Elizabeth Eva Posluszny was the 11th born and 7th living adult child of Carolina Straub and Joseph Posluszny. She was born in Dzikowiec in the Galicia region of Poland on September 24, 1896, three years after her sister Mary.
Elizabeth’s birth record 1896
The following year in April of 1897, Joseph Posluszny died at the age of 44. There is currently no record of the cause of death. The following May, her mother Carolina married a/the farmhand John Bonk (aka Bak). He was 26, she was 43.
The following year began the immigration of first John in 1899, followed by Joseph (1901), Konrad (1902), Charles (1905), Mary (1906), and Frank (1907).
Elizabeth was 10 years old when she arrived in the United States with her mother, stepfather, and half brother Walter. The Passenger List on their arrival indicates that John had been in the United States in Perth Amboy from 1901 to 1906. I haven’t found any actual passenger or census record to confirm that but the 1920 census say he immigrated in 1900. More research awaits!
Elizabeth – far right seated
The next record I have for Elizabeth is the 1920 Census and she is married to Joseph Łaçź (One-ch) and living on Geneva Avenue in Wallingford with Carolina and John Bonk and Walter who is now 17. Elizabeth and Joseph have two children, Joseph V born in 1916, and Charles F born in 1920. Also living with them is John Posluszny, the oldest brother John’s son. John Bonk, Walter, and Joseph are working at the Silverware Factory and John Posluszny is working at the hardware factory, both in Wallingford. At 17, Walter was an electrician which is the profession he continued with through his life.
The 1920 Wallingford directory also says Joseph and Elizabeth Łaçź lived on Geneva Street and he worked at the Silverware Factory.
There is no 1921 directory online but the 1922 directory says he is a grocer at – 105 Ward Street. The same grocer that her sister Mary and husband Victor will come to own in 1924, and later their daughter Mary and her husband Otto.
In 1924, Elizabeth disappeared. She left her husband, two children, and family. I told the story about the mental illness that runs through the Posluszny family, and the stories of my grandfather Konrad, and his brother Frank. I was told she had a complete mental breakdown. The 1924 directory says “Joseph Łaçź removed to New Britain” taking his two sons with him.
My Aunt Judy told me the family did not like Joseph. He was 12 years older than her and was 31 years old to her 19 years old at their marriage. Aunt Mary hired private detectives to try and find her but never succeeded.
I have scoured online records for any sign of Joseph or Charles but have come up empty handed. I had possible information on their father, but the information conflicts with another family tree.
Mary Posluszny was the 10th born and 6th living adult child of Carolina Straub and Joseph Posluszny. Of those 10, she was the second daughter. She was born on January 21, 1893, in Dzikowiec in the Galicia region of Poland. She was named Maria as was her deceased sister, but we knew her as Mary. More specifically, Aunt Mary Biega.
Mary’s birth record
In mid-November of 1906 just short of her 14th birthday, Mary departed for the United States from Hamburg, Germany on the Pretoria. The trip took 2 weeks. The manifest said she was a farmhand. I know the Posluszny family had a farm but she was the first with that occupation listed.
I found her first on the ship’s Record of Detained Aliens list. The manifest said she didn’t have a ticket to her final destination and the Detainee List said the cause of detention was “brother”. Joseph is listed as her relative on the manifest and John is the relative on the Detainee List. She was detained for one day and received 3 meals. I wonder, how easy, or difficult, would it have been to contact a family member to let them know you’ve arrived and were being detained at Ellis Island in 1906? Can you imagine sending your 14 year old daughter on a trip across the ocean by herself?
Following her arrival, her brother Frank, who was 4 years older, followed in February of 1907, and the last group, her mother, stepfather, sister, and half brother arrived in July of 1907.
Posluszny Family late half 1907
Mary is front row center holding flowers. I am amazed when I look at this picture how much my cousin Ann, resembled Mary Posluszny.
Because she was the first female to arrive and not married, I am guessing that once the rest of her family arrived in the United States in early July of 1907, she lived with them in Perth Amboy New Jersey where they settled.
