My Family History Research

In its Vital Records column on 31 January 1943, the Buffalo Courier Express reported that a marriage license had been issued to “Adam Kiec, 928 Clinton—Agnes Skrok, 924 Smith.”

Both had previously been married. Adam Kiec was the widower of Stella Skrok Kiec and Agnes Skrok was the widow of John Skrok.

They all–Adam, Agnieszka, the siblings Stanisława and Jan–had been born in the Radom province of Russian occupied Poland. They immigrated to Buffalo, Erie, New York, where Adam and Stanisława married 31 Aug 1914, and Jan and Agnieszka married 17 Jan 1917. The couples had children in Buffalo, moved back to Poland where they had more children, then returned to Buffalo, where they completed their families.

Jan Skrok

My grandfather Jan Skrok died 15 May 1936. He left my grandmother Agnieszka Kapuścińska Skrok with five children, my mother the youngest.

• Helena (born 29 Oct 1917), age 18
• Czesław (born 25 Sep 1919), age 16
• Tadeusz (born 11 Feb 1923), age 13
• Janina (born 12 Jun 1925), age 10
• Stanisława (born 8 May 1931), age 5

Jan‘s death notice in Dziennik dla wszystkich, the Buffalo Polish newspaper Everybody’s daily was published on page 11 on 16 May 1936.

On Friday the 15th of May at 3:45 in the morning, he said goodbye to this world after a short and serious illness and receiving the Sacraments.

The late Jan Skrok was born in Poland and was 43 years old.

The funeral will take place on Monday on the 18th of May at 9:30 in the morning from their home at 55 Townsend street, to St. Stanislaus Church at 10:00, and from there to St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cemetery.

To this sad rite, relatives and friends are invited to join with the bereaved,

Agniezszka Skrok, wife; Helena, Janina, Stanisława, daughters; Czesław, Tadeusz, sons; Stanisława Kiec, sister.

Funeral arrangements through E.L. Kazmierczak, Mortuary.

Stanisława Skrok Kiec

Jan‘s sister Stanisława Skrok Kiec died 18 November 1938 in Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States. She left her husband Adam Kiec with six children:

• Jan (born 22 Jun 1915), age 23
• Helena (born 27 Oct 1916), age 22
• Stanisław (born 3 Sep 1918), age 20
• Wacław (born 12 Aug 1920), age 18
• Stefania (born 17 Feb 1923), age 15
• Eugeniusz (born 17 Mar 1931), age 7

Stanisława‘s death notice in Dziennik dla wszystkich, the Buffalo Polish newspaper Everybody’s daily was published 19 November 1938.

On Friday the 18th of November, 1938, at 11:45 at night she said goodbye to this world after a long and serious illness and receiving the Sacraments.

The late Stanisława Kiec was born in Poland and was 44 years old.

The funeral will take place on Tuesday the 22th of November, at 9:30 in the morning from their home at 22 Fleming street, to St. Stanislaus Church at 10:00, and from there to St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cemetery.

To this sad rite, relatives and friends are invited to join with the bereaved,

Adam Kiec, husband; Stanisław, Wacław, Eugeniusz, sons; Helena Goń and Stefania Kiec, daughters; 1 grandson and 1 granddaughter.

Funeral arrangements through E.L. Kazmierczak, Mortuary.

Surprisingly, Adam and Stanisława‘s oldest son Jan Kiec was not listed in his mother’s death notice, perhaps an oversight because he was grown and may have been no longer living in the family home.

Adam Kiec and Agnieszka Kapuścińska Skrok

On 6 Feb 1943, these cousins became step-brothers and step-sisters when their remaining parents married.

The witnesses were Casimer A. Mańka and his wife Katherine B. Mańka. Katherine, who was born Katarzyna Szczepańska, was the daughter of Jan Skrok‘s cousin, Marianna Rzepka Szczepańska, and a close friend of Agnes.

The newly combined family included:

The oldest three, Helen, Helen, and John, were already married, and Stanley and Jane would be married in a few years.

Several of their children had enlisted in the United States military during World War II.

Perhaps in part because of the pressures of the war both for family in America and Poland and children serving in the American Armed Forces, this marriage was not a happy one. It was especially hard on Agnes‘ youngest daughter, Stella Skrok. She had the same name as her aunt, Adam‘s first wife, and was almost twelve years old when her mother married Adam Kiec.

Adam Kiec died 18 May 1947 in Buffalo, Erie, New York, at age 54 and was buried in Section FF of St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Cheektowaga, Erie, New York. Although their older children were grown and back from the war, his youngest, Eugene Kiec, and her youngest, Stella Skrok, were still teenagers.

That same year, Jan and Stanisława‘s half-sister Aniela Kwiatek Jankowska wrote from Poland asking about family members in Buffalo.

Agnieszka Kapuścińska Skrok Kiec lived to age 82. She died 12 Oct 1977 in Buffalo, Erie, New York, and was buried next to her daughter Helen in the Resurrection Section of St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Cheektowaga, Erie, New York. In December 1992, the cremains of her son Czesław/Chester Skrok were buried alongside his mother.

I remember visiting the St. Stanislaus Cemetery with my mother, and we could not find the gravestones for her aunt and step-father. It was a puzzle, because my mother had been to the cemetery dozens of times and since she had been at their funerals, she clearly remembered their locations. When we asked in the office, we were told that Adam and Stella‘s daughter Helen Kiec Goń had had her parents’ remains disinterred and placed side by side in the St. Stanislaus Cemetery mausoleum.

Update April 2021: Added Dziennik dla Wszystkich death notice for Adam Kiec.

Sources

• “Passenger Lists,” database, The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation, Ellis Island (www.libertyellisfoundation.org: accessed 2010), Jan Skrok; citing ship manifests.
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• Adam Kiec, Dziennik dla Wszystkich [Everybody’s Daily], Buffalo, New York, 19 May 1947, Page 11. http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83045091/1947-05-19/ed-1/seq-11/.