W. Feit - Pennsylvania

[redclover]

Hi,

The Baltimore Ship's manifest for June 1902 (S.S. Breslau) shows my Great Grandfather Piotr Szalajako arriving to visit his brother-in-law W. Feed (Feit, possibly- difficult to read) at Kittaning, PA. I am trying to trace this W. Feed. The only possible I have been able to find up to now is on the 1900 census for Brooklyn which shows William Feit married to Mary (1890) with a daughter Annie aged 7.
Seems unlikely as he appears to  be on the 1910 Brooklyn census married for a second time (1906) to Frananda with a daughter Annie aged 15.

Any help with W. Feed (or Feit) would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Richard.

[JustJean]

Hi Richard

I'm wondering if you need to expand the possiblities of the surname.  What if it is Frel for example?  I know I'm going on a limb here but you might be able to quickly tell if this group might make any sense... from the 1900 US census..
Enumerated in Ford City, Armstrong, Pennsylvania (which is not far from Kittaining) we find:

Agnes Freal b. Mar 11, 1875 in Austria.  She is listed age 31, married for 7 years, has 2 children with 2 living and is shown as head but is in a house with many other boarders all showing similar ancestry.  She immig in 1889, is still an alien and has ditto marks for being a laborer.  Underneath her name is Paul Freeall (spelt with two e's) shown as boarder, b. Jan 7, 1869 in Austria, is married for 0 or 2 (can't tell) years, immig in 1889 is alien and underneath his name is John Freeall shown as adopted son, b Mar 1, 1894 in Austria, immig 1897.  I'm not sure where Agnes' husband is or where Paul's wife is.

Is there any chance that this Agnes is sister to your Piotr?

Best wishes
Jean

[redclover]

Hi Jean,

Thanks for the suggestion of a possible alternative name. I checked the 1900 census and its transcription on Ancestry. I see that Agnes is listed as Freal, Freeal and also Freeall. It's a shame that there doesn't appear to be any record on the 1910 or 1920 census which might have given more information on Agnes and her husband to possibly connect up with Piotr Szalajko. It's odd that Agnes lists Paul Freeall as a boarder when one would assume he is her brother in law, and then the adopted son. Is he Agnes's son or Paul's.

Looking at the 1900 cesus page, I was amazed to see an entry next to top of the page for Mathias Pfiel and his wife Johanna. I could well see an enumerator listening to the name Phiel and writing it down as Fiel or Feil which could then be transcribrd as Fiet or Feed.

The two entries, Phiel on the 1900 cesus, and Feit on the 1902 passenger manifest look very similar, when you see them written down.
Although Mathias would probably be too old to be Piotr's brother in law, Mathias and Johanna could have had a son who would be of the right age. Once again it's a shame there doesn't appear to be any further entries for the Phiel family to confirm any possible connection.

Your suggestion has certainly opened up a new direction for the search.

Thanks,

Richard.

[JustJean]

Ahhh I was hoping that the exact dates of birth they gave on the 1900 might have been helpful...not often you get that kind of detail.  I agree that the whole bunch of them has evaporated by 1910 and 1920.  I too was confused by the way the census was taken...at first I thought that Paul was the husband of Agnes...but they clearly state different lengths of marriage....and why she isn't just a boarder like most of the others in the dwelling place.  Another thing I was stuck on is the handwriting on the passenger manifest for your Piotr....it actually states that he is travelling on to Kittaining PA...but the name of the town that his brother in law resides in is not Kittaining...but I'm stuck on what I do think it is...and also stuck on finding a town in Armstrong county area that fits any letters that I do pick out of it.  What did you think it might be???

Best wishes
Jean

[JustJean]

Welll...I did some further digging to find the names of the 12 children of Mathias and Johanna Phiel.....and sure enough there is Johanna arriving in New York 21 May 1890 on the ship Friesland which had departed Antwerp.  Johanna and her brood of 12 are listed and the eldest children are males...Josef age 16 and then Math(ias?) age 15.  So not as old as the Agnes we found on the 1900 census.  I'm not finding son Josef  in 1900 but his brother Mathias is apparently at college.  Josef is not exactly the initial that looks like a W or an M!!!  So now I'm back to wondering....why is it that Mathias is too old to be a brother in law to your Piotr?  Johanna seems to be born 1847 and she claims to have had 14 children (it looks like she has some twins) with 12 still living in 1900.  Ages of her kids would have her marrying abt 1873 which agrees with the info she gives on census.  Could she have been an older sister to Piotr who seems to have been born about 1867?