Mary, seated right in 1909 for Frank and Josephine’s wedding
Three years later in 1910, Mary married Victor Joseph Biega. She was 17 years old and he was 22 years old.
Victor was born on March 3rd 1888 in Mrzyglód Poland to Stanley and Marianna Ryniak Biega He had a brother Walter, born in 1883, and a brother, John, born in 1893. Victor arrived in the United States on February 1 1909. I determined through a newspaper article that Victor was living in Perth Amboy in 1909. Through superficial research, I found Walter and John lived their lives in Perth Amboy. Walter had a family but John never married.
I do not want to go down a rabbit hole with Walter and John but in the 1940 Census, John was a music teacher for a WPA Recreation Project. Walter had a bar in Perth Amboy called, Biega’s Tavern. Another fun fact, Walter’s daughter Helen married John Burghardt, uncle of our 3rd cousin, David.
While living in Perth Amboy, Mary and Victor’s daughter Mary E. was born in 1911 followed by Carolyn A. in 1913 and Joseph Edward in 1914.
In 1916 they were living in Wallingford and Mary gave birth to Clara who did not survive past a year. In 1918, Mary gave birth to her son Stanley G, in 1920 she had Victor John, and in 1922 she had her son John E. Unfortunately, John died in 1925.
Headstone for Clara and John Biega / St. Casimer’s Cemetery Wallingford CT
Victor held a variety of jobs. In 1917, he’s listed as a laborer in Wallingford and they’re living at 14 West Street. In 1920, he’s an employee at Wallace Silversmith and they’re listed as living at 30 Geneva Avenue, which was the home of her mother Caroline, but the 1920 census doesn’t list them there.
That is because they were living in South Norwalk! I discovered this from their son Victor’s 1993 obituary which said he was born in South Norwalk. They popped up in the 1923 Norwalk directory where Victor, the dad, was working as a hatter and they were living at 1 Van Buren Avenue. Her brother Charles and his wife Mary were living at #7.
But 1924 brought them back to Wallingford where they moved into 105 Ward Street and they became the owners of a grocery store on the corner of Ward Street. This occupation and address carried on through the 1950 census. His daughter Mary and son-in-law took over the grocery store and he and Aunt Mary moved to 3 East Street where Victor passed away on December 19, 1963. Fun fact – our friend Chris Heilman’s son Andrew bought that house in the early 2010s and lived there with his family for several years.
Mary and Victor’s five living children all remained in the Wallingford area.
Mary and her husband Otto Steinke bought the market at 105 Ward Street and named it Steinke’s Market. Mary died in 1972 at the age of 59. Otto died just 9 months after her. She and Otto had two daughters, who at the time of her death lived in New York City and West Burlington New York.
Otto and Mary (Biega) Steinke’s headstone / St. Casimer’s cemetery, Wallingford
Carolyn was a teacher in Wallingford and married Robert O’Neill in 1952. Her death appeared to be sudden at the age of 52 in December of 1965. I found no obituary but the funeral information says, “A delegation of teacher from Robert Earley Junior High School was an honor guard at the church and at the cemetery”. Mrs. Schipke and Mr. Paris, teachers we would have at Lyman Hall during the 1970s, were pall bearers.
Victor, Carolyn, and Mary Biega July 31, 1952
Joseph established Biega Funeral Home in Middletown in 1939 and ran it until his retirement in 1982. It is still run by his son Joseph. He was very involved in his church and community. He died in Florida in 2009 at the age of 95. In addition to Joseph, he had a son, Robert.
Stanley was a dentist in Wallingford for many years. He and his wife Roberta and their three children lived on the other side of the horseshoe from our house. He died in 1988 at the age of 70. One of his three children, Lee (short for Stanley), married a neighborhood girl and they live a block or two away from us today. Their son is a year or two older than my son who is turning 35 this year.
