One of my original research goals was to find out where in Poland my husband's great-grandparents, Emelia Furgal and Wladyslaw Mazur came from. I have over the years found in various records such as MA Vital Records, World War I Draft Registration Cards, Naturalization Papers, and family obituaries, that two brothers of Emelia (Furgal) Mazur Buss reported their place of birth as Lubasz, Austria. I also found that Emelia's mother and at least one other member of her family claimed last residence as Delastowic, in passenger records.
Wladyslaw or Walter Mazur reported his birth place as Slupiec, Galicia, Austria in his Naturalization papers, and Slupiec, Poland on his World War II Draft Registration Card.
I looked at various maps and still could not say with certainty that I could identify the correct locations. Last fall, I spoke with a professional researcher with Polish research experience who explained that in Poland, as in the US, Ireland, and probably other countries, there are multiple locations with the same or a similar name.
An email from Ancestry.com received early Wednesday morning announced the addition of millions of records to their Global Records Collection, and I decided to investigate. One collection they had added was the "Poland, Select Tarnow Roman Catholic Diocese Church Books 1612 - 1900." I do not subscribe to World records, but I was able to perform a name search. I tried searching Furgal with no success, but then I tried Kolano, the maiden name of Emelia's mother, and there I found Catharina Kolano and Adalbertus Furgal. Here were the parents of Emelia, and there were three Baptismal records in the collection with their names in them. My city library was closed due to the unusually large accumulation of snow here in Southeastern Virginia, and the thought of waiting to access the records was frustrating. Somewhere in the back of my mind, though, the name of the collection sounded familiar and I decided to look for the records on familysearch.org.
It was my lucky day! The records were indeed available on the familysearch website, and I could access the information. I found baptisms indexed for Emilia, Michael, and Franciscus Furgal, Laudislaus Mazur and two (previously unknown to me) sisters, and also for his first wife Bronislawa Zuchawicz. I was also able to get a more specific location, using the information in the index, which had the name of the present location in Krakow, Poland, and the filmstrip notes which had the Austrian location names in Sczuzcin, Galizien in the case of the Furgals, and Chomranice, Galizien, for the Mazurs.
Lessons learned: I had previously searched the records at familysearch.org without success. Perhaps at the time they were only available for browsing. Why had I not found the records I was looking for?
The records are in Latin (Ancestry says they are in Polish, but the names I found were Latin.)
My first success came from only searching the last name. Once I realized that I needed to use Latin, and not Polish or English first names, the search went quickly.
The Polish Alphabet has a character which looks like an l with a / through it. It was transcribed as a t. Thus Furgal was indexed as Furgat.
Persistence eventually produces results. I began this research 15 years ago.
My research is not complete; in fact, I now have more family members to learn about, but I now have more exact locations and can concentrate my research efforts in those places. My long range plan is to compile the information I have, clearly state my future research goals, and hire my professional contact to find more Polish records, and possibly earlier ancestors. My short range plan is to find out more about the branch of the family that settled in New Hampshire, Mary (Furgal) and Albert Smist. I need to find the death record of Mary who died probably in Nashua between 1953 and 1961. I have been unable to prove that Mary was the daughter of Albert, (Wojciech) Furgal and Catharina (Katarzyna) Kolano, but have circumstantial evidence.
The records are in Latin (Ancestry says they are in Polish, but the names I found were Latin.)
My first success came from only searching the last name. Once I realized that I needed to use Latin, and not Polish or English first names, the search went quickly.
The Polish Alphabet has a character which looks like an l with a / through it. It was transcribed as a t. Thus Furgal was indexed as Furgat.
Persistence eventually produces results. I began this research 15 years ago.
My research is not complete; in fact, I now have more family members to learn about, but I now have more exact locations and can concentrate my research efforts in those places. My long range plan is to compile the information I have, clearly state my future research goals, and hire my professional contact to find more Polish records, and possibly earlier ancestors. My short range plan is to find out more about the branch of the family that settled in New Hampshire, Mary (Furgal) and Albert Smist. I need to find the death record of Mary who died probably in Nashua between 1953 and 1961. I have been unable to prove that Mary was the daughter of Albert, (Wojciech) Furgal and Catharina (Katarzyna) Kolano, but have circumstantial evidence.
