for genealogical research using Canadian sources. Clicking on "Immigration Records (1925 to 1935)" gets you an important search engine for Polish and Ukrainian genealogical research. There were approximately 110,000 arrivals from Poland between 1925 and 1930, a wave that included Ukrainians, Jews, Germans and Belarusians in addition to Poles. It is important to remember that changes in U.S. immigration policies in 1921 and 1926 led to a complete cessation of Polish immigration. Many eventually ended up in the US via Canada and its ports: Montreal, Quebec, Saint John and Halifax.

When searching I suggest using only the surname on your first try. For example, my grandfather Wojciech Kasperski, who arrived in May 1927, had his name misspelled as Wojceich, so I got his record only by using his last name.  Also my grandmother came a year later with my uncle, aunt and father, all small children. Her name is listed as Kunegunda Kasperska. My aunt correctly became Janina Kasperska, but my uncle mistakenly became Bronislaw Kasperska and my father Marian Kasperska. For those with some knowledge of Polish this, of course, reflects changes to Polish nouns to reflect gender; but it demonstrates the challenges faced when using search engines and indices prepared by government and archival authorities here.

Use the $ and ? search symbols as explained in the databases instructions. This is especially useful for Anglicized Ukrainian names. The information on the database gives the date of arrival, port and ship of the immigrant. You then must order the microfilm reel from the Archives using the number provided. Instructions for doing this are on the website. The information on these records is more detailed than pre-First World War records. Information from the following questions are contained in the record:

Family Name; Given Name; Relationship of Travelling Companions; Age; Marital Status; Country of Birth; Place of Birth; Nationality (Country of Which a Citizen/Subject); Race or People; In Canada Before, Between What Periods? If in Canada Before, At What Address? Ever Refused Entry to or Deported from Canada? Do You Intend to Reside Permanently in Canada? Can You Read? What Language? By Whom Was Passage Paid? Trade/Occupation; Trade/Occupation In Canada; Destination (If destined to relative, friend or employer, state which and give name and full address. If not joining any person in Canada, give the address in Canada to which you are going); Nearest Relative (Give name, relationship and address of your nearest relative in the country from which you came. If a wife or children are to follow you later to Canada, give names and ages); Mentally Defective? Physically Defective? Tubercular? Passport Information; Money in Possession Belonging to Passenger; Travelling Inland, How, Action Taken, and Civil Examiner.

In these records "Ukrainian" is used for "race" or "people" from 1922 to 1926, but then in 1926 they switched to "Ruthenian" to describe Ukrainians; but "Poland" is the country of birth and nationality. During this period Canada's immigration department concluded two agreements with Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Canadian National Railway (CNR) whereby these companies recruited, selected and processed central and eastern European immigration to Canada between 1925 and 1930. Many records will state intended occupation as agricultural labourer, and many will give the name of the CPR superintendent in Winnipeg as the prospective employer. This reflects the categories of immigration accepted in those years. The onset of the Great Depression slowed this immigration to a trickle in the thirties.

The CPR had a lot of experience in the former Eastern Galicia area. During the homestead boom that filled the Canadian West, 1890-1914, it is generally estimated that over 300,000 "Galicians" came to Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, of which Ukrainians outnumbered Poles at least three to one. (Accurate statistics of the ethnic background of immigrants during this time period is very difficult to obtain. There were also about another 150,000 from Russia and Prussia). There is not as yet an online research tool for this earlier time period for immigration records -- but there is some useful information available under the section "Western Land Grants, 1870-1930," which is on the ArchiviaNet page cited above. One can search for immigrants who received a homestead patent. There were thousands who tried homesteading and then abandoned their attempt, thereby not getting a "patent." For Saskatchewan alone there are over 400,000 homestead files (abandonments and patents) and one can search these through the Saskatchewan Archives or through the Family History Centre at Salt Lake City.

Two very useful finding aids for immigration records and homestead records are _Destination Canada: A Guide to 20th Century Immigration Records_ and Back to the Land: A Genealogical Guide to Finding Farms on the Canadian Prairies_, both compiled by David Obee. Many of you might recognize David's name from Genealogy Unlimited/Interlink Bookshop in Victoria, British Columbia, http:// www.interlinkbookshop.com.

