Polish Genealogy- Kirklewski

[poliquie]

I am looking for help to locate any added info on my great grandfather Antoni/Anthony Kirklewski. I have not found a definitive immigration record for him as there is another Antoni Kirklewski of similar age that is not my great grandfather.

I know Antoni served in the US military during WW1 and based on his military records he was born July 1893 in Russia Poland. He died in New Britain CT, USA on Nov 7 1929.
Antoni married my great grandmother Antonina Kania b 1898 - d 1968 CT In Nov 1920. Antonina was widowed previously and her married name was Czarniecki.
They had 3 children that I have all the history on but to verify data their names are Josef Antoni Kirklewski b 1921 - d 2011, Florence T Kirklewski b 1922 - d 2013, and Clara Kirklewski b 1924 - d 1972

I located a brother Albert Kirklewski born February 4,1891 in Wilno Poland and died February 26,1965 in New Britain, CT. Albert married Anna Raczkowska b 1894- d 1966 and they had 2 children:
1-Edward Albert Kirklewski (later changed his name to Kirk) b 1914 d 2003 in 1946 in Los Angelos, California he married Eileen Marie O’Connor b 1912 d 2009. He had one child that I can find. Her name is Eileen A Kirk
2-Celia T Kirklewski b 1919 d? Based on census records in New Britain, CT she married in 1945 to a Stephen Honchek but I have not found any more info on her

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated

[ffusiak]

I noticed a tree at Family Search - https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedig ... e/LYZ9-ZJP

With this tree, there is a reference to a 1920 census (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... 3AMCN9-QMV) indicating he may have be naturalized. The naturalization record may contain more detail.

I also found a potential ship manifest on Ancestry.
Name: Antoni Kirklewski
Arrival Date: 24 Nov 1907
Birth Date: abt 1889
Birth Location: Russia
Birth Location Other: pEredinney
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality: Lithuanian
Port of Departure: Hamburg
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Patricia

His final destination was Newark, NJ but I cannot read to who he was going to.


https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse ... cessSource

[ffusiak]

On the ship manifest (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/#tab=tab_search), I think the village is actually Lędziny, Poland. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lędziny).

What is surprising, it is not a common surname based on the distribution maps (http://nlp.actaforte.pl:8080/Nomina/Ndi ... Kirklewski) suggesting to me it was changed or mis transcribed along the line.

However with that said, I do find it on the Polish surname list (http://www.ipgs.us/iwonad/surnames/name ... i.html#Kir)

Kirklewski Lacza, Lida - Russia
Kirklewski Merecz (Merkine) - Russia (now Lithuania)
Kirklewski Niemojuny, Troki - Russia (now Lithuania)
Kirklewski Poszwityn (Pasvitinio) - Russia / Lithuania 1802-1870

[poliquie]

Thank you for your response. The family tree you reference on family search is mine. I did see the 1920 census and I also noticed that the year listed for his immigration is 1913. The immigration record you found, and one I have seen before is for 1907. I was not able to find him in the 1910 census record so I assume the 1913 year is correct. Also I have not been able to obtain naturalization records on him. I looked in the national archives but don’t know anywhere else to look. Do you have any suggestions?

As for spelling I have found variations in spelling along the way including Kirklewski, Kirklowski, Kirklevski, and Kirk. Since he was in the military I did send for his military records but unfortunately due to a fire the records from his year were destroyed. However it was due to a trip to New Britain that I learned that Albert was his brother when I accessed his enlistment record at the library and it put Albert as his brother and next of kin. He served In the army from 1918-1919 and was discharged medically.

[poliquie]

There was another Kirklewski family that settled in Long Island New York but I have not been able to verify a relation. That family came from Lithuania. Funny thing is that my grandfather moved his family to Long Island and lived relatively near the other family it never met

[ffusiak]

Have you tried contacting Sacred Heart Cemetery in New Britain for additional information?

http://www.sacredheartnb.org/page/who-can-buy-a-grave. - in the contact section, there is a inquiry form.

I came across a number of articles on his death - https://imgur.com/gallery/zxyooZH. One clue is that he went to Newark. I will see if I find anything around it.

[ffusiak]

I think I may have found a lead. In the German Genealogy Group Naturalization

Index.https://www.germangenealogygroup.com/re ... ations.php

I found a Anthony Kirklwesky - Record 386 Declaration 1916 USDC-Newark.

However, I cannot locate the physical record in the FS https://www.familysearch.org/search/cat ... %20Library. which is odd. You may need to request it from the National Archives.

[poliquie]

Wow you have been a good investigator! I did find a lot of info when I traveled to New Britain CT lady year. I went to the Sacred Heart cemetery and was able to get the plot records got my family. It was here that we learned that my great grandmother Antonina/Annette had three children by her first husband. There was a daughter born in between her two sons, my great uncles that died in infancy.

