Week 11 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is about Achievements in the family. I know many family members past and present have done pretty impressive things so I’m going to focus of just a few of them.
Back in March during the topic of Professions, I told you how my maternal grandfather held a patent for a straw hat cleaning solution which is still in effect and pretty neat, but I don’t think he made any money off of it.
Straw Hat cleaning Patent
In more recent times, my cousin Bob who was a lieutenant in the Civil Engineer Corp of the US Navy has a “bight” in Antarctica named after him! He was part of Operation Deep Freeze in 1977 and 1978. A bight is “a curve on the shoreline with a less curvature than that of a usual bay”. They are shallow so they are clearly marked on nautical charts for navigation.
The bight is located on Brown Peninsula which is a nearly ice-free peninsula 10 nautical miles long on the north side of Antarctica. The Bellafronto Bight extends for six nautical miles and was named for him in 1999. I don’t know the nature of the naming but I think it’s pretty cool!
Location of Bellafronto BightX marks the spot
An even more recent achievement is my niece Charlene’s PhD in Food Science from Penn State University in 2017. She is now an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University as well as a Researcher at CSU’s Food Structure and Function Laboratory. She is focusing on phytochemicals as potential therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases of the gut. She is also working on a USDA-funded research into the relationships between sourdough microbial ecology and bread quality. She has been published in a variety of magazines and has been on the Today Show to discuss Sourdough bread. I think we’re going to be hearing and reading about her achievements for a long time!
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.
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.
In January of 2020, I wrote a story about my grandmother Juliana Ingram Posluszny Taking in her cousin’s daughter after her cousin, Mary Kukulska Juszczak died in childbirth. Mary’s granddaughter sent me a copy of the court documents for the adoption that included my grandmother’s affidavit.
Come to find out, Mary successfully gave birth to her daughter Mary in 1910. Her husband John was the one who passed away in 1910 from an accident at the sugar factory.
With an infant to take care of, Mary married Michael Zupka in June of 1911. Shortly thereafter she became pregnant and gave birth in March of 1912 and, did you guess it? She died in childbirth. Their son Michael died as an infant in November of 1912.
I don’t know at what point Mary’s stepfather gave her to grandmother to take care of. Likely when her mother died, and I wonder who took care of baby Michael until his death 8 months later. My grandmother kept her until the strain of trying to raise three toddlers of her own became too much for her. Michael Zupka remarried in July of 1913 and went on to have 3 children. He passed away in 1955.
I relayed this new information to Mary’s granddaughter and she said her mother only knew her mother died in childbirth. It was just with the wrong child! When Mary got married to Michael Zupka it was using her married name Juszczak and I never thought the story was any different.
Mary Kukulska Juszczak abt. 1910
Mary’s daughter was adopted by a lovely couple who had lost their daughter in 1914 to diphtheria. She had a very happy life and knew she was adopted but never wanted her daughter to find her biological family. Her daughter found the adoption paperwork when she was cleaning out her grandmother’s house.
When I first started my family research in the early 2000s, Ancestry(.)com was in its infancy and information was not as readily available as it is now. Research involved either visiting town clerks office to requests copies of birth, death, and marriage certificates or mailing a request and waiting for a response.
One of the mysteries of my paternal side was my grandmother’s sister Aniela (also known as Nellie) and her husband Joseph Mikula of Palmer Massachusetts.
One of the crazy family stories was that she and my grandmother were twins but that was far from the truth as she was born in 1871 and my grandmother was born in 1891.
What little I know of them is they were married in Poland and Joseph arrived in the fall of 1902. I don’t have his ship passage record but Aniela arrived in December of 1902 and she was heading to Windsor Locks Connecticut where he was living. Since Walter was born May 30 1903, counting on my fingers, she would have been pregnant with him when she arrived. From there, or at some point in time, they moved to Palmer, Massachusetts.
Besides the “Aniela and Antonia were twins” story, I only knew they took in my father, aunt, and uncle when their mother died in 1927 and they had two sons, Stanley and Walter and one daughter, Catherine who were older than the Jakiela siblings.
I sent a letter to the two Catholic Churches in town and received a response along with four Certificates of Baptism for Mikula children – none of them named Walter or Stanley or Catherine. In hindsight, knowing Joseph and Aniela lived for a time in Windsor Locks, Ct, I might be looking in the wrong state for their birth records.
My past research told me that Walter was born in May of 1903, Stanley in November of 1904, and Catherine in 1908. The “new” siblings included: Bronislaw born 1909, Genowefa born in 1911, Zofia born in 1913, Kazimiera born in 1915, Antoni born in 1917, and Mieczyslaw born in 1918.