Getting back to Polish immigration to Canada in the twenties, a detailed and very well documented source of information is a book by Anna Reczynska, _For Bread and a Better Future: Emigration from Poland to Canada, 1918-1939_, Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1996.  This book can be ordered from MHSO at:

   http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/mhso/publications.htm

This book is a shorter version of Anna's doctoral thesis on this subject for Jagiellonian University, where she currently teaches.

Her study puts entire immigration from Poland to Canada, 1918-39, at 147,300 persons: 43,400 Poles (29.4%), 59,500 Ukrainians (40.4%); 20,600 Jews (14.0%); 11,400 Germans (7.8%); 10,900 Belarusians (7.4%); and 1,500 others (less than 1%). About half of this immigration was from the former Eastern Galicia, mainly Lwow and Tarnopol provinces of the interwar Poland. Chapter 7 of the book is entitled "The Journey to Canada," and I suggest this is must reading for those of us with relatives in this wave of immigration from Poland, as it details the trials and tribulations involved. I had a much deeper appreciation of my grandmother's journey with a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a baby from Trybuchowce, a little village outside of Buczacz, to Weyburn, Saskatchewan -- a trek of over one month -- in November 1928. Anna's book is a great source of information, but this chapter alone, with the process of visa applications and fees, Polish and Canadian, medical checks (that at any time could end the whole process) and transportation costs is very informative.

I hope this information is useful to other researchers.


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*** LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ***

Subject: Free translations

[Editor: In the last issue there was mention of http://www.e-transcriptum.net/eng/ as a site offering free genealogical translations in various languages, including Polish. I received the following reply:]

I wrote this place in July 2002 (which is in France I believe) and asked if they would do a translation for me from English to German that I want to send to a German parish church. I got a quick response that they would be happy to do so. I e-mailed the letter in late July. When I heard nothing by mid-September I wrote again asking if there was a problem. Again I got a quick reply saying this was "not normal" and would be checked on. It is now November and I have still heard nothing. German is not exactly an unusual language, so I don't know what is going on.

   Sharon Galitz <shgalitz@yahoo.com>

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*** SPECIFICITY!! ***

[Sophie Korczyk <smkorczyk@comcast.net> posted the following note on <PolandBorderSurnames-L@rootsweb.com>. She reminds us of something we all need to keep in mind.]

I have been the grateful recipient of a lot of help on this list and have from time to time been able to offer help to others. You are more likely to either (1) grab someone's attention, or (2) resonate with some piece of information they have if you can provide specific information about what you are looking for and what you already have. A general request ("Looking for Bftlspk who may have been born in Poland, or Prussia, or Russia, maybe Slovakia -- are they close?"), combined with a surname that is almost certainly Americanized and can never relate to anything in Eastern European records, just isn't going to yield any useful information. Not on this list, not on any list, not anywhere. And even if you have a "good" surname, if it's something like Muller, Kowalski, or Kwiatkowski, good luck! Common surnames require extra vigilance on the part of the researcher. But suppose you don't know if a name is common. Easy: get a phone directory from any major city in the US. If you find a fair number of your name listed -- you decide what's a fair number -- your work is cut out for you.

It is also important to note that European countries are often just as (un)original in naming places as we are. There is probably a Columbus, an Albany, and a Washington County, in every state of the Union, for example. So, too, there are about a dozen Wieluns (the name of my mother's home town) in Poland, as I found out on ShtetlSeeker. So even if you have a place name, you may not be very far along unless you can narrow it down further. Perhaps if you know your Polish grandparents had to learn German as children, you know to look in the western part of present-day Poland (or maybe southern!), while if you know they had Russian coins from the old country, at least you know to consider the eastern part of Poland.

I have in the past responded to what looked like "base-zero" requests, only to find that the poster had already found four generations back and I was wasting my time. Now I mostly don't bother (I have a life and research problems, too!). On the other hand, if a person is in a quandary of some sort and I have information that can weigh in one direction or the other, I am glad to help.

  
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*** A NOTICE TO PASSENGERS ON NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD STEAMSHIPS ***

   [Editor: Paul Valasek <paval56@aol.com> sent along this notice produced ca. 1890 concerning passengers on the Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Co., Bremen Germany, which some of you may find interesting:]

Orders to report the arrival of steamers of this line should be left with the Western Union Telegraph Company at any of their offices; on arrival of the steamer off Fire Island or Sandy Hook, notice of arrival will be sent by the W.U. Tel. Co. day or night to the address given.

