Growing Your Tree: The Bien Family Story

You can only continue to grow your family tree if you keep working on it. A genealogist's work is truly never done, especially in this day and age when more and more records are being digitized and more and more people are becoming interested in genealogy. Keep searching for your family online, you might be surprised what you find.

Today one of my cousins on my mother's side is celebrating her birthday. So I am publishing newly found information on yet another branch of my family tree, the Bien family, to share with her and everyone else who is interested. But first, here is the marriage photo of Casimir J. Bien and Anna Stankiewicz:

Anna Stankiewicz & Casimir J. Bien
Wedding Photo

When I first began this quest, over eighteen years ago, we didn't have much information to go on for the Bien side of the family. Even though I visited my Grandpa Casey and two of his sisters in Chicago, they only knew that their grandfather Bien's name was Andrew and that he was born in Bychawa, Poland, which is a town near Lublin. They didn't know his wife's name, even though one of my aunts had visited Bychawa in the 1970s. In the past six months, I have spent hours researching digitized records from Poland newly indexed and posted online. Thanks to that research, I was able to increase our Bien line of the family tree by three full generations. I found several birth, marriage, and death records and had them translated from handwritten cursive cyrillic. The following pedigree chart is the result of that work. Please note that you can click on the image, then right click and select "open image in new tab" so you will be able to zoom in and read the chart.

Also, today I'd like to share the family story about the Bien family that my Aunt Charlotte told me back when I started my genealogy research in the early 1990s.

THE BIEN FAMILY STORY
(As told to me by Charlotte Bien, daughter of Casimir J. Bien and Anna Stankiewicz. Once again, as in the Nawodylo family story, a few of the facts presented here are incorrect (such as the year Casimir came to the U.S.) according to my research.)

Casimir Bien's father was Andrew (she knew this from his death certificate but it didn't have his mother's name on it). Andrew had been married before, but his first wife died. He had a son from this marriage named Jan (which translates to John) Bien, who was Casimir's half-brother. Jan Bien and his wife had five kids named Joseph, Michaelina, Stasia, Olek and Mieczu.

Casimir came to the US in 1909 when he was 19 years old. He married Anna Stankiewicz at St. Ann's Church in Chicago in 1912. Constantine "Casey" Bien was born in 1913. He and Anna bought their own house in Chicago in 1940. The address was 5649 S. Richmond, Chicago, IL 60632. When Casey Bien got married, he had photos taken with his bride and wedding party in the back yard of that house.

According to my aunt, the Bien name was never shortened. When she went to Poland, she found Biens all over. Many were relatives, but some were NOT related. One story is that when Stella Bienkowski, wife of Vincent Stankiewicz (Anna's brother), went to get her citizenship papers  ... she had come to the US when she was 9 years old ... and Casimir Bien went with her to be a witness, they "threw him out" or didn't want to take his testimony because they thought that he was in her family because Bien and Bienkowski were such close names.

Casimir Bien had three sisters: Antonina Guziak (she had two kids, but the story is that her husband poisoned them), Marysia, and Karolka (translated Caroline) Janusz (she had seven kids, but we don't know their names).

My Aunt Charlotte and her husband went to Poland for the first time in 1971. It was during communist rule, so they couldn't get records, only names. Marysia and Karolka were both dead by then. But Antonina was still living. (It was hush-hush, that she had no kids but maybe had had two kids who were supposedly poisoned by her husband). My aunt went to some building in the area (Lublin), like an office building, and they were asking about Casimir Bien. A girl who was there took them to Bychawa ... this is where Aunt Charlotte thinks they were all from since Antonina was still there. The girl took them to a farm or something with a huge gate over her head (they had a horse and driver). There was a woman by a well and the girl went over and said something to her. The woman said, "So let her ask." The woman seemed gruff, but also scared. Turns out she had spent 4 years in a concentration camp. My aunt asked about Antonina's brothers and sisters but Antonina was scared and would not talk much. However, she did say that she was indeed Casimir's youngest sister. They all hugged.

Later, my aunt went back to Poland because she had promised that she would visit Antonina again. It was 1973 and one of my aunt's daughters and son went with her. Then her husband and another daughter came later to meet them there. This was June, July, August ... and they all came back together.

