Category: Twins

All Mixed Up

The Week 35 Topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is All Mixed Up.

If you’ve ever known twins, if you are a twin, or if you have family members who are twins, you know what I’m talking about.

My mother asking Janice to pick out a specific twin

Through elementary school and beyond we have been mixed up. Our children have turned to “the other one”, and people in grocery stores are embarrassed when they realize we’re not who they think we are, no matter how much we reassure them “it’s ok! Just tell me your name and I’ll tell her you said hello!”

I’m dealing with an All Mixed Up situation as I’m combing through Birth, Marriage, and Death records of my grandfather’s birthplace in Poland. A distant cousin received the records from a researcher and he passed them on to me. I’ve added information to Charles Jakiela’s immediate family including his sibling’s birth records, and his father’s remarriage after his mother died. But the jpg file are out of order of the books so I’ve been flipping back and forth trying to follow the dates. I finally made a list showing the page numbers in the books along with the file number.

My intention is to go through the records and chart the family names, dates, and house numbers to see where the matching parental names are. There are so many Jakielas, Murdzeks, and Pernals, all names I know are part of our ancestry. Then I plan to take names and birth dates and cross reference them to naturalization records and enlistment forms processed in Connecticut because I know there is a Lubatowa connection from looking through them in the past. There is also a Jakiela and Murdzek connection in Pennsylvania that I’d like to finally uncover. It would also be sweet to finally figure out where connect on the family tree!

This kind of research is what I love to do so hopefully it will be fruitful.

Today Is My Twin’s Birthday

Gail left, Nancy right

Monday, April 22nd, my twin sister Gail and I have turned another year older. There has to be some significance being born in the 4th month on the 22nd day. I think it makes us extra special.

I was born at 4:33 in the morning and Gail was born 5 minutes later at 4:38 am. We joke as to who is really the elder – me who greeted the world first, or her by being the elder, pushed me out. I think people who know us, think she’s probably the elder!

There is so much we don’t know about my mother’s pregnancy aside from the family story that she cried and wouldn’t tell my dad why she was crying. When she told him she was carrying twins, with a one year old at home, he was thrilled and told her not to be sad. Over the years he took so much off her shoulders on the weekends, taking us out for walks and rides to let her have some alone time.

Gail (blue sneakers), Janice, Nancy (Red sneakers)

It would not be a complete birthday unless I took the time to acknowledge “the other”, our older sister Janice who went from only child to oldest of 3 by the time she was 18 months old. She’s been there through the thick and thin of it, hugs and hair pulling included. Our lives wouldn’t be complete without her.