St. Stanislaus Baptism Records
According to census and other records, our grandfather Antoni Maciejewski was born in 1883 and came to America with his parents,
Maciejewski Siblings
Jan and Weronika Maciejewski, in December 1883.
His brothers and sisters were born in Buffalo and baptized at St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic Church.
Each baptism entry extended across 2 pages, put together here for conciseness. After the entry number in the book are the child’s name, the date of baptism, the date of birth, the father’s name and birthplace, the mother’s name and birthplace, the child’s sponsors (godparents), and the person who performed the sacrament.
Often the date of baptism and date of birth are the same. If a child died unbaptized, Roman Catholic doctrine of the time said that their soul would go neither to heaven or hell. Rather, the theory was that an unbaptized child would enter into Limbo, So it behooved parents to have their children baptized as soon as possible, often by a priest (identified by the title Ksiądż, priest) or the midwife. If a child were sickly, almost anyone, within reason, could administer the sacrament.
Although I was clearly able to identify Tylice in some records as the birthplace of Jan or Weronika, Nieżywięć was a little harder to decipher. It’s most clearly written in the records of Anna and Ludwik.
My Family History Research 