With her first husband Jan Czarniecki she had eldest son Francis and daughter Rosalia and she was pregnant with son Edward when her husband died. She then married Antoni in 1920 and had my grands father Josef Anthony, and daughters Florence and Clara.

The newspaper articles have a number of errors of which I saw when I found some of the articles at the New Britain library. I even contacted the newspaper archives to see if I could get a better picture of Antoni since that is the only picture any of us have of him. Or at least any that is identified. The archives also had damage and missing years including the year of the articles do the microfilmed copy was our only photo of him. Since he was in his military uniform I was hoping his military records would perhaps have his picture but I ran into a dead end there too.
I did notice that the one article stated his naturalization occurred on July 10,1928. This is the first I have seen a date for his naturalization. As for the Newark archives, it appears that they are stored at the national archives in Manhattan and I have been there several times with no luck finding them. My guess is his name is spelled differently somehow???

In his military records his name was spelled Antoni Kirklewzki Or Kivklewzki. I was trying to find out why he was medically discharged and also based on the nature of his death if he suffered from depression and post traumatic stress from WW1

Again thanks for your help. Let me know if you find any more leads

[ffusiak]

Hopefully you will find his declaration at the National Archives that will lead you to his original village and arrival information.

On his picture, I would check with the New Britain library to see if they have the original of the issue. Some libraries keep the original even after microfilming them as long they have storage. It is worthwhile a call to their reference desk.

With your GGM, the surname Kania is Lemko but well distributed throughout Poland. Do you know her original village?

[poliquie]

Is the national archives a different contact than the manhattan office? If so how would I contact them?

Yes I already asked the library and they were the ones that directed me to the newspaper archives, which were kept at a college campus.

As for Antonina’s parents, according to my GGM naturalization papers she was Rosalia Gaska born in Dabrowka, Poland and her husband my GGP was Francizchek Kania born in Baba, Poland.

According to New Britain, CT census records, Franzichek left the USA to go back to Europe around 1926. For the next few years Rozalia was listed as his wife. In 1935 it changed to her being listed as his widow. It is assumed he died that year but I can not find a death record nor is he buried in the family’s plot. So our family mystery continues

[poliquie]

By the way, what resources did you use to find the newspaper articles and the other info you found? It seems you found info so easily that in had to find by visiting New Britain!

[ffusiak]

I used GenealogyBank.com for those articles which is a paid subscription service.

Here are some free newspaper sites that I would recommend exhausting before paying for a subscription site, like newspapers.com or genealogybank.com. If you use a paid service, check to see if they have the newspaper or city that you are interested in before subscribing.

https://fultonhistory.com - typically slow to load; an alternative access to same data is https://fultonsearch.org

https://www.theancestorhunt.com/newspapers.html

https://elephind.com - go to browse the collection on the left side to see if they carry the newspaper or region that you seek.

Library of Congress - https://www.loc.gov/newspapers/

Chroniciling America - https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Google News - https://news.google.com/newspapers

Small Town Newspapers - http://www.smalltownpapers.com/browse-by-state.php

List of weekly newspapers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_w ... ted_States

Lastly, I would google the town name +library or historical society. I would check their website for available newspapers as some are only available on microfilm. Check to see if they have a look-up service. If not, call the reference desk and ask, many are very helpful.

[ffusiak]

If you are going to pursue research in Poland, the best resource is Polish Genealogy Forum on Facebook or they have a companion site - https://sites.google.com/view/polishgenealogygroup/home

I looked at Dabrowka, Poland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dąbrówka_Polska) and Baba. There are two Baba but I think this one is the correct due to proximity to Dabrowska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba,_Mas ... oivodeship). I have not done much work in this area of Poland as most of my relatives are from south Poland / Carrphthain Mountains.

Good Luck in your hunt.

[ffusiak]

I located the declaration of intent - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... at=3273151

There is not a lot of information hopefully this is your GGF.

This is information correlates to ship manifest that I mentioned in my earlier post. Here is also the Hamburg ship manifest that appears to correlate. - https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse ... cessSource

[poliquie]

The intent and ship manifest are definitely not my GGF. These belong to the “other” Anthony that I had previously discovered. This Anthony was born Sept 20,1891 and my GGF was born July 15, 1893.

I have wondered if they were related as cousins but I have not found anything definitive to confirm that. The other Anthony is listed as being from Vilny and I wonder if that’s the same as Vilno? On his naturalization papers his name has a slight variation in spelling too. I know spelling is relative as many names got altered upon immigration but it could offer clues for family connection.

Thanks for the info on the free newspaper sources. I have been familiar with the Fulton news and found it helpful with my grandmother family that came from Sicily and settled in upstate NY. I have found a number of death and marriage notices in it. The other ones were new sources I never used before.