Just to put this in perspective my dad and his siblings were born in 1913, 1915, 1920, 1922, and 1924.
Joseph, worked in the cotton mills throughout his life and it’s likely they lived in millworkers housing in Palmer. What I found out about the family was either sad, or non-existent.
Antoni died by accidental drowning when he was 1-1/2 years old in August of 1918. He fell into a well.
Example of an open well
Mieczyslaw (Martin) died just short of 6 months old in September of 1918 from Infant Cholera “a disease of poverty”.
Through this all, their mother Aniela, was suffering from tuberculosis which eventually made its way into her bones. She died in May of 1919 from Tuberculosis of the Bone. Would she have been home with her children around her with this terrible disease?
Catherine died in 1934 at 26 years old of tuberculosis and was in the 1930 census as an inmate at the Hampden County Sanatorium.
Bronislaw is in the 1910 census at 1 years old and was not listed in the 1920 or 1930 census.
Genowefa, later known as Genevieve, married, had a child and lived her life in Vermont until her death in 1987. Besides Stanley, she is the only I found to have a family.
Kazimiera is on the 1920 and 1930 census at ages 5 and 15, but disappears after that.
Zofia is not in the 1920 or 1930 census when she would be 7 and 17 years old. However, my Auntie Helen recalled in one of our conversations that “Tootie” committed suicide but I don’t know when that would be as I’ve never found any information about her.
I would think something was amiss with these people and lack of information if I didn’t have actual church raised seal certificates.
One of the Mikula children birth certificates
What I realized after all this, was that Uncle Joe remarried after Aniela died and it was actually he and his second wife and Genevieve and Kazimiera that likely took care of my aunt and uncle in 1927. My dad was in Southington with his god mother (he was only 2-1/2 years old).
Walt, Uncle Joe and JohnJohn and ?
Walt and John were also brought to Uncle Joe’s after their father died in May of 1935. These pictures are from August of 1935. I can’t recall my dad ever speaking of being there but I bet it is where he discovered his love of the outdoors!
Uncle Joe outlived his second wife Anna and he died at the age of 67 from a cerebral embolism in 1945 while living in Worcester Massachusetts.
You might be wondering about Stanley and Walter? I actually have some information on them from family members and another interesting source. I’ll share that in another post.
The week 9 topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Changing Names.
You may have a story or two in your family about how “their last name was changed/shortened by the Ellis Island worker that couldn’t understand what they were saying”. Although that probably happened to some people, many times it didn’t happen that way! Most likely it was done by the immigrants themselves trying to fit in, or tired of spelling their name or hearing people mispronounce it!
My maternal family last name was Posłuszny. That little line through the “ł” sounds like “whoosh”. The majority of misspellings I see is “Poslushney”.
Two of the five Posłuszny brothers, Joseph and Charles, changed their name to Post some time during the 1920s. John used Post for business purposes as a restaurant owner, but used Posłuszny in his personal life.
Frank, poor Frank, who spent decades in an insane asylum, remained Posłuszny for his lifetime as did my grandfather Konrad’s family. I recall hearing that my Aunt Judy wished her dad had changed their name because she got so tired of spelling her last name to people!
Left to right John, Joseph, Frank, Charles, (far right) Konrad
The topic for week 8 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is – Heirlooms.
The definition of a Heirloom is a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations. Since my great-grandmother was the farthest back generation to immigrate in the early 1900s, I’ll have to go with what I have, but I still think they are pretty important!
Pictures. I have a lot of pictures! Professionally taken including family groupings from the early 1910s, first communions from the early 1920s, weddings, and family photos collected in multiple albums by my mother growing up in the mid-1920s and early 1930s, and beyond. In addition to those, I have videos from the early 1930s through the 1970s which I wrote about in an earlier post here.
Posluszny Family abt.1910Connie and Betty abt. 1927Eddie Jakiela abt. 1920Ingram Family date unknownJulianna, Konrad, Antoinette abt. 1910
When I started research in 2000, my Aunt Tootsie (Antoinette) was the Family Historian. She was the oldest Posluszny sibling and lived in the family home on Clifton Street from the purchase in 1925 until she moved to a Judd Square apartment in 1989. I often sat with her to discuss the family and the people in the pictures. Dates and seeing how far your lineage stretches back are fun, but my interest has always been the stories and photos. Who they were as people and as a family. Who we most resemble. I try to imagine what life was like in Yonkers and Connecticut in that time frame. I guess that’s why I love where I live so much because this is where they lived their lives.