Stanley G. Biega (date unknown)
Victor, who was not a junior as he had a different middle name, also lived in Wallingford. He served in World War II in the Army Airborne Division. Well, he trained with the Airborne infantry in Georgia and South Dakota but when his outfit was still not scheduled for overseas, he “traded his parachute for a rifle and went over seas with the 30th Division, joining the third army in France. He was injured shortly after arriving. When he recovered he went back out to fight. It was while battling on the plains near Cologne that he received injuries resulting in the loss of his leg. He came home in 1945 and received the Purple Heart. He married in 1947 and died in 1993 at the age of 73. He had one son, Victor Jr, and two daughters, Susan and Robin along with five grandchildren at the time of his death.
Victor and his wife Florence had a cottage at Pickerel Lake in Colchester near my Aunt Judy and Uncle Mal and Auntie Irene and Uncle Lou. On occasion some of the 4th of July partiers would head down to their cottage to visit. That was the extent of my knowing him!
Aunt Mary Biega (year unknown but likely her 80s or 90s)
My third cousin David Burghardt remembers Mary Biega because he grew up on Simpson Avenue in one of two houses his family owned on the property. Aunt Mary would go to their house to play cards. David’s grandmother was Julianna Straub Burghardt and her father, Albert, was my great-grandmother Carolina’s brother. He also recalls visiting her at her home on East Street.
I relayed the story in one of my Aunt Judy posts of how my grandmother Julianna and Aunt Mary would be a part of plays that were performed at St. Casimer’s Church. My grandmother acted and Aunt Mary directed.
Although I was 35 when Aunt Mary died, we didn’t visit her or know her very well through my growing up years. We would see her at the Fourth of July parties held at Pickerel Lake. Her half brother, Walter Bonk and his wife Beatrice would bring her with them. This led me to think that Aunt Mary was his mother! In my older teen years, I understood who she was and I was impressed that she was my grandfather’s sister.
After her husband Victor’s death, Mary continued to live at 3 East Street before she moved into senior housing at 11 McKenna Court, the site of the former Washington Street School. Mary lived there until her death on May 1, 1995 at the age of 102 years old! She outlived her husband, her 7 full siblings, and all but one of her 7 children.
Victor and Mary Biega headstone / St. Casimer’s Cemetery Wallingford CT
Charles John Posluzny was the 7th born and 4th living adult child of Caroline Straub and Joseph Posluszny. He was born on September 18, 1887, in Dzikowiec in the Galicia region of Poland.
Charles immigrated to the United States in 1905, according to the 1910 census. He must have arrived at the end of 1904 or January of 1905 because he is in the wedding photo of his brother Joseph, who was married in February of 1905. I can’t find an actual record of his arriving. He’s front row left in the wedding photo.
He met Maria Julia Straub some time after his arrival and married her on February 3, 1910, when he was 22 years old. My cousin says that Maria is in the first wedding photo, sitting behind him. That is the only photo I have of her.
Searching the 1905 New York State census, I found her working as a servant for the McCoy family. Husband, wife, 6 children, Mr. McCoy’s brother, and a boarder! She was probably happy to leave there!
Charles is standing 3rd from left in the family picture below taken likely early 1907.
Their marriage in early 1910 created a record of them in the 1910 US Census. They were living at 78 Jefferson Street in Yonkers, New York. Recorded with Charles and Maria is a boarder by the name of John Straub, 23 years old, who is Maria’s brother. He would eventually get married to Caroline Hammer in 1913.
Edited original to add: I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this picture of Charles. I don’t know when it was taken but the hair style is similar in Frank and Josephine’s wedding photo.
Charles spent his life in the hat industry. In 1910, he was a finisher in a hat shop. The Waring Hat Manufacturing Company was in Yonkers NY so perhaps this is where he worked.
By 1918, he, Maria and their two daughters are living in Norwalk, Connecticut. Charles is working for the American Hat Manufacturing Company located at 25 Grand Street in Norwalk. It was originally the Joseph Loth Company. The building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here is a picture of the building as a factory and a couple of the hat making process.
During the 1930sStretching processCharles was a finisherAmerican Hat Manufacturing Company, Norwalk CT
No amount of searching gives me a 1920 census listing, but by 1923, he and Marie own their home at 7 Van Buren Avenue in Norwalk and they are now known as Charles and Marie Post. They, like Joseph and Anna, have whacked off the end of their given surname!