Steamers of this line usually make the run from Fire Island to Quarantine in about three hours, and from Sandy Hook to Quarantine in about one hour.

The usual time from Quarantine, including the examination by the Health Officer to the pier, is about one hour; but if steamers arrive at Quarantine after sunset, they are obliged to remain there until after sunrise the next morning.

Cabin passengers arriving by steamers of this line are landed at the Company's piers, foot of Second street, Hoboken, N.J. (Take Christopher street ferry from uptown or Barclay street ferry from downtown.)

Persons desiring to meet arriving cabin passengers require no pass to admit them on the pier.

Oelrichs & Co. Agents

   [Paul adds: This shows numbers of ships arrived to New York at night and had to wait their "turn" to go through Quarantine and eventually Ellis Island and points beyond. My grandmother arrived in 1921 aboard the Olympic, docked at 3:30 a.m., and most likely had to wait for sunrise before being allowed to go through Ellis Island. Thus, the famous image of spotting the Statue of Liberty and waving to it must not have been a reality for many immigrants arriving after dusk.]

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*** GENEALOGICAL ADVISOR ***

   [Editor: When possible I like to reprint questions I've received and my answers, if they include info that might be of use to others. In the following instance, most of you won't care what CZAPIEWSKI means; but some of you might benefit from the sources mentioned in my answer, especially the Websites on the Kashubs. And while I'm at it, let me invite you to send in any genealogical advice you can offer. There's no reason I should be the only one who gets quoted here!]

From: Mary Jo Smith <littleridley@msn.com>

QUESTION:

> The name I am interested in is Czapiewski. I believe the name is
> common in north central Poland, in the Chojnice area.

ANSWER:

In Polish CZAPIEWSKI is pronounced roughly "chop-YEFF-skee." As of 1990, according to the best data available (the _Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych_, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 4,375 Polish citizens by that name. The largest numbers lived in the following provinces: Bydgoszcz 1,238; Gdansk 1,775; and Slupsk 515. So you're right about the general area in which it is most common. Unfortunately I don't have access to further details such as first names or addresses, so I can't tell you how to find that info.

Polish name expert Prof. Kazimierz Rymut mentions this name in his book _Nazwiska Polakow_ [The Surnames of Poles]. He says that, like most names ending in -ewski, it refers to the name of a place with which the family was associated at some point centuries ago. He specifically mentions Czapiewice in Brusy district of Bydgoszcz province. It's possible there might be other places with names beginning Czap- that this surname could refer to. However, in view of the data on geographic distribution, I think it is likely most Czapiewskis got the name because at some point long ago they came from Czapiewice.

Czapiewice is just north of Brusy, which is maybe 25-30 km. north-northeast of Chojnice, so we're definitely in the right area. If you'd like to see maps showing at least some of these places, go to this Website:

    http://www.jewishgen.org/shtetlseeker/loctown.htm

Enter "Czapiewice" as the place you're looking for, select "Poland" as the country to be searched, and select "Search using this precise spelling." Click on "Start the search," and after a moment you'll see a list of various places in Poland called Czapiewice. It's a short list, with one name. Click on the blue numbers 5355 1741 (the latitude and longitude) and you'll get a map showing that location. You can print the map, save it, zoom in and out, etc.

The geographical distribution of this name suggests it may be associated primarily with the Kashubs, a Slavic people who are closely related to the Poles but have their own customs and language (very similar to Polish in most respects). When you see a surname that is most common by far in the provinces of Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, and Slupsk, you're almost certainly dealing with Kashubs. If you'd like to know more about them, these Websites have some information:

    http://www.pgsa.org/kashname.htm
    http://www.pgsa.org/kashnam2.htm
    http://www.pgsa.org/kashub.htm
    http://feefhs.org/kana/frg-kana.html
    http://www.Kashuba.Org/
    http://www.ka-na.org
    http://www.kaszuby.pl [in Polish]
    http://pgsa.org/kaszuby.htm

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*** BONIECKI'S _HERBARZ POLSKI_ ***

[Editor: Marek Jerzy Minakowski Ph.D. <minak@onet.pl> sent out this note with information on a new CD-ROM. We don't accept advertising in _Gen Dobry!_, but we're willing to print info on products you might find helpful. Just remember, we don't endorse these products! We simply want to inform you that they exist. For the rest -- let the buyer beware!]

