Roy Longwell Born January 20, 1929

Roy Longwell (my father) was born on January 20, 1929 In Lake Odessa, Michigan. Lake Odessa is a small village 38 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. His parents were Leo Longwell and Naomi nee Olmstead. Roy was their 7th child and the only boy. Roy’s mother Naomi had a prior marriage and had a daughter Eloise. My father was very close in adulthood to Eloise, who was 13 years older than him. I don’t think we knew that Eloise had a different father, because people didn’t talk about those things. Before her marriage to Leo, Naomi was a teacher in a rural one room schoolhouse. She played the piano and was a very devout woman. Roy’s father Leo worked at the Flint Motor Company. Besides Polish DNA from my Mother’s side, I have inherited DNA from England, Germany and small amounts from Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Norway and Ireland. Other people have worked on the family history on my Dad’s side so I have done very little of it. We had an older cousin who always worked on it so we did have the opportunity to know a little bit about the family background while growing up.

Sorting out Blazej Wisniewski Revised version

This is a story of trying to differentiate between two different men named Blazej. There can be multiple people with the same name so it can get very tricky determining which is which. Birth, marriage and death records are about the person and may or may not list their parents. Witnesses are listed so there are clues about who might be their relatives or neighbors.. Their age is usually listed so you can sort out which ones fit into the right time frame. It turns out that there were two men with the same name – Błażej Wiśniewski . Błażej Wiśniewski was the parent of Ewa Wiśniewska (my 3rd great grandmother.) One Błażej Wiśniewski was born about 1761 and died in 1844. He worked as a foreman of a faience factory and later a grave digger and a farmer. He had two or three wives and a fiance and at least four children with one of the wives. The other Błażej Wiśniewski was born about 1755 and died in 1823 while he was in some sort of facility as a patient or resident. He had one child with an unmarried employee of some sort who worked in the hospital or alms house that he lived in. So which one is my 4x great grandfather? It turns out the first Błażej Wiśniewski was my 4x great grandfather. I am telling you this story today because on January 20 in 1844 at 2:00 p.m., Błażej Wiśniewski died. When he died, he was listed as a grave digger who lived in Tomaszów Lubelski. He was the son of Mataeusz & Maryanna Wisniowski, deceased gravediggers even though when he died the witnesses didn’t know who his parents were. One witness was Józef Kurkiewicz, farmer, age 29, Józef was Blazej’s son-in-law, married to Ewa (my 3rd great grandmother.). The other witness was Franciszek Szcześnicki, bricklayer, age 29, As a Szcześnicki, Franciszek may have been related to Blazej’s prior wife, Jagnieszka Szcześnicka. Blazej left behind his widowed wife Anna nee Adamczak. There are some discrepancies in how long Błażej lived: he lived to the age of 92 according to one record but maybe to age 83 according to some other records. So maybe Błażej was born in 1761 or maybe in 1752???? Now even though there are sometimes mistakes in ages in the records, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that he was 55 years old in 1823 and then 63 in 1824. It was also hard to figure out the occupation of Błażej. It was confusing to see what occupation was listed in the various records: grave digger, farmer and faience factory foreman. Did that mean some of the records were of the “other” Blazej? Blazej worked in the faience factory & so did his wife’s Agnes’ brother Bartlomiej. When his son Jozef was born in 1810, he was a 40 year old faience factory foreman. In 1817 when his daughter Anna was born, he was referred to as the “famous” Blazej Wisniewski. I eventually figured once I studied the pottery industry in the area that he worked there until the factory closed. Błażej may still have needed to work after the factory closed, so ended up a grave digger, like his parents. By 1823 when his wife died, he was listed as a gravedigger. He was a gravedigger when engaged to Cyronik in 1823 and when he married Adamczyk in 1824, he was still a gravedigger.He may also have farmed at the same time. There was a lot more to Błażej’s story though: First of all, I will give you the background about the family Błażej had with my 4th great grandmother. It is possible that he had a wife before Jagnieszka because of how old he was during this marriage. Their two sons and two daughters were born between 1809 and 1817 beginning when Błażej was about 44 years old. His wife Jagnieszka passed away on May 20, 1823, in Tomaszów, Lubelskie, Poland, at the age of 49. The children were between six and fourteen years of age. After Jagnieszka’s death, it looks like Błażej was in a bit of a hurry to find a mother for his children. Just a little over three months later, on Sept 7 1823, Blazej Wisniowski, as a 55 year old widower, became engaged to the MUCH younger Marianna Cyronskowna, age 25. “Owna” on her name meant she was unmarried. She was a laborer, and the daughter of the deceased Ignacy Cyronik, farmer & living Helena nee Kowalik. Maybe because her father was deceased, the engagement happened so her mother had one less mouth to feed in the house. In any case, the announcement of the marriage banns in this case must have caused something to turn up to stop the wedding because the marriage never happened. What did happen is that eight months later, Blazej married Anna Adamczk instead of Marianna, on May 9, 1824, when he was 63 years old. Błażej ended up married to Anna for the next 20 years until his death. Unfortunately, 16 years later, Maryanna (his former fiance) died in 1840 and she had never been married. So who was the other Błażej Wiśniewski? The 68 year old Blazej died on February 20 1823. He would have been born in about 1755. He died in some sort of hospital or alms house #71 and Szymon Wojpieki, 32, an organist and Piotr Fedorowicz, 50 a church sexton were the witnesses. His wife Anna nee Paszkowska was a church sexton. When he was 50 in 1814, he was a , "dziad szpitalny'' a hospital grandfather,and he had a child Francziszka Wiśniewska with Anna Paszkoska, age 35. This story shows how hard it can be to figure out our relatives. Amazingly, with many of them, the pieces all match up right and their family falls into place! There was a lot to this puzzle!

