January 2020 – It's All About Family

A Glimpse of the Past

My biggest complaint about research family is I don’t want to know just dates and places, I want to know what life was like! I want to know what they were doing and feeling! Alas, aside from what I learn from Michelle, my favorite medium, I will never know.

But! As I was googling around Google, I was led to these!

Images of America – Throggs Neck – Pelham Bay

I can’t wait to get them! I love the one we have of Wallingford and I search the pictures for familiar locations and how they looked in the past. Although I won’t have that familiarity with Yonkers and Pelham Bay, I will be looking at places were my family lived and worked. You all know Yonkers is where Julia and Konrad Posluszny as well as a majority of his family lived before they moved northward to Connecticut. The Pelham Bay book is for Joanne and the other Ingram family I mentioned a post or two ago. Her father and grandfather had farms in the Pelham Bay Area and the book description mentioned the farmland in the area. I’m excited to get a glimpse and imagine one or two of the pictures are of their farms.

I may not get their actual memories but I will try to imagine them as I look through the books.

Family Helping Family

Imagine being a teenager and leaving your family with the possibility of never seeing them again. That’s what it was like for my grandmother Julianna Ingram, her sisters, and cousins. This is a story about being there for each other.

Julianna aka Julia aka Grammy, came to the United States in (census says) 1903. She would have been 16. She did not arrive with family to greet her. It wasn’t until 1908 that her sister Mary (Wirth-mother of Pauline and Katherine) joined her and 1912 when Elizabeth (Tante Lizzie) followed. Julia lived on her own, probably worked as a domestic, met Konrad Posluszny and married him in 1906 without family by her side.

Julia’s father, Ludwig, had 8 brothers and sisters. His sister Catherine married Franciszek Kukulska and they had three children. The oldest, Mary, was born in 1892 and came to the United States in 1908 at 16 years old. One year later she was getting married to John Juszczak and immediately became pregnant. Their marriage license shows Julia was a witness to their ceremony. By this time Julia had one child and another on the way and the first cousins lived a few blocks away from each other on Jefferson Street in Yonkers NY.

In May of 1910, Mary died giving birth to her daughter who was given the name Mary. Her husband John was a laborer in a sugar refinery and was unable to take care of the infant. He asked Julia to take the baby in and he would pay her for her care and of course, she did!

Four years later, John died in an accident at the sugar refinery. By this time Julia had 3 children of her own under the age of 5 and money was tight. She had no other option but to give Mary up for adoption. Fortunately, a couple heard of the situation through their church and adopted her. She never had to spend any time at an orphanage.

DNA testing on Ancestry led me to Mary’s daughter, Sandi. She told me that her mother’s adopted parents were lovely people. Their daughter died from diphtheria in 1914. They were good, hardworking German Methodists. Her mother knew she had been adopted but never wanted Sandi to find her family while she was alive. Sandi found the adoption documents while cleaning out her grandmother’s home in Florida after she passed away. Without those papers, we may never have figured out our connection.

I love thinking about how Grammy was by her cousin’s side when she got married and then was there for her daughter after she died. It was unfortunate that she had to give her up but she went from one family who loved her to another who was able to care for her better. The more I learn of Julianna Ingram, the more I love the thought that she runs through our veins.

A Piece of the Puzzle

Elizabeth Ann Posluszny, my mother, was born in April of 1922. Her mother, Juliana Ingram, was 34 and her father, Konrad Posluszny was 36 years old.

Betty, as she was known, was the youngest of five. Aunt Tootsie (Antoinette) was the oldest, born in 1909. Uncle Connie in 1910, Uncle Lou in 1913 and Aunt Judy in 1917.

Everyone was born in Yonkers, New York except Betty. After the 1920 census the family moved to Easthampton Massachusetts. According to Aunt Judy, her mother was so unhappy living there that “she didn’t even encourage my father to find a job” and “she didn’t unpack any boxes”. Next we know, Betty’s born in New Britain Connecticut and the family is living in an apartment owned by an Ingram cousin and by 1925 they bought 121 Clifton Street in Wallingford.

Betty grew up in Wallingford and had whatever she wanted. If her mother couldn’t afford it, her oldest sister Tootsie who left school after 8th grade would buy it for her. She took dance lessons, played basketball and was a majorette with the high school band. She wasn’t as craft oriented as her sisters – she didn’t knit or crochet or do needlework, or sew; but she had her mother and sisters for that! She loved to read and collected postcards buying blank ones on her trips or keeping ones that arrived at the house.

Betty traveled a lot after high school. She and Tootsie took a train trip to Texas to visit Connie in the army after Betty graduated from high school in 1940. Betty and her cousin Pauline traveled by train to California to visit their Tanta Lizzie and Uncle Ben (Weiss) and see the sights of Los Angeles. Her collection of postcards sent to her family tell of her travels and the fun she had.

My DNA mystery match, Joanne, was born in 1945 and in our earlier emails she said she had been to Wallingford in the past with her parents. She was around 7 years old and went to the wedding of “an older couple”. They missed the ceremony but made it to the reception and she remembered “stepping down into the hall”. It was my parents wedding and the reception was at the old Moose Club on Long Hill Road. How strange I thought that they would be there as we never had any communication with them that I knew of. I wondered what else she would remember of our family or if there had ever been any other trips to Wallingford!

Life (and DNA) is Full of Surprises

Julianna, Konrad and Antoinette Posluszny 1909

I’ve written a few posts about my grandmother Julianna Ingram Posluszny. Her story has always been somewhat mysterious. Family members say she came to the United States at a young age, younger than records stated, and she came alone. I have yet to find a record I can confirm as hers. Her marriage license lists her as 18 in 1906 when they got married and, the 1910 census says she immigrated in 1903 so 15 years old. You’ll see in my past posts I’ve really mulled over it!

In this last year, through DNA matches I uncovered a mystery which brought with it a whole host of new questions. Through my Aunt Tootsie’s Christmas card list came the name and email correspondence with a woman who was an Ingram relative. Cousin Judy Behme corresponded with her and after Judy’s death I inherited her ancestry paperwork and I picked up the correspondence. We knew we would be related through Ingram (obviously!) but how. Then Joanne’s children gave her an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas 2018.

My first cousins Bob and Mal were DNA matches to me at 507 and 497 cMs approximately. I didn’t question why they were listed as Second Cousins because after all, they were the children of my mother’s sister. Some odd little quirk in the system, no big deal I thought.

I knew Joanne’s maternal family name (Duy) and had seen the name in records from the town my grandmother came from. What I didn’t understand was why I was seeing DNA matches to people associated with this last name. Weird, I thought! There must be some DNA running through the Ingram line as well!

Then, Joanne’s DNA match was processed and posted on the Ancestry website and oh my, we matched with 1,040 cMs!