Some of you were interested in buying Adam Boniecki's "Herbarz polski", the new, electronic edition (ISBN 83-918058-0-8).

It is already available. The promotional price is 88 Polish Zloty (about 22 US$). You can order it by PayU, with your Visa or MasterCard. If you don't know Polish enough to fill the PayU form, you can pay also by the Western Union.

All the details at www.przodkowie.com.

Why do you need it?

It is the most comprehensive source in the genealogy of Central and Eastern Europe:
   + 17 volumes (6562 pages), scanned, analyzed and indexed in one CD;
   + over 0.4 million people living since 14th to 19th century in the land of The Republic of Two Nations (now Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine).
   + more than 12,000 families described in detail
   + clickable indexes:
      - index of surnames - over 26,000 distinct surnames;
      - catalog of titles/offices ("urzedy ziemskie") - over 44,000 entries;
      - index of places - almost 43,000 entries;
      - index of coats-of-arms (herby).
+ you can also copy fragments of the original text and paste it into your own work,
+ or read the original text, page by page (in GIF format).

Marek Jerzy Minakowski Ph.D. <minak@onet.pl>
Dr Minakowski Publikacje Elektroniczne
www.przodkowie.com, e-mail: office@przodkowie.com

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*** ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSYN HISTORY AND CULTURE PUBLISHED ***

   [Along the same lines, Paul Valasek <paval56@aol.com> sent the following info on a new source you may find valuable:]

The University of Toronto Press announces the publication of

+++ An Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture +++

Paul Robert Magocsi and Ivan Pop, Editors

Features:

   - 1,072 alphabetically arranged easy-to-read entries

   - Biographies of 626 Rusyns and other individuals interested or active in the Rusyn past

   - Descriptive entries about organizations, political parties, periodicals, and definitions of historical terms and events

   - Longer thematic entries on archeology, architecture, art, cinema, ethnography, geography and economy, historiography, history, language, the language question, and literature

   - 13 maps of ethnographic regions, dialects, archeological, art religious sites, and historical developments

   - Bibliographies appended to most entries as suggested further reading

   - Most entries written by Paul Robert Magocsi, Ivan Pop, and Bogdan Horbal among a group of 18 Contributing authors

Clothbound, 535 pages, 13 maps, 9 illustrations

To obtain your copies, please write to:

C-RRC, Inc.
7380 SW 86 Lane
Ocala, FL 34476-7006

Large format (8 1/2 x 11) encyclopedia, yours for only $48.00 plus $4.00 per copy postage within the U.S. $10.00 per copy for postage outside the U.S.

Tell them you heard about it from PolishRoots.

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*** POLISH GIFTS: BOOKS, MOVIES, ETC. ***

For those looking for Polish items that might serve as Christmas gifts, Polish Bookstore and Publishing has a selection of books, DVDs, CDs, and so forth. You might take a look:

   http://www.polbook.com.

Another interesting site, offering Polish candies and gourmet specials, is here:

   http://www.sweetpoland.com

Also, don't forget the Polish Art Center in Hamtramck, Michigan:

   http://www.polartcenter.com


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*** UPCOMING EVENTS ***

April 24-26, 2003

Ohio Genealogical Society 2003 Conference
"Ohio: 200 Years of Heritage"

Columbus, OH

On the 26th Jump-Starting Your Eastern European Research 2:30-3:30

For More Information: http://www.ogs.org/

-----

May 28-31, 2003

National Genealogical Society - 2003 Conference in the States

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

More details to follow

-----

July 20-25, 2003

IAJGS 23rd International Conference ­ DC

J.W. Marriott, Pennsylvania Ave., NW

More details to be announced later

-----

September 5-6, 2003

St. Louis Polish Festival

Behind Falcon Hall - 20th and St. Louis Avenue

St. Louis, MO

Music, crafts, games and authentic Polish food and pastries.

