My grandfather (“Bop-Bop”), Joseph J. Johnson, Jr., son of Joseph Janczauskas and Victoria Margaret Pilukas. (“Janczauskas” became “Johnson” to fit in in the U.S.) Born 29 November 1911 in Brooklyn, NYC.
Bop-Bop as a toddler – probably 1913.
Bop-Bop as a young boy, probably early 1920s.
I love my town. Not only are we surrounded by 20+ amazing wineries (and the number grows each year), we are also in the midst of some of the Virginia’s best “shabby chic” antique emporiums.
I was at one of these shops yesterday for its annual tent sale when I happened upon a genealogical “find” – several pages from what might have been a family bible, listing births, marriages and deaths for members of the Scott family of Plainwell, Michigan, ranging in years from 1798 to the early 1900s. At a cost of $1.00, I could not just let it sit there to descend back into obscurity!
I am transcribing some of the entries below, on the offchance that someone out there might be researching this particular line. If so, I would be happy to send these pages your way!
Eventually I’ll hire someone to translate this from Lithuanian… until then, I truly am “wordless”!
A husband who abandoned his wife and young son to return to their homeland, never to be heard from again….
A sister-in-law and brother-in-law running off together after the deaths of their respective spouses….
An untimely death rumored to have been caused by alcohol poisoning….
A relative arrested for shoplifting, and providing the police with another relative’s identity….
While my mother’s side of the family might be lean on documented facts and figures, there’s certainly no shortage of mildly scandalous to outright depressing stories to go around. The trick has been trying to determine what is true from what might have been embellished over the years, all while trying to remain sensitive to the fact that aside from the occasional mention or rumor, my ancestors probably actively tried to keep these stories under wraps.
I would love to hear from anyone who has also tried to get to the bottom of sensitive family stories. If you were successful, was the truth worth it? Or would you suggest that there are some things descendants are better off not knowing?
You’ve finally found that one, elusive record that is going to tell you everything you think you need to know about a particular ancestor, or at least provide some clues as to where you need to search next. For my family of Eastern European immigrants, ship manifests have been huge in this regard – they often show where the immigrant is headed (and to whom!), where they’re coming from, and sometimes even who they left behind in their home country.
What should be an occasion for celebration, however, has turned into frustration quite a few times when you just can’t figure out what the immigration clerk wrote down!
Compounding the frustration is the fact that many of my ancestors couldn’t speak English very well – or at all – so the clerk probably just wrote down what they thought they heard. Other times, it has been trying to figure out what was written down as a hometown, because at least for the area of Europe my family comes from, place names reflected which nation had prominence at the time – so there is an eclectic mix of Lithuanian, Russian and Polish spellings.
This 1897 immigration record for my great-great-grandmother, however, has been particularly troublesome, because no matter what combination of ethnicities and spellings I come up with, it has so far been impossible for me to figure out where “Srudi, Russia” might be located, if that town even exists anymore, or what it might be known as today. If anyone is reading this, perhaps a fresh set of eyes might be just the thing – let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions! (The town name is in the far right column – I can say with relative certainty that it is either “Srudi” or “Yrudi” based on other handwriting samples from elsewhere on this page.)
It was during a two week free trial of Ancestry.com that I discovered a deep satisfaction in discovering historical records and sleuthing out family connections. I loved it so much that by the end of that two week period, I had created family trees for everyone I possibly could – not just my own family, but my in-laws, my stepfamily, even friends weren’t safe from my quest for knowledge.
Invariably, my first efforts were plagued with errors and inconsistencies – one could say I “fell victim to one of the classic blunders” – relying too heavily on information that lacked adequate sources. (Only slightly lesser well known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!)
So even though my research methods have improved over the years, I still haven’t been able to get past several gaping holes in my tree, particularly on my mother’s side. There are plenty of family stories, but very few accompanying facts. Not counting my son and I, my mother is the last known descendant of this particular line, so there is no one else to ask, either.
“Theories of Relativity” was born of a desire to keep track of my various thoughts and speculations as I continue to dig deeper and deeper, without mucking up my “official” tree with potentially false information. With luck, someday it might even help me connect with long-lost relatives!
