grandparents – Page 2 – It's All About Family

Walter John Bonk

Walter Bonk (aka Bak or Bunk) was the 13th born and 8th living child of Carolina Straub. His father was John Bonk (Bak), whom she married in 1888 after the death of her first husband Joseph Posluszny in 1887. Carolina gave birth to a baby girl in 1899 who died at birth. Walter was born in Dzikowiec in the Galicia region of Poland on August 29, 1903 when Carolina was 48 years old.

Walter was a month shy of four years old when he made the trip to the United States with his mother, father, and half sister Elizabeth. The Passenger List indicates that his father had traveled to the United States in the past in 1901 and 1906 to Perth Amboy possibly to work and get things settled for them all to come over.

*Walter standing on right in front of mother Carolina late 1907 his father is standing 4th from left*

In 1910, John, Carolina, and Walter are living at 23a Parker Street in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Although Elizabeth would have been only 14, she is not listed as living with them. Perhaps she was working as a live in maid somewhere. During this time period, Walter was attending school and could speak English.

The next time I find Walter, he is 17 years old in the 1920 United States Federal Census. The family has moved to Wallingford Connecticut and his parents owned 30 Geneva Avenue. They are joined by his half-sister Elizabeth, her husband Joseph Łaçź, their two young sons, his half-cousin John Posluchny (spelled phonetically in the census!), and a border, John Ivaninski. It was a full house! The two boarders work at the hardware factory, his father works as a press dropper at the silverware factory, Joseph a packer there, and Walter at age 17, is no longer attending school and is an electrician at the factory.

Only two years later, Walter, Caroline, and John Bonk were now living at 24 East Street in Wallingford. This was one minute walk from the location of the market owned by Elizabeth and her husband Joseph Łaçź and it is a short walk from Clifton Street where his half brother Konrad (my grandfather) and his family will move to in 1925. He is 19 years old.

In March of 1925, his mother Caroline passes away of stomach cancer.

On June 23, 1925, Walter married Beatrice Kasprzycki of New Haven. She was born on September 13, 1905, the fourth of nine children of John Kasprzycki and Anna Tarnowski of Meriden. The family moved to New Haven in 1917 when her father left International Silver for a job at the American Windshield Corporation.

*Walter Bonk and Beatrice Kasprzycki 23 June 1925*

Just over a year later, Walt and Bea’s first daughter Ann Carolyn Bonk was born on July 25, 1926.

Walter, Bea, and Ann lived at 24 East Street in Wallingford with his father, John. This was a 2 family house and I think they must have lived with him based on the listings in the Streets section of the annual directory.

This following information came from a phone conversation I had with their daughter Ann in the early 2000s:

John, Walter’s father, 55 years old at the time, met Viola Weston, a 50 year old widow and they got married. Viola had 23 and 21 year old sons, and an 18 year old daughter who came along with her to live at 24 East Street. So Walter and his family moved to New Haven, close to Bea’s family.

Walter and Bea had another daughter, Dolores LaVerne born in 1931, and another, Joan Beverly in 1933, and their son Henry in 1937.

Walter and his family remained in New Haven until John died in 1933. Ann said they moved back to Wallingford and lived in one of the apartments and Viola, based on a provision in John’s will, continued to live in the other apartment until her death in 1937.

Walter went to work as an electrician for the Wallingford Steel Mill which then became Allegheny-Ludlum Steel and worked there for his entire career.

Walter also became involved in Wallingford politics in 1944 when he was named as an alternate delegate to the state Republican Party convention as well as part of the republican town committee. He continued on for many years and he also served as the Wallingford Assessor and a second selectman.

We would see Uncle Walt and Aunt Bea once a year at the annual Fourth of July family picnic hosted by Aunt Judy and Uncle Mal and Auntie Irene and Uncle Lou. Judy and Lou were my mother’s older siblings.

Uncle Walt and Aunt Bea continued to live in their home at 24 East Street until age caught up to them. They both resided at the Skyview Nursing Home where he passed away in August 1998 at the age of 94 and she in February of 2003 at the age of 97. They had been married for 73 years.

*Gram (front), Aunt Bea, Mom, Aunt Tootsie abt. 1964*

Their children, Ann, LaVerne, Joan, and Henry were my mother’s half first cousins. But if you’ve read about her being born story, technically they’re not related at all?

*Postcard from Ann Bonk to my mom in 1936*

My mother and Ann were 4 years apart but the Poslusznys, Bonks, and Biegas, all lived within a block or two of each other. My mom was friends with all the girls throughout her life. We may not have seen them frequently, but we knew of them all because of my mother.

