Part Three

~Finding Alexander’s obituary gave me information about his brother Adolph, and a sister Mrs. Clara Norcross. There were a few Norcross families in town and I had no trouble locating the family I believed to be Clara’s family in the 1910 and 1930 US Federal Census. But I wanted to be certain – so back down to the town hall I went. But this time I went down with that list of names I noted in Part One. What happened next could have knocked me over with a feather. The ladies in the office came back with a lot of records for Miecznikowski’s! Marriages, births, and deaths.

As well as attempting to locate Alexander and Adolph’s sister, I had been attempting to follow two other paper trails for Miecznikowski men that I believe might be related to the brother’s somehow. I had found a couple old posts at the Ancestry message boards looking for Miecznikowski’s in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Through one of those posts I knew that two of the Miecznikowski’s in Monson were cousins (More on that later).

As I went through record after record I learned that the two men I had been following did not have the same father as Alexander, Adolph, and Clara…but I found another sister! She is either Mary Ellen or Ellen Mary, no two records seem to record her given name the same way, she was also living in Monson; married to a Walter Citkowski. When I went back to look over Clara’s census records I discovered that at one point the sister’s were living right next to each other before Mary and her husband Walter Citkowski moved to Main St. in Monson. (And I added yet another variation to the family surname: Miecznihouska) With some annoyance I noted that there was still no sign of Adolph, he was here between 1907 and 1918 based on the two ship manifests, but I’m still coming up ‘blank’ as to where he was living.

Based on census records Clara arrived in 1899 at 16, and Mary arrived in 1905. I found a German ship manifest for a Marianna Miecznikowski, single, from Niski, Russia arriving in New York 10 May 1905, but there is no other information that will help me decide if this is indeed her arrival record. There are so many variations of Mary in Russian and Polish, and with the four sibling’s mother being Maryna, and given that this woman arrived two years before Adolph I suspect it is Mary’s arrival record.

Based on the four sibling’s ages I have a strong suspicion that there is yet another sibling as a young woman of 16 would probably not have been allowed to travel alone. Possibly a married sister or cousin arrived first. Since I have started to follow the paper trails of the Miecznikowski’s in Massachusetts and Connecticut I’m noting where they are living and have been searching the census records around those Miecznikowski’s – looking for Adolph and clues for another brother, a married older sister, or other Miecznikowski’s from the Niski (Nieszki) area.

What I have found so far about Alexander’s three siblings:
Clara arrives in 1899; marries Andrew Norcross in 1901. They settle in Monson, Massachusetts and have six children. Irene born in 1904, Mary Pauline born in 1906, Edna Clara born in 1910, Henry George born in 1913, Esther born in 1916, and Charles Francis born in 1925. They may have lived in Wales, Massachusetts for a short time.

Adolph arrives for the first time in 1907 – returns to Europe as a volunteer soldier to fight for Polish Independence in 1918. Returns to America in 1922 with his wife Natalja and daughter Alfreda. Alexander is his contact in Monson, Massachusetts upon his return to America. Adolph and his family move to Connecticut and remain there – although he moves his family a couple times before settling in the Ansonia area. Adolph and Natalja’s second child, Irene, is born in Connecticut in December of 1922. They have three more children. Mathew Joseph born in 1924, Anna born in 1926, and Marion born in 1934.

Mary arrives in 1905; marries Walter Citkowski in 1906. Living in Monson, Massachusetts they have six children, a stillborn daughter in 1907, Irene Mary born in 1908, Anastacia (Stacia) Elizabeth born in 1910, Bertha (Bernice) V. born in 1914, Viola Teresa born in 1918, and Anne Margaret born in 1920.

Two other Miecznikowski families from Monson:
Franz (Frank), son of Antoine Miecznikowski and Maryann Guilenska, arrives between 1883 and 1895. Marries Viola Bednarska in August of 1900. Their marriage is recorded in Palmer, Massachusetts and takes place in Worcester, Massachusetts. They settle in Monson and have six children. Bernice born in 1903, Lena born in 1905, Francis Frederick born in 1907, Bronistan (Benard) born in 1909, Edward born in 1912, and Helen born in 1916. Franz (Frank) dies in 1916 and Viola marries his cousin, Leon Miecznikowski by arrangement.

Leon Miecznikowski and Viola Bednarksa have seven children, Walter born in Monson, Massachusetts in 1918, Arthur born about 1919 in Massachusetts, Bernardine born about 1920 in Connecticut, Della Francis born in 1921, Leon Stanley, and two other children I have not yet located in the records.

I’m researching a Miecznikowski family that seems to have settled for a time in Warren, Massachusetts and then moved to Connecticut, the father of the family is “Antoine.” A Miecznikowska daughter is recorded in a ship manifest as being from Niski, and that her contact is Antoine Miecznikowski in Warren, Massachusetts.

Warren, Palmer, and Monson, Massachusetts all had woolen mills and quite a few Russian-Poles settled in the area. From what I can tell there may have been a church in Worcester, Massachusetts that was helping locate Russian-Poles in the Warren-Palmer-Monson area and may also have been helping to arrange marriages. I have looked up the contact information for the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts, and the Polish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and the Northeast, Inc. I plan to write the Massachusetts Society in the very near future as I am hoping that they can shed some light on Russian-Poles that immigrated into the Warren-Palmer-Monson area, as well as the link to the church in Worcester.

Adolph and Antoine both moved south a bit to work in mills in Connecticut. As I read through the census reports from the areas they settled in I noticed many Russian-Poles down there as well. So I plan to contact the Connecticut Society with similar questions.

I have been able to follow Adolph, Clara, and Mary’s families forward a bit, and during my research I ‘turned up’ some interesting information about Franz and Viola’s first-born son.

To be continued…

© 2016 Amy McClosky

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