Casimir had attended church in Bychawa. My aunt and her husband visited this church. They presented (and donated) a pletan (what you hold under the host when distributing it to the people) at a Mass there.

This is all of the information that my Aunt Charlotte told me about the Bien family.

***
NOTE: The pedigree chart lists different villages/towns as birthplaces for the Biens, but most of these villages are near Bychawa, Poland, and are recorded in the Bychawa Roman Catholic parish or Targowisko Roman Catholic parish records. My research of these records in Poland has corroborated some of the information that my aunt had, but I also found out that some of it is incorrect. I will tell more about this in an upcoming post.

* Please comment and let me know what you think about all this! Also, if you're a cousin or relative, I would love it if you would add any stories that you know or have been told about the Bien family and ask any questions that you may have for me.

Anchors Away!: Apolonia (Wykowski) Gonsewski's Journey

I often wonder what sailing across the ocean to a new life in the United States was like for my ancestors. I have read about it, but it is still hard to imagine. Leaving family and friends behind, each one embarked on a journey to "the new country."

In 1899, my great-grandmother Apolonia Wykowski (you can see a photo of her in my previous post) first had to travel from her birthplace, Stara Kubra (which means Old Kubra), in northeastern Poland to the port of Hamburg, Germany. The Polish ports of Gdansk (Danzig) and Szczecin (Stettin) were primarily freight ports, so most Polish emigrants traveled by train to Hamburg or Bremen, Germany. Once there, Apolonia boarded a ship, the SS Pennsylvania, and departed on May 21st for the two week voyage across the ocean. She arrived in the port of New York on June 2nd, coming in to the United States through Ellis Island.

Ship image of the SS Pennsylvania

I found the ship list for Apolonia by using the Ellis Island database. Sometimes names are not indexed the way you would think: for example, I had always been told that Apolonia's first name was Pauline. This is actually the American translation of her name. I also thought Wykowski was the only spelling of the name at first. Then I learned that Wykowska is the female version of Wykowski. Another good online resource to search for your ancestors' ship manifests is Stephen Morse's One-Step pages for searching the Ellis Island records. I like to use the gold form. Make sure that you register for a free account on the Ellis Island website first, so you can sign in and see the ship manifests once you do a search. If you are a paid subscriber to Ancestry, there is another one-step form that you can use that will take you into the Ancestry website to see your search results.

I have included an image of Apolonia's ship list from Ellis Island below.

*Hint: To get a close-up view of the ship lists or other images I post, just click on the image and then right click on it when it opens up and select "open in a new tab." Once it opens in a new tab, you should be able to zoom in and out and be able to read what's written on the image.

Ship manifest for Apolonia Gonszewski (maiden name: Wykowski)

Ship List Information (NY Passenger Lists, see line #21):

Name: Apolona Wicoska
Arrival Date: 2 Jun 1899
Birth Year: abt 1879
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Single
Last Residence: Kubri
Ethnicity/Race­/Nationality: Russian (Polish)
Port of Departure: Hamburg
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Pennsylvania

Since it says she is 20 years old, her birth year may have been 1879. Her occupation is listed as "none." It states that she can read and write. Her nationality (Polish)  is written lightly and then "Russian" is written in a darker pen because Poland did not exist at the time. Her "last residence" is listed as Kubri (which we figured out is Kubra - her birthplace was Stara Kubra, meaning Old Kubra). She arrived in New York but her "final destination" is N. Millport (most likely New Millport, Pennsylvania). It also is noted that Apolonia did not have tickets to her final destination, that she she paid for her passage herself, she had $5 in her possession, and she had never been in the U.S. before. Finally, it says that she was going to her cousin. His name is difficult to read, but it might say Eric Ptak, 116 Logan Street. (This cousin's name may give us a clue in the future when we try to trace her roots in Poland.)

Finding a ship manifest can be a great clue to your ancestor's town or village in Europe. Unfortunately, I have not found manifests for all of my great-grandparents. But I have found several of them. The Ellis Island web site only has manifests of ships that came in to New York. Ancestry's web site is a good place to search the other ports such as Baltimore.

Picturing Grandma: Apolonia (Wykowska) Gonsewski & Her Kids

My father saw his grandmother Apolonia Gonszewski for the first time last week. She would have been 131 years old this year, so he didn't see her in person. Instead, he saw a picture of a framed portrait of her that a long-lost cousin sent me via a text message to my iPhone. Our story is just one more example of how technology is making it easier to connect with family members and trace your roots.