I’m grateful over the years to acquire more photos from my Jakiela cousins, through my ancestry contacts, and through unexpected DNA matches! I’ll continue to share more pictures and stories as I create some order to my accumulated files and notebooks.
Week 7 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is all about Immigration.
It’s impossible to focus on just one ancestor because they all left the same region between the ages of 4 and 51 between 1899 and 1912.
My maternal grandmother, Julianna Ingram in 1903 at 16 years old followed by one sister 4 years later and another sister 8 years after that.
My paternal grandfather Charles Jakiela in 1905 at 15 years old without any siblings ever following him. Traveling to Southington Connecticut and shortly after to Palmer Massachusetts to work in the textile mills.
Imagine sending your child, first on a (present day) 14 hour overland trip to get to the port of Bremen Germany. From there, they would board a steam ship to travel to New York and start a new life – without you. Neither Julianna or Charles ever returned.
You couldn’t just pick up a phone a find out how their trip was or are they getting enough sleep, and have they found a job yet?
My maternal grandfather Konrad Posluszny immigrated in 1900 at 16 years old. He had the benefit of uncles already in Yonkers, New York and all his brothers arrives in the next five years. His mother, step father, 2 sisters, and a half brother, arrive 7 years after he did. They were lucky to all be together in the “new country”.
My grandmother Julianna left behind her parents, and 2 sisters and a brother, one or two were born after she left. I wonder how affect they were by the first and second word wars because we do know how Charles’s family fared.
The topic for Week 6 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is – Earning a Living so I am turning this week to the Posluszny side of the family to tell you about my grandfather and his brothers.
My grandfather, Konrad Posluszny, and his four brothers were hatters. The occupations on their ship manifests say “laborer” so it’s likely they picked up the trade when they immigrated to the United States.
The Posluszny Family abt. 1909. Men from left – John, Joseph, Frank, Charles, stepfather Jon, and Konrad
In the early 1900s, hat making was booming and during that time period, Konrad and his brother Charles lived in Yonkers New York. They held jobs as finishers at the Waring Hat Manufacturing Company. The factory was on the corner of Riverdale Avenue and Vark Street which was only a block and a half from their home on Jefferson Street.
Waring Hat Manufacturing Company, Yonkers NY
His other three brothers John, Joseph, and Frank all lived in Newark New Jersey. I don’t know which company they worked in but there were 34 hat companies in Essex County making it the hat capital of the world! They would have had their pick of any and they also worked as finishers.
The 1920 census showed all five brothers still in the hat making industry. Konrad and his family were still in Yonkers, John and Frank in New Jersey, Joseph and Charles with their families in Norwalk Connecticut.
The 1920s brought about a slowdown in the hat making industry and many companies merged. John left hat making and because a proprietor of a restaurant/saloon in Newark.
Unfortunately Frank turns up in the 1930 and 1940 federal census as an inmate in the Essex County Hospital for the Insane. We know the old saying “mad as a hatter” but in this case it was hereditary rather than occupational.
Charles worked for the American Hat Company and Joseph for the Hat Corporation of America, both in Norwalk. They worked has hatters until they retired.
But, the more interesting story is that of my grandfather. I’ve told the story of the family’s move to Easthampton Massachusetts where they lived very briefly before they moved to New Britain and lived in a two family house with my grandmother’s relatives where my mother was born in 1922.
In New Britain, my grandfather opened up a hat store called the Conrad Hat Company and in 1923 it was at 43-45 Broad Street before moving to 317 Main Street.
In 1924, he applied for a patent for a cleaning solution for straw hats and was awarded with the patent on 1925. I don’t know if he ever made any money from it but he still holds the patent to it.
Patent certificatePatent information
Unfortunately, in the summer of 1924, in the span of two weeks there were fires in his store.
Fire in August of 1924fire in July of 1924
I found these news clippings while researching this story and I wonder if it plays into what my Aunt Judy said in her recorded conversations about not being a business-type guy but he would have been successful if he was. She said he was too soft hearted and the politicians in New Britain would come in, have a hat made and say they’d pay him later but they never would. He couldn’t pay his insurance, had those two (suspicious!) fires a few weeks apart and had to go out of business.
The family moved to Wallingford and he went to work at the Steel Mill until his death in 1944.
The theme for week 5 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “Influencer”.
The definition of Influencer is “a person or thing that influences another”. That person could be none other than my mother, Elizabeth Posluszny Jakiela.
