Merry Christmas

Copyright 2010-2022, ACK for Gene Notes

I'm Reviewing the Situation

Periodically, I like to review what I have on my lines and my hubby's lines. One of my brick walls is the 1910 census for his grandmother. She was in the US  for three years by this time, and still I can't find her. And my search again yesterday turned up nothing.

However, I got sucked down a rabbit hole looking for her older sister's third husband's death. My records show he died in April 1969. Mary Synos Wdowicki Walenty Schwetz died in August 1969. So, in searching for just Schwetz in Michigan I found the following death notice:

I had no idea she died in Baltimore, Maryland. You'll note four children listed in the Death notice from the Detroit, Michigan Free Press. Hubby had no idea either. Certainly his mother, who was one of Mary's nieces, did not pass on that information. 

Having found the death notice, I went on the hunt for information about Mary in Maryland. And I found an obituary, which is kind of intriguing.

I like the part where her son, Ben is the only survivor! Hope his siblings didn't see this.

Working on any of my mother-in-law's lines has always been a challenge. Church records for her father, Andrzej Zalot, have not been filmed. He was born in Tryncza, Przemysl, Poland in 1890 and died in 1940. Her mother's line has partial records, and Wiktarya Synos was born in 1893 in Borek Nowy, Rzeszow, Poland. I was told that Mary and Wiktarya (Victoria) were not close. Grandma Zalot did not approve of her sister's three marriages. Victoria was widowed in 1940 and remained one until 1986 when she passed. Mary married twice after her husband Walter Wdowicki passed. And apparently did not waste time remarrying, which to her sister was scandalous. 

Which now leads me to Ben Wdowicki, her eldest child. He was born Bronislaus Stanislaus Wdowiecki (according to Massachusetts records) in 1915. He was a Master Sergeant in the Army (branch of service not verified at this point) and appears to have married Irene Garrigan in New York. As you can see, this research for Ben and Irene is in its infancy. I've not been able to find a death notice for Ben, just the above and a find-a-grave record.  

Copyright 2010-2022, ACK for Gene Notes

Diary Keepers? Sadly not.

I am not a diary person. It takes time and discipline to keep one. I'm also not much of a letter writer. And in this day of texts and emails, I don't really need to be a letter writer. Which is sad, because there will probably not be a record of the emails I've sent and received over the last 20+ years.

My ancestors were of a different ilk. They wrote many letters. At times, when paper was at a premium, they cross wrote letters writing from top to bottom and then turning the paper and writing across what they'd already written. I can't tell you what fun that was to decipher. 

My great-great grandmother, Susan Percival Holt, nee Davidson was a great correspondent. She corresponded with her sister-in-law, Eliza Percival Oliver; her mother-in-law, Sarah Kirtley Percival Webb; her cousins, her children and her husband. Susan was born about 1836 in Missouri. She married John Stearns Percival, Jr. September 24, 1856 in Lafayette county, Missouri. And she died October 31, 1886.

One of the letters she received was from her husband, during the Civil War. It is worn in spots and had been folded for a long time and I imagine it was the last letter he wrote before he was killed in battle. 

I have letters exchanged between her sister Eliza and her sister-in-law Eliza regarding the death of John Percival. 

There are letters to her children, Herbert and Henry (John Henry Percival). Her children were farmed out to family after the civil war. Herbert went to Covington, Kentucky where he lived with his uncle Jabez Percival and his wife Catherine Bush. Catherine was also a Percival descendant. 

My dad's father was a great letter writer and wrote many letters back home to his family and his fiancé, Mary Bowman during the Great War. I am sad that he did what other soldiers did and destroyed his letters from her. The only letters from her that survived were letters she wrote to him when he took a job as a Civil Engineer in Detroit in 1928. I wish I had known her. I loved her sense of humor which came through in her letters to him. 

These letters gave me an insight to what joy and what trials my family experienced. I cherish them.

Copyright 2010-2022, ACK for Gene Notes