For more Information: 314-421-9614

-----

November 6-9, 2003

New England Regional Genealogical Conference

Sea Crest Resort, North Falmouth, MA

New England-America's Melting Pot

For more details: http://www.rootsweb.com/~manergc 

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*** MORE USEFUL WEB ADDRESSES ***

http://www.powiat.ostroleka.pl/index.php
    On POLAND-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com, Debbie Greenlee <daveg@airmail.net> mentioned this as a good site for those interested in the Ostroleka area. At the top of the page are flags representing languages, so if you click on the Union Jack you'll get the English version of the page. She adds a link from that page that "appears to list artisans from the area, including background information ... The list on the left side of the page are the artisans; just click." This particular page is here:

   http://www.powiat.ostroleka.pl/artysci/artysciludowi.html

Note that at the bottom of each page for each individual artist, contact information is given -- snail-mail addresses in most cases, sometimes telephone numbers as well.

______________________________

http://www.eh.net/XIIICongress/Papers/Eddie.pdf
   On <Posen-L@rootsweb.com> the list administrator, James Birkholz <j.birchwood@verizon.net>, gave this as the site of a good online discussion about Prussian attempts to replace Polish landowners with Germans from 1886 until World War I. To view this material you'll need to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer. (If you don't have this program installed, you can download it for free here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).

______________________________

http://mipolonia.net
    Ceil Jensen <cjensen@mipolonia.net> has posted all the PowerPoint slides she used for her talk at the PGSA Fall Conference on the Michigan Polonia website at the above address. [Editor -- Incidentally, if you're interested, the notes for my talk at the Conference are also available, in Adobe Acrobat format, here: http://pgsa.org/CrashCourseInPolish.pdf].

______________________________

http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-geogmap.html
   Cynthia Piech <cpiech_00@yahoo.com> mentioned in a e-mail to the editor that this address was mentioned on the Poland-Roots list. It's the new address for those who wish to order free maps from the Library of Congress. The old e-mail address for requesting maps, Maps@loc.gov, is apparently no longer valid, and requests for maps must be sent via the Website.

______________________________

http://semanchuk.com/gen/maps/spezialkarte.html
   Laurence Krupnak <Lkrupnak@erols.com> posted a note on <galicia@topica.com> saying that Philip Semanchuk of the Rusyn Mailing List has scans of four detailed maps available online at the above address for the Sanok, Poland and Drohobych, Ukraine areas.

______________________________

http://www.fleurdelis.com/nofamilycrest.htm
   Also on <Posen-L@rootsweb.com>, Diana Grzelak Needham <carsonneedham@adelphia.net> quoted an interesting article from this site, "Excuse Me, But There's No Such Thing As A Family Crest." If you're at all interested in heraldry and nobility and coats of arms, this is required reading! If you'd like more info specifically on Polish heraldry and nobility, Diana also mentioned the Polish Nobility Association Foundation's site: http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/pnaf/table.html.

______________________________

http://www.kartenmeister.com
   In Vol. 3, No. 23 of _Nu? What's New?_, the free e-zine on Jewish genealogy, Gary Mokotoff mentions this site; many of us know about, but we should mention it for newcomers. It excels at helping you find German names of places in former German territory and establish their current Polish names. It covers all the eastern provinces that Germany lost at the end of World War I, including East Prussia, Memel, West Prussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia -- so it includes a number of places now in Lithuania and Russia. When you locate the place you're looking for, it shows the German name, current name, Kreis (county), current province location -- even e-mail addresses of people doing genealogical research for that place, some of which mention the surnames they are researching. There's even an option to add your address so others can contact you.

______________________________

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20020613002po.2
   Jeff Cymbler <JCymbler@aol.com> posted this URL on the JewishGen Digest of Nov. 4, 2002. It's for _Handlowa ksiega adresowa Polski i Gdanska_, a 700-page 1923 commercial directory for Poland, including the Port and Free City of Gdansk, digitized by the Library of Congress and posted online. He also gave this address for a digitized version of _Spis abonentow warszawskiej sieci telefonow_, a 540-page white-pages telephone directory of Warsaw and the surrounding area just before World War II:

   http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20020611001wa.2

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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. III, No. 11, 30 November 2002. PolishRoots(R): http://PolishRoots.org/.

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Copyright 2002, PolishRoots(R), Inc. All rights reserved.