The 1930 census page he is on lists employees for a number of factories including hats, shirts, dresses, staples, and shoes. A lot of factory workers!
By 1940, still working in the Hatting industry, he has moved on to Hat Corporation of America located at Van Zandt Street in East Norwalk and is working as a finisher. This company was a merger of three hat companies: Crofut and Knapp, Cavanagh Hats, and the Knox Hat Company. This building still stands, although with updates over the years.
Hat Corporation of America
The 1950 census says he was “unable to work” and he passed away on April 30, 1952 at the age of 64 after suffering from stomach cancer for 6 months (likely longer).
Maria would live for another 18 years before passing away on December 31, 1970 at the age of 82 in Waterbury Connecticut.
Charles and Maria had two daughters, Matilda Caroline and Josephine Gertrude. Caroline is in honor of Charles’ mother (my great grandmother) and Gertrude in honor of Maria’s mother.
Matilda was born in 1916 in Yonkers, New York. She married Donald J. Trager in October of 1939 and they had two children, Sharon in 1942 and Richard in 1946. There is incredibly little information about either daughter online. Matilda and Donald were divorced in 1972. Matilda died in Waterbury in November of 1985 and there is no record of an obituary.
At the time of Donald’s death in 1987, their daughter Sharon was married and had one child and was living in New Jersey. I was able to track down an address and sent a letter addressed to Sharon and her son, Darrell, but so far no response! Their son, Richard, lives in Portland Maine and I haven’t had an opportunity to reach out to him.
Josephine was born in 1917 in Yonkers, New York. She married Edwin Guy Newman in April of 1939. They had two children, Ellen in 1947 and Susan in 1950. Ellen was married in 1967 and there the trail goes cold.
Edwin died in 1999 at 85 years old and Josephine in 2010 at 93 years old after living in Westport for their married life.
After such great success finding Frank’s great granddaughter and having her actually remember him, and provide me with new photos of him, I was confident I would be able to connect with someone in Charles’s family as well. I will keep searching and give an update if I come in contact with anyone in his family.
I am working on the next sibling, Charles, in the Posluszny family stories but it’s going really slow! A lot of facts, no stories, and a few grandchildren with not much information of their own. I got spoiled working on my previous stories, digging up still living family, and I’m hoping to have one for Charles by the time I’m done.
His wife Maria’s maiden name is Straub, same as Charles’ mother and I’m working to find out if she is connected through Caroline’s line or through the Straub line that Joseph’s wife Anna comes from.
In case you’ve forgotten who Charles is, he’s the one with the crazy hair.
She died in the early morning hours of April 2, 1927. Alone in her hospital room while her husband and five children slept in their nearby apartment.
She knew something was wrong the previous afternoon. She sent her 12 year old son for the midwife and then went to the hospital.
“She’ll be fine” is what they told her husband when he left the hospital that evening, only to be alerted by the grocer with the neighborhood telephone.
Her obituary said, “She was very well and favorably known to a large circle of friends among the Polish residents of the town”. Small comfort for her family.
She was buried in St. Thomas Cemetery in Southington on April 4th. Her husband carved a wooden cross for her grave and mourned her death until his in 1935.
Years later, her son, Edward, who, at her request, stayed home from school that day, had a headstone made for his mother.
St. Thomas Cemetery, Southington CT, Section 12
Her husband was never the same. Two of the younger children went to an uncle in Massachusetts and the youngest, to his godmother in town. When he and his older sons found a permanent place to live in Wallingford, he brought everyone back together. But how many months had gone by suddenly without a mother and then a father?
I try to imagine what their lives, and ours, would have been like if she lived long enough to watch her children grow up and to know her grandchildren. Would we call her Babcia? Would she teach us to speak Polish? Would we tease her about being so short and would my boy cousins rest their arms on the top of her head trying to be funny. Who would be her favorite child? Who would be her favorite grandchild?