Clearly grasping at straws here 

Best wishes
Jean

[redclover]

Hi Jean,

Just a quick reply while I study the new information you have found.

As regards the place that 'W. Feit' was living in, I am 100% sure it is Yatesboro, Armstrong County, which is very close to Kittaning. This appears to be confirmed by a 1904 Baltimore manifest for Julian Winiarski (Julia according to Ancestry transcript), which says that Julian was travelling to visit his brother in law, Piotr Szalajko at Yatesboro, Armstrong County PA. I have traced some details of Julian Winiarski's family and have found his wife was Karolina, born 1878. Presumably Karolina is another sister of Piotr's.

With respect to Agnes, I have visited Piotr's grave in Bircza, Poland and it lists his birth date as 27th June 1863. If we take Agnes birth year as 1847, although not too distant from 1863, wouldn't tie in with Karolina's 1878.


Two other records are for, Fan Gawerecki, born 1877, travelled to New York in 1902 to visit his Uncle Piotr Szalajko at Yatesboro, PA., and Ignatz Szalajko, born 1888, arrived in New York in 1906 to visit his brother Piotr Szalajko at Newark NJ. The nephew would suggest another sister of Piotr's who married a Gawerecki.

Richard.

[redclover]

Jean,

Another factor that complicates things is that there is a record for a Piotr Szalajko, born 1873 arriving in New York in 1896 travelling to Cohoes, New York. This second Piotr could be the one being visited by Ignatz Szalajko in Newark, which would remove him from the family.
All the other records seem to centre round Yatesboro, Armstrong County.

Regards,

Richard.

[JustJean]

Yatesboro it is!  I needed to zoom in my map for finer detail as it was stopping at Rural Valley.  I was curious to find if there was a church in Yatesboro and if they might have records from this time period.  If nothing else this makes for some interesting reading on the history of the area:  http://www.saintmaryyatesboro.org/history.html
It doesn't however appear that the church had established recordkeeping until 1904 so not likely to have recorded a possible marriage or baptism of any children prior to then.

In considering Piotr's sister...... I'm wondering if she would have traveled unescorted to the US and married over here.  It doesn't seem as likely to me as a theory that she either traveled with a husband or waited for him to find employment in the US and then joined him.  If the latter is more likely then we're really left with hopefully finding some baptisms or perhaps burials.  It might be worthwhile to attempt contact with the Yatesboro church to see if they are able to assist in any way.

The geography as well as disparate population sizes of Yatesboro, Newark, and Cohoes leaves me struggling to find a common factor so I'm as confused as you at the moment!

Best wishes
Jean

[redclover]

Hi Jean, Just been looking at your link to the church in Yatesboro. I notice that prior to 1925, the locals were buried at Rural valley ccemetary and Kittaning cemetary. Had a look at these two locations on the 'Find a Grave' website. They list Rural valley but no hits, no record of Kittaning cemetary. Perhaps it has a specific name. Looked up the name Pheil for Pennsylvannia and it certainly seems to be a popular name. It is interesting that there are no hits for the spelling Pfiel. So Pfeil is the preferred spelling and that fits with the spelling of Feit on the ships manifest for Piotr Szalajko.

I started this search with details of other family members on the following thread;

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,428248.0.html

From the information I have found from manifests of these family members I would not rule out that Piotr's sister could have travelled alone and then married in America. Also I have come across many cases  of husbands travelling to America, listing their wives as nearest relative back in Poland, and then after a year or two, the wife follows with the children. So both possibilities seem feasible

In the case of Piotr's daughter Stefania, she is listed as travelling alone aged 17 with a birth year of 1893. In fact she was born in 1895 and travelled at the age of 15 alone. I assume she falsified her age as they wouldn't have let her travel alone at 15

Richard.