Missing Records for Polish Ancestors of Silver Lake / Hale Minnesota by William R
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VOLUME 22 SUMMER 2014 No. 2 Missing Records for Polish Ancestors of Silver Lake / Hale Minnesota by William R. Graczyk I was continually coming up with missing records for my ancestors from the Silver Lake area of McLeod, Minnesota. I would find information on them from Federal and state census. The time period would consist of the years of about 1870 to Stone Cross east of Glencoe & north of Knife River 1890. For the St. Adalbert’s baptism record book there is an annotation that stated if you couldn’t find And also his boat record of his coming to America. a record that it may have burned in a fire of the St. The civil record of his death showed he died 26 Aug George church. Well I was trying to find the death 1882. And it had a date filed of 10 Dec 1882. record in church records for my great-great grand- father Valentine Nowak. I was able to find his civil I started to look for information on the St. George death record but not a lot of information was on it. church. There was not a lot of info that I could find I had found his marriage record back in Poland. about it. One break came at the Genealogical library in Minneapolis. I found an article on it. It gave a history of the early settlers of the area and churches. In this Issue: In it was the church of St. George in the town of St. George. As early as 1872 there was a church and a Missing Records for Polish Ancestors of cemetery next to it. By 1877 the town of St. George Silver Lake / Hale, Minnesota............................... 1 had decreased in population so much that the church President’s Letter................................................... 2 members of the St. George Catholic Church were Bulletin Board ....................................................... 3 only organized as a station. In 1890 the station was incorporated into the church of Sts. Peter & Paul. Records Translation Day!...................................... 6 Also in the fall of 1890 a new St. George church was UPGS Conference ................................................. 6 built in Glencoe. It burned down on 21st of March 1892. I would suspect that my Valentine Nowak’s Twin Cities Polish Film Fest ............................... 10 Krzyżacy.............................................................. 10 Missing Records.......(Continued on page 8) Page 2 Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota Summer 2014 Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota A Branch of the Minnesota Genealogical Society 1185 No. Concord St., Suite 218 So. St. Paul, MN 55075-1150 www.pgsmn.org Officers/Board of Directors: President ................. Jerome Biedny (952-944-5905) ................................................ [email protected] Vice President............ Dan Schyma (612-819-3479) .............................................. [email protected] Secretary ............. Jason Waldowski (763-323-0639) .................................................... [email protected] President’s Letter Treasurer.............. Michael Eckman (952-944-4008) After decades of researching my family tree, I finally at- [email protected] tended my first official “Family Reunion”. It was for my Past President................. Terry Kita (612-927-0719) wife’s side. I’ve been emailing her cousin in Colorado off ............................................. [email protected] Director I ...................Rita Peterson (952-440-5300) and on for years. Back in January, we both said we should ................................................... [email protected] get together and share all our information in person. We Director II .............. Dori Marszalek (763-535-2296) picked the town in southern Minnesota that had the most ................................................doripgs@comcast.net graves and early family history. Then we started emailing Director III.......... Richard Theissen (651-739-1490) the other relatives. We ended up with about 20 people com- ............................................ [email protected] Director IV............. Marie Przynski (612-501-2799) ing in from WA, ND, CO, NE, and several parts of MN. Our .............................................. [email protected] TX kin had to cancel at the last minute for medical reasons. Committee Chairs/Co-Chairs I know that there are entire books written on how to host a Library ................................................... Bob Kraska Membership ..................................... Dori Marszalek Family Reunion. But believe me, it does not have to be that Newsletter........................................... Peggy Larson complicated. We met at the local church for services Sunday Program/Publicity .................................Dan Schyma morning. Used the church building for a meet & greet that Research ............................... Greg Kishel, John Rys afternoon and went out to a restaurant near the hotel for din- Website .............................................Marie Przynski ner that evening. On Memorial Day, there was a ceremony at Polish Genealogical Society of MN Newsletter Edi- the town hall and a military march down to the cemetery torial [email protected] where we place wreaths on veteran’s graves. After the 21 Associate Editor.....................................Greg Kishel gun salute, we walked from the cemetery to the church base- Mailing Labels ................................. Dori Marszalek ment for a luncheon fundraiser put on by the Cemetery Asso- Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota Newsletter is ciation - you have to pay someone to cut the grass all sum- published quarterly in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. mer! We spent the afternoon on a walking tour of the old Newsletter subscription is included with membership. neighborhood and at the local historical society. We broke Submitting items for publication is welcome and highly up by dinner time. Some folks flew in earlier and stayed later. encouraged. We require feature-length articles be sub- But we got lots of visiting in over those two days. mitted exclusively to PGS-MN. Articles, letters, book re- views, news items, queries, etc. should be mailed to: Peg- gy Larson, Editor PGS-MN Newsletter, 557 98th Lane Some things that really helped: name tags; a laptop and pro- NW, Coon Rapids, MN 55433 or e-mailed to: edi- jector with extra thumb drives to show and share pictures and [email protected] trees; a cooler full of drinks and snacks so you can stay to- To apply for membership gether; a sheet with everyone’s name and cell number if you Please use application form on insert page get separated, plus emails for contacts before and after. Dues are $20 for one year or $50 for three years. Address/e-mail changes or membership questions? If you have been thinking of holding a Family Reunion, now Contact: Dori Marszalek, Membership Chair is the time to plan. You can pull it off this fall, or start plan- 3901 - 61st Ave. N., Brooklyn Center MN 55429-2403 or e-mail: [email protected] ning now for next summer. You owe it to your relatives – even the ones that aren’t born yet. © 2014 Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota Jerome Biedny [email protected] Summer 2014 Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota Page 3 The first presentation speaker was Brigid Shields from the Minnesota Historical Society Research Center. The topic was Genealogical Resources and Methods. Brigid gave a wonderful presentation on the History Research Society’s role in not only the Correspondence … Komunikacja great resources they have available for genealogists, but also the many educational programs and 101 Things Every Polish exhibits the Minnesota Historical Society hosts for American Should Do all members of the family. The presentation I filled out my checklist yester- included information on the multitude of research day and got a 65. Easily a records available at the History Center and the help dozen of those were from just available from their devoted staff. being an active PGSmn member! I think I could work The second presentation speaker was Jay Biedny, on another 15, but realistically president of the Polish Genealogical Society of don't ever expect to get over an 80 any time Minnesota. This topic was Tracing Your Polish soon. Thanks for putting this in the newsletter. I'm Roots: Starting in America. going to send it to my really Polish cousin in Buffalo to see how she scores. Jay has spent more than 30 years researching the Jay Biedny records of his 100% Polish heritage. His presenta- tion reviewed basic strategies for finding and Extra Contributions organizing Polish-American genealogical records. It was an excellent presentation for both The following members have made at least a $10 someone just starting out on their genealogy jour- contribution in addition to membership and are ney and for those who think they have explored hereby recognized as Sustaining Members. every last scrap of paper that exists. Sandra Batalden The presentation was full of clear examples to get Jerome Biedny you moving toward the ultimate goal: finding your Vernon Broll ancestral town and parish in Poland, and possibly Veronica Freihammer reconnecting with lost relatives. Adam Geron [Thank you!] Gerald Keeville Upcoming Meetings, Programs, Events Dan Schyma PGS-MN Meetings Calendar A very special thank you goes out to Sustaining Members, John and Judy Rys, who made a September 6, 2014 – Cultural and Socio- substantial contribution to help cover expenses for Political Art Scene during Communism in Poland our participation