Ann’s postcard sent from Middletown when she was 10 and my mother 14 says:
Dear Betty,
I am having a swell time. I miss you a lot, I miss going walking on Sunday with you. Please tell the rest of the family I was asking for them.
Your pest, Ann C. Bonk

Ann married Floyd Monroe of East Haven and they had three daughters and 4 sons. They lived for many years in Vermont and we would see them once a year at the annual Fourth of July picnic! After Floyd passed away in 1985, Ann moved back to Connecticut and became a teacher at the Wallingford Community Day Care where she was known as Miss Ann. Something I didn’t know about her until my research was she was a graduate of Yale University School of Music. Prior to that she studied piano and organ with various teachers including a professor at Yale. For two years prior to college she was the organist at St. Peter and Paul Church in Wallingford. Ann passed away in 2011.

Laverne married Ed Dziubinski and lived in Branford. They had 2 children and Ed passed away some years ago and she has since remarried.

*Laverne with Auntie Ann, Aunt Bea, and Joan (back right)*

Joan married Carl Focareto of Berlin Connecticut. He was a loud, gregarious individual and I don’t mean loud in a bad way! “Knock-out” was his nickname. I don’t know why, and it just came to me! They were married in 1954 and they had 2 children who we knew fairly well because they went to the “other” high school in Wallingford. Their daughter, Beverly, married someone from “our” high school who was good friends with one of my brothers in law, so we would see them at parties and softball games. Their son, Peter, lives a few blocks away from us.

Carl and my dad were golfing buddies. When Carl died in 1998, it hit my dad pretty hard. As a tribute to him, dad had the florist make up an arrangement that was a putting green. I wish I still had the picture of it. It was probably something they had never done before! Joan still lives in Wallingford.

My sisters and I didn’t know Henry and his family. I don’t know why. Maybe because he was born in 1937 when my mother was 15, and he was a boy?

Hank as he was known was involved in baseball and lacrosse growing up. He graduated from Tufts University and was a chemist and inventor with 34 scientific patents. He also served in the Army in South Korea. He had his wife had 2 daughters. Sadly, Hank passed away after a long battle from MS in 2021 at the age of 83.

My Behme cousins are far more familiar with Hank and his family most likely because their mother, Judy Posluszny Behme, was 2 years younger than Hank and they might have gone to Holy Trinity together. Being that close in age, they likely had their children in the same range and they too, would have been in school together. I just remember the Behme family heading off to the Bonks house during the holidays and I didn’t quite understand why we didn’t!

When I put these stories together I see so many characteristics within my family today. The scientists and musicians, the cooks and bakers, and overall smarty-pantses in the family! There’s also the “get involved in your town” and take care of people whether their friends or strangers. This is the DNA we carry within us.

As cousin Ann Bonk’s obituary said:
In memory of Ann and how she lived her life, we ask that you honor her by a simple act of kindness.

Elizabeth Eva Posluszny

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.

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!

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.

*Elizabeth Eva Posluszny Łaçź* *born 1896 – died ?*

Mary Posluszny

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.

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.

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.

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*

Angel Antonia

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?

We’ll never know.

Joseph Posluszny

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.

Wedding 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. 1919*

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.

John Posluszny

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 old*

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!

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.

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.

The military rolls for Stanley show him stationed from Virginia to San Francisco and ending out his career as a captain.

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!

Favorite Photo

The Week 2 Topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “Favorite Photo”.

This photo started me on my Ancestry Journey:

My mother’s oldest sister, Antoinette, known as Toots and Tootsie, was the family picture keeper. When I visited her in her little one room apartment, she would bring out the photos and tell me about the people in the photos. Some of the stories didn’t match the previous ones, but it was fun to just sit and listen to her. When she moved to a nursing home, my cousin Judy had the pictures and when she passed away, her husband gave them to me.

This photo is of the entire Posluszny Family, the maternal side of my family tree. In the front row is John Posluszny and his son John, Ann Straub Posluszny with her daughter Ann, Mary Posluszny (later to become Mary Biega), Caroline Straub Posluszny (at this time Bonk) and her son Walter, Elizabeth Posluszny (later to become Elizabeth Laçz). The back row is Joseph Posluszny, husband of Ann, Frank Posluszny, Charles Posluszny, John Bonk (the men’s stepfather and Caroline’s second husband, Walter’s father), Julianna Ingram Posluszny, and Conrad Posluszny (my grandmother and grandfather).

I have stared at this photo for so many years, just looking at the faces and wondering about them and their lives in Wildenthal (now Dzikowiec) before coming to the United States.

I marvel at the handsomeness of my grandfather (ok, he’s not really, but I am still related because he and my grandmother were 2nd or 3rd cousins), and I can’t get over the resemblance of Mary Posluszny Biega to my cousin Ann who has passed away.

I have individual pictures of a few of them, and some wedding photos that I treasure, but this photo is my favorite. It keeps me digging.

Mental Health

The topic for Week 36 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “We Don’t Talk About It”.