Reflections on the anniversary of my father’s passing
Friday, March 28th, marked the 15th anniversary of my dad’s death in 2010. In February of that year, after a month of turmoil for us all, he was finally settled into the nursing home after leaving his assisted living with a short stay in the hospital. He’d begun attending the events and, as always, enjoyed the music. My sister Gail said she’d had a nice visit with him, taking him for a walk around the grounds and spending time sitting and talking outside.
It was a Sunday, when I received the call from the nursing home to tell me he had passed away. He was sitting in bed eating breakfast when someone walked by, and when they walked by again, he was slumped over. Just like that. Gail and I contacted the funeral home then headed there and sat with him for a while. It was Palm Sunday and the home left a frond in his room that I took and have in a box with my parents personal belongings.
After my mother died, my father carried on. He was 63 and still working in the facilities department at Gaylord Hospital in town. He really loved that job! He was such a people person, he was an awesome painter and wall-paperer, my sister Gail worked there, and the Farms Country Club was next door so he’d look for golf balls during lunch or hit some balls.
He loved “his girls”, his grandkids, golfing, and riding his bike. During my 8 years in California, he visited both with my sisters and by himself and I never had to entertain him. He’d take off for the day on my bike or head to the golf course in town.
I won’t go through the litany of health ailments starting with his 1996 knee replacement, but they were enough to slow him down and significant enough that he was not able to live on his own after 2000. After that, it felt like from late January until April, he, and we, were dealing with one health issue or another.
paternal grandfather Charles JakielaAntonia Jakiela with John
What do I think about? I think that he didn’t want to leave his girls alone. I think that he wanted to be with us, to be our dad for as long as he could even if that meant fighting through whatever pain he had. I may sound crazy, but I think after 22 years and 51 weeks my mother said, “Honey, they’re going to be fine, come home” and with that, he went home.
I always return to this picture because it is the only picture of Caroline and all her children. Her LIVING children.
As I’ve searched the parish records for birth records, I’ve encountered additional children of Caroline and Joseph. Upon examination of the 1910 Federal Census, she lists 14 children born with eight living! Here they are:
*Phillip – born on March 1, 1879. Died on May 1, 1883 of smallpox
John – born on March 5, 1880. Died on February 1, 1942
*Francis – born March/April 1881. Died August 23, 1881, of Dysentery
*Maria – born on March 18, 1883. Died on May 15, 1883 of smallpox
Joseph – born on August 9, 1884. Died on November 9, 1974
Konrad – born on May 3, 1886. Died on December 28, 1944
Charles – born on September 18, 1887. Died on April 30, 1952
Francis – born on September 1, 1889. Date of death unknown
*Stanislaus – born on August 14, 1891. Died on August 14, 1891, at birth
Mary – born on January 21, 1893. Died on Mary 1, 1995
Elizabeth – born on September 24, 1896. Date of death unknown
*Baby Girl Bonk – born June 28, 1899. Died on June 28, 1899, at birth
Walter Bonk – born on August 29, 1903. Died on August 3, 1998
I’m missing the 14th birth, but I’m still reviewing the records. Caroline and Joseph were married in 1876 so I checked 9 months from their wedding to 9 months before Phillip was born with no success. Next up will be the gaps between the other births!
Joseph Posluszny, born August 9, 1884, was my grand-uncle. He was the fourth child of Joseph and Caroline (Straub) Posluszny. Like his brother John, he was born in Lipnica, part of the district of Dzikowiec in southeast Poland. I’ve found a discrepancy in his date of birth in his WWI enlistment record but his birth record from the Lipnica archives shows he was born in 1884.
Joseph’s birth record – August 9 birth, 10th baptism, house number 248
Birth records list their father’s occupation as Colonista, which indicates they were German settlers who migrated to the region in the 18th century as part of a colonization effort by the Austrian Empire. With that migration came land, and family stories say they had a farm.
At 17, he departed for the United States on November 24, 1901, and arrived in New York Harbor on December 1st. His ship, Pennsylvania, departed from Hamburg, Germany, with stops at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and Plymouth, England, before arriving at its final destination of New York harbor. He was in Zwischendeck, better known as Steerage. Two weeks door to door, I wonder what he was thinking as he traveled. There is no person on his manifest page coming from Wildenthal so it appears he traveled alone.
