Faltynowski Family Came From Prussia!
Although early American records indicated that the Faltynowski family origins were in the Russian occupied part of Poland, further research with the assistance of the administrators and members of the Polish Genealogy Facebook Group identified their origins in West Prussia, the German occupied partition of Poland.
Their 1912 passenger manifest indicated that Julianna Faltynowska and her children Bronisława, Wacław, and Julianna were born in Pluskowęsy, which was Pluskowenz in German. They were going to their husband and father Alexander Faltynowski in Jersey City, New Jersey, and leaving behind Julianna‘s brother and the children’s uncle Antoni Jankiewicz in Golub, Germany. Pluskowęsy is near Golub, and was in Briesen, West Prussia, but both the 1912 ship manifest and Alexander Faltynowski‘s 1917 WWI American draft registration said the family was from the Russian partition, which made me think Pluskowęsy may have been incorrect.
I asked for assistance from the Polish Genealogy Facebook Group, asking if they agreed the place is Pluskowęsy. I asked where I might find the records in Poland. The Pluskowęsy church records for the years of their births were not digitized at Family Search in the Catholic parish register of baptisms, marriages and deaths in Pluskowenz or Pflugsdorf (Kr. Briesen), Westpreußen, Germany, now Pluskowęsy, Poland at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/229725. I did not find scans at the Polish Achives online at szukajwarchiwach.pl, but that may have been my ineptness. I explained that other American records were not very helpful, because the family used different names in the United States. Not only was Faltynowski changed to Fulton, Bronisława used the names Alice and Blanche, Wacław used John, and Julianna was listed as Wanda in the 1920 census in Jersey City. The children listed their parents as Alexander Fulton and Julia Jankiewicz on social security and marriage records.
I was open to whatever help I could get.
One researcher told me there looked to be two possibilities for Pluskowenz / Pluskowentz – one near Kowalewo Pomorskie/ Schönsee and another near Chełmża/ Culmsee, as identified by kartenmeister.com.
I thought the first was more likely. It was closer to Golub. Several Faltynowski descendants match me with DNA, and my great-grandparents came from Nieżywięć, not too far away. Kartenmeister.com said the Standesamt/Civil Registry was in Frederikenhof, which I could not find. The Meyers Gazatteer at www.meyersgaz.org had it as Friederikenhof, which Kartenmeister says is Frydrychowo, now in Wąbrzeźno County.
With this information, I searched the records of Frydrychowo in the State Archives in Toruń site, Genealogia w Archiwach, at www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl, and found the 1877 birth of Julianna Jankiewicz, daughter of Jan Jankiewicz and Anastazja Karczewska.
Another researcher looked at the Geneteka database and found the index for the marriage of Jan Jankiewicz and Anastazja Karczewska in Pluskowęsy in 1869!
A group administrator shared a link from Polish Wikipedia for Piątkowo (powiat golubsko-dobrzyński), the small village near Pluskowęsy where the Frederikenhof record said Julianna Jankiewicz had been born. Piątkowo is very close to Pluskowęsy, and also Zieleń, the village listed in the parents’ marriage entry.
No marriage was listed for Julianna Jankiewicz and Aleksander Faltynowski in the Frydrychowo records.
But that’s not all!
The same administrator of the Polish Genealogy Facebook Group found a copy of the marriage record for Aleksander Faltynowski and Julianna Jankiewicz in Golub 11 Nov 1901 ( akt nr 14, skan 14 ).
She found that their children were also born in Golub:
- Bronisława ur. 18 Mar 1902, Golub ( akt 26 skan 27)
- Wacław ur. 07 May 1903. Golub ( akt 50 skan 51 ). In German, his name was Watzlaw.
- Wanda ur. 25 Apr 1910. ( akt 45, skan 44 ).
She also found that Aleksander Faltynowski was born 26 Feb 1877 in Lipnica to Jan Faltynowski and Katarzyna Wasilewska. The birth was recorded 5 Mar 1877 in Klein Pulkowo (in Polish, Pulkowo Male). Today, Lipnica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dębowa Łąka, within Wąbrzeźno County, in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Wow! I was overwhelmed with their help! Not only did they support me in finding Julianna‘s birth and parents’ marriage, they also found Julianna and Aleksander‘s marriage and the children’s births in the town of Golub and Aleksander‘s birth in Lipnica.