My grandfather, Konrad Posluszny, committed suicide in the early morning of December 28, 1944. He was a night janitor at the Wallingford Steel Mill, where he had access to the offices and storerooms and that is where he got the gun he used. It was written up in the afternoon Meriden Daily Journal on the 28th, and then the next day, the morning paper, the Meriden Record, had a much more dramatic telling of the tragedy.

Years after it happened, my Aunt Tootsie told me “a gypsy told my father he was going to die by a gun and so he didn’t allow them in our home”.

As the second article mentions, he might have been “brooding over the dangers that might befall his son” my Uncle Connie who was assigned to duty in New Guinea. My uncle was a cook in the Army but I never found any records for him in the Fold3 website. My Aunt Judy did talk about him having to “pack up the kitchen” when they were being relocated.

*Julianna (Gram), Connie, Konrad (Gramp*) *1943 or 1944*

Would he have committed suicide because he was worried about his son? Not likely, unless there were mental health issues to begin with.

Which brings me to something else my Aunt Tootsie told me in one of our conversations. She said “when he was in the hospital”, the doctor allowed him to have beer because “he needed it”. Crazy right? It makes me think he was maybe in a hospital for mental health issues. This post from conversations with my Aunt Judy and my cousin Judy, talks about my grandfather and grandmother relationship.

*Konrad with his daughter Julia in 1937*

Another piece of the puzzle comes from my first experience with a medium in 2013. I realize a lot of people don’t believe in mediums or what they say, but hey, my grandfather believed what the Gypsy said! This medium said my grandfather committed suicide, was there with my mother, he later mentioned the gun shot and the depression he suffered from all his life. If you’re interested you can go to YouTube, search for CT Buzz and the look for Medium and Life Guide Phil Quinn. It’s 7:40 long and you might recognize a younger me in the screenshot. During either this reading or another, Phil told me that my grandfather suffered from profound depression and he didn’t have a joyful day in his life.

That makes me think about how he started out as a hatter, ended up with a hat company of his own, he had a patent for a cleaning solution for straw hats, but died as a janitor at a steel mill. I told the story about the family profession here. I feel such sadness for him to have had so much and then nothing. Was it because of this depression that caused my aunt to say her mother had more balls than her father?

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only person in the family suffering from mental illness…

My great-uncle Frank Posluszny, spent at least 10 years in the Essex County Hospital (for the Insane) in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. The 1910 and 1920 censuses, show his occupation as a Hatter. However, by the April 27, 1930 census, he was an inmate at the hospital and was there again in the 1940 census. A section in this census asks if this is the same residence as 1935, and the response for Frank is “same residence”. I have not been able to find any death record for Frank but it might be safe to say he spent the rest of his years at the county hospital. He and his wife had three children.

Frank and Josephine Posluszny wedding photo. Brother Charles back left, step father Jon Bonk, back third from left, mother Caroline seated left, sister Mary seated right — *Frank and Josephine’s wedding photo. His brother Charles is top left, stepfather Jon 3rd from left, mother Caroline seated left, and sister Mary seated right*

My great-aunt Elizabeth Posluszny Laçz, left her husband and two children behind and disappeared in 1923 or 1924. Her sister Mary, hired a private detective but he never found her. She came up in a medium reading I had years ago and I was told she had a complete breakdown and created an entirely new life. I have never found records of her or her children but I wonder if there is a trace of them among any of my DNA matches.

The Posluszny Family. Elizabeth is bottom right, next to her mother. She is approximately 9 years old. — *Posluszny family photo – Frank 2nd from left in back, Konrad back far right, Elizabeth front right seated*

I never had a conversation with my mother about the death of her father. She was 22 when it happened and I can’t imagine how they felt getting that knock on their door that morning. All I knew as I was growing up was that he died a long time ago.

Today we are all better educated about mental health and we are able to express how we are feeling either to each other or a therapist. A little part of me knows that the DNA we got from our dad’s side of the family evened us all out!

My Favorite Discovery

The Week 33 topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is – My Favorite Discovery. I’ve had a few discoveries over the last 25 years. My favorite discovery has a good side / not-so-good side, but it makes me happy.

The road to this discovery started in 2004, when my cousin Judy Posluszny Behme passed away and her husband brought me all her ancestry paperwork. She and I were working parallel, we didn’t share information or ask questions about what we had. I knew she was also working on it, but not much more!

The papers included email correspondence from someone named Joanne. Judy had sent a letter to Anna Engram, Joanne’s mother. I don’t know whether the letter was ancestry-related or just perhaps a Christmas card to Aunt Tootsie’s list of people. Who knows how long it had been since cards had been sent out but it was a smart idea to use the list for information too!

emails from 2/7/2001, 2/25/2001, and 11/18/2004

The top 2 emails are from Joanne to Judy in February 2001, 2 weeks apart, and the bottom one is my email to Joanne in November of 2004.