He was heading to his brother, John Posluszny, who immigrated in 1900. The address for John on the manifest says 57 Jefferson Street in Yonkers. Although there isn’t a census listing for John in 1900, which I mentioned in my story about him, I found their uncle, Michael Straub, his wife Elizabeth, son Michael, and son John at that address.
Ship’s manifest from Joseph’s arrival Line 23
Joseph settled in as a hatter, just like his siblings, and continued to live on Jefferson Street at number 41 in the 1905 census.
His future wife, Anna Straub, was born in Wildenthal (now Dzikowicz) on December 25, 1887, to Joannes Straub and his wife Elizabetha. Elizabetha’s maiden name, and married name, were Straub, so there may be a familial connection to Joseph’s mother.
Anna’s birth record – December 25 birth, 26th baptism, house number 19
Anna departed Hamburg Germany on the Blücher and arrived in the United States on December 17, 1902. She headed to the home of her sister, Eva Straub, in Brooklyn, NY, with $12 in her pocket.
Ship’s manifest from Anna’s arrival Line 25
There’s no New York census record for Anna in 1905. But, they met, and Joseph and Anna were married on February 11, 1906, in St. Stanislaus Koskta Roman Catholic Church, Greenpoint (Brooklyn), NY. The church was only 2 years old when they were married.
St. Stanislaus, BrooklynSt. Stanislaus, present dayAnna and Joseph 1906Wedding party – brother, Charles is floor left, and John floor right. Brother, Konrad (other records say brother, Frank) standing second left. Back right, Ann’s brother, Adam Straub and wife, Margaret. Seated right, Anna’s brother, Lawrence Straub, wife Josie, top left. Unsure if Julianna is woman 3rd from left.
Joseph and Anna’s first child, a daughter Margaret, was born on December 1, 1906, in Yonkers, New York. Margaret is the baby in the front row of the Posluzny Family photo, held by Anna, and Joseph is standing at her right side.
Joseph and Anna moved to Newark, where he worked as a finisher in a hat shop. According to the 1910 Federal Census for New Jersey, Eva, her husband Walter Ingram, and Anna and Eva’s sister Lizzie, 18, lived with them.
The 1920 Federal Census finds them living in Norwalk, Connecticut, in a home they own. Joseph is working as a hatter in a factory. I talked about their hatter profession last year. Joseph worked for the Hat Corporation of America in Norwalk until he retired.
1930 is the first time Joseph is listed as Joseph POST, not POSLUSZNY or POSLUSHNY. Joseph and his brother Charles, who also ended up in Norwalk, were the only two who used Post exclusively as their last name. Aunt Judy said that she wished her father, Konrad, had done the same because she got tired of it being mispronounced. I always used it in response to someone talking about my maiden name Jakiela. I’d say, “You think that’s bad? My mother’s maiden name was Posluszny!”
They had 3 more children: Charles in 1910, Ann in 1915, Joseph in 1917, and Elizabeth in 1922.
Joseph, Margaret (back) Charles, Joseph, Anna and Ann (seated) abt. 1919Joe Post abt 1940Joe, Betty, Margaret, Ann and Charlie (back) abt. 1945
I didn’t know Joseph and Anna and their family. The ages of their children fell in line with my mother’s family and my mother and their youngest daughter, also named Elizabeth, were both born in 1922.
Interestingly, Joseph, Jr., was born in Wallingford in 1917 and in my early searches I found Joseph his father in the 1915 town directory as a farmer in Yalesville. I never knew if it was really him, and that was the only year. I don’t know why there was the break in location or occupation. Sometime between the 1910 census and 1920 census, his mother and step father came to Wallingford, possibly at the same time from New Jersey.