Apolonia Gonszewski (maiden name Wykowski) was born in Stara Kubra in northeastern Poland. 

I first found my second cousin Melanie, the daughter of my dad's cousin Barbara, a year or two ago through Ancestry, a family history website that most people are familiar with now that they advertise on television. I didn't even know Melanie existed because my father had lost touch with her mother over 50 years ago, but she had a small family tree on the website that connected with mine because we both knew the names of our  great-grandmother (Apolonia) and great-grandfather (Konstanty) and their five children. My dad's father Eugene and her mom's mother Melania (also known as Mildred or Millie) were brother and sister. Once we connected and exchanged e-mails, we also "friended" each other on Facebook so we could see photos of each other's children and keep in touch.

Thanks to Facebook, Melanie remembered that I would probably want to see Apolonia's portrait when she saw a post from me. We were visiting Charlotte, North Carolina, and Melanie had just visited there the weekend before that! Too bad we have never been in the same place at the same time and met in person yet, but maybe we will one day .... Melanie had helped her father move out of his house several weeks ago and had found a large framed portrait that her mother, who passed away in 2007, had kept in the house. I don't know if it had been put it up in the attic or had been on display in the house, but this was the first I had heard of it. It turns out that Apolonia's name was written on the back of the portrait along with something that had taken me years of searching for documents to find out for myself - her birthplace. It noted that Apolonia was born in Stara Kubra in northeastern Poland. I am so happy that this fact is now verified :)

My father had lost touch with Melanie's branch of the family way back when he was in high school in Chicago. His father had a falling out with his sisters Mildred and Stephanie (according to my mother who started dating my dad at that time) because he was an alcoholic and they did not want him to come around anymore. Also, it makes sense that my father never saw a photo of his grandmother (or does not remember if he did) because she died in 1924 when his father Eugene was 16 years old.

Apolonia Gonszewski (maiden name Wykowski) was usually called Pauline once she came to the United States. She arrived at Ellis Island on June 2, 1899 at the age of 20. She married my great-grandfather Konstanty on Feb. 14, 1900 in Scranton, Penn.They had their first child there (Bronislaw, who was called Bruno) in November 1901. Family stories tell us that Apolonia and Konstanty left Scranton because Konstanty was injured in a mining accident,although I have not found any documents to back that up. They moved to Chicago sometime before having their second child Boleslaw

Boleslaw (which translates to William) was born in Chicago in January 1904 . The rest of the Gonszewski children were also born in Chicago: Walter in May 1906, Eugene (my dad's father) in August 1908, Melania (Millie or Mildred) in October 1910, and Stefania (Steffie or Stephanie) sometime in 1912 (she is the only one that I have not found a definite date of birth for yet).

Sadly, Boleslaw died of diphtheria in November 1910. How I learned about him and what he died of will be the subject of another post. I had only been told of the five surviving Gonszewski children when I started my genealogy research. I have never seen a photo of Boleslaw, but I did finally get to see a a portrait of the five Gonszewski children for the first time last week, thanks again to cousin Melanie.

We think that this portrait was probably taken in 1912 or 1913 because the baby in the picture is Stephanie. My dad's father Eugene, sitting to the right of the baby, is dressed in a young boy's suit with a full lace collar. He is about 4 or 5 years old. Mildred is about 2 or 3 and the two older brothers, Bruno and Walter, dressed in suits with bow ties, are about 11 or 12 and 6 or 7 respectively.

Children of Konstanty and Apolonia Gonszewski: (From left to right) Bruno and Walter (standing), Melania, Stefania, and Eugene (sitting). Circa 1912-13 

Unfortunately, we also do not have any photos of my great-grandfather Konstanty even though he died much later than Apolonia. Konstanty (who also known as Gustav, at least that was the name listed on his death certificate) was born March 10, 1879 in Stanislawowo (as per his Declaration of Intention, most likely the town by that name that is near Bialystok in northeastern Poland) and died on June 5, 1940 in Bremen Township (Cook County), Illinois after battling pulmonary tuberculosis for 6 months.

Perhaps one day soon we will see a photo of Konstanty. But at least now we can finally hold a picture of Apolonia in our hands.