Joanne responded right away. She still didn’t know who she visited as a young girl but recalled a wedding in Wallingford “of a woman relative who was marrying at ‘mid-age'” and “this may have been a cousin? to my Dad”.

Through our emails, she told me about her father, Jacob Engram Jr., and his father, Jacob, who immigrated from Austria-Hungary and was a farmer. While growing up her father lived in the vicinity of today’s Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, and later on a rented farm in the Pelham Bay area. I knew there was some family connection because my grandmother loved her flowers and tending to her gardens.

My Aunt Judy helped put some pieces together in a phone conversation in November 2004. According to Judy, Uncle Jack Ingram had a farm “in Long Island”, and her parents would go there from Yonkers and help out. Uncle Jack had a son, Jack, who was in World War I and Aunt Judy remembered her mother kept up her Christmas tree until February, when “her nephew” Jack came home. The dates don’t add up but it’s interesting how that story got passed down. Jack served overseas during World War I from July 18, 1918, to July 13, 1919.

We continued our correspondence through the remainder of the year and determined that she attended my parent’s wedding on November 9, 1952. 72 years ago today! Joanne was only 7 years old so an older bride and a partially bald groom would be considered “mid-aged” in her eyes!

We emailed back and forth a few times and then didn’t talk again until 2016 and again in 2018. Life is like that sometimes!

And then, her kids gave her a DNA kit for Christmas in 2018. In March of 2019, we confirmed we were related. Oh boy, were we related! We were so much related that she and I shared twice the cMs compared to me and my first cousins. It also explained why some DNA matches were only between us and not between my maternal cousins.

I went to the experts – the Ancestry DNA Facebook group. My question “Why do I share 1,040 cMs with this person and only 527 and 467 with my first cousins” was met with “You need to talk to your mother”. Since my mother had been gone for 32 years by 2019, I answered my own question.

Joanne was my half aunt and her father, Jacob Engram, Jr., was also my mother’s father.

Shocked is putting it mildly.

My initial reactions were: 1) The work I’ve done on the Posluszny and Straub side was all for nothing!, 2) All the DNA matches associated with the last name “Duy” made sense because that was Jacob’s mother’s maiden name and, 3) not only were Julianna and Konrad Posluszny related (3rd cousins perhaps), but geez, Julianna and Jacob were related as well!

If there was any question of being related, I have the photographic proof:

That would probably be the bad side of the discovery because it did shake me up a bit.

I’m fascinated by the timing because my grandmother and family were living in New Britain in 1921 when she would have become pregnant. Did she know? Did she tell him her suspicions? Did their relationship continue after my mother was born? This is where I’d love to be a time traveler (and I’d have to let it happen again so that I would be assured I exist!).

The good side of the discovery is that I have an aunt! Jacob married in 1934 and had a daughter in 1945. Although she and my mother never knew each other, they did meet and/or knew about each other as a part of the family. Joanne lives in Pennsylvania and we have not met face to face yet. We are Facebook friends and we share any ancestry information we come across.

So this event would definitely qualify as my favorite discovery!

The End of the Line….

The week 31 topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is End of the Line. This story will not go in the direction you automatically think of when hearing “end of the line”.

If my teacher was putting the class in order of height, “Nancy, you go to the end of the line” would not come out of her mouth ever in 8 years at Holy Trinity School. Only if I was being separated from my sister or friends because I couldn’t stop talking!

My ancestors did NOT bring the height to my family. At the time of their ocean voyages, my grandfather Charles Jakiela, at 17 was 4’9”. My grandmother Antonia Liro, at 21 was also 4’9”. I have no ship manifest for my grandmother, Julianna Ingram, but her sister Mary’s record says she was 4’8”. My biological grandfather, Jacob Engram Jr, is listed as 5’9” on his WWII draft registration card. He’s a jolly green giant compared to the others.

The height issue is evident in Charles and Antonia’s 1912 wedding photo which looks like they put their heads into cardboard cut outs of a bride and groom.

*Charles and Antonia Jakiela June 24, 1912*

Their four male children ended up between Steve at 5’5” and Walt who reached 5’9”. If his parents had been alive when he registered for the draft, he would have towered over them by a foot!

My dad, John Jakiela, was 5’6” and my mother was 5’3”. I always say, “if I wasn’t born a twin I bet I would have been taller!” But, in all seriousness, I’ll take my twin over the height.

*2nd and 3rd in line (Dana Smith leading the way)*

Janice, at 18 months older, always had 2-3 inches on us. Just enough to not have to hem every pair of pants she got! Gail and I had a 4” growth spurt in 6th grade and except for a few more inches between then and 18, we were done at 4’11”. In standing in a line by height, we’re forever in the front and the shortest of all the relatives.

It pays to marry up! All five of the next generation are over 5 feet and the two of the next generation look like they will be able to take their place at… the end of the line.