The next generation, Joe and Anna’s grandchildren, were people I have met in the past. Ann married Walter (Wally) Regan and they had eight children. Margaret married Paul Wupperfeld and they had four children. Charles and his wife Mayre, were childless, Joseph Jr, and his wife, Dorothy had 2 children, and Elizabeth and her husband, Courtland (Court), had four children. The Regans and the Wupperfelds attended the Fourth of July picnics at Pickerel Lake, hosted by two aunts and uncles. Joseph and Anna possibly were there as well. In my head, I hear Aunt Judy calling them “the Fairfield Posts”, and “Uncle Joe”. We also attended a party at Crystal Lake in Ellington hosted by one of the Wupperfeld children when I was about 10 or 11. I have a connection with one of Joe and Anna’s great-grandchildren, Jennie, through Ancestry and her family tree contains at least 25 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Like my relative through John Posluszny, I appreciate that connection to the past.
Joseph died at 90 years old on November 9, 1974, in Norwalk. Eleven months later, Anna died on October 20, 1975, at 87 years old.
January 31st. 38 years ago, on January 31st, 1987, my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. Glioblastoma Multiform. It was not a question of IF she would die, but WHEN. It was so invasive throughout her brain, there was nothing they could do for her.
I’ve written about our journey with her illness here and here. Boy, did it suck. Her decline was so rapid, it was like she let out a sigh of relief from getting found out. I felt so fecking helpless. Maybe that’s why I always cajole my family members with a “you’re fine, you’re fine!” Like I can will their pain or illness out of them because I couldn’t do it for her.
So many years later, I see myself standing at the copier at work hearing my name as I’m paged for a phone call. I hear Gail saying, “I’ll always think of this when I pay my taxes”. I see me sitting with my sisters in the hospital cafeteria discussing what she’ll wear for her funeral. Weeks later, trying to force her to eat because the visiting nurse said when she stops, the end will only be a few weeks (it was). I went out that afternoon for the St. Patricks Day parade in New Haven and tied.one.on. We knew it wouldn’t be long.
She died 8 weeks after her diagnosis. Every year between January 31st and April 4th, I remember what it felt like to see her slip away.
I told you about John Posluszny’s death and burial here but I thought you might enjoy hearing about his life and family.
John was born in March 1880 and was the eldest of the children of Caroline Straub and Joseph Posluszny.
He arrived in the United States in 1899 at the age of 19 and spent most of his life in the Newark, New Jersey area. I have no ship manifest for his arrival, but used the year recorded on the federal census reports.
Both the 1905 New York State census and the Yonkers city directory lists John living in Yonkers on Washington Street as a boarder in a household and working as a hatter (the family occupation).
Something puzzles me though. Jumping ahead a few years, the 1910 Federal Census lists a son John, 7 years old, which means he was born about 1903 and in the United States. The 1905 census doesn’t include a child or a wife but you’ll see further down this post, a marriage license says his first wife died. The Posluszny Family portrait was taken about 1907 based on the appearance of young John (front row left) and young Walter (front row right). I think the picture of John and his son and the picture of the four brothers was taken at about the same time.
John Posluszny and his son John abt. 4 years oldPosluszny Family abt. July 1907Posluszny brothers abt. July 1907(?)
He married Stefania Mariasz in March in 1908. She immigrated in December of 1907 with her sister Karolina and they were heading to their cousin, Johann Straub on Jefferson Street in Yonkers. Johann Straub and Jefferson Street are names that have popped up regularly for Posluszny family members when they arrived in the United States. The marriage license says John was married before and his wife had died. I have no record for that and no birth record for John Jr.
John and Stefania’s marriage license 1908
There is another mystery – “they” had a daughter Martha, who was born in Austria in 1907 and came to the United States in February of 1909! I’m not sure who her parents really were. Martha arrived with John Posluszny’s cousin Katarzyna Burek, but I don’t recognize that name. Is it possible that Stefania had her out of wedlock in 1907? Illegitimate children were not uncommon according to the birth records I’ve been poring over.
By the 1910 census, we find John and his family in Newark New Jersey. This census assumes that Stefania gave birth to both John and Martha (2 children born, 2 children living). They were renters and shared their home with Stefania’s sisters Karolina and Julia. Julia is listed as being married for 8 years and immigrated in 1903 with a final destination of her husband Josef Dosedla. I don’t know what happened to him but by 1914, she was married to Jacob Vervliet in New Jersey.
John and Stefania had a son, Stanley born in August of 1918, nine years after Martha and 15 years after John.
Stanley Posluszny born 1918 – approx. 1921
In 1920, John, Stefania, Martha (13), and Stanley (1-1/2) are living in Irvington, a town in Essex County, New Jersey. John and Martha are both naturalized citizens and John is still working as a hatter. The sister in laws have moved on and so has the oldest son John. I found him living in Wallingford Connecticut with his grandparents, Caroline and Jon Bonk and working at Wallingford Silversmith.
By 1930, John is a restaurant owner and also owns a multi-family home at 617 18th Avenue in Newark. His restaurant / saloon was at 672 South 19th Street which appears to be the same building, with the entrance around the corner. I took the 2007 pictures from Google Maps because in 2023, the building is in a terrible state of disrepair!
617 18th Avenue Newark 2007672 South 19th Street Newark 2007
Martha was married at 22 in 1928 to Leslie Theobald, a police officer for Newark. They had a daughter, Dolores and they were divorced in 1941. Their daughter, Dolores married Theodore Kozlowsky in 1951 and they had three children. I’m still researching to add them to the family tree.
Divorce notice for Martha and Leslie – note the item underneath. Dr. Gilbreth is the mother of the real “Cheaper by the Dozen” family!
I have not been able to find any information on John Jr. after the 1920 census in Wallingford. There are some possible leads but nothing that confirms to me that’s my John.
Stanley was easier to find possibly because he was born in the late 1910s. He graduated from West Side High School in Newark and then from Northeastern University in Boston with a bachelor’s in science degree. He would later become a dentist. But first up was World War II.
He registered in 1940 while he was a student at Northeastern. On the form, he spelled his last name “Poslushny” unlike our “Posluszny”. This picture is signed “Stan Post” which some of the male family members adopted permanently but Stanley did not.
He enlisted in the Marines in March of 1942. This was only a month after his father died as a result of a car accident. In November of that year, he completed pre-flight training and was sent to the Naval Reserve aviation base in Squantum, Massachusetts which was in the city of Quincy.
From there he headed to Pensacola Florida where he was commissioned a second Lieutenant in the Marines Corps Reserve after completing the flight training course. He was designated a naval aviator and assigned to the Navy Air Operational Training Center in San Diego California.
From Newark Evening News 1943From Meriden Record 1943
I was surprised to find this article for the same event in my local Connecticut newspaper archives and wondered why. Then I realized his sister Martha, and probably her daughter Dolores were living in Wallingford! 105 Ward Street a multi-family home and part of Steinke’s Market. The original market was owned by Joseph Laçz and his wife Elizabeth Posluszny (John’s sister). It was then purchased by Mary Posluszny Biega and her husband and at some point purchased (?) by their daughter Mary and her husband Otto Steinke. Whew. Remember, this was shortly after Martha and her husband Leslie Theobald were divorced in New Jersey. Family taking care of family again.
In 1945 Stanley was flying in the Pacific Theater and this event was recorded in the Newark Evening News.
Stanley J. Posluszny during WWII
The military rolls for Stanley show him stationed from Virginia to San Francisco and ending out his career as a captain.
Stanley J. Posluszny WWII
He ended up back in the New Jersey/New York area and I believe he was married, had three sons, and was then divorced. I don’t know when he continued his schooling to become a dentist. Interesting note – his aunt Mary Posluszny Biega also had a son, Stanley G. and he became a dentist here in Connecticut.
He headed out to Arizona in 1955, was married in 1959, and had a daughter. I found her name on Ancestry in 2012. We have corresponded and discovered immediately that we were family. We became a DNA match a few years ago and since we have shared matches, I have new names to check on.
Stanley passed away in 1984 when she was only 21, not unlike he and his father. She told me that her father hated the cold and hated funerals and wanted to be cremated but her Italian-born mother refused and had him buried. How ironic that the same thing happened to father and son.
Obituary and headstone for Stanley J. Posluszny
I hope you enjoyed this biography of John Posluszny and his family!
It's All About Family 