The 1946 obituary listed for Alexander Fulton on FindAGrave said he was survived by a son, Stefan Fulton, in Poland. I looked in the records, and found Stefan Faltynowski‘s birth record in Golub 16 Oct 1906.
A Polish family tree on the MyHeritage website said that Stefan married Helena Zielińska. The notation on his birth record above said that Stefan died in Poland on 16 Apr 1952.
I had not found what happened to Aleksander and Julianna‘s American born children Alexander and “Jennie” who were listed in the 1920 census in Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey. My mother’s sister was named Janina and was listed as Jennie in an American census. Online research showed a German Ancestry family tree (Familienstammbaum) by a descendant of Janina Faltynowska, daughter of Aleksander Faltynowski and Julianna Jankiewicz, born 1 Mar 1918 in New Jersey. Janina married Bernard Żywiecki on 24 Apr 1938 in Kościół pw. św. Kosmy i Damiana at Okonin, Gruta, Grudziądz, now in Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Polska. Her place of birth was identified as “Ameryka.”
Some mysteries remain. It is not clear why the Faltynowski family originally identified as Russian in America. We do not know why their son Stefan did not emigrate with his mother and siblings in 1912, or who, other than Janina, may have returned to Poland. But we now know that the Faltynowski family came from West Prussia!
Resources
- Polish Genealogy private Facebook Group, facebook.com
- Family Search, familysearch.org
- Polish Archival resources online, szukajwarchiwach.pl
- Google maps, maps.google.com
- Database Search Utility, kartenmeister.com
- Meyers Gazatteer, meyersgaz.org
- State Archives in Toruń, Genealogia w Archiwach, genealogiawarchiwach.pl
- Geneteka, geneteka.genealodzy.pl
- Polish Wikipedia, wikipedia.pl
- Find A Grave, findagrave.com
- MyHeritage, myheritage.com
- German Ancestry, ancestry.com (ancestry.de)
Sources
- “Ancestry Passenger Lists,” database, Ancestry (ancestry.com: accessed 2 February 2020), Julianna Faltynowska; citing Passenger Lists.
- “FamilySearch Passenger Lists,” database, FamilySearch (FamilySearch.com: accessed 21 June 2020), Julianna Faltynowska; citing Passenger Lists.
- National Archives, “World War II Draft Registration Cards,” database, Ancestry.com (: accessed 21 April 2020), John Fulton; citing J. C., Hudson, New Jersey, USA.
- 1920 Federal Census, New Jersey, population schedule, Jersey City Ward 1, Hudson, New Jersey, enumeration district (ED) 109, Page: 15A, Alexandre Feltnofski; digital images, (online : accessed 3 February 2020); Fourteenth Census of the United States.
- “Archiwum Państwowe w Toruniu,” database, Genealogia w Archiwach (www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl: accessed 22 July 2020), Julianna Jankiewicz; citing Urząd Stanu Cywilnego.
- Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne, “Geneteka, Metryki,” database, Polish Genealogical Society, Genealodzy (genealodzy.pl: accessed 22 June 2020), 1869 1 Jan Jankiewicz Anastazja Karczewska Pluskowęsy; citing church records or Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (Civil Registry Office).
- Genealogia w Archiwach, Aleksander Faltynowski.
- Genealogia w Archiwach, Bronisława Faltynowska.
- Genealogia w Archiwach, Wacław Faltynowski.
- Genealogia w Archiwach, Stefan Faltynowski.
- Genealogia w Archiwach, Wanda Faltynowska.
- “Find a Grave,” database, Find a Grave (findagrave.com: accessed 2 February 2020), Alexander John Fulton; citing cemetery records.
- “MyHeritage Family Trees,” database, MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com: accessed 21 June 2020), Marian Rybacki Web Site.
- “Family Tree”, database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 July 2020), “Eveline Nadine Zywiecki Familienstammbaum,” Janina Faltynowska; submitted by Eveline Nadine Zywiecki, [contact information for private use].
- LDS Family History Library, “Okonin (Grudziądz),” database, Kościół rzymsko-katolicki. Parafja, Family Search (familysearch.com: accessed 19 July 2020), Janina Faltynowska, Bernard Żywiecki; citing Germany, Preußen, Westpreußen, Okonin (Kr. Graudenz) – Church records.
- “Family Tree,” database, Ancestry.com, “Eveline Nadine Zywiecki Familienstammbaum,” Bernard Zywiecki.
My Family History Research 