Michal Raczkiewicz & Anna Dominik Marry January 17, 1824

Michał Raczkiewicz and Anna Dominik (my 3x great grandparents on the Raczkiewicz side) married today, January 17 in 1824 at 12:00 p.m. The banns were announced previously on January 4th and January 11. The witnesses were Marcin Kukiełka, 40, Józef Pyc, 35, Sobek Jaruzal, 35, and Piotr Sobek, 40, all peasants residing in the village of Maydan Górny. ***** Michal was a 19 year old bachelor living with his parents, Jan Raczkiewicz and Apolonia nee Gołębiowska (my 4x great grandparents). He was the oldest of their nine children. The family lived in the village of Majdan Górny and worked as peasants. Anna was 18 years old and also never before married. She lived with her parents Tomasz Dominik and Regina Wójcik, who were peasants in the same village. ***** Michal and Anna had eleven children. Their firstborn child Jan was my 2x great grandfather. The family lived in Sabaudia. Four of the five last children died young in the time period of 1841-1851. ***** Their story slowly unfolded over time for me as records were found and translated. On May 14, 2020, a volunteer from the Facebook Page “Genealogical Translations” translated Act 4, their marriage record. By January 1, 2021, I knew of 7 of their children. I know about all 11 of their children now. It is kind of amazing to have learned so much about them in less than a year and a half of time. ***** The marriage record is #4: https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/skan/-/skan/404617e8e825b9178e6e0aab8e780d7946a5d4403fa5b14287d89597889133fe

Wincenty Rachański & Ewa nee Wiśniewska marry Jan. 17, 1930 & Wincenty & Their Son Die Soon After During the November Uprising

This story of the marriage of my 3rd great grandmother and her first husband is interesting because I am pretty sure, based on the limited information that I have, that their lives were directly affected by the November Uprising in Poland. Wincenty Rachański and Ewa nee Wiśniewska (my 3rd great grandmother) married on January 17, 1830 at 1pm. The groom was a 22 year old bachelor, shoemaker journeyman. He was born in Tomaszów Lubelski to shoemakers Kazimierz and Tekla (Zielińska) Rachański. They were already deceased. ***** The bride was a 22 year old maiden. She was the daughter of Błażej Wiśniowski, and the late Agnieszka nee Szcześnicka. Her father was a foreman of the faience (ceramics) factory when she was born and was working as a grave digger when she married. Ewa was born in Tomaszów Lubelski and was living there with her father. Her father gave his permission for the wedding. The witnesses were Grzegorz Jaworowski, 67 and Jacenty Janiszewski, 33, both shoemakers from Tomaszów. ***** Wincenty and Ewa’s son Filip (Feliks) was born soon after, in October of the same year. Feliks was born in Krynice and the birth was registered in the parish of Łabunie, Krynice is 16 kilometers (a little under 10 miles) north of Tomaszów Lubelski. ***** When their son Feliks died nine months later in August of 1831, his death record indicates that his father (Wincenty) was already deceased. While there was an Asiatic cholera epidemic along with influenza, it is possible that Wincenty died during the November Uprising battle that occurred near where they lived. The uprising occurred from November 29, 1930 to October 21, 1831: “In July 1831, during the November Uprising, a siege and a blockade of Zamość began by 12,000 people. Tsarist soldiers led by General Kajsarow. Polish troops commanded by Major Dominik Bulewski and Major Wincenty Szymański, defending the Zamość fortress, fought a victorious skirmish with the Russian army near Krynice. ***** ”https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://roztoczewita.pl/krynice/&prev=search&pto=aue ***** Timeline: Jan 17 1830 Wincenty and Ewa marry in Tomaszów Lubelski Oct 24, 1830 Feliks is born in Krynice November 29, 1830 November Uprising begins July 1831 Polish troops and Russian Army fight near Krynice (as part of November Uprising August 11 1831 Feliks dies in Tomaszów Lubelski and his father has already died October 31, 1831 November Uprising ends ***** Is it possible to get military records of relatives this far back?

Shirley Raczkiewicz was born January 15, 1936

When Shirley Ann Raczkiewicz(my mother) was born on January 15, 1936, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, her father, Anthony, was 40, and her mother, Apolonia, was 31. Her family lived at 501 Milwaukee NW. Anthony worked as a machinist. Shirley was baptized at St. Adalberts on February 9 by Father Maksymowski The Godparents were Walter Świegocki and Victoria “Vicki” Palczewski. “Vicki” was her aunt, her mother’s sister, who had also moved to Grand Rapids. Shirley grew up with three siblings. Lorraine and Anthony were much older than her – 14 and 10 years older. Her brother Ronald was born in 1940 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when Shirley was four years old. Shirley’s siblings are now deceased.

Paulina Dubiel Died January 15, 1968

Orthodox New Year

Old New Year is celebrated today, January 14, according to the Julian calendar. “Our” New Year was on January 1 because we use the Gregorian calendar. On New Year's day children visited every house with wishes for a "Happy and Prosperous New Year." https://www.timebulletin.com/orthodox-new-year-2020-celebrates-on-january-14-as-old-new-year/