She was born in 1922, the youngest of five children with an age gap of five years between her and her sister.
After high school she went to a business school and learned bookkeeping and worked at one of the several silver factories in the area. She got married while working there and continued to work until pregnant with my older sister. Eighteen months later, she had me and my twin sister.
When I started fourth grade, she went back to work, first for a temp agency and then a permanent job so she juggled family and work.
When my dad purchased the paint store he had worked at for years, she jumped right in to take care of the bookkeeping, heading to the store after her day was done at her paying job.
Even with this, she found time to volunteer at school events, participated in women’s church groups, school groups, and was an assistant troop leader for our Girl Scout troops.
When our church began running a carnival in the early 1970s, she jumped right in to volunteer wherever she was needed. Only a few years went by before she was selected to be the chairman of the event. She never backed down from a challenge and she loved being a part of it and continued to volunteer up until she passed away.
My sisters and I all got married and raised our children, found the time to volunteer in their schools and in our community.
Personally, I went to school to be an administrative assistant and have worked with my husband for 25 years in his remodeling business as his bookkeeper and office manager. I definitely inherited that from her!
My mother will be gone 37 years on April 4th and I know she would be proud of the influence she had on her three girls, and her grandchildren in turn.
The topic for week 4 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, is “Witness to History” and for this there was no other story to tell but this one.
My uncle, Walt Jakiela was 19 years old, fresh out of Navy radio school as a seaman second class, and in Hawaii for only three weeks on the morning of December 7, 1941.
Walter Edward Jakiela 1941
As Walt walked out of the barracks, he noticed smoke billowing from burning sugar cane fields. He didn’t think much of it, and headed into the hanger.
Not long after that, the hanger began to shake and there were muffled sounds of exploding bombs as the Japanese bombers struck the ships in the harbor. He and his mates rushed out of the hanger to see the bombs and torpedoes dropping on the ships, which were like sitting ducks on the water. Fighters strafed the decks of the ships, and sailors were mowed down from above. At first, he thought the planes were Russian and then he saw the rising sun emblem of Japan.
There was a lull in the attack and he said that’s when he really became scared.
When the second wave hit, some of the soldiers had the presence of mind to set up machine gun batteries to shoot at the planes. Walt shot at quite a few but he didn’t think he shot any down.
He said the second wave was more like a clean up and the Japanese were picking off the targets that weren’t destroyed with the first wave. Planes which never got off the ground, barracks, ships, boats, and servicemen were shot at by planes flying through the thick smoke which Walt said made it feel like a tunnel, not knowing which way was which. All around were bodies of his fellow servicemen, injured or killed in the attack.
After the second attack, Walt helped with the treatment of the injured soldiers. He went along and marked the boots of the soldiers who had been given morphine injections. He and the rest of the survivors were asked to volunteer for mortuary duty but he chose instead to volunteer for the dangerous duty of flying out in search of Japanese planes. He just couldn’t handle seeing all the death.
“It changed my whole life” he said when speaking about his experience 50 years later.
When he spoke about the attack, he said it wasn’t exactly a surprise to the higher ups. They knew something was coming, they just didn’t know when.
He was a radio/gunner for U.S. Navy Patrol Squadron 23, which was made up of 12 patrol bomber seaplanes called “Catalinas”. They were used primarily for attacking submarines. His squadron was assigned to 12 hour daily search missions for over a week, but the men were never informed what they were searching for and the missions ended on December 6th.
Walt had joined the Navy in February of 1941 rather than be drafted into the Army and he stayed in the Navy for another 20 years. He saw the entirety of World War II as well as the Korean Conflict from various bases around the world.
Pearl Harbor wasn’t the only time he was a witness to history. In 1945, he was stationed at Saipan air base when the Enola Gay delivered the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th. He said when the crew of the Enola Gay landed, its crew members said, “you can go home now.”
He earned two air medals with gold stars for his 50-plus missions throughout World War II, as well as the rank of chief petty officer, before his retirement in 1960.
Walt and his survivor license plateA special group of people
After he retired from the Navy, he went to work for Grumman Aircraft company. He started as a field service representative, then a worker with the space program, and then a part of the program which developed the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.
This information came from a newspaper article he sat for in 1991.
My Uncle Walt retired from Grumman in 1980 and he and my Aunt Eleanor moved to Ruston Louisiana to be near his older son. He died in 1997 at the age of 75.
I likely only met him a few times, but I wish I had known him. He was so young to experience what he did and I’m sure it did change his whole life. He’s a hero to me.
It's All About Family 