I'm beginning to feel that this story is a bit like the book,
As mentioned in another post, Brygida was born in 28 June 1885 in Gostynin, Poland.
 |
|
It (the baptism) took place in the town of Gostynin, on June 29, 1885, at 9 a.m., Emilia Lach, a midwife, 56 years old from Gostynin, appeared in the presence of Franciszek Dolecki, a farmer, 28 years old, and Walenty Zdziennicki, 68 years old, both from Gostynin, and presented the child. She announced that she was born yesterday in Gostynin at 9 am to Józefa Kulińska née Dalecka, 36, and Karol Kuliński, a worker from Gostynin. On the same day (10 July 1885 - Gregorian calendar), the one-day-old baby was baptized and on that day she was named Brygida. The godparents were Franciszek Doliński and Marianna Nowakowska. |
Notice how Karol did not show up to inform about the birth of Brygida, which was customary at the time, and the midwife only claims that he is the father of the baby.This led me on a wild goose chase to try to figure out who was the father of Brygida if it was not Karol Kulinska.
An in-depth analysis of DNA matches led to three entirely separate groups of descendants related on my mother's paternal side:
- Dalecki clan
- Józefowicz clan
- Jankowska/Kolasinski clan
There was a fourth line: Medwadowski, but I had until yesterday (14 Feb 2025), discounted this as there were several matches that led back to the Dalecki line. But my thought was that if there was a connection it had to go back to the late 1700s. More on this later.
The Dalecki clan can be ruled out as we know that Karol Kulinska was not Brygida's father, leaving only the later two.
We're going to focus on the Józefowicz clan as the Józefowicz family was from Rościszewo, Poland which is not far from Gostynin. There are also many more Józefowicz in the Gostynin area than in Rościszewo, so perhaps Jan was originally from Gostynin.
But most importantly, the most significant DNA match to my mom on MyHeritage (not connected to the Dalecki line) is Carl at 87.9 cM, 5 shared segments, with 43.4 cM as the largest segment. Carl is also on Ancestry and matches at 83 cM (unweighted), 4 segments, with 44 cM as the longest segment.
Carl also matches to
- Susan (me):67 cM
- KL: 109 cM
And my mom, Carl, and KL share one triangulated DNA segment, confirming that they have a common ancestor.
I've been able to confirm that KP and my mom share 78 cM DNA and that KP and Carl are both descendants of Ignacy Józefowicz (b. Abt. 1857 in Kolonia Lubstyn, which was partitioned to Prussia at the time). Ignacy was unmarried in early 1885, the year of Brygida's birth but married Rozalia Malinowska sometime that year.
Ignacy's brother Jan Józefowicz married Marianna Jaworska in 1877. Using a combination of data from several genealogy sites, I've been able to confirm that five DNA matches are descendants of Jan.
So we have a total of 7 DNA matches that trace back to Jan Józefowicz + Marianna Łażyńska, parents of Ignacy and Jan.
I've communicated extensively with Carl and KL and have provided additional documentation.
- Carl confirmed the connection to Ignacy and Rozalia Malinowska, which allowed me to use Geneteka to go back a few generations. I've also been able to find the marriage record for Ignacy and Rozalia. Ignacy's parents are Jan and Marianna Łążyńska.
- I have located an immigration record for Stanislawa Jozefowicz (1911). Her final destination was Holyoke, MA. It lists her father as Synacy (I presume Ignacy) and a sibling as Madise, who is living in the US. Her residence is listed as Siemiotkowo, which I presume is Siemiątkowo, Mazowieckie, Poland. It is located near Gradzanowa, Mazowieckie, Poland. This matches up with the Stanislawa that married Stanislaw Zych. I believe Madise is actually Waldyslawa. The ages match up with your record, however, I haven't been able to find a birth record on Geneteka.
Using DNAPainter and the DNA matches, it is predicted that there is a 85% chance that Ignacy was Brygida's father. (71% that she is a half-sibling to the other children; 14% chance that she is a full sibling). The combined odds ratio is 1220 that she was a half-sibling to the other children and 242 for full-sibling. The remaining possibilities include an unknown child of Jan. And so for now, we shall assume that Brygida's father was Ignacy Józefowicz. A summary of the genealogy is below, but for now, let's go back to Medwadowski.
For a long time, I've been baffled by a match on MyHeritage to Kryztyna Bętlejewska (105.4 cM). Krystyna was from Otwock, south of Warsaw and quite some distance from Gostynin. Gabriela Sawicka, Krystyna grand-niece helped to sort out the connect to the family. Kryztyna is the great granddaughter of Jakub Medwadowska. Jakub's brother Leonard Teodor (b. 1849 in Gostynin) was the godfather of Anna Kulińska, Brygida's half sister.
So the two families definitely were connected.
Now here's where things get turned upside down. Daniel Banasiak found that Józefa Dalecka (Brygida's mother) and Leonard Teodor were married on 13 May 1931, after her first husband Karol had passed away as Józefa is listed as a widow. While we cannot find a death record for Karol, we do know that he was with Józefa in ~1915 when they were caring for Marianna's two children Wanda and Adam Palczewski. Adam married a month before Józefa. So Józefa and Teodor married at ages 77 and 81, respectively. Teodor had never married until then. Apparently, they really loved one another.
Surprisingly, Dorota Banasiak, Daniel's mother and great granddaughter of Adam Kuliński, Brygida's half-brother and Kryztyna Bętlejewska have a DNA match of 92 cM. Dorota and my mom are a 115 cM match. And the autoclusters function on MyHeritage places Dorota, my mom, and Kryztyna in a cluster, suggesting a common ancestor. Now, are Adam and Brygida actually full siblings? Is Teodor the father of both of them? What about their sister Marianna? Well, one of her descendants has matches to Kenneth and Diane Puryczcki, descendants of Rosalia Medwadowska, sister of Jakub and Teodor. Another has a match to a descendant of Wicktoria Medwadowska, distant cousin of the Medwadowski siblings.
Using the "What are the odds" tool on DNAPainter, there is an 93.6% Leonard Teodor Medwadowski (b. 1849) was the biological parent of Brygida and full sibling of Adam and Marianna. The combined odds ratio for Teodor being the father of Brygida and full sibling of Adam and Marianna is 306,707. There is a 6% chance that Leonard Teodor's father Ludwik is Brygida's father. However, if I set the tool so that Brygida and Adam and Marianna are half siblings, the odds reduce to 53%, with a 45% chance that Ludwik is Brygida's father. He would have been 68 at the time of Brygida's birth. Unfortunately, I can't find a death record for Ludwik.
Perhaps Karol Kuliński is not the father of either Brygida, Adam, or Marianna and Leonard Teodor Medwadowski is the father of all three. And it wasn't until 1931 that Józefa could marry her true love!
Józefowicz lineage
No comments:
Post a Comment