Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Emelia Furgal born in Poland

 Emelia (Furgal) Mazur Buss was my husband's great grandmother.  She came to the United States from Poland sometime between 1906 and 1909, and settled in Warren, Massachusetts, where her brothers, Michael and Frank, and her sister Mary lived. Anton Laska, an older half-brother, also lived in Warren.

She married Wladyslaw (Walter) Mazur in Warren on August 3, 1909, and four children were born to this union including Roman, Lewis, Daniel, and my husband's grandmother Wanda.  Sadly the marriage ended in divorce sometime between 1930 and 1940.   Emelia continued living in Warren for a time, working as a weaver in a nearby woolen mill.

Sometime before July 1942,  she went to live, and work as a housekeeper in Rutland.  There she met Edward Albert Buss, and they were married July 1, 1942 in Gardner, MA.  Albert died in 1950, and in 1953 Emelia purchased property on Lake Wickaboag in West Brookfield.  Family gatherings were often held there in the ensuing years.

Emelia died in Norfolk, Massachusetts on June 20, 1961, and was buried in Rural Cemetery in Rutland.

Recently I discovered baptismal information for Emelia on the familysearch.org website in the "Poland Select Tarnow Roman Catholic Church Books, 1612 - 1900."  According to this index Emilia was baptized 22 Sep 1886 in what is now Lubasz, Lubasz, Krakow, Poland.  Her parents were Catharine Kolano and Adalbert Furgat. It is likely that she was born in 1886, although census and vital records, indicate that she was born in various years between 1886 and 1891.  I have been unable to find her name listed on a passenger record, but census records indicate that she came to the United States in either 1906 or 1909.