Lost Ancestors?
Submitted by GFS Jan@aol.com

Lost Ancestors? Hmm, how many do you want?

My great grandfather, Albert Lambert MIERZEJEWSKI is lost. I know he married Juliana KOBYLANSKA. I know he had a son named Julian Lambertovich MIERZEJEWSKI, who came to the US in 1912 and became my grandmother, Anna BRONOWICKI. I know that in 1912 he lived in " Shurawtsy, Wolyn, Poland." I know that Shurawtsy is now Surovce, in Ukraine. I found it, it's right exactly where it should be, but where is my great grandfather? Did he get "repatriated" to Poland, or was he sent to Siberia? Did he have any children other than my grandfather? A search of records last year in Ukraine turned up no information. I think that this family takes the prize in leaving the least information!

Another one, my husband's great grandfather. Carl BREDAHL arrived in the US in either 1887 or 1888, from Copenhagen, Denmark. He married Dorothy Marie Laursen. I have no records of either of them leaving Denmark. Their oldest child, John's grandmother, was born Sept 12, 1890, in Passaic, NJ. Her birth certificate says she was the second child born to the couple, the only living child of the marriage. So, that would put their wedding at about 1887 or 1888. But where? I can't find records in NJ. I called the church, they don't have a record either. Carl was a carpenter in 1900, a cabinet maker in 1910. He is not listed on the 1900 census, but he is on the 1910 census. He was naturalized in 1906, but his naturalization papers say nothing about when or how he arrived in the US. On two occasions, his wife took their 3 children back to Denmark. I have records of their return to the US. This was not a poor immigrant. In the 1905 census he appears in a rental house, in 1906, his naturalization papers give his address as 68 Richard Street, Passaic. His family lived in that house until the late 1940s! Carl died in Passsaic, in his home, in 1935. I got his death record from the state. I was so excited. I thought finally I will find out who his parents are!! His father's name was listed as "Don't know" His mother's name was the same! How can someone be married for 48 years and not know the names of her in-laws?

Or, how about John's maternal grandmother? She was born in 1898 in Prussia. At the time of her birth, her parents were not married. Her father was a Prussian Cadet, and was forbidden to marry for 2 years. Well, babies only take 9 months, so little Martha was born, and given the surname of her mother, EWERT. After her father was discharged, he did marry her mother. And they had another child, a son named John. But John WHAT???? Again, a dead end! John also came to the US, he lived in New York. He worked as a Superintendent for an apartment building somewhere in Long Island. He died in the 1950's, when he fell off of the apartment building while he was doing some repair work! I bet that made the papers! But, I can't get a lookup, because I don't know the man's name! He called himself SHEPPER while he was here, but apparently that was not his legal name. John's mother said it was "something like Shepatowski." John's aunt said "no, it's something like Sheerspatowski, and it wasn't Polish, it was Russian, and actually it had a von in front of it, he was a nobleman." I sent for Grandma's Social Security Application. It listed her father's name as Gottfred SCHEPPITOWSKI. Checked New York newspapers for the death of John Scheppitowski in a fall from a building. Nothing. I called every Shepper I found in the online directories. No one knew anything about John Shepper and his family.

I sometimes wonder if all these people made a deliberate decision to forsake immortality, and burn every scrap of paper that could answer some of my questions!! It's really hard not to take it personally! In a society such as ours is today, in the US, you cannot avoid leaving a paper trail. But a hundred years ago, it seems, it was an easy thing to do. You can be sure that every room in my house, as well as my office, my safety deposit box, my children and grandchildren, and all my known cousins will have copies of the genealogy of THIS family!!!! I sure don't want to make